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Friday, February 3, 2012

More on organizing my home


Lately I have been reading a lot on simplifying your life, ideas on being earth friendly, and organizing.  I have written about organizing before.  This is a never ending task!

The month before Christmas I spent it cleaning out and selling or giving away lots of house items.  I have been reading a lot on organization.  I would give myself a 'B' on organization.  A 'B' because I have lots of room for improvement!  Sometimes, I organize an area in my home and a month or two later have to re-organize it.   I have reflected on this and figured out that it is because I did not do a good job the first time.  What I mean is that it was not an easy organization system for me or my kids.

I would like to be an 'A+" in organizing.  The plus for make it "pretty."  Currently, I organize but it does not look beautiful.  I don't pay attention to matching baskets or boxes or adding color/texture to the area being organized.  A good example would be my filing system.  It is a hodgepodge of folders, some printed labels and some handwritten in an old plastic toy box.  I want to transform it into a pretty filling system that draws me to it.  A filing system with pretty folders that match and makes me smile when I look at it.  Such a filing system would make me want to file and keep it organized.

So in this wonderful blog world I have found two blogs that have inspired me to be an 'A+' organizer!
Jen from  iHeartOrganizing  has the magic touch!  She makes everything beautiful when she organizes and she tells you how to do it on a budget.  I need budget friendly ideas!

Clutter-Free Classroom is my second inspiration.  Many of the ideas she has can be used in your home.  She is budget friendly also.

Something else I have done is signed up for Pinterest.  I LOVE Pinterest and do not know why I did not do it sooner.  This virtual pin board allows me to pin ideas I find on the Internet to different boards I have created.  One of my boards is "Organizing my Home."  I pin ideas that I will slowly implement and ideas that inspire me.  Best part of Pinterest is that you get to repin ideas that friends you follow have pinned.  This is like having a lot of people doing the work for you!  All of your friends read blogs, pin what they like and you get to say "cool, I like it also and want to save that idea for later!"  The BESTEST(not a word :)) part, you get to follow/unfollow boards your friends created.  So, if one friend has a board on food and one on organizing and you are not interested in foods then don't follow that board! 

Organizing can be overwhelming.  There are so many rooms and so much stuff to organize that you could just paralyze yourself with the task at hand.  What I have done is broken it down into very small areas.
I've made a list of one hour or less areas to organize.  For example:
-Bella's Hair "Stuff"
-Babies drawers
-Kids Kitchen drawers (There are 2 of them)

One to two day areas to organize with prior planning like Kids Closet and my husbands and our closet.  You get the idea.  Make a list and just start!

I will leave you with a cute and functional idea I got on Pinterest for Bella's hair stuff which I implemented. Money spent $0.  I already had the silverware caddy.





What I like about this idea is there is a specific place for everything.  No longer are bottles, brush, comb and headbands all thrown together in one basket but now there is a visual of where everything belongs and what is missing.  If the brush is not in its place you can easily see that.  Ponytail holders and bows are not in here.  Bows hang on a ribbon and ponytail holders are in a clear container.
 


Have you organized any areas of your home lately?  I would love to see them. Any blogs that inspire you to organize?  Please share!