Happy 2019 everyone! I hope your year has started off great and I hope it continues to be wonderful!
I would like to consider myself to be pretty organized. Some people may find it weird that I love to keep things tidy and have a spot for everything. I hate clutter and huge messes. Yes I know I have a baby who loves to get into everything, literally. So I have had to learn to let her be little and let there be messes. Like most people I know, I binge watched Netflix show "Tidying Up" with Marie Kondo and her KonMari Style. Although fairly organized before the show, I felt inspired to get rid of more and organize deeper.
I feel SO much better when my house is clean and things are put away. Spencer always makes fun of me for this slightly OCD quality I have. As I have been taking night classes and not getting home until 9 pm I have found it easier to not want to clean up the kitchen before bed. I do it anyway. Does anyone else have to have a clean kitchen before they go to bed? Spencer is slowly learning to help out before bed, he thinks it can wait. If you keep telling yourself, "Oh I'll do it later,"and that later turns into a huge pile of dishes. Maybe it's just me, call me weird, but there is so much more peace in my life when things are put away. I can focus more, I don't get angry as easy, I don't have to question where anything is.
I get it, buying things to organize can add up real quick. I could literally spend hours in the Container Store and be in organization heaven. So... you may ask, how do you do it without spending so much money? How do you manage with a baby (and a puppy!)? Here are some things that have helped me stay organized not only in my closet but in life. Now please be aware, I am not perfect, not even close. Not every drawer in the kitchen is neat and tidy, but I have strayed away from shoving things in my closets for the sake of "No one is going to open the closet, so it can hide everything". I mean come on, we all have done that at some point in our lives! So no judgement if you do that, because I am guilty of that too. So I apologize for the length of this one, but these are just helpful tips and some links!
Clothes:
1- There needs to be a place for everything. Whether that is in your dresser, closet, or in a bin. For the first few years of our marriage we lived in small apartments with next to no storage in our rooms. We had to be organized or else it felt way smaller than it already was. So because of that our bedroom is always clean. I get more of the closet and Spencer gets more of the dresser. We each have a drawer for socks and undergarments and then a drawer for jeans. I recently re-organized our jeans so we can see all the jeans we have without having to make a big mess. Game changer. Then Spencer has a drawer for workout clothes and pajamas. In our closet we have hanging organizers for our T-shirts, I have sorted by color and put so I can see all of my options. Spencer doesn't like his as tidy, although each week I put clothes away after they are clean, I try and fix it. In the middle of our closet we have shelves. I have two fabric bins on each shelf (Thanks to Walmart, these were literally $6 each and they are way cute! I can't find a link online because I got them forever ago, but these are similar). In each bin, all items are folded in thirds so they stand up and I can see everything inside, except for my scarves.
2- Every couple of months I try and go through my clothes and get rid of ripped things, or things I don't wear anymore. I am always surprised how much I give away each time. Usually it's about once a quarter or right as the seasons change.
3-If you haven't worn it in 6 months, get rid of it. Without looking back. This is hard for me because I always think I am going to need it soon. So I keep it and still don't wear it. So then next go-through, it's gone.
4-If it has holes or stains you can't get out (like old white t-shirts) or they smell (old shirts/gym clothes in general) get rid of them. They have served their purpose and it's time to move on. I promise a huge load will be lifted from your shoulders.
5-Since I only have one child I have a harder time "packing clothes away" or even getting rid of them. So I have bins in Evie's closet, by age, as she grows out of them. Once I know I am done having kids, then I will donate them.
6- Hang things that can be hung, and organize by style and color. That way you can see everything more clearly.
7-Put clean clothes away once folded or dirty clothes in the dirty clothes hamper. If you leave them on the floor, it seems a new "dirty pile" or clothes pile will form all around your room. Then all is lost, at least for me.
Bathroom(s):
1- It is so easy to throw things in a drawer and forget about it. Up until recently I was stuck in a rut of doing this. I measured out my drawer and found little bins from the Dollar Tree to organize.
2- I have girl products in a bin on one side of my sink with another bin of hair products.
3-I use command hooks underneath my sink (usually) to hang my curling iron and blow dryer and a small Ikea broom.
4- Evie loves to be in the bathroom with me while I get ready. She has access and can reach the bottom drawer. So this drawer is not very organized, but everything is in a basket. I have things like travel size toothpaste/soaps in this drawer so it doesn't need to be anything special. I let her play with those and she loves it. Tip: With little ones let them know which drawers they can play with and which ones are off limits. It takes a few times but they will learn. Have a drawer for them and the other tempting items wont seem as fun.
5-I keep all extra toiletries in my linen closet along with toilet paper so it's not overwhelming seeing all of this extra stuff under my sink.
Linen closet/closets(s):
1- One word... Baskets! I have wash clothes rolled and put in one basket, hand towels in another basket, bath towels folded in thirds, and then sheets in a separate basket. I also have toiletries and toilet paper in their own baskets. To me it seems so clean and I don't have to make a big mess if I am trying to find a certain towel.
2- All of my baskets that I use for my linen closet are from TJ Maxx or from Walmart (the simple cubes or these which is love). They are cute, cheap, and durable. The Dollar Tree just doesn't have big enough or strong enough ones for towels or sheets.
3-In E's closet I have a shoe holder (it's the kind that you hang on the door). I have put all of her blankets, some shoes, and hair accessories. This has taken the clutter out of the bathroom and off of her dresser. Although I love her bow collection, it looks so tidy, not necessarily cute. With this you can put diapers, wipes, the list can go on!
4- Coat closets have been harder for me to tackle but here is what works for us. I have 2-3 baskets in each closet on the shelves. I have a basket for hats, gloves, and scarves. I have one with craft items. I have one full of cords and miscellaneous things. Then I have an overflowing one for games. The ground is kept for big items like Leo's food, vacuum, Emergency Preparedness kits, and a few big toys for Evie.
Kitchen:
1-I have had to move things around a few times because when we moved in our house, I couldn't get used to things. So another Tip: if it's not working for you, move it around and find something that does work.
2- My pantry was organized chaos for a long time. To the Dollar Tree I went. I found some really convenient baskets (this whole page is worth seeing)that would have been $5 at Walmart so I felt like I made a steal. They had perfect ones for what I had envisioned.
3-I have everything in categories in my pantry. Baking things with other baking things (in our house we have multiple flours) so those are all lumped together. I have snack baskets (applesauce and fruit cups) (fruit snacks) (chips/crackers) (sweet things like choc chips, marshmallows, etc.). There is a cereal basket... you get the point. Just by putting like things together I can find everything easier and faster. It also makes putting things away when I get groceries so easy. Everything has its spot.
4-Shelves on shelves. For my canned food (I know there are better ways for this) but I have a small metal shelf to stack and split my cans up.
5-I bought a cheap plastic grocery bag thing at Ikea and it hangs on the inside of my pantry. My aprons are on command hooks on the walls of my pantry.
6-Tupperware. My best tip here is stack them inside of each other. I bought a small bin (Dollar Tree link listed above) to fit inside on my cupboard to fit all of the lids in. I hate having them loose, I can never find the right lid that way. If you do it in a drawer, still stack like sizes/shapes together then put the bin with the lids inside of the drawer. It will be so much easier to locate the matching pieces. Now... Evie loves to play with the Tupperware, and I am okay with it mostly because she loves to stack and she is slowly picking up my organization hacks ;)
7-Evie also has a drawer in the kitchen, just like the bathroom. It's the one drawer that I don't care about how messy it is. I just let her have fun with it. Surprisingly she is really good at not taking everything out (we had to really work on that), but only the things she wants to play with.
8- I bought a cheap under the sink organizer for all of my cleaning products and it added so much space under my sink.
Toys:
1- Where do you even start right?! Spencer and I like our home to be clean and put together. Since Evie is still little, she needs to be supervised but not necessarily with me playing with her. So her toys are in our living room. We have been very successful at keeping it mostly clean. Tip: Put all toys in some sort of bin (try to keep it in a different room than where they normally play in). Allow them, when it's playtime, to pick 5 to 10 toys that they want. The rest stay put in the storage bin. If they want a different toy, they have to switch, they can't keep the other toy out. That way you have control over the mess. It's not so overwhelming. With Evie she always wants her babies or Minnie's so I keep those out all of the time. She knows where the toys are kept and will go to the bin and ask for a new toy. She now knows that we need to put one back. By this point she's forgotten about the toys she was playing with and wants something new. It has drastically cut down on our clean-up time.
2- Books don't count, at least in our house. There is always a book in E's hand so it's hard to set a limit on books. I have created a reading corner and she knows to keep the books near that corner. It took some training, but once we kept sitting over there with her, she caught on pretty quick. I bought a plain wooden crate, painted it, and then added fabric on the inside to make it look cute. It was very cheap.
3-I've gone cheap, but want to upgrade my toy chest and eventually build one. For now I have a neutral color Rubbermaid with a cute fabric cube box on top for smaller toys (link above)
Other tips:
1- If you don't want to go out and buy new bins or baskets (I don't blame you!) then don't! Use what you have and get creative. I have used old diaper or wipe boxes from Costco and covered them in cute wrapping paper for storage bins. This is super cheap and you can replace them as many times as you want.
2-Adding small baskets to any cupboard or drawer can really help improve how things look. You can also use old lunch meat containers after they are clean. Those square ones are perfect for the junk drawer.
3-For shelves... put what you don't use very often on the top shelves and what you use most at eye level or where you can reach it easily.
4-For chores, pick one for each day of the week. Clean it every week. That way you won't have to scrub hard when you do clean it. Don't have time? Take five minutes before bed, pick a room, and clean. Set a timer if you have to. I call this my 5 by 5 cleaning, 5 minutes, 5 days a week. Except laundry, take more than 5 minutes, I don't have any tips for making that go quicker :)
5- Have fun! If you feel overwhelmed, then take a break. It's important to recognize how you are feeling and take care of you too. For me, it's a snowball effect. If I have a clean home, then I feel more relaxed and ready to conquer the day.
Obviously I didn't go over every detail of my closets, drawers, and cupboards, but I hope you get the drift. I also hope this helps someone! I am happy to answer any questions you may have. My next big project will be our garage. Since we are still getting things that homeowners need for our yard, the garage will need some TLC. Any recommendations? Send them my way! Thank you for reading this long, yet probably annoying, maybe helpful blog.
Go forth and organize!
I would like to consider myself to be pretty organized. Some people may find it weird that I love to keep things tidy and have a spot for everything. I hate clutter and huge messes. Yes I know I have a baby who loves to get into everything, literally. So I have had to learn to let her be little and let there be messes. Like most people I know, I binge watched Netflix show "Tidying Up" with Marie Kondo and her KonMari Style. Although fairly organized before the show, I felt inspired to get rid of more and organize deeper.
I feel SO much better when my house is clean and things are put away. Spencer always makes fun of me for this slightly OCD quality I have. As I have been taking night classes and not getting home until 9 pm I have found it easier to not want to clean up the kitchen before bed. I do it anyway. Does anyone else have to have a clean kitchen before they go to bed? Spencer is slowly learning to help out before bed, he thinks it can wait. If you keep telling yourself, "Oh I'll do it later,"and that later turns into a huge pile of dishes. Maybe it's just me, call me weird, but there is so much more peace in my life when things are put away. I can focus more, I don't get angry as easy, I don't have to question where anything is.
I get it, buying things to organize can add up real quick. I could literally spend hours in the Container Store and be in organization heaven. So... you may ask, how do you do it without spending so much money? How do you manage with a baby (and a puppy!)? Here are some things that have helped me stay organized not only in my closet but in life. Now please be aware, I am not perfect, not even close. Not every drawer in the kitchen is neat and tidy, but I have strayed away from shoving things in my closets for the sake of "No one is going to open the closet, so it can hide everything". I mean come on, we all have done that at some point in our lives! So no judgement if you do that, because I am guilty of that too. So I apologize for the length of this one, but these are just helpful tips and some links!
Clothes:
1- There needs to be a place for everything. Whether that is in your dresser, closet, or in a bin. For the first few years of our marriage we lived in small apartments with next to no storage in our rooms. We had to be organized or else it felt way smaller than it already was. So because of that our bedroom is always clean. I get more of the closet and Spencer gets more of the dresser. We each have a drawer for socks and undergarments and then a drawer for jeans. I recently re-organized our jeans so we can see all the jeans we have without having to make a big mess. Game changer. Then Spencer has a drawer for workout clothes and pajamas. In our closet we have hanging organizers for our T-shirts, I have sorted by color and put so I can see all of my options. Spencer doesn't like his as tidy, although each week I put clothes away after they are clean, I try and fix it. In the middle of our closet we have shelves. I have two fabric bins on each shelf (Thanks to Walmart, these were literally $6 each and they are way cute! I can't find a link online because I got them forever ago, but these are similar). In each bin, all items are folded in thirds so they stand up and I can see everything inside, except for my scarves.
2- Every couple of months I try and go through my clothes and get rid of ripped things, or things I don't wear anymore. I am always surprised how much I give away each time. Usually it's about once a quarter or right as the seasons change.
3-If you haven't worn it in 6 months, get rid of it. Without looking back. This is hard for me because I always think I am going to need it soon. So I keep it and still don't wear it. So then next go-through, it's gone.
4-If it has holes or stains you can't get out (like old white t-shirts) or they smell (old shirts/gym clothes in general) get rid of them. They have served their purpose and it's time to move on. I promise a huge load will be lifted from your shoulders.
5-Since I only have one child I have a harder time "packing clothes away" or even getting rid of them. So I have bins in Evie's closet, by age, as she grows out of them. Once I know I am done having kids, then I will donate them.
6- Hang things that can be hung, and organize by style and color. That way you can see everything more clearly.
7-Put clean clothes away once folded or dirty clothes in the dirty clothes hamper. If you leave them on the floor, it seems a new "dirty pile" or clothes pile will form all around your room. Then all is lost, at least for me.
(Hopefully this gives you an idea of real life, organized chaos, please note the wipe box as a bin)
(jean drawer, you can see all the options, sorry for the weird angle)
Bathroom(s):
1- It is so easy to throw things in a drawer and forget about it. Up until recently I was stuck in a rut of doing this. I measured out my drawer and found little bins from the Dollar Tree to organize.
2- I have girl products in a bin on one side of my sink with another bin of hair products.
3-I use command hooks underneath my sink (usually) to hang my curling iron and blow dryer and a small Ikea broom.
4- Evie loves to be in the bathroom with me while I get ready. She has access and can reach the bottom drawer. So this drawer is not very organized, but everything is in a basket. I have things like travel size toothpaste/soaps in this drawer so it doesn't need to be anything special. I let her play with those and she loves it. Tip: With little ones let them know which drawers they can play with and which ones are off limits. It takes a few times but they will learn. Have a drawer for them and the other tempting items wont seem as fun.
5-I keep all extra toiletries in my linen closet along with toilet paper so it's not overwhelming seeing all of this extra stuff under my sink.
Linen closet/closets(s):
1- One word... Baskets! I have wash clothes rolled and put in one basket, hand towels in another basket, bath towels folded in thirds, and then sheets in a separate basket. I also have toiletries and toilet paper in their own baskets. To me it seems so clean and I don't have to make a big mess if I am trying to find a certain towel.
2- All of my baskets that I use for my linen closet are from TJ Maxx or from Walmart (the simple cubes or these which is love). They are cute, cheap, and durable. The Dollar Tree just doesn't have big enough or strong enough ones for towels or sheets.
3-In E's closet I have a shoe holder (it's the kind that you hang on the door). I have put all of her blankets, some shoes, and hair accessories. This has taken the clutter out of the bathroom and off of her dresser. Although I love her bow collection, it looks so tidy, not necessarily cute. With this you can put diapers, wipes, the list can go on!
4- Coat closets have been harder for me to tackle but here is what works for us. I have 2-3 baskets in each closet on the shelves. I have a basket for hats, gloves, and scarves. I have one with craft items. I have one full of cords and miscellaneous things. Then I have an overflowing one for games. The ground is kept for big items like Leo's food, vacuum, Emergency Preparedness kits, and a few big toys for Evie.
(All of these baskets/bins were $8 or less)
See you can use this for so many things!
Kitchen:
1-I have had to move things around a few times because when we moved in our house, I couldn't get used to things. So another Tip: if it's not working for you, move it around and find something that does work.
2- My pantry was organized chaos for a long time. To the Dollar Tree I went. I found some really convenient baskets (this whole page is worth seeing)that would have been $5 at Walmart so I felt like I made a steal. They had perfect ones for what I had envisioned.
3-I have everything in categories in my pantry. Baking things with other baking things (in our house we have multiple flours) so those are all lumped together. I have snack baskets (applesauce and fruit cups) (fruit snacks) (chips/crackers) (sweet things like choc chips, marshmallows, etc.). There is a cereal basket... you get the point. Just by putting like things together I can find everything easier and faster. It also makes putting things away when I get groceries so easy. Everything has its spot.
4-Shelves on shelves. For my canned food (I know there are better ways for this) but I have a small metal shelf to stack and split my cans up.
5-I bought a cheap plastic grocery bag thing at Ikea and it hangs on the inside of my pantry. My aprons are on command hooks on the walls of my pantry.
6-Tupperware. My best tip here is stack them inside of each other. I bought a small bin (Dollar Tree link listed above) to fit inside on my cupboard to fit all of the lids in. I hate having them loose, I can never find the right lid that way. If you do it in a drawer, still stack like sizes/shapes together then put the bin with the lids inside of the drawer. It will be so much easier to locate the matching pieces. Now... Evie loves to play with the Tupperware, and I am okay with it mostly because she loves to stack and she is slowly picking up my organization hacks ;)
7-Evie also has a drawer in the kitchen, just like the bathroom. It's the one drawer that I don't care about how messy it is. I just let her have fun with it. Surprisingly she is really good at not taking everything out (we had to really work on that), but only the things she wants to play with.
8- I bought a cheap under the sink organizer for all of my cleaning products and it added so much space under my sink.
(Not super pretty but it's organized)
Toys:
1- Where do you even start right?! Spencer and I like our home to be clean and put together. Since Evie is still little, she needs to be supervised but not necessarily with me playing with her. So her toys are in our living room. We have been very successful at keeping it mostly clean. Tip: Put all toys in some sort of bin (try to keep it in a different room than where they normally play in). Allow them, when it's playtime, to pick 5 to 10 toys that they want. The rest stay put in the storage bin. If they want a different toy, they have to switch, they can't keep the other toy out. That way you have control over the mess. It's not so overwhelming. With Evie she always wants her babies or Minnie's so I keep those out all of the time. She knows where the toys are kept and will go to the bin and ask for a new toy. She now knows that we need to put one back. By this point she's forgotten about the toys she was playing with and wants something new. It has drastically cut down on our clean-up time.
2- Books don't count, at least in our house. There is always a book in E's hand so it's hard to set a limit on books. I have created a reading corner and she knows to keep the books near that corner. It took some training, but once we kept sitting over there with her, she caught on pretty quick. I bought a plain wooden crate, painted it, and then added fabric on the inside to make it look cute. It was very cheap.
3-I've gone cheap, but want to upgrade my toy chest and eventually build one. For now I have a neutral color Rubbermaid with a cute fabric cube box on top for smaller toys (link above)
Other tips:
1- If you don't want to go out and buy new bins or baskets (I don't blame you!) then don't! Use what you have and get creative. I have used old diaper or wipe boxes from Costco and covered them in cute wrapping paper for storage bins. This is super cheap and you can replace them as many times as you want.
2-Adding small baskets to any cupboard or drawer can really help improve how things look. You can also use old lunch meat containers after they are clean. Those square ones are perfect for the junk drawer.
3-For shelves... put what you don't use very often on the top shelves and what you use most at eye level or where you can reach it easily.
4-For chores, pick one for each day of the week. Clean it every week. That way you won't have to scrub hard when you do clean it. Don't have time? Take five minutes before bed, pick a room, and clean. Set a timer if you have to. I call this my 5 by 5 cleaning, 5 minutes, 5 days a week. Except laundry, take more than 5 minutes, I don't have any tips for making that go quicker :)
5- Have fun! If you feel overwhelmed, then take a break. It's important to recognize how you are feeling and take care of you too. For me, it's a snowball effect. If I have a clean home, then I feel more relaxed and ready to conquer the day.
Obviously I didn't go over every detail of my closets, drawers, and cupboards, but I hope you get the drift. I also hope this helps someone! I am happy to answer any questions you may have. My next big project will be our garage. Since we are still getting things that homeowners need for our yard, the garage will need some TLC. Any recommendations? Send them my way! Thank you for reading this long, yet probably annoying, maybe helpful blog.
Go forth and organize!
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