Day 26: Closet Part 3: Everything Else

Part 3!!

My main goal was to get everything I could up off of the floor and to make the stuff on the overhead shelf more accessible.




I am always having to make Colin come and get down the big clear tub (baby clothes) because I can not get everything on top of it down. So, I went through the brown cardboard box, which was almost empty, and put everything inside away. Then I flattened it. I also rearranged the rest of the tubs to make more space.






I picked up the luggage and put them on a shelf. All of the blankets, yoga mat, and other random items were put away. Baby items that I am in the process of trying to find a new home for were neatly put in the closet as well.
I feel really great about how user-friendly my closet is now!

Before...

...After

This is day 26 of a 31 day series. To see the rest of the series, click here.

Day 25: Closet Part 2: Shoes

Alright, part 2! I decided that I should probably tackle the shoe problem.

Before...

I try to go through my clothes and shoes every season. Every season I convince myself that I WILL wear one pair of shoes or another. There are pairs that I have had since high school and have not touched. It was time to part with them. So I threw them all in a bag and took them to GoodWill.







Then I neatly organized what was left. Heels and other shoes that aren't everyday shoes in the back and my everyday shoes in the front. I rearranged Colin's shoes in a orderly manner as well.

...After

This is day 25 of a 31 day series. To see the rest of the series, click here.

Day 23: Around the Kitchen Sink

Before...

This is another example of how the smallest improvements can make a HUGE difference.
This may not seem like a big mess. But it is. I am constantly knocking things over, the dish wand likes to fall in the garbage disposable while its running, and the bottle of soap doesn't really fit.
Worst of all, I am always left with a soapy, slimy, film behind the faucet because of the sponges drying.

So. I went to Walmart and got this for $2. It has suction cups on the back which work really well on the metal sink.
I also bought a smaller bottle of soap that will fit in the sponge holder as well and will get the big bottle off of the sink.





Clean, organized, and the sponges can now drip dry directly into the sink, rather than behind my faucet.

....After

This is day 23 of a 31 day series. To see the rest of the series, click here.

Day 22: Closet Part 1: Hang it up!

This is the project I have been dreading the most.

My closet is beyond horrible. So horrible, its going to take me 3 separate posts to take care of it. So ready or not...here we go.

Before:

Im going to focus on clothing for this post.
As you can see there is no organization whatsoever, other than mine and Colin's clothes being separated.
Worst of all, things that are supposed to be hung up, are not. They are strewn throughout.

First I took out the buckets, sorted through everything that was hanging up and on the floor, and went to work.

I sorted everything into 3 piles. Keep, Donate, and throw away.
I decided to go ahead and do the same with everything in my dresser while I was at it.





The I took all of my fall/winter clothing and put it away. I hung up the shirts, jeans, sweatshirts etc. To save on dresser space I hung up my undershirts as well.
I put pajamas, undies and socks, and workout clothes in my dresser.

Then I went through and folded all of the summer clothes and my scrubs that I am not currently using and put them in the bucket. I condensed everything down so that it fit into one tub!

I ended up donating one full bag of clothing to Good Will.

Here is after... there is still alot of work to be done, but its a start!

After...

This is day 22 of a 31 day series. To see the rest of the series, click here.

Day 21: Craft Tub

I like to think of myself as a recreational crafter. I love to paint, make tutus and hair bows, and other things on occasion. I have seen some pretty fabulous craft rooms that make me green with envy.


My daughter doesnt even have her own bedroom right now so I think it is pretty obvious that I do not have a craft room.


I would love to someday have a room half as amazing as this one. I meant look at it!!!


Imagine all of the amazing things I could create! 

Until then... I have a craft tub... yes...a tub...






Every bit of craft supplies I own is in this tub. In no organized fashion whatsoever. Its a disaster! Also, sewing patterns? I dont have a sewing machine, if I did, I would have no idea how to use it. Not sure where they came from.

Before...

First, as always, I dumped everything out!

I separated it all into categories; paints, ribbon, fabric etc.


Then I put everything in gallon sized Ziploc bags.
















I put everything back into the tub as organized as possible. Its not perfect, but it is a million times better!

...After






This is day 21 of a 31 day series. To see the rest of the series, click here.

Day 20: Organizing Your Bills

I love my mom to death, but she is probably the most unorganized person I have ever met. I can remember growing up she would lose bills all of the time. Things would go unpaid because she would forget when things were due, and forget where she put the bill in the first place. She would just stuff them wherever was most convenient when she opened them; her purse, the door cubby in the car, coffee table.

I promised myself I would not do that!






So, when I first moved out on my own I came up with a very specific system, so detailed I question whether or not I am OCD (then I look at my house, and clearly I am not haha).

Whenever my bills would come, I would staple them together. It was nice because at this point I only had 3 bills.

Then once I paid the bill, I would staple the duplicate of the check to that months bills. The bills were filed in a...you guessed it...manilla envelope, with the most recent month's bills at the front. If I ever questioned or not something was paid, I simply had to find that months pile, and look.

That was a couple years ago. Since then I have discovered online banking, and online bill paying. Where had these been all of my life?

The first step was setting up a MyCheckFree account. You can enter all of your bills into one place and pay them there. They also send you emails whenever a new bill is posted.

Then I set up a folder in my email specifically for these emails.



Not only do the MyCheckFree Emails go here, but payment confirmations, etc. I never have to worry about if a bill is paid or not. All of this information is in one place.




This is day 20 of a 31 day series. To see the rest of the series, click here.

Day 24: Medicine Cabinet: What a Pill

Before...

Yea... so my medicine cabinet needed help.

First I took everything out. I tried to keep medicine separated from everything else. The toiletry items were relocated to another cabinet in the bathroom.

Then I sorted through and looked at what had expired, what we didn't use and what didn't belong. 

I found some random dog care items. These were relocated to the dog cabinet in the kitchen.

There was a lot of medicine that we no longer needed. For example, medicines I was given for preterm labor, old cough syrups, and even saline solution (neither one of us wear contacts...never have...)

These were disposed of. You can get these really cool bags. They neutralize medications.

I also saw some at Target that you put your old medication in, mail it off, and the company properly disposes of it.

Buy from Amazon

The medicine was then put back in the cabinet in categories. From left to right; bandages, vitamins, tummy sutff, cold and flu, and then pain relief.

...After

This is day 24 of a 31 day series. To see the rest of the series, click here.

Day 19: Kitchen Cabinets

Ok, so I am a day behind. Rather than posting 2 posts in one day, I'm going to tack on an extra day at the end of the month to make up for yesterday.

So today... kitchen cabinets. Mine were really bad. You may not be able to tell from the pictures, but nothing was in a designated spot. I had bowls in 3 different locations, food and dishes mixed in the same cabinet. Nothing made sense. My goal was to keep all of the food together, without dishes spread randomly throughout.

Before...

I started with the first 2 cabinets. I tore everything out and put it on the counter so I could see exactly what I was working with. There was so much, I had to use the panoramic mode on my camera.

I put all of the baby food together on the tops shelf. Before we had is spread between the cabinets and the counters. Its nice to have everything in one place. All of the bread products went on the second shelf.  Lastly, the miscellaneous stuff that didn't really go anywhere and didn't fit on the higher shelves due to height, went on the third shelf  There isn't much so I don't mind that its kind of a random assortment of things.

The next cabinet, because it is the biggest, is the main storage area for food.  I put all of my baking stuff on the top shelf, since it is the least often used. The next shelf I put all of the various pastas we have, as well as the peanut butter (mainly because it didn't fit anywhere else). The bottom shelf became home to canned goods, and things that come in boxes, such as mac and cheese, graham crackers etc. I also put bottles of various sauces on the bottom shelf.




After that, I moved to the spice cabinet.

I put all teas and tea related  items (honey) at the top. Stuff like baking soda, baking powder, cornstarch, etc. went on the second shelf. And all of my various spices went on the bottom shelf. They are ordered loosely in alphabet order. and by loosely I mean all of the As are close to each other, all of the Bs are close to each other and so on.

Lastly, I moved all of the bowls I found to one of my bottom cabinets.

After....

I love this idea. Putting everything you need fore each meal on your meal plan in a separate box... Maybe someday.

This is day 19 of a 31 day series. To see the rest of the series click here.

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Day 18: Bar

The bar counter is one of the most used surfaces in our home. Its the first place to set things when you walk in the door. For that reason, we have put in place jars for keys and designated it a place for mail. However, due to the convenience of its location, it has become the home of many other things that do not belong there.

Before...

I took the baby shoes and put them with the rest of the baby stuff. The sippy cup got washed and put away. The tools were put in the tool bag. Everything else was filed away, and any papers/trash/etc were thrown away.
The key jar, current bills, today's mail, and Colin's wallet were all that remained.. Oh and also the wax warmer.

...After

This is day 18 of a 31 day series. To see the rest of the series, click here.

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Day 17: Hair Appliances

I admit that this is a very rushed post. Its been a super busy day!
Remember this picture from the previous bathroom drawer organization post?
Before...

I bought this organizer at Walmart for $2.

I rolled up all of the cords, put all of the appliances in, and voila! Organized!!

I ended up putting them under the bathroom sink because I had a lot of extra room down there.

...After

Looking for more ideas for storing hair appliances? I found this awesome idea on Pinterest! 

http://www.buzzfeed.com/peggy/52-totally-feasible-ways-to-organize-your-entire-h

I love it and will probably end up doing something similar when we are no longer renting.

Day 16: Home Upkeep

I am beginning to wonder how I am going to be able to maintain all of the work I have been doing this month. I mean, at one point my house was organized, but look what I let happen. I let my house get to be a huge mess. What's the point of doing all of this work if it isn't going to stick?

Answer: I'm not going to let it go back. I decided that I needed to come up with a system for maintaining  Something written down and posted so that I know what I need to do everyday.
This is what I came up with:

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B8KY06Gol1GJWnZ5VEx6dlVBMEU

Now, all you have to do is type "cleaning schedule" into Pinterest and tons of these templates come up. Simply customize them so that they work with your house and your schedule.



This is day 16 of a 31 day series. To see the rest of the series, click here.

Day 15: Bathroom Drawers

Before...

Everything was just thrown in the drawers wherever it would fit. The hair dryer and straightener were on the counter, but the the cords were strung into the one of the drawers. It was a hot mess.

I decided to relocate the hair appliances (to be posted later this month). This way I could have my own drawer and Colin could have his own drawer.

First I sorted and separated my stuff from Colins stuff.

I bought these little organizing baskets today. They were 3 for $1.34 at Walmart in the kitchen section. 

I put all of my hair ties, bobby pins, and my hair scissors in one tray. I put all of the manicure stuff in the manicure set case. The case, nail polish, and a couple other things were put in another tray. I put the rest of my stuff, including my lotion, body spray, hair brushes, etc., back in the drawer neatly.




I took all of Colin's nail clippers, tweezers, etc and put them in the remaining tray. Then I neatly put everything else in the drawer.

...After

This is day 15 of a 31 day series. To see the rest of the series, click here.