THANK YOU so much for your tips for packing on my last post. I really really appreciate your help! I’ve already put some of your tips to good use. We’re still involved with packing and we will be for the next few weeks. This is the sixth time that I’ve moved in my life, and though I’m no expert, I’ve found a few things that have helped me.

I thought it would be good to start in parts. One bite at a time. First step to moving is getting organized! You must lay the foundation to make the transition smoother. I know, I know! It’s easier said that done.

Where to start?

-Figure out your move out date. Find out when you get the keys to your new place. You might get lucky and be able to move in over a longer period of time. But! That shouldn’t mean you should take your time on moving. If you don’t power through and go full steam ahead, you might not be ready when you REALLY have to be out. This has totally happened to me.

-Do a once over in your home and get rid of stuff. What are the essentials? What will definitely not fit in your new house? What would you not want to move?  Make lists of what you would like to keep/sell/donate furniture wise and create a game plan with that. Plan a day to take photos for your items to Ebay/Craigslist! If you can’t sleep at night because you’re thinking too much about this move (ahem, ME) make lists before bed and get things on paper.

-Figure out if you will be moving yourself, renting a truck or asking friends & family to help. If you are renting a truck or getting the help of friends/family, put it on your calendar and coordinate.

-Will you have movers help you? When we moved into our house, we finally splurged and paid a moving company to move us. It was the best money we ever invested!  As much as it’s nice to have friends help you, you won’t necessarily be able to ask your friend to replace something they damaged during the move. Remember: You MUST be ready for them when they come to pick up your stuff. You also have the option of hiring a few organizers to help you pack up your stuff. From what I’ve heard is that they pack everything that’s in one cabinet in one box. So if you had a random toy hanging out in your cabinet full of plates, you’d find it there.

When you’re at the stage when you’re ready to start packing:

-Gather your packing supplies. ALWAYS have enough packing tape & boxes. I can’t stress this ENOUGH! You don’t want to have a reason to have to stop. When you’re on a roll you have to keep going! Also…TAPE GUN?!! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL OF MY LIFE??! For this move, we decided to buy boxes. We don’t have the time to hunt for ones behind grocery stores (there aren’t that many at ours! I looked!). They are pretty inexpensive and if you find ones at Lowe’s they have punch outs on the sides of their boxes so you can hold on to something while you lift up the box. Home Depot boxes are more of a label lovers box. They have a section where you mark which room the box goes to is from and you mark a box if it’s fragile or not. It’s a nice idea, but somehow I ignore all the writing… and the fact that it says Home Depot on it. You also might want to check Craigslist for boxes that people are getting rid of as well as the website Used Cardboard Boxes if you have a little more time before you have to get started.

-Start with one room at a time. I know this sounds impossible but…it will feel less daunting and more productive when you have a whole room done. I’m really struggling with this now because we didn’t do this. I have like 4 rooms in disarray and random stuff hanging out in the most peculiar places. It makes my High Straightenence brain GO NUTS. Part of the problem is that we need to have our essentials still in place so we can live in our house until we have to be out. My kitchen is about 1/4 packed because I’m hoping to do some recipes in my kitchen before we leave. Big sigh!

-Make a bunch of boxes before you start on a room. That way you can go BAM BAM BAM.

-Figure out how you want to label all of your boxes and STICK TO IT. I write the name of the room I packed on top of the box as well as a brief description of what’s in it. I then write the name in the upper right hand corner on all 4 sides and write two words that would help me jog my memory of what’s in it. If a box is full of ESSENTIALS, then I put the word ESSENTIAL on the box. I know people who make spreadsheets of their boxes and they find it super helpful. I think that putting different colored tape on the outside of boxes would help you prioritize too! I saw different color duct tape (including zebra & leopard!) at Home Depot.

-Divide and conquer! After 5 moves with my husband, we realized that I’m better at packing small individual things and organizing boxes while he excels at doing all the labor of moving boxes, making the boxes and figuring out what to get rid of. Every night we check in and figure out what needs to be done for the next day and create a new game plan based on that.

-Some people (ahem, my husband!) will tell you that cleaning and straightening up your house while you’re moving is useless. If it makes you feel better, than you should do it! It’s really hard to go through the process of moving and if you don’t feel like your home feels like home it can be super stressful. Do what you need to! To reduce the clutter, I like to have all of the boxes out of the way after I pack them. Right now our dining room is housing them. It drove me bonkers when there were boxes throughout my kitchen.

-If friends & family offer to help you, TAKE their help. I shouldn’t have to tell you why! You can even throw a party around it. Make things easy and order pizza, supply the drinks and let people go to town. Just remember…your friends & family most likely aren’t professional packers… They need direction and you should be organized with what you need them to do when they show up to your house.

Now I’m off to continue packing! More soon next week. Wish me luck!

You know all of those Organizing Goals I had for 2012? Well….I have to scrap some of those goals because….we’re MOVING!

We are excited to be moving but LORDY it’s A LOT of work to move a house. We’ve never moved a whole house before! We’ve also never moved with a child before. Wowzers.

Right now I’m in the OMG I have too much stuff and I’m packing up my entire life and starting over phase.

It’s stressful. It’s messy and my crazy organizing brain wants to organize boxes and plan this move out thoroughly.  Problem is…I don’t have the time to do all of that (sad trombone!). All of the random piles around the house are driving me CRAZY.  I want things to looks nice & organized! And it probably will be messy until we are completely moved out. I’m having a really hard time accepting that….talk about inner turmoil!

Remember the cabinets I just finished? Well…I’m slowly emptying them. Sigh…

The good news is that I am PURGING a bunch of stuff (ummmm…we filled up a dumpster). Wow! It feels awesome. All of my past organizing projects have prepared me somewhat for this move. I can’t imagine what I would be facing right now if I hadn’t weeded out a bunch of stuff in our house already. It has definitely made this situation less daunting. I’m also looking forward to setting up new organizing systems in our new house so that will be fun!

Next week when I have a moment, I’d like to give you a peek into my crazy packing brain. It’s crazy. It’s tormented. It’s chaos.

It gets worse before it gets better! That’s my mantra right now.

Wish me luck! I’m going back to box packing.

Oh! If you have any tips or tricks on packing, please share! I’d love to hear from you.

Laundry. Oooooh Laundry.

I’m about to air my dirty laundry here. You ready? OK!

So, I only like putting clothes into the washing machine and washing them. I do not like sorting them out to wash, folding them OR putting them away. Buuuuut! The way it works in our household is that I am the laundry doer.  Which means I’m kinda screwed.

Here are the facts: I do an average of 6 loads of laundry a week. Occasionally the husband will step in but I usually don’t like the way he folds things so I get all control freak about it and take over. He’s exceptional at sock sorting so I exploit that strength when we’re watching TV…

This is how it works. I do laundry once a week and it usually takes me 2 days to work my way through it. When the laundry load comes out of the dryer, I dump it out onto my bed to sort. My bed is kind of the designated laundry hub. It’s centrally located between our laundry area & Cooper’s room. I would totally use the laundry area, but it’s usually a mess and it’s right under Cooper’s bedroom. I’d wake him up if I worked there during nap time or bed time.

I’m pretty good at sorting and slightly OK at folding. Although I’m not as good as I want to be at folding I learned early that GOOD ENOUGH is GOOD ENOUGH. Martha Stewart has her linens pristine & styled. I cannot be her. No one can. What are your thoughts on folding undergarments? {Discuss}

Back to sorting…

I like to make piles on my bed while sorting. Here’s what it looks looks like:

My crazy brain takes over and I imagine that I’m an octopus reaching back and forth between piles. I wish I had 8 arms…

I fold things and put them in empty laundry baskets. I only do this for Casey & Cooper’s laundry. If I am working on my own, I immediately put things back in my closet. If I keep stuff in a basket, I never put it away. I just pull items from the basket when I need them and then the basket gets destroyed. I know this about me.

Because my husband is a grown man, I make him put his laundry away. It saves time and I want him to see how much work I’ve done folding his clothes I let him hang up his clothes too!

But Cooper…Cooper can’t put his laundry away (properly). One day I will have him trained, but for now I am the main person who puts laundry away.

This is what Cooper’s laundry situation looks like:

I have a trick for his PJs (which I secretly like folding).

You fold the pants. Then you start to fold the shirt.

You put the folded pants at the edge of the shirt. Then you fold the shirt up.

And you have a little pajama package. The pants are nestled in the shirt and you can stack them.

Does that make sense? I also have a MISSING SOCK trick. It’s changed my life!

I feel the greatest sense of accomplishment when I fold Cooper’s laundry. It’s so small & compact. But it’s sad when there are items I have to put in the “this doesn’t fit anymore” pile. That’s another post I’m working on… Dealing with kid’s clothes!

I put all of his clothes back in a basket. I have a system.

I line the bottom with the underwear, socks & pants and then I fill in the gaps with the PJs and shirts.

I take this basket full of his clothes and put it by the stairs leading up to his room. When we’re putting him to bed at night, I put all the stuff away.

OK now that you’ve seen some parts of My Crazy Laundry Brain, I need YOUR HELP.

How often do you do laundry? Do you save it up for one day or do you do a load every night? GIVE ME YOUR TRICKS because I want to be better at laundry. I’m really not doing so great at keeping on top of it these days.

Thanks in advance!

It’s easy to get distracted while working in the kitchen, and before you know it you have a HUGE mess to clean up.

Today I’m going to give you my tips & tricks on how to stay organized while cooking & baking!

Before you start working on a recipe, start with a clean kitchen!  Your baking/cooking mess will be greatly reduced. The task of cleaning up won’t be as daunting if you’re starting from square one. It’s just common sense.

A clean kitchen also helps you get your head in the game.

Make sure your work surfaces are clean & clutter free. It’s soo necessary! You’ll prevent a lot of accidents this way.

If you don’t want to mess up your freshly cleaned counter top, put down a dishtowel. It’s really nice to have when you’re measuring things like flour because the mess is well contained.

Before you get started on a dish, it’s SO IMPORTANT to re-read the recipe because you might forget an important step, preparation or ingredient. I almost always make the mistake of forgetting that something might need to be chilled in the fridge for hours and I’m totally thrown off time-wise. It’s important to know what steps, ingredients & tools are involved. So read, re-read and READ your recipe AGAIN. Really think about what has to be done from start to finish.

After reading the recipe, layout your tools. Be prepared! If you’re reaching for something you need in a drawer with sticky hands, you are most definitely going to make a mess.

Gather your ingredients! Look at the ingredients list and take time to measure things out in advance (if you can). It’s easier to follow along with a recipe if you’re prepared.

Also, SEPARATE ingredients. For example, I may have one area/station on a counter designated for all of my cake ingredients and another area/station set up for the frosting. If you have things mixed together, it’s easy to misplace the items you need.

When I’m in the kitchen I like to use an empty baking sheet as a surface where I put everything that needs to be put away.  In my kitchen I keep it on the center island so I can pivot around and place things on that baking sheet. When I’m done with a recipe and ready to clean the kitchen, I go right to the baking sheet and sort out the items that need to be put away. It’s all contained on one place.

I learned this tip a looooooooong time ago while watching Rachael Ray. Have a junk bowl on hand! Keep a large bowl at your workstation where you can toss your garbage/compost scraps. It’s not always easy to access the garbage can, so this prevents messes and is a huge time saver.

Timing is EVERYTHING. Take note of any baking/cooking times and set your timer accordingly. I usually use my phone because it doesn’t leave my side (sadly) so if I’m getting distracted in the other room I won’t miss hearing the timer. Like I said above, it’s important to know how long things are going to take. You also know how much time you have to clean up your mess. Which brings me to the next rule…

CLEAN AS YOU GO! This rule is ESSENTIAL. I can’t stress this enough. Use the increments of time in between steps to cleanup dishes/bowls/surfaces. Always exploit your cooking & baking time to clean up your mess. You will feel completely overwhelmed if you leave all the cleaning to the very end. You might not even have a clean surface to put your finished product on!

When I start working on a recipe, I like to get a little tub of soapy water ready in my sink so I can soak items that might require extra elbow grease.

I also like to play a little game with myself to see how much I can get cleaned while something bakes in the oven. It’s a good challenge and the reward is a clean kitchen.

Good luck in the kitchen! Remember to have fun!

Do you have any good tips to add? Let’s discuss.

You guys! I’m almost done with my cabinets! I just have to sort out my dishes & glasses and we can move onto something else. I can’t tell you how much these little improvements have impacted my life. It’s crazy.

This week I decided to tackle 4 different cabinets. All of these cabinets suffer from me not taking the time to put things away properly. I also realized in this process that I didn’t make good use of these cabinets, but we’ll get back to that shortly.

First up- The cabinet to the right of my stove. This cabinet has never really served a good purpose. I most recently put all my salt, pepper & oil for stove use in there as well as my vitamin loot. When I had a moth infestation problem, I put things in plastic bags and shoved them at the top of this cabinet. Slick move, huh? Ughh. This cabinet frustrates me.

Like any organizing project, I sorted first. I got rid of a bunch of stuff. STALE CRACKERS are the worst. Right?

I had some extra room so I brought over all of my cereal boxes from the pantry into this cabinet. It’s great because Cooper can’t get into the cereal now because he can’t reach!

When I put all of my miscellaneous condiments back I made sure to put EVERYTHING within eyesight. That way I can see what’s in there and a quick glance can tell me what I might need to pick up at the store. I also put all of my vitamins into a tupperware container so I could easily pull it out when I need to. It helps to create a divider in the cabinet. Easy fix!

Here’s the before of Cooper’s cabinet. It’s where I keep all of his snacks & extra wine glasses.

I am so lazy with this cabinet.

Not anymore! I sorted through stuff and put things back nicely. I also had some extra room so I put some bowls & plates in there for snack needs.

I re-purposed a few of my ceramic containers that were doing nothing and made them holders for oatmeal & bars. Pretty organizing!

Above the stove cabinet…this was a QUICK fix and boy did it make an impact.

Turns out JAMMING things back into the cupboard will lead to a disorganized space. Hmmm.

And my prop closet…it already appears pretty organized, but I have a hard time accessing a few things because I can’t see them.

That changed! I also decided to get rid of a few things (donate or future yard sale material) because I’ve outgrown them.

It feels really good to have extra room in that cabinet. Plus all my polka dot mugs are in plain sight! I love it.

I wouldn’t be able to do all of this stacking if it wasn’t for these shelves! They are perfect. I picked them up at The Container Store 6 years ago.

It maximizes your space like nobody’s bizness.

Now I just have to weed out a few of my dishes & cups and we’ll be all set!

I decided to tackle TWO cabinets this week–UNDER THE SINK & ABOVE THE FRIDGE.

Here we go!

I’ve been dreading these two because they required a lot of work. Buuuuuuut somehow this lady powered through. I will say at one point I looked at all the piles of stuff around my kitchen and wondered how I would ever get it done. That’s when you just gotta GO FOR IT. The end result is always worth it. ALWAYS.

Here’s the under the sink BEFORE.  Garbage on the left, recycling on the right….but it all just looks like GARBAGE, doesn’t it?

I waited until Cooper went to bed to tackle this project. BTW- This project was fueled by The Because Show! I listened to the NERD OUT podcast while I nerded out with my organizing. Almost dropped a few things from laughing too much. I like to listen to Simple Mom when I’m folding laundry. But that’s a whole other post I’ll save for another day.

I digress…

I took everything out from under the sink & sorted what didn’t really belong there. There are a few things that will make their way into the garage because I don’t need them often enough to warrant precious under the sink space.

I paired everything down to the ESSENTIALS and put all of the bottles in a metal/mesh container so I can take it in and out from under the sink if I need to. Before they were all just hanging out there and they’d get knocked over if I was being to aggressive with putting things back.

Sooooooo…under the sink? Gross!!! Would you believe that I swept out and scrubbed the bottom of this cabinet in this picture? And it still looked like that! It actually looked like this when we moved in. Nasty.

That’s where CONTACT paper comes in handy. I bought a roll of it at Target. Black and white….go figure…

In less than 10 minutes I had a new lining for the cabinet. Folks! This makes a HUGE difference.

The best part is that this pattern is SUPER forgiving. There are a few creases but they get lost in the pattern.

I started putting things back. Those big containers go in the back with the dust pan & broom.

The recycling bin & the container of all the goods goes next to it.

And there’s the garbage bin in there—with room to spare! SCORE.

I love looking down and putting something away in the garbage because it means that I get to see a little peep of the contact paper.

It’s the little things…Let me just nerd out for a second!

And we work our way to the dreaded ABOVE THE FRIDGE CABINET.  This is the GOT SOMETHING BIG? SHOVE IT IN HERE, cabinet.

I took everything out…cleaned the insides…sorted…

I had one Tupperware full of all my baking stuff and split it up because it was a MESS.

Baking things in one container & cupcake stuff in another. Boom boom pow.

This is the AFTER!

This is how I sorted everything. There’s a place for stuff! I love the cake stand/serving platter section. This cabinet was MADE for things like that.

Aaaaaaaand the best part is that I was able to weed out a few things I didn’t need!

And while I started pulling things out to sell, I headed over to this cabinet and did some rearranging & purging.

In all, this project took about 2.5 hours. It was well worth it!

Still some other cabinets left to do…stay tuned!

Let me introduce you to a few drawers in my kitchen that drive me BONKERS. Haha. Bonkers. I totally typed that word.

First up. This “equipment” cabinet/drawer situation up there. It’s a cabinet that has two pull out drawers and I always JAM it with things instead of putting things back properly. The problem is that there’s too many things in those shelves that don’t belong. SORTING TIME!

Here’s the grand BEFORE. This is the top pull out drawer. Yikes.

I took everything out. Cleaned the drawers…OF COURSE. Then I analyzed what was in there and decided to move stuff around and free up space.

Here’s the after of the top shelf. Having negative space around the items is KEY. That way when I go to put something back I know where it came from in the drawer. One of the big changes I made was relocating my juicer to the lazy susan cabinet to the right. It fits in there perfectly. The problem was that I had to disassemble it to fit in this drawer so it wasted too much space. Now that it’s gone I can see things clearly.

This is the bottom part…

I made this section the food processor section. My big one and little one fit perfectly in here. I have a bunch of parts and operator’s manuals that were all over the place. I put everything in a freezer bag and it’s stored in the back of this drawer.

To the right (below the tea drawer from last week’s post) I had 2 drawers to go through.

There was NO rhyme or reason to these drawers. They are pretty shallow so it was hard for me to figure out what to do with them. I put placemats, juicing filters and other random things in them.

I decided to make this drawer a napkin drawer. I have cocktail napkins, paper napkins & napkin rings stored in here now.

And this drawer had lots some odds & ends in it too….

I decided to put all of my little bowls/plates that I use prop-wise in this drawer.

Pretty proud of this beauty! I normally stack everything in my prop cabinet, but it’s always hard to see what I have in my arsenal because I stack things too high.

Let’s look at it from the side. Uh huh. You know it.

OK! Part 2 is done!

WHAT’S LEFT?

• under sink cabinet (totes scary)
• cabinet where I keep the cutting boards (legit mess)
• prop cabinet (not tooooo bad, but needs sorting)
• cabinet above the fridge (I dread this one…)
• straighten up the cabinets with the dishes/glasses (easy stuff)
• cabinet with the mugs…..oh boy….
• cabinet with the crackers & stuff
• cabinet where we store booze (major sorting needed)

I’m hoping one day to do a little kitchen tour on my blog so I’ll use this as motivation to power through!

I was going over my list of Organizing Goals for 2012 and thought I’d start on the kitchen drawer cleanup. This is going to take a few parts to accomplish, so let’s get started!

I have A LOT of drawers in my kitchen and they’re are all pretty much a mess because I’m too focused on creating stuff in the kitchen rather than putting things away.
Instead of attacking it all at once, I decided to give myself a challenge of getting the equipment drawer done today. I secretly knew that I couldn’t stop at just ONE drawer…

Here’s the BEFORE:

SIDE VIEW:

DUMPED OUT.

CLEAN UP!

Putting everything in little piles and evaluating what I need and what I don’t.

Starting to put things back…

AFTER:

I could stare at this all day.

It feels good to know that everything has a place now. And I don’t have things hidden waaaaaay back of the drawer like I used to!

Phew.

Why stop at just ONE drawer? Full steam ahead!
Here’s my utensil drawer. The container that holds all of the utensils has been really gross for awhile. So much so that I cringe everytime I see a guest reach into that drawer. I secretly pray that don’t see the crumbs that are in it. I can rest easy now. It’s done!

So I took everything out.

Washed the separators.

Sorted/got rid of things we didn’t need. Like chopsticks that don’t match & itty bitty baby spoons…

I didn’t know all that stuff was in there!

And then I put everything back.

So after I did those two drawers I decided to go ahead and work on the drawer to the right of my oven. This is where I keep oven mitts, toothpicks to test the done-ness of baked goods and a whole bunch of RANDOM things. This is half junk drawer half baking drawer. It is now just BAKING drawer with a few knife sharpeners.
BEFORE:

AFTER:

Then I got to thinking about junk drawers. Everyone has to have one. I used to have one…

This drawer used to be our junk drawer. I knew where to look if I wanted batteries……

But then my husband turned it into the beverage drawer when we got our espresso machine. It was nicely merchandised for awhile and I liked it, but I don’t think we need to use that much space for our tea stash. Let’s get functional!

I grabbed all the random bits from other drawers and created this Junk Drawer!

It has Casey’s wine opening stuff, kitchen appliance manuals, a lint roller…my camera batteries…tape…

You know….JUNK.

This drawer is where I found most of my stuff for the junk drawer. I decided to re-purpose it as the tea drawer!

Old tea drawer becomes junk drawer and now we have a smaller tea drawer.

TADA!

With both drawers open…MUCH BETTER.

So organizing one drawer turned into organizing 5 drawers. This whole project took about 2 hours. I’m glad I got my organizing mojo going.

All of the top drawers in my kitchen are organized! Now I just have to make my way down…and then tackle the ones up top.

STAY TUNED!

I’ve never been exceptional at meal planning. Just when I think I have a good system in place, something throws off my routine and I’m out of the zone! There are SEVERAL different ways to meal plan, but I’ve been eying this technique from my friend Helen Jane (aka my meal planning guru) and thought I’d give it a go. I like that it’s pretty simple and makes a BIG impact!  The trick is…sticking with it! But we’ll talk about that later.

STEP 1:  Compile a list of all of your tried & true meals.  Bonus points for healthy/easy meals that you can use as leftovers for a new meal the following day!

Get the input of your family to see what they’re craving during the week. This can be dangerous.

STEP 2: Survey your fridge & freezer. See what’s in there! Figure out what day you will grocery shop for the week and meal plan around that.

Go through the pantry/cupboards to see what you have in there too. I keep a post-it notepad on the wall of my pantry so I can write down what I need for groceries the next time I go shopping. It’s handy!

The pantry is where I find all my “filler” for weeknight meals. Pasta, rice, spices, canned goods, soups etc.  It’s nice to see what you can use as a base for your dinners or as a meal accessories.

STEP 3:  Get our your planning sheet!

Create a template on your computer of all of the days of the week. I just used Microsoft Word and one of my favorite fonts to make it look cool. You could totally write it out by hand…I just feel like having a template makes it more legit. It helps get me in the organizing zone.

STEP 5: MEAL PLAN!

WHAT TO THINK OF WHILE MEAL PLANNING:

-What events are happening this week? Will you be out for dinner?

-What fruits & vegetables needs to be used ASAP?

-What day of the week do you go grocery shopping?

-Which days of the week will you NEED to make an easy meal?  Mondays are hard.

-Which days of the week do you have more time to enjoy cooking? Sundays are fun!

-What do you already have in your fridge/freezer to access?

-How long can items last in the fridge to use for another recipe?

-How can you use leftovers for your next meal?

When I was planning out my grocery shopping for this particular week, I wanted to use a bunch of things I already had in our freezer. I highlighted everything that needed to be defrosted in pink. It lets me know what I need to do for the next day.

Now make your grocery shopping list (another post entirely!) and get to shopping.

I followed this particular meal plan for a week.

How did it go??!

Not too bad! I still could use some work. 

MY THOUGHTS:

-It’s going to take a lot of practice! The activity of meal planning isn’t necessarily easy and it requires some time. I need to carve out a good half hour to figure out meals/grocery planning each week. Last week was super busy and I wasn’t home much for dinner so I didn’t really meal plan. I could see how much my life was affected by not having a meal plan!

 
-If I don’t make something I intend to make on the night I intended to make it, it’s OK. The world won’t end.
Life is busy and things come up, so I can’t stress out if things don’t go according to planned. If I end up making something else on a different night, who cares! As long as I’m not wasting food, that’s all that matters.

-Having an outline of the week is WAAAAAY better than not having an outline.

Do you meal plan? Do you have any tips or tricks? Let’s discuss!

I got an email a few days ago from a reader asking how things are going with my organized spaces. Let’s check up on things with a progress report, shall we?

FRIDGE:

It’s been a week since I cleaned out my fridge. Things are going well! I started meal planning last week so it’s been making fridge management pretty easy.

I’m dedicated to keeping it up. It’s refreshing opening up an organized fridge because I can see exactly what’s in there! I’m also teaching myself the beauty of an empty fridge and have adopted the idea of only going to the grocery store when I really NEED to.  To keep it in order, I’ve been more thoughtful about putting things away properly and make sure that everything that goes back in the fridge is free of gunk. As a result, it’s still pretty clean inside.

More on meal planning next week!

KID’S TOYS:

It’s been two weeks since I organized Cooper’s toys.

Things are looking good!

We ALL remember to put the books back after we read them so they don’t pile up around the room.

After Cooper’s bath at night we read a few stories  and now we’ve added the act of putting away his toys before he gets in bed to our routine. I’m hoping that he understands how nice it is to go to bed in a clean room. I’ve also been really good about enforcing the rule of one activity/toy out at a time. He can’t play with the trains until he puts all of his construction toys away. He’s starting to pick up on this now and I can see him making a better effort not to take too much out at once.

I hope to get proper laminated labels on his boxes soon because one night of the humidifier made some of the making tape labels peel off. Lesson learned!

BATHROOM SHELVES:

It’s been three weeks since I cleaned out my shelves and it’s going REALLY well. Sometimes I look over at my shelves and don’t recognize them.

There were a few small things I did when I organized (like moving shelves and adding that extra stack of storage containers) that made a HUGE impact on my life. There’s really no excuse to not to keep things organized.

I still have to find a place for my Clarisonic. Gotta make some room!

It’s also so refreshing to know exactly where to look when I need to find something.

THE PANTRY:

Every time I go into my pantry I make sure things look right. Things have been going really well because I’m taking my time putting things away properly. I’m also trying to use up items in the pantry so I don’t run out and buy things I already have. I like that feeling of “grocery shopping” in my own pantry.

MY DESK:

Since I cleaned up my desk/office area I’ve done quite a few projects. It’s really nice to have extra desk space when I’m working so whenever things start to get a little unkempt, I quickly tidy things up. I also find that when I’m started to get stressed out while working I take a break and put things away that don’t belong on my desk

There’s a stack of books sitting on my desk that need to go downstairs on my bookshelf, but other than that my desk is pretty clean.

The drawers next to my desk are still pretty tidy! Cooper isn’t allow in this drawer, which is why it’s still clean!

When I’m working on something and need to put something away in this drawer, I’m very deliberate about where things go back. It’s working.

This tupperware of all of my nail polish has been EXCELLENT. Whenever I paint my nails I’ve been really good about putting everything back  in the container.

I also decided that most of my nail painting should take place at my desk so I don’t have an opportunity to leave polish throughout the house.

The shelves above my desk are still organized. I don’t look at them as a place to put stuff where Cooper can’t reach!

PAPER STATION:

The paper sation has changed my life!! We have significantly less paper littered throughout our house as a result!

It’s made a fantastic difference. Cooper’s art drawer is piling up, which means I have to go through that soon, but other than that we’re good.

The recycling bin right next to the paper station has also been a wonderful addition. When I enter the house through the garage, I bring all the paper/plastic that needs to be recycled right to the bin. It doesn’t even ENTER our house. I love that.

MEDICINE CABINET:

Still going strong! We’ve added a few products and things are constantly changing in this cabinet but it’s going really well.

When I’m brusing my teeth, I usually open up the cabinet and straighten things up.

That’s how I keep it up!

So there you have it. That’s my progress report. I’m still doing a pretty good job on keeping my PURSE ORGANIZED. I make a point to clean it out every Sunday to get ready for work on Monday.

If you are having a hard time maintaining your freshly organized space:

-Share your accomplishments with others!  It will help hold you accountable for your actions.  I know that I’m working hard at this because I have other people looking at my projects. How could I give people advice if I don’t practice what I preach?

Take pictures. Post it to your blog or facebook. When other people are watching you’re way more motivated.

-Have company over. It will help motivate you to keep things clean. Most of my friends are familiar with what I’m doing on High Straightenence. And even if they aren’t, I pretend like they’re going to look through my stuff when they get to my house. This helps keep me on my toes. I want to prove to them & myself that I’m dedicated.

-Be thoughtful & don’t hurry. Things have really approved around my house because I’m not trying to do too many things at once. When I set out to put something away I really THINK about what I am doing and as a result I don’t make lazy decisions.

-Don’t get discouraged! If you start slipping and start falling into bad habits, take it easy on yourself. Get back on it and maintain! You have to remember that it will take some time to make your new behavior apart of your routine.

And remember:

You can always tell how busy/lazy I’ve been if you look in my fridge. I had company over a few weeks ago and when I opened the fridge while we were all hanging out in the kitchen, a few things fell out while I was in mid conversation. Woops! Sign I need to get a grip and handle my fridge business? YES.

On Sunday Joy & I unplugged from the internet/computer/phone. It was tough and what really helped through the unplugging process was cleaning my fridge out. I had no idea how emotional I would get during this project. I spent half the time sorting and cleaning and the other half evaluating my habits & behavior. Why do I fall behind on cleaning out the fridge when food is so important to me? Why don’t I look at what I have in my fridge before I add more items in there? I had a bunch of deep thoughts and we’ll get to that soon. But first!

THE BEFORE:

It’s kinda like a big game of JENGA. I haven’t had a good system in place for awhile. There are a general AREAS where I keep food, but the past few months I’ve been using the JAM IT WHERE IT FITS system. It’s totally not sustainable. Nope.

First item of business. Take everything out! I started one row at a time, cuz you know…things still need to be kept cold. Everything that was on top got pulled out and sorted.

Kinda like this. Wait. Exactly like this.

If it had mold or expired obviously it was GONE. If it was almost finished, I evaluated if it was worth wasting space in my fridge.

I emptied stuff out and recycled. My recycling bin filled up FAST.

And while I was sorting, I cleaned out all of the shelves with hot soapy water.

I dried each shelf and put them back. Before I put ANYTHING back in the clean fridge, I made sure each item was clean and clear of any gunk. My jam jars were a disaster and my hot sauce containers were pretty cruddy.

I also cleaned the inside of the fridge with warm soapy water and took out all the bins and washed those too.

It’s amazing what cruds up your bins!

So let’s talk about bins for a second…this one was a nightmare. This is a very large pullout drawer we have. I keep Cooper’s stuff in it but because I didn’t have an organized shelving system in place, things that didn’t fit in the upper half of the fridge ended up in this drawer.

Here’s the before:

This is what it looks like now. Now I know EXACTLY where to find what I’m looking for. It’s easier for me to look at this drawer when I do my grocery shopping for his foods because I know what’s missing.

This is the deli drawer before.

This is it afterward. I can see everything I have and there’s a system! Meats on the left, cheese on the right and anything that’s in a tub gets stacked in the bottom right hand corner.

My unruly produce drawer got a makeover too. Things that need to be used right away go on top.

Pro tip: It’s much easier organizing a drawer when it’s not in the fridge.

Another Pro tip: Exploit containers.

I had some rogue bags that took up too much wasted space in my fridge.

I put them all in a container and now I know where to access them.

Also- I have a very deep fridge and it’s really hard to know what’s hiding out in there. It’s also a pain in the butt to have to move 5 things to get to the item I want. Now I have all of the stuff that gets in the way in one place. If I want maple syrup all I have to do is pull out the bin, grab it and put it back when I’m done. It’s such a simple trick and it makes a big impact.

Playing around with the shelves…before I put everything back…

http://pinterest.com/shutterbean/k-i-d-z/

I have designated shelves now AND I decided to take out a shelf and make more room for my leftover area.

I realized that it’s important for me to have room for bigger dishes & storage containers of leftovers. That’s usually what throws off my organization because I don’t want to take the time to pull everything out so my containers will fit in there.

Here’s another thing I thought of. I thought that I HAD to use all of the shelves. Like…maybe I wasn’t going to maximize the potential of this fridge. What I realized is that you have to find how YOU use your fridge and make it work for you. Having one less shelf and moving the rest of the shelves around to suit my needs has made a HUGE difference. Don’t assume that the factory placement is the right way to exploit your fridge’s space.

I also made a system for my shelves on the right.

Most used items are at eye level.

Here are the shelves to the left. We have to keep honey in my fridge. Ants…sigh…

Now that that’s done, let’s get to my emotional experience.

It was really hard to throw away all of the rotten food. I felt ashamed for letting my fridge get so messy that I couldn’t see what I had in there. I realize that I’ve been living like this for awhile because I don’t MEAL PLAN. I don’t shop smart and I don’t always use up what I have before I go out and buy more food.

So the day after I cleaned out my fridge I was anxious to go grocery shopping and I decided that I was going to use everything that was in my fridge to make a meal. Let me tell you that it felt great. So not only did I finish this project with a clean slate, I realized some of my bad habits that I want to correct and I challenged myself to start meal planning (I’ll talk about that more next week). Having a clean fridge feels like I’ve hit a really good RESET button in my life. I’m really ready to make some good changes.

Organizing Goal of 2012 : sort thru Cooper’s toys & clothes that he’s outgrown=1/2 DONE!

When I was pregnant with Cooper, I had the foresight to buy this IKEA bookshelf & a bunch of sturdy brown storage bins from Target (they were from the dorm section!) because I knew that with kids comes clutter. If only I knew what a pain in the butt it would be keep on top of organizing my kid’s toys! I’ve been hiding most of the chaos under those bins for awhile. Now it’s time to get motivated and sort through it all!

Yesterday morning I set a timer for an hour to see how much I could accomplish.  After the hour was up, I KEPT GOING and after two total hours I had a lot to show for it. Hooray for perseverance!

So you can see above what the shelves looked like. A mess! I HATE it when books aren’t displayed nicely. It drives me CRAZY. Because we’re busy parents we don’t always get around to putting the books back nicely, hopefully will be better about that now that we have a clean slate.

Here’s a corner of stuff. There’s really no rhyme or reason for it. I already spy 3 things that Cooper doesn’t play with.

I took all the bins off of the bookshelves and surveyed the situation.

The toys are concealed but you can never find what you are looking for!

So I put some music on and started sorting. I made little piles of things, sat in the middle and just went to town going through each of the bins.

Examples of piles: GADGETS, BLOCKS, ROGUE PARTS, BALLS, PEOPLE TOYS, ETC.

Ahh the letter/magnet/block situation. These things LITTER MY HOUSE. Hopefully now I’ll be able to reign them in.

The second I find one in the house, I’m bringing it directly upstairs.

When I was sorting the train/train track situation, I decided to put all the trains in a small pouch so we can easily find all the parts when we’re playing trains.

After about 40 minutes, I came up with a plan of how I was going to use each bin.

I also decided to put all the blocks/letter cards/magnets in one easy to access bin.

On the top part of the bookshelf, I have a little caddy where I put all of Cooper’s toiletry items.

Meds, hair brushes, thermometer…etc. It’s been FOREVER since I went through this.

I got rid of a bunch of expired/unnecessary items (we don’t need butt cream anymore) and found a surplus of a few things.

This is the worst part of organizing. Finding out that your disorganization meant that you bought multiples because you had no idea what you had in your house! I hate that.

Ahh nice & neat! Now I know where to find what I’m looking for in a pinch.

And this little bookshelf we have…it was such a mess inside so I decided to go through it and get rid of a bunch of books.

Cooper has outgrown a bunch of them. Although it’s sad to say goodbye, I know that some other child will enjoy them just as much as he did.

OK so here’s my BIG TIP.

I really wanted to take a picture of what was inside each bin, have the picture laminated and stick it on the outside of each bin so that it would be obvious what was inside. I thought that it would help Cooper with the whole sorting process. BUT I realized that my dream was keeping me from actually starting the project. I let that task hang me up. So I bit the bullet and labeled the outside of the bins with masking tape & a sharpie. It doesn’t look that bad!

Here’s the AFTER!!!!

Wait. Let’s have the BEFORE for you to see:

I put Cooper’s Fire Station on the top of the bookshelf.  It’s out of his reach on purpose. The fire station has been in my office since he got it for Christmas and he has a habit of taking all of the furniture and parts out and spreading them throughout the house. Now I’m the one who is in charge! I just spared SOO many future messes with that trick.

The masking tape isn’t such a big deal, right?

The books are nicely organized now. That makes me feel much better.

Over near his bed, I fixed up the tool bench.

There’s some function to each shelf. Hopefully we can keep in clean.

This is what I’m left with. A bag to donate, one for trash & a collection of stuff to sell.

This is just the start. We have more stuff in the basement to deal with & his clothes to sort out (which is another post entirely).

But here’s one thing I’m trying to deal with. We have a bunch of stuffed animals that all have sentimental value. I am the one who wants to keep them BUT Cooper is totally not a stuffed animal kid (except for his Curious Georges).

That’s something I have yet to figure out….but for now, they are all contained in this corner bin.

So that’s it. That gives us a good start on keeping his room cleaned & organized. When he came home from preschool this afternoon he was super excited. He loved all of the labels and asked me what each one of them said. We made a point to put everything back where it belonged before he went to bed so hopefully he’ll learn these good habits.

I should note that I put some of his toys in his closet so I can rotate them into play a few weeks from now. It keeps him less bored!

Organizing Goal of 2012 COMPLETED:

get rid of unnecessary items in the bathroom & organize!

You saw me organize the medicine cabinet in my bathroom, now it’s time to organize my bathroom shelves.

Here’s the deal. We have a master bathroom but there’s nothing master about it. It’s actually pretty small! We have a pedestal sink (means no storage), a medicine cabinet and this little section of shelving next to the door. It’s kinda cramped! We totally want to re-do our bathroom some day but for now we have to live with it! I thought about covering the shelves with a curtain, but it’s too narrow. So basically it’s always EXPOSED! This is the main reason why I keep guests out of my bathroom

This is the BEFORE. There was absolutely no styling involved in this mess.

Nope. It’s au naturale!

I once thought I was being all neat with these gray bins for organizing.

After a few years of use & abuse, they’re full of CRAP.

I recently went on two trips and suddenly there are 4 travel bags littering my shelves…

Miss Lazybones didn’t feel like unpacking!

My makeup section? I don’t want to talk about it. Oooh! That’s where those Angry Birds Band aids are!

I spent about 3 1/2 hours working on this project over the weekend. Let me walk you through it.

My main goal was to GET RID OF STUFF I DON’T WANT/NEED/USE.

STEP 1: CLEAR OFF SHELVES (and clean them!)

STEP 2: SORTING (I secretly love this part until I get overwhelmed).

I started with the hardest part first. I knew that if I was gonna commit, I was gonna CAH-MIT.

I couldn’t leave this on my bathroom floor all night, now could I?

I started with my makeup drawer and found a bunch of Halloween makeup from over 3 years ago. BUH-BYE.

There were also a few eye shadows that were waaaaay past their prime and some things I would never wear.

Oh! There’s nail polish in there. Nail polish belongs in my nail polish container!

I paired down my makeup drawer to this!

The great JEWELRY sort! This one took me awhile.

In the end, I was able to figure out what it is I need/don’t need. Why should I organize things I’m never going to wear?

PURGE! I could stare at this all day.

And here’s what all three of those drawers look like on the inside.

STEP 3: PUT EVERYTHING BACK & START ON ANOTHER SHELF!

I moved onto the makeup shelf/section. The hub of clutter!

I had thrown a lot of stuff in this area because I’ve been in too much of a hurry to bother.

That’s really why we get so disorganized in the first place, isn’t it?

If you don’t put stuff back where it belongs, it piles up and then things gets OUT OF CONTROL.

After I got the makeup section organized, I went up another shelf and hit up one of those gray bins.

It was full of cold meds, q-tips, shampoo & pills! It was totally overflowing!

Time to SORT/PURGE/ORGANIZE.

Now it looks like this inside. I can totally manage that. The husband knows where to find things now…

I also put the travel bags away in the linen closet upstairs (another organizing project to do!)

Why was I wasting soooo much room? Pure laziness.

When I was almost done, I had a bunch of items leftover with NO PLACE TO GO. I re-purposed another one of my Tupperware bins and stacked it on top. I HAVE SIX DRAWERS NOW!

I made a whole drawer for hairbrushes! You have no idea how much this excites me.

While I was at it, I decided to bust out my label maker. Why yes! My label maker IS labeled!

And here’s what that stack looks like now! All I had to do was move the shelf up a little and TADA!

A thing of beauty…

Drawers for: MAKEUP, JEWELRY, SPA STUFF, TRAVEL STUFF, REFILLS & HAIRBRUSHES

Let’s look at the overview now:

Let me just stare at it for a moment…

So that makeup section…

It’s all neat & organized now. I got rid of a few things and put stuff away. I cleaned out my brushes while I was at it.

I’m totally going to keep like this. NO EXCUSES.

The top shelf used to house a bin full of cleaning supplies. I moved them to our laundry room for safekeeping.

THAT SHELF IS PRIME REAL ESTATE.

I also re-purposed three bins I had in other parts of my house.

The floral bin holds my hair dryer & flat iron (they used to be shoved somewhere in between the Tupperware drawers).

The blue bin holds soap refills & the white bin holds dental stuff. They’re labeled!

The bottom shelf holds our towels & our scale.

Even if the master bathroom doesn’t look the way we want it to, it’s looking fresh with a new organizing system!

Soo worth the effort.

I’m tackling my Organization Goals 2012 list!  I’m starting with this item:

CLEAN OUT MY PURSE MORE OFTEN

Let’s get started! This is my fantastic Kelly Moore purse/camera bag that I’ve been using over 6 months (that’s a long time for me!).  What I like about this purse is that it has PLENTY of pockets. I always like that in a purse; it draws me in! The problem is…there might be TOO many pockets!  Crazy, right?Because I never set guidelines for myself of what goes into each pocket, I lose things CONSTANTLY. Quick! Ask me where my cellphone is! I couldn’t tell you. Oh wait…it’s prolly at the bottom of my bag because I’m too lazy to put it in the same compartment EVERY TIME.

Not only am I going to clean out my purse today, I’m going to give myself some rules for organizing!

Watch me.

I started by dumping out the contents of my purse on my coffee table and SORTING.

This is basically what I’ve been carrying around with me. Looks like a junk pile, huh?

We start with the paper…I kinda let it get out of hand lately. It’s because I’m in too much of a hurry when I’m leaving stores.

I just JAM the receipt in my bag instead of thoughtfully taking care of it.

In the process I figured out that I only need one receipt. Look at all that paper going to recycling!

Then I took care of the rogue change & that little stack of moola in my purse.

Fact: Wallet organizing is one of my favorite things to do.

Strange, huh?

In the process I uncovered a pocket full of jewelry! Leftovers from traveling a few weeks ago, buh-bye!

Hmmm. These two things sure don’t belong…

Ahhh makeup! In reality, I should only carry like one lip gloss but I CAN’T HELP but carry like 5.

I’m a girl!

I decided what my essentials are for my makeup bag and I’m sticking to it:

Perfume, lotion, lip stuff, hair clips, toothpicks, tweezers & a nail file. Must add my compact w/mirror in there!

Out of the makeup-y stuff I got rid of this. Oh and teabags! Why do I have those in there?

After all my sorting, I put together a visual list of all my essentials!

I also decided to put it in writing. GAME PLAN:

Then I gave myself a foundation for pocket usage:

Oh! One more thing. This is my pro tip! I always buy purses that have rings on the straps so I can attach my keys with a Carabiner Hook.

It means I never have to worry about losing my keys somewhere in my bag.

The trick is that you have to HOOK it onto your purse! Sometimes I forget to do that. I don’t like it when that happens.

So that’s it. I cleaned out my purse.

I hope to spend about 15 minutes a week (prolly during Sunday night TV time) cleaning out my bag.

I WILL NOT BE LAZY. I WILL KEEP THIS UP.

Wish me luck!

I was sitting on an airplane last week for over two hours while we waited in line to get de-iced. My good books were in my suitcase because I figured the brief flight home from SLC to SFO wouldn’t warrant enough time for serious reading. I closed my eyes to try to get some sleep (I can never sleep on an airplane!) and started mapping out all of rooms in my house in my head, visualizing my clutter. Deep in thought, I had an epiphany:

I already knew this, but for some reason with nothing else to clutter my mind, I realized this is why I’ve been so annoyed with the lack of balance in my life. I HAVE TOO MUCH STUFF. To evaluate my goals, I started to make a list of what I want to accomplish this year. Can you believe with all of these posts that I do that I don’t have a concrete game plan of how I want to tackle the clutter & reorganize my life? For the past two months I’ve been running on this notion: I have the time to do this, what can I get done in this time and post about.

All of the projects I’ve tackled thus far have helped greatly, but there are soo many more to go! So this is my course of action for 2012. Let’s start with the BIG list.

• clean out/organize the basement
• clean out the inside of my car
• scrub/clean/organize the fridge & freezer
• clean out/organize my crafts (and get rid of what I don’t use!)
• organize/purge kitchen cabinets
• fancy up the laundry room so I will actually enjoy the space
• sort through Cooper’s toys & clothes that he’s outgrown
• figure out an efficient way to grocery shop and stick to it
• manage my online life better (calendar, blog, information, ALL OF IT)
• get rid of unnecessary files on my computer and tidy up my folders & desktop
• go through my Aperture library and delete photos I don’t need (huge challenge!)
• sort through the linen closet
• get rid of books I don’t need anymore
• get rid of unnecessary items in the bathroom & organize!
• go through my closet and get rid of clothes I don’t wear

Then I realized that there are several things I can do on a daily basis to help reduce the stress I feel of being disorganized & clutter. So here they are:

• spend 10 minutes before bed every night straightening up the house.
• keep a list of things to pack & bring for work/preschool
• clean out my purse more often
• clean up my mess in the kitchen before starting something new
• be smart with my time spent on the computer (only surf if I have the time to!)
• make Cooper’s lunch the night before school. Even if I’m tired, I must do it.
• don’t buy new things unless I’m ready to get rid of something I don’t need.
• check the pantry before grocery shopping. Shopping smart means less waste.
• hang up clothes immediately when I get home
• take the time to sort things from the car so it doesn’t end up looking like another closet

One of the reasons why I love working on this High Straightenence column is that it holds me accountable each week. I have you watching my progress and it’s inspiring YOU to organize too.

A few of you readers/listeners have sent me twitter pics & emails of your organized cabinets & pantries and I want to say THANK YOU! Check out this post from Shana of Folks Gotta Eat!  Amazing, RIGHT?!!

I’d love to show your hard work to all of my readers. Leave a comment with any links or tweet me on twitter! (@shutterbean)

Let’s get organized together!

On this week’s episode of Food Hoarders, Tracy tackles her kitchen pantry. What better way to spend a Saturday night than cleaning out a kitchen pantry for 4 hours?

I shouldn’t kid, hoarding is a big problem. I’m not necessarily a hoarder; I just buy food because I think I need it. Turns out I already have those items but I can’t see them because my pantry is so disorganized. Wait? Is this a hoarding show or an organizing show? I’m confused.

The last time I cleaned out my pantry was probably 6 months ago when I had a serious moth infestation from buying bulk food items. As some semblance of a resolution for 2012, I’m trying to get my head in the zone and keep things in my kitchen organized. The first step starts with my kitchen pantry. Besides the fridge, it’s one of the main hubs in my kitchen. My kitchen pantry easily falls into a disorganized state because I’m rushing around doing things and not devoting time once a week to tidy things up a bit. After grocery shopping with a 3 year old and emptying the items that need to be refrigerated from the grocery store, I always get a bit lazy/overwhelmed with putting things away in the pantry.  In 2012, I’m hoping to be a little more thoughtful with how I organize/take care of my pantry so I can avoid things like:

• buying items I already have
• wasting precious space with expired items
• multiple items opened at the same time
• not knowing what my options are food wise because I can’t see them

Today I show the world (deep breath!) just how disorganized I’ve been.  Don’t worry there’s a SUCCESS story at the end and I’m pretty darn proud of it.

And so it begins…

Let’s do a little inspection…We begin with the top shelf of chaos. The baking section. I see 8 things that don’t belong.

This is the middle. This is what I see at eye level and it stresses me out. All the items in front are covering up the items in back.

You can also see how well I stack items on top of other items. Whoa.

This kind of stresses me out.

The last shelf…can you believe there are sweet potatoes somewhere in there? The cereals are blocking them.

And here’s the floor…if you can even see it. Also my spice rack is in a crazy state! Cinnamon spilled on the bottom rack and I need to clean it up!

First step. SORT. I worked from the top down and used my kitchen table as my sorting station.

Since I started with the top section (the BAKING section) I weeded out all of the items that didn’t belong there.

You can imagine how excited Cooper was to see a bunch of sugar, chocolate & marshmallows on our kitchen table. Keeping him from getting into my stuff was probably the most difficult challenge of this project! I took a break and continued after he went to bed.

Because all of the chocolate for baking was shaped differently, I organized them in a tupperware for safe keeping.

During this process, I had a few bags designated for recycling, one for garbage and one for composting.

I kept reminding myself that I’d eventually get through! I kept at it.

This metal bin here was something I designated a long time ago as my nut/dried fruit bin. Obviously it’s been heavily neglected.

In the process I found TWO packages of almonds & dried white peaches that were already opened. UGH.

I solved the problem by taking one of these plastic caddies I bought a few months ago at IKEA and re- purposed it for nuts & dried fruits.

Now I can pull out the caddy & carry it to my kitchen counter when I’m making something in the kitchen and I can easily see what’s in it.

When I finally finished sorting & putting everything back, I put all of the items that didn’t belong in the pantry on my kitchen table for sorting. All this stuff was wasting precious space in my pantry. No wonder I couldn’t see anything.

After 4+ hours of work, we have the AFTER!! I stood at the pantry the next morning just staring.

I’m THRILLED with the results.

Here’s the top shelf. The BAKING SHELF. There were items stored IN my kitchen mixer bowl. Shameful!

I know that Frank’s Red Hot sauce doesn’t belong, but it fit on the shelf so nicely!

And we look at the second shelf down. The MIDDLE!

You can see I found THREE bottles of apple cider vinegar in the process!

I love seeing all my soups & stocks lined up. It’s easy to grab one now.

To the left there’s more organization. Different sections for different needs.

And we work our way down to the bottom shelf. What a breath of fresh air!

You can see my nuts/dried fruits section now. Two caddies in action!

And here’s the FLOOR! You can see it! I have designated bins. I’m glad I know what I have now.

While I was at it, I organized the spice shelves.

I threw out old spices & condensed a few.

And here’s shelf dedicated to vinegars & oils.

The best part? I can see it ALL!

Now the next step? Putting a LOCK on my pantry door because someone gets into it CONSTANTLY.

Hope this helps inspire you to tackle your own kitchen pantry organizing project!

REMEMBER: How can you go grocery shopping if you can’t see what you have?!

I love traveling. I do! But the packing and thought process put into actually getting to my destination can stress me out! I get hypersensitive about over- packing and always try to create a challenge of packing minimally. I think it’s because one of my brothers scoffed at how heavy my suitcase was once and it did some major mental damage. I almost always end up UNDER packing but at least it means I have room for purchases on my trip (I never forget the essentials, though!).

A few weeks ago, I went with my family on a cruise and took pictures of my packing process so you could see what goes on in my crazy brain!

My goal is always to pack SMART! I have to use my brain even more because I have to pack for a kid now.

A FEW DAYS BEFORE A TRIP, I MAKE LISTS:

-TRACY (that’s me!)

-COOPER (the hardest list!)

-DON’T FORGET (things I would be sad/upset to miss)

-AROUND THE HOUSE (what needs to be done before we leave. Like…cleaning the cat litter, watering plants, etc.)

-ELECTRONICS (cameras, laptop, baby monitor, battery chargers, ipod, etc.)

-CARRY ON BAG (the most important bag of all)

-CASEY (had his own list in his head)

MY STEPS TO PACKING:

-DO LAUNDRY There’s nothing more annoying to me than waiting for clothes to finish drying so I can pack my suitcase. I try my hardest to get laundry done before I start packing to avoid this. Also, it’s important to find all of the clothes you want to pack!

-FOLD LAUNDRY and play around with outfits and come up with a game plan. I lay everything out on my bed for this purpose.

-SORT LAUNDRY

I forgot about shoes! Oh shoes! These are the shoes I ended up packing on my trip.

Take away one pair and you take away a few different outfits. It’s all about finding outfits that work well with shoes. There were two dresses I ditched because it meant I would have to bring two extra pairs of shoes. Instead, I picked dresses that could easily be jazzed up with accessories since they take up little space. Think black jersey knit dresses! They’re like traveling gold. So versatile and pretty much wrinkle free!

I always have high hopes for exercising while on vacation and my sneakers ALWAYS take up a serious amount of space. Maybe I should just resolve that working out & vacations don’t mix for me? I could have brought a cute pair of shoes instead!

ALWAYS bring flip-flops even if the weather is bad. They’re great “slippers” for yucky hotel carpets.

-PUT ITEMS IN A LAUNDRY BASKET

All of the items get put in a laundry basket for safe keeping until I’m ready to load up my suitcase.

This is also a good way to keep my cats from freaking out. The second the suitcase comes out, they get STRESSED OUT and then one of them craps on the floor. Real life!

I should also note that on this trip we decided to use duffel bags because they collapse easily under the bed in our room on the cruise ship.

Because they don’t have tons of pockets, I used little bags to contain items. It’s a great way to keep track of things.

This one contains Cooper’s pull-ups & wipes!

I also have a small bag for: bathing suit stuff, underwear/bras/socks as well as electronics (which travels in my carry on!).

They’re great because you can pull out exactly what you need if you’re at the airport.

NOW WE PACK!

When the bag is close to done, I add a note on top of what needs to be added. There’s always stuff I’m waiting on…

Since we went on a cruise, I have a few tips for you!

My sister-in-law saw on a few cruise review websites that people highly recommended an Over-the- Door Organizer for the teeny bathrooms on the boat. I picked one up at Target for the trip.

Let me tell you, it was a DREAM! There’s limited counter space in the bathroom, so things would have been super cramped if I didn’t attach this to our bathroom door!

We were also told that we could bring a small bag full of booze on the boat. We wanted to save some money and I had a bunch of gin & bourbon at home so I tucked a few of these “RUM SMUGGLERS” in my suitcase in addition to the half case of wine Casey shipped to the hotel we were staying at.

If you have children, you already know how important the snack bag is!

Heck, it’s important for adults too! Our snack bag stays in our carry-on suitcase.

Cooper loves a Wild Berry Kid’s Super Food drink mix so I brought those with. It’s a perfect way to mask the taste of yucky hotel/cruise ship water.

I brought some healthier snacks from home so Cooper had something to eat on the airplane.

Snacks help prevent public lack-of-food-induced-tantrums. TRUST!

I had a really nice passport case but it didn’t fit all of my documents and I became obsessed with using/not using the pockets. At the very last minute, I threw everything in one of my favorite plastic document envelopes so I could easily see where everything was. It was so nice to be able to grab it out of my carry on when needed.

When we flew with Cooper for the first time, we got one of these Go Go Babyz Travel Mate Car Seat attachments.

You can see it in the bag there. It’s basically like a dolly that attaches to your car seat so you can wheel your child around the airport.

It’s a lifesaver! If your child insists on walking, well throw your purse on it and wheel it around!

On our trip we took 3 bags (to be checked) a car seat, my purse & a carry-on bag.

Not too bad for 7 days away, right?

OTHER IMPORTANT TIPS:

-keep an extra fold up bag in your suitcase (comes in handy if you need to carry home a purchase)

-keep a few plastic bags in your luggage for shoes or containing items that may leak

-use the front pocket of your suitcase for dirty clothes

-always keep your phone charger/camera charger in your carry-on!

-give your family/friends your contact information for when you’re gone

-don’t underpay your pet sitter (ha!)

Do you have any packing tips? DO SHARE!

It’s New Year’s Resolution Time!

Do you have any resolutions? I’m still trying to figure out mine, but I know WORK HARD and PLAY HARD are both on the list. But then again, when isn’t it?

The biggest challenge of making resolutions is staying motivated. With all of life’s distractions, it’s pretty easy to get off track.

I find a good way to stay motivated is to have little reminders around my house/on my computer/phone wallpaper that help me remember what’s important and what I’m working towards. Today I put together a little roundup of inspiration posters I found on Etsy that will help you stay motivated whatever your resolution might be. I’ve got my eyes on a few of these, now I just need to come up with the wall space!

Hang an inspirational print in your office, next to your front door, in your bathroom, or wherever you are able to easily see it. The point is to stop, read one of these mantras and STAY ON TRACK. If you’re in a pinch and need a temporary reminder, a post-it on your bathroom mirror works wonders!

Make Every Day Count by GraphicAnthology

Take a Big Deep Breath by evajuliet

Everyday is an Adventure by GraphicAnthology

Playing It Safe by thebigharumph

Today is the Day by thebigharumph

Follow Your Dreams by YellowBrickGraphics

Remember Why You Kept Holding On   by happydeliveries

Let it Be by handz

Be You by yumalum

 IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER:

• Be kind to yourself
• Set obtainable/realistic goals
• Have Faith
• Don’t give up!

I have nothing to wear! How many times do you think you’ve said that in your life? I’m guilty of saying it CONSTANTLY, but it’s not true. I have plenty to wear! It’s just that I always feel so uninspired by what’s in my closet AND I’m not always able to see what’s hiding in there!

I’m currently in the process of figuring out what to pack for an upcoming trip and I realized that I have a great tip for you!

TAKE PICTURES OF YOURSELF IN YOUR FAVORITE OUTFITS!

A couple years ago, I started taking pictures of my outfits in the bathroom mirror at work with my cellphone.

I started doing it to stay inspired and challenge myself to come up with different outfits. A few months later I had over 50 outfits documented! It has proven to be a really good way to help remind me what’s in my closet.

It also really helps my crazy planning brain. Look! I’ve already figured out what dresses I’m packing for my trip:

HERE’S WHAT I DO:

-Get dressed (duh)

-Take a picture of my outfit on my phone

-Save it to a designated folder on my phone

-Upload it to my flickr account (that way I can browse it from afar on a computer)

OTHER USES:

-Take photos of your hairstyles/haircuts (this can be useful when you’re going to a new stylist and you want to show them how you like your hair)

-Take pictures of your shoes & accessories

-Take pictures of clothes your trying on in the store. You can figure out if you want to go back and buy them.

-See how much your style has changed throughout the year!

-Track weight loss!

It’s kind of addictive.

Is there a High Straightenence person in your life that you need to shop for? Are you waiting til the last minute? Don’t do that! Are you a High Straightenence person who desperately wishes there was a list full of geeky organizing items to give your friends/family/loved ones direction on what to get you this year? Let these lists be your guide! Because we’re getting close to the Xmas, I’ve hand-picked some awesome gifts from Amazon. They ship fast. Now….GET ON IT!

1. Zojirushi Classic Bento Vacuum Jar Lunch Box
Make organizing your lunch easier with this bento box set. The little containers will totally help you be more creative with your work lunches. Bonus: It comes with a spork!

2. Dymo Letra Tag Plus Personal Label Maker
It’s easy to go label crazy. Now you have an excuse…to go crazy…

3. NeatReceipts Portable Scanner
Feel like you’re holding onto too many receipts? Collect them, scan them, file them, recycle them! Be done with them!

4. Kindle Fire
Take the Kindle Fire into the kitchen with you. Load a recipe on the screen and get to work! You can check your mail, listen to a podcast and even send a tweet while you’re doing so. It’s the ultimate multi-tasker.

5. Desktop Cradle Kit for Apple iPhone
Can’t find your iPhone? Oh wait! It’s in the cradle on your clean desk.

6. Torre Tagus Retro Clock
The High Straightenence person loves numbers. This clock will please them. Trust me.

7.  Scotch Thermal Laminator Roller System
Think of all the possibilities!! This has been on my wishlist for YEARS. I fear that if I have one, I’ll laminate EVERYTHING. But hey, is that really a bad thing? First project to make? PLACE MATS. You think I’m kidding? I’m not kidding.

8. Wee Gallery Mobile, by Kikkerland
Have photos to display, but no wall space or surfaces to do so? Make a hanging mobile! It could also pose as a reminder mobile or a fantastic cat toy.

1. The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin
The Happiness Project starts with a resolution to de-clutter your life. This book is a game changer! It’s changing my game.

2. Fine Point Sharpies
High Straightenence people loooove their Sharpies. It’s cuz we take the art of handwriting seriously. Sharpies are perfect for list making, card writing, note taking, address labeling, YOU NAME IT!

3. Listography Calendar
A calendar that encourages list-making! Track your year with lists! Hallelujah!

4. Fellowes Powershred Cross-Cut Paper Shredder
The paper lover needs a shredder; it’s a given. It’s a good way to balance it all out. This one cross cuts for extra security. Neat!

5. Moleskine Weekly Calendar
This is my most favorite kind of calendar. Even though I have high hopes of doing my calendar managing online, I still seem to go back to a paper calendar EVERY YEAR. I’m a paper lover…what can I say?

6. Smead Poly Color Envelopes
I can’t tell you how handy these are. If I’m working on a project, I throw everything in one of these envelopes & take it on the go. The best part is that they’re clear and colored. You can designate certain colors to specific projects so you know what to grab easily.

7. Small Object Labels & Stickers
Cute stickers & labels make the world go round. Am I right?

8. Moleskine Classic Ruled Notebook
Perfect for list making on the go. I always keep one in my purse because you never know when you’ll feel inspired.

9. Sukie Sticky Notes
Need to make a note? Try these Sukie Sticky Notes. I feel like a task on a sticky seems less daunting when there’s a cute squirrel chilling on it.

10. ALL OUT OF Notepad
This notepad saved my life in 2011. You can mark all the grocery items you need & bring it with you while you’re shopping. I always keep a few blank sheets in my bag for when I need to make a grocery list on the fly.

11. The Book of Awesome, by Neil Pasricha
Life can be rough. This book will help remind you of the awesome things in life, like popping bubble wrap & the other side of the pillow. It’s funny. It’s true. You’ll like it.

12. Organizing Plain & Simple, by Donna Smallin
If you’re looking to get organized & simplify, here’s a great book. Visual clarity? Mental clarity? De-cluttering strategies? This book has it covered!

13. Kam Kam Magnetic Cat Paper Clip Organizer
Corral those paperclips! This cat puts the FUN in functional.

14. Scotch Precision Ultra Scissors
FACT: The paper lover loves scissors. The paper lover can never have ENOUGH scissors.

15. Lotta Jansdotter File Collection
Get organized & make your files pretty at the same time. Make that your goal for 2012.

Guess what? I finished cleaning my desk a week before I expected to!

I was on a roll this weekend and COULD NOT BE STOPPED. Thanks to an understanding husband, I was able to work over 8 hours this weekend on my hot mess of a desk. Dang, it feels good.

All of my dolls are organized and my shelves are sparkling clean!

They serve a purpose again! They’re not catchalls for things Cooper shouldn’t get into anymore.

I hung up the word SIMPLIFY on the shelf as a constant reminder of my goal.

Remember that pile of garbage on the right? GONE! My scanner is put away (I don’t use it that often) and my broken-beyond- repair printer that I loaded things on top of is ready to be e-cycled.

On top of my cabinet, I have a little section for papers & pens now. I recovered the pen container that Cooper drew all over with a new piece of paper. It made me feel good that it has a “fresh start.” All of my notepads, stickies & post-its are within arms reach now and there’s also a dedicated section for where I charge my cellphone and I’m super happy about that.

Let’s take a look at the insides of the cabinet. They’re dramatic!

Here’s DRAWER 1:

And what’s inside of it? OFFICE SUPPLIES. I know where everything is now. Post-its, paperclips, paper, stapler, YOU NAME IT. Let’s see if I can fend off the grubby hands of a super curious 3 year old boy… He’s already gotten into this drawer twice!

Here’s DRAWER 2:

Nail polish in tupperware, batteries, important cables, blank cds & dvds live in this drawer.

Here’s DRAWER 3:

Cooper’s drawer! Filled with art supplies and activities for us to work on in the future.

So how did I get to this point? A LOT OF WORK.

This is how I “organized” myself:

I tackled one thing at a time.

I went through every little part of my office and sorted things into piles:

-THINGS THAT DON’T BELONG IN HERE

-TO FIND A PLACE FOR

-TO DONATE

-TO RECYCLE

-PENS/PENCILS & ART SUPPLIES

-JEWELRY THAT NEEDS TO BE PUT AWAY

-COOKBOOKS TO RETURN TO THE BOOKSHELF

-TRASH

-TO ASK MY HUSBAND ABOUT(everything went in a box for him to look through)

During my sorting I looked at the One Bite at a Time e-book  I downloaded from Simple Mom and was relieved when I saw this quote. It was exactly what I needed while I was looking through piles of buttons, pens, papers and office supplies.

While I was taking a break after hour 5 of working, I saw this:

Gretchen Rubin (writer of The Happiness Project) also kept me going with her tweet!

I was DEEP in mess by the afternoon.

One of the most OVERDUE chores was sorting through my pens. Many of them don’t work anymore because SOMEONE forgets to put the caps back on… It was good to reduce the stress of using pens that don’t work. This is a big deal, believe me.

Let me tell you…IT WASN’T pretty. Many times I wanted to just walk away and shut the door.

I almost thought about stopping and picking up another day but I powered through. I had to!

Now I have this clean desk and life is good! No clutter with a lot less paper.

I was even able to do a craft project (which I quickly cleaned up) on my desk today.

There you have it. The beauty of a clean desk. It makes such a difference, doesn’t it?

Once upon a time I had a clean desk. Everything had its place and everything was superbly organized. I would only have to spend a maximum of 15 minutes per week to straighten things up that were disheveled. Then came a baby and it all went to hell. When my son started to stand, he’d constantly pull things out of the drawers and scatter stuff around the house. I would tidy things up but it always felt like I was constantly treading water and making no headway. At one point I decided to let it go and wait a few YEARS to do a office revamp because I realized what’s the point? If you have kids, you know exactly what I mean. So, I easily let my desk go…

Cooper is now 3 and I finally feel like THIS IS THE TIME I can motivate and clean my act up. It will get trashed no doubt, but sitting at this desk writing this post is STRESSING ME OUT. There are soo many things out of place/don’t belong in here. I feel like I easily end up in creative blocks and can’t focus because I’m sitting in a pit of clutter. It seriously makes my blood pressure rise.

So, this is where I am sitting right now. This is my “work area.” I see an empty glasses case, a rando roll of tape, a sample of Barkeeper’s Friend (what?!) a rogue nail polish bottle, some business cards and look what’s hiding under my screen- a little tub of almonds! None of this belongs there.

To the left I see this. Where’s my desk? Who knows? It’s filled with papers and cookbooks and all the random things I have to leftovers I have to put away from the my Paper Station project.

I have shelves above my desk. They were organized once, but now this particular shelf is a place to shove all the things Cooper shouldn’t get into (pens, scissors, gum, weapons, etc.)

One day he’s going to stand on the desk and have full access to this. I just know it. Also- do you see that I haven’t changed my calendar since July? Sigh.

I have a Blythe doll collection. They suffer the most from my cluttered ways.

And to my right, this is what I see. A clock that needs to be plugged in, a tupperware full of nailpolish, an empty box that needs to be recycled, a printer that doesn’t work and a scanner that is being used as a surface to rest things on. Oh! I also see two kid’s books that don’t belong there as well as a hot glue gun.

All that chaos sits on top of this dresser. This dresser is THE GREAT CHAOS HIDER. What’s in it, you ask?

A whole lotta nothing! CDs& a baby book that I need to work on (ahem, 3 year old)

Random papers in this drawer and an empty filing folder that I had grandiose ideas for. What a waste of a perfectly good drawer.

Some magazines and more chaos. UGH.

Oh and here’s what happens when you take your eyes away from a 3 year old for 2 minutes

I’m giving myself two weeks to complete this project. I really have to evaluate what I use this space for and sort through all of the things that don’t belong here.

To get started, I made two lists so I could wrap my head around this endeavor:

1. WHAT DO I WANT OUT OF THIS SPACE?

• A place where I can easily find a pen, paper & any other office supply I might need
• A place free of clutter
• A place where I can be creative, surrounded by things that inspire me
• A place that has organized kid’s art supplies so they don’t spill out into my work space
• A CLEAN DESK!

2. WHAT DO I USE THIS SPACE?

• working on my website
• podcasting
• a catch-all for papers
• a place to put clutter piles from the rest of the house (ie: where we hide stuff from company!)
• surfing the web
• writing emails
• wrapping presents (if there’s even space)
• making art with my son
• crafting

I suppose that once it’s all done, I will have another list of RULES for using this space.

Alright folks, I’m going in. Say a prayer for me!

Next week we’ll be discussing the organization of holiday wrapping. Stay tuned!

Last week you may have seen my Tackling Paper & Piles post; I have a LOT of paper piles scattered throughout our house. What’s my biggest dump zone? THE KITCHEN TABLE.  It’s where I immediately dump stacks of mail & papers when I enter our house through the garage. My goal this past week was to rid our kitchen table of my paper piles by creating a paper station IN our garage. Realistically, some paper will enter the house, but it doesn’t have to be the cluttered mess it’s turned into.

I decided to re-purpose this dresser I’ve had since college for our paper station. It takes up a big chunk of space in our garage and it’s about time I put it to good use. But! I don’t like that shade of wood. I want my paper station to be bold & pretty. Cue the spray paint!

Here’s the before:

STEP 1:

CLEAN! I took everything out of the cabinet and cleaned it inside & out.

STEP TWO:

PRIMER!

I sprayed two coats of gray primer spray paint (1 can total) on the cabinet and let it dry.

STEP THREE:

PAINT. It took about 2-3 coats (2 cans total) to finish.

And here’s the end result after the paint dried.

I setup the paper station immediately and lived with it for about 4 days so I could see what worked & did not work.

This is what we have now! As you can see I have a place to put my keys (the coat rack was already there). I also hung a bag on the coat rack so I can put aside papers that need shredding. I have designated sections for catalogs, bills & important papers as well as a small area where I will put things to mail.

The most important section of the paper station is the RECYCLING bin. We now stop unwanted papers dead in their tracks!

If you open up the first two drawers of the cabinet, you’ll find a section for magazines & toddler art. When I pick Cooper up from school I always have a handful of new artwork and it always gets scattered throughout the kitchen. Having these two drawers will prove useful because I can conceal & sort when I have the time to do so.

The trick is to not let these drawers get out of control!

The rest of the drawers serve other purposes. Finally I’m getting organized!

While I was at it, I decided to organize my collection of napkins & tea towels I use on my blog. For awhile I had them hung over the main clothes rack and it was a pain to get to the napkin I wanted to use. I re-purposed skirt hangers from IKEA and separated all of the napkins by color. It is now incredibly easy to find what I am looking for.

Finally…I can SEE MY KITCHEN TABLE. Project Paper Station is totally working!

ORGANIZING TIPS:

When you are embarking on a de-cluttering/organizing project, make a list of what’s important to you in your space and get started. Live with your adjustments for a few days and then evaluate your placement. Keep moving things around and you’ll have your area primed for your specific needs. It’s also a great idea to re-purpose stuff you already have. That way you aren’t bringing MORE items into your house that you’ll have to deal with later.

Next week we’ll tackle the bottomless pit (aka my desk!).

The other morning my husband staged an intervention at our kitchen table. He kindly addressed the issue of my incessant pile making. Apparently having to move two stacks of papers so he could sit down for breakfast was the last straw. I quickly chimed in with the “I’m busy. You have no idea how much I have to think about and do” argument and then I stopped myself. He was right. I do have a problem and it’s not because I’m too busy; it’s because I don’t take the time to layout a good foundation of organized behavior. The root of my problem is that I try to do too much at once and the little things, like putting stuff back where it belongs gets lost in the shuffle. In turn, stuff piles up and the chore of organizing becomes extremely daunting.

Today I’d like to talk about DUMP ZONES and how I plan on attacking mine. Are you familiar with a dump zone? It’s basically what it sounds like– a zone/area where you dump stuff. These zones aren’t necessarily the right place for you to dump your things, but for some reason you can’t help but put stuff there.

I have quite a few…
Say hello to the biggest dump zone of my house. THE KITCHEN TABLE.

Casey is working from home today and his laptop is on the table. I’m stressed because he has turned our table into an office but I should be more focused on the fact that there’s A LOT of unnecessary paper & random items on the table. It’s funny how one can completely ignore their OWN mess and focus on someone else’s. (GUILTY!)

This small dump zone takes up precious kitchen counter space… We shove stuff in this pretty box when we don’t know what to do with it. Our keys get thrown in this area too. Toothpaste, gum, Netflix discs, pens & sunscreen DO NOT belong on the kitchen counter.

I’m also an expert of the bag on a chair trick! Do you do this? I load up our kitchen chairs with bags and clothing as if they’re coat racks.

This drives my husband CRAZY.

And we work our way into the bedroom. This is my current pile of stuff… I’m not reading all of these books. I clearly need to put some away. I should do that now. It will only take a minute.

Here’s a small stack of magazines next to our couch. I recently recycled a ton of magazines so this stack is smaller than normal. I fear that it might get bigger and I desperately hope it won’t….

Here’s a little peek into the upstairs bathroom. Our son Cooper leaves books all over the floor when he’s using the bathroom. I usually trip over the books and get upset. I need to put some books away and give him a little box to put a few in. We need a rule about how many he’s allowed to have in the bathroom at a time!

Here’s a typical stack of papers, pens, thank you notes & random belongings on my desk.  I’ve been neglectful of this room because a certain 3 year old likes to trash this area and undermine all my work. More on that soon!

I think the first step to tackling my PAPER issue is to make only ONE designated dumping zone in the house. Since we enter our house mostly through the garage, I figure I can re-purpose this dresser and make it into a PAPER STATION. If we deposit all of the incoming/outgoing mail in organized sections as well setup a station to sort/recycle, I can prevent the paper & magazine pile up I constantly battle with inside our home. That means no piling on the kitchen counter! You hear that, honey?!

So this is my project for this week. Tune in next week and I’ll have a new PAPER STATION for you to lay your eyes on.

Today’s mantra:

What you do every day matters more than what you do once in awhile.

Let’s tackle our dump zones together!

Do you know that over 40% of house guests snoop in their host’s medicine cabinet? Kinda scary, right?! If you were to open my medicine cabinet a few days ago, items would have fallen out onto the sink and you would have totally been CAUGHT snooping! That’s what you get, snooper!

Yesterday I set out to reorganize our medicine cabinet; it’s embarrassing how long it’s been on my TO-DO list.

First things first. CLEAN OUT MEDICINE CABINET.

I dove right in and removed all of the items & took out the shelves.

I cleaned the inside thoroughly with a hot wet rag & a bottle of Simple Green.

(I kinda love that smell!)

Sorting time! I recycled empty containers & evaluated the necessities. What to keep??

I decided to change out the old paper backing. It’s been like 4 years since I put it in.

Here’s the new backing. I used Martha Stewart’s faux bois wrapping paper because it’s nice & thick.

Because the backing of my medicine cabinet is a thick cardboard, I used push pins to secure the paper. This means I don’t have to deal with tape not sticking & paper unrolling in the future.

Sorting out all of the products was a great thing! I realized how many items I didn’t need/use or didn’t belong in my medicine cabinet!

All of these items didn’t belong in my medicine cabinet:

When everything was dry from cleaning, I put the clean shelves in and started to organize.

I took a pictures with my phone during the process so I could step back & examine what I was working on.

At one point I looked at the bottle of ADVIL and thought it was an eye sore. Who wants to look at that bottle? No one.

I decided to consolidate and put the pills in a smaller travel container I had from the Container Store.

(write the expiration date on a piece of masking tape/label and stick it to the bottom!)

Problem solved!

A little less than an hour later, I was left with THIS:

The top shelf is the HUSBAND SHELF. His items live way up at the top. It matches his height.

Second shelf is HAIR CARE (communal) and SKIN CARE (my territory).

I put the MOST USED ITEMS on the bottom shelf for easy access.

And here we have the section of necessities/tools.

Finally! Everything has its place. Now when I open the cabinet door, I don’t have to worry about things falling out. This takes away some of the stress of getting ready in the morning.

Hope this gives you a little motivation to tackle your own medicine cabinet! Or maybe you’re just looking to punish snoopers? The trick is to clean out your cabinet every 4-6 months!

RESOURCES:

Acrylic Containers

Deep Drawer Organizers

4 Section Box

Sectional Box

Low, Clear Acrylic Box

4 inch Tall Acrylic Box

Before I show you how I try to balance my crazy/cluttered life, let me start by telling you that the first step to getting organized always starts with a TO-DO LIST.

Every morning I sit at my kitchen table with a cup of coffee and start a new TO-DO list. This 5-10 minute activity helps set the pace for the day.  I recently discovered/fell in love graph paper Post-it notes for my list making. I’m a sucker for graph paper; it makes me happy. They’re great because they’ll stick anywhere.

There are 3 Basic Lists I like to make:

1. CURRENT DAY:

This list charts out my game plan for the day; it’s a list of specific things that need to get done. On this list, you’ll find my chores like laundry, emptying/loading the dishwasher, putting away toys, blog work, paying a bill, straightening up the house etc. Everyday there’s something new to add! It never ends…

2. LONG TERM:

This list consists of things I’ve been thinking about doing. These items don’t necessarily belong on my current day list because I need to plot out a day/weekend or large chunk of time to accomplish them. Sometimes they’re lofty ideas and sometimes they’re things that need I desperately need to get done to gain balance in my life-ahem, cleaning up my office, cleaning out the piles of clothes I’ve thrown in my car or tackling my paper problem at home. It’s important to remember your long term goals because every now and then you might have a free weekend/block of time and you can refer to the list to help give you a game plan.

3. ERRANDS TO RUN:

Yup. Just that. My crazy-brain likes to plan out my erranding so I have a well planned route for my destinations. I absolutely hate backtracking so this list is super important to me. When you have a child, you always need to account for bathroom trips, snack/lunch time and nap time into your scheduling. I usually write down what I need to do and then put a number next to each item to chart out my driving route. This list KEEPS ME SANE.

TO-DO LIST TIPS:

• Keep a pad of paper on your night stand!  If you’re losing sleep over what you have to do the next day, write it down!  You’ll get to sleep faster if you have your action plan for the next day.

• It’s OK to write things on your TO-DO list that you’ve already done. It’s positive reinforcement AND at the end of the day you can see a whole list of your accomplishments. It feels good.

• Always keep a notepad & pen in your car. Some of the best ideas happen when you’re traveling. Just be safe and write something down when your car isn’t moving.

• If you don’t get something done, add it to the top of the next day’s TO-DO list.

• Don’t forget to leave the house with your TO-DO list. If you think you might forget it, plan ahead and take a picture of your list with your cellphone. It’s a savior!

RESOURCES FOR TO-DO LISTS:

-TeuxDeux  is a great app that you can put on your iphone, ipad or use online to manage TO-DO lists. I tend to use this program only I’m working on my computer.  You can quickly add/cross off things you need to accomplish for the day/week. It’s simple, super functional and you can access your ongoing list from any computer.

-If you’re a loyal paper list maker, Simple Mom has a bunch of downloads to help with your paper list making. I highly recommend the Daily Docket!  It helped me balance my life after I had a baby.

-Graph Paper Post-its are awesome. I found mine at Target.

Got a great list making tip? Let us know!