Welcome in 2014!

Today was pretty much like any other families new years day we cleaned up all of our Christmas presents that were still hanging out, relaxed a bit, met up with family to have a pork dinner, and I cleaned and organized! I wanted to share the photos of some of the stuff I got sorted out.  For years I have had totes and buckets of miscellaneous tools, fittings, and hardware and now I can start using them. I am excited to be using these things and saving money in the process.  I hope by showing that you can get things organized I will help people realize how much time and money they can save. So here are the photos of what I have completed at this point.

This is a drawer of simpson strong ties and other metal brackets. I would have never been able to find one if I needed it in the past so I am sure I have bought many of these when I already had them.

Electrical tools, These will be further sorted and cleaned but for now they are in my electrical tool box so I can find them when I need them!

Another shot of my electrical tool box.  This is a tray of outlets and switches.

This is a second eletrical tool box.  These are mostly EMT fittings that I can find easily next time I run some conduit!

Wow look at all those breakers and cord ends.  Think of the money that is sitting here waiting to be used.

The bottom of electrical box 1. switch plate covers staples and other items.

Had to use a milk crate to store my junction boxes and other large electrical items.

Now my electrical supplies are easy to get at!  I am not going to lie I have more to go through but this is a huge accomplishment!

The start of the PEX plumbing box.

All screws, This tote I setup with mostly exterior longer screws.

Misc hardware tote, This is anything from hose clamps to bolts and washers.

Another screw tote, This was set up with shorter interior screws, self tapping screw, and more.

Anchor tote?, I set this up as a anchoring tote.  I have anything from small wall anchors to red heads in this box.

Bolt/Lag tote, This box is is just that lags, bolts, washer, and nuts.

Nail tote, This is the nails I had that the boxes were falling apart.

Hanger tote, I have some miscellaneous stuff in this tote but it was started as a picture hanging tote.







This was a huge start for me and hopefully with in a few weeks I will at least have everything organized and the shop ready to work in! Watch the video before to see the basement before hand.  Now once again I will not lie it was worse at some point but I can not wait to post the end video!

Who? What? Where? and Why?

So I have been meaning to write this for a while and just finally made myself do it.  Why am I blogging, and why am I sharing my stories, skills, mistakes, and successes with everyone?  Allot of bloggers YouTubers do it for the money that is not what I am in it for so you will not always see perfect grammar or perfect video editing.  I am doing it because I want to be a better person I want to share and I believe this will hold me accountable to reach my goals.

I know most people have a one track mind when they blog or YouTube but I will be honest mine will range from cooking, cleaning, organization, building, repair, gardening, prepping, and I am sure anything else I dream up.

So who am I?  I am a 31 year old husband with two children a son who is 7 and a daughter who is 3.  We live just out side of Pittsburgh in an old railroad town that is just fine for me for right now.  I was chosen in high school to be the next Bill Gates but I have not made any strides towards that but I am happy right where I am.  I always struggled though school and knew college probably was not for me.  I have always found solving problems is what I do best whether it was fixing machines, houses, or even computers.

At 16 a owner of a small company went out on a limb and hired me into their IT department, not a year later I was managing that department and working to be a certified network engineer.  I worked at this job for about 2 years and got board.  Sitting in a cubical was just not for me!  I have to admit I have spent almost my whole life job jumping and there are days I regret it but boy have I learned allot.  Through this I have learned to be a carpenter, electrician, plumber, heavy machine operator, mechanic, Realtor, manager, inspector, and so many more thing I also achieved a Michigan builders licence, Michigan real estate licence, certified pool operator, novel network engineer and many other things I am not remembering right now.

People are probably asking why haven't you stuck to one thing? Well I cant! I am not sure what it is but I need to be moving shaking hustling and creating every minute.  I will say I always tend to come back to building and construction that is where my heart lays.

So my mission now is to clean up my house and yard and show my family how you live with what you got and bring back family values.  I hope to over the next year live a healthier life style, spend more time with family, and spend less money.  Is this all possible I guess we wait and find out.

Procrastination and hording

My thought of the day is do you think procrastination and hording are linked in any way?  I have always procrastinated task.  At times I am better and get on track at times I am way worse.  I also find that there are allot of people out there like my self who like to build, garden, fix things have this same problem. I some time blame my procrastination on wanting to make everything perfect.  I am in the middle of building a kitchen and have dragged my feet for two years because I want every drawer shelve and cabinet in the perfect place.  I also blame my organization on this procrastination.  I guess this is where hording would come in to play.  People like my self see everything with a value and an use.  We collect unused materials and always have a plan for them in the future.  The biggest problem is if you can not find it when you need it or it makes your life harder because it is in your way it is useless to you.  So I have realized this over the last few months and I am taking steps to clean my basement, clean my garage, and finish those projects I have been putting off.  I do believe it is very important to teach our children not to waste and how to repurpose and save those things we need but maybe I can start showing them if I do it in a organized fashion it will be more efficient.

Quick tour of basement/stopping my hoarding

My first video blog I will continue writing but will be adding video blogs into the mix.  This is a quick tour of the basement and the start of my wood shop.  Once again organization will hopefully make this large collection of tools, wood, and other parts useful and save us money.  I do believe it is extremely important to be organized if you are a homesteader or a prepper.