Hi Friend,
How are you doing? I hope that life it treating you well.
Here around the Treehouse, things are ticking along. I'm in the middle of my usual summer time organizing. It's part tradition and part getting ready to make some changes in our little world.
Organizing is my Happy Place
I love to organize things. A closet, drawer, our whole house ... there's something about the process that lights me up inside. But, as much as I enjoy doing it, the goal is always to make tweaks and changes that make it easier to keep things organized.
Happily, many of the systems I have in place are working really well for us. So most of what I'm working on is clearing away the little bit of clutter that's accumulated and shuffling things around the house a bit.
I was ruminating about how this process has changed over the years. It used to take me most of the summer to get the whole house done. Now, if I really wanted to, I couldn't probably do the whole thing in a week.
No more kid toys certainly helps. So to, does having access to my whole house again (my parents came and stayed with us for a few years). One of the biggest helps was Cass from Clutterbug. She shares her advice along with her own trials and struggles in way that is relatable and encouraging.
Through her experience working as an organizer she noticed patterns of behaviour in people that helped her identify four natural organizing styles. Her advice is tailored to help you find organizing solutions for each of those different styles.
I'm a ladybug, which means I like to have my stuff hidden but I also need it to be easy to organize/clean up. Knowing this has made all the difference in my ability to organize my space in a way that is easy for me to maintain. Learning my family's organizing styles also helped me create systems that work for all of us. It sounds cheesy, but this was life changing for me. So, if you find yourself struggling with organizing, maybe take her quiz and see if her ideas are helpful for.
Of course I'm also totally avoiding the one project that desperately needs my attention - organizing our garage. Part of me is excited to get in there and get it all straightened up. I want to create a space for my husband to finally be able to enjoy working on his hobbies.
First everything needs to be scrubbed down. It's coated in wood dust and other grime. I'm pretty sure that's the part I'm avoiding.
Are you working on any projects? Are you avoiding any projects?
New Things are Coming
Is it crazy that I still find it surreal that I've been blogging and sharing printables for over 13 years? It boggles my mind. You might not know this, but I start Scattered Squirrel as a fun little project to keep our family and friends updated on our moving plans.
At the time we thought it would take a few years to be able to move closer to my family. Instead of emailing everyone updates I thought a blog would be a good way to keep everyone updated. Weeks after publishing my first post my husband got an offer to transfer with his work. Six months later we moved.
I was having fun with blogging and I had rediscovered my love of creating stationery items. Scattered Squirrel just sort of kept evolving to what it is now. 1400 printables and counting - which also boggles the mind a bit.
I've been fortunate that running site allowed to help supplement our family income and be able to home school our youngest when traditional school didn't work for him.
The online landscape has changed a lot since I first started. And even more so in the last few years. Just running the website is no longer enough.
So, in an effort to continue to create and share printables on the blog I'm trying a few new things. I don't have all of it fully worked out, but I do have the first piece started.
I've opened a shop where I'm selling printables. This will NOT change any of the free printables on the site. In fact, my hope is that the shop and site will work together.
Right now there are 2026 calendars in the Summer Garden and Understated Rainbow collections available for purchase. Forest Simplicity and Coastal Dreams are coming this week.
The planner printables in those collections are still available for free on the blog. And I will continue to offer free dated calendars on the blog.
If you'd like to check it out, click the button below.
I have a few other ideas up my sleeve, but I need a little time to flesh them out a little more.
Around the Treehouse
The 2026 calendars in the Tropical Paradise Collection are live on the blog. I wanted to make sure those were available.
I've also got a new Reader Requested post coming out this week. After taking time to work on resume and cover letter writing, it was a treat to get back to making printables. I hope that you'll enjoy them.
And that's it for this month. Job hunting and building the shop have taken most of my time and attention. I'm hoping that things will settle soon and I can find my rhythm again.
How about you? How is your July going? Feel free to hit that reply button and let me know!
