106/365

my life has been ridiculously crazy.  i can't keep up.  i tried using the calendar on my phone and couldn't keep up with it.  i have a dry erase calendar over my computer and would still forget things or forget to erase cancelled things, then show up anyway.  it happened.  a lot.  so i ordered this beauty.  i've had one before and loved it, so i knew it'd be the perfect solution for me.  it's an erin condren life planner.  and i love it.  i take it with me everywhere i go.  life. organized.

9/365

i have been a freak lately about making sure my whole house is organized.  and i've stayed on top of it every day since then.  my pantry being organized is HUGE for me.  it must stay organized.  if it's not, it makes me crazy.  so for it to look like this and be filled with snacks ....
i have a big smile on my face just looking at it.
i am a weirdo when it comes to clear containers with white lids.  seriously.  weird. 

. an organized closet .

our house was built in 1955 and apparently they didn't believe in storage back then.  really, i have no clue, but this house has zero storage.  but thanks to a 3rd bathroom that had no purpose, no plugs, and no ventilation, we emptied it, added shelves, and called it a closet.  so other than our bedroom closets, which are big enough for our clothes, we have no other storage available.  this closet has to house everything!  and the before picture is U-GLY (and sideways b/c i can't get it to turn).  just trust me, it wasn't pretty!

as when i organize any space, i completely emptied it.  i wish this time that i had the extra time to take all the shelves down and paint the wall a fun color, but it wasn't possible right now.  i did clean everything though.  wiped down the shelves, mopped the floor, scrubbed the baseboards.  then, i took a day off b/c i was tired from cleaning!  and, as when i organize any space, another room has to get crazy for one to get clean.  there was stuff all over my kitchen and dining room.  i had to keep it all out of reach of little fingers! 

once the organizing began, it went pretty quick.  i used tubs i already had first, then had to buy some more.  i love using the $1.00 shoe tubs from wal-mart.  then, i purchased a few of a bigger size.  everything else was what i had on hand.  i have lots of small stuff, craft things, crayons, etc.  i also had to use this to organize our office supplies and files, as well as utility things, such as cords, batteries, and light bulbs. 

here are the after pictures ...

lots and lots of tubs and labels.  that's what i like.

i made all the labels in publisher, printed them, laminated them, and used double sided tape to attach them to the tubs.  i debated on color coding each shelf, but didn't feel like it.

everything now has it's place.  i now can find what i need.  and my husband now knows where to put things as well.  it was always a guessing game and his guess was different than mine, which lead to many days of searching for things we needed.  it was a nightmare!!

i'm not too fond of the pink tubs.  they are ones i had some of the girls toys in that i relocated, but they were ones i already had on hand, which meant less money i had to spend, so i made them work.

these long tubs are for the girls things.  papers.  artwork.  baby dedication things.  memories.  i keep everything in these tubs.  karsyn's is about to overflow though and i'm not sure what i'll do after that.  for now, they work perfect for me.

and, one of my favorite things in here ... my own tool box.  i was constantly going back and forth to the shed to find a tool i needed, then stomping back to the shed for another tool i forgot to grab.  this solved everything!  it has anything i might need to hang a picture or any other household projects i may attempt to do myself.

i also have to use this closet to store decorations that i'm not currently using.  i have separate tubs in the attic for seasonal decorations, but this is just simple household things.  i switch things out often, so they needed to be at hand.

we have a rolling cart in here for paper.  printer paper.  drawing paper.  and construction paper.  and our file cabinet for files and envelopes.  everything is neatly labeled.  my heart (and brain) are smiling!! 

hopefully this gets you motivated to organize something!

. closet organization .

the girls closet was in desperate need of some love and mykah's sad little cheapo dresser was in need of a trash truck to pick it up.  poor dresser.  i actually ended up reusing it in the playroom for a changing table, but it has still seen better days. 

ok, let's get to the point here.  here's the girls closet after.  silly me forgot to take before pictures.  i never think of that till after the fact. 

they have always had their own side of the closet.  karsyn with hot pink hangers.  mykah with light pink.  i wanted them to each have their own space for their clothes without having two big dressers in the room.  we just don't have space for that.  especially not now with their two new beds in the room.  so we bought this 9 cube organizer at lowe's and it's perfect.  karsyn's clothes are in the pink cubes, mykah's in green.  and there is one extra pink one where we keep swimsuits and sunglasses.

the came labeling.  i wanted them to have durable, but not permanet labels.  i want to be able to move around, change up, and add to what we already have.  truth be told, their room actually stays picked up.  i am definitely a mom who makes them have a picked up room before bed at night.  their clothes are always in their place.  i constantly go through things and weed out what we don't need or what's too small.  i made the labels in microsoft publisher, cut them out, and laminated them.  i used ribbon to tie them to the handles of the cubes.

finding clip art that was suitable was the hardest part.  (ps.  be VERY careful when searching for underwear or panty clip art.  just trust me.)  each girl has her own panty drawer, sock drawer, pajama drawer (labeled with moon and stars), shorts, and then there is a swimsuit drawer.  i chose to do pictures so that they can put away their own clothes and so they know what goes where.  and, IT WORKS!  they now put away their own laundry all by themselves.  i do the hanging clothes.

and then they both have a shoe bucket next to their "dresser".  so easy.  they know where things go.  they know where to find what they want.  and this mama is happy!  one big thing that helps keep this organized though is that we have a big playroom separate from their bedroom.  so we don't have toys to organize in here. it's strictly for beds and clothes.  they do have a small desk that i'll blog about later. 

. 283 days left .

 
can you guess what i'm talking about?

CHRISTMAS!  283 days until Christmas.  yep, i'm already getting started.  i have to.  we actually have a separate savings account set up so we can save all year in order to buy Christmas gifts and the two birthdays we have both within 2 weeks of Christmas.  yes, we are obviously terrible planners in the baby-making department, but it happens when it happens, right?!?  that's what i tell myself anyways.

moving right along.  so i found this ...

you can find it, along with several other printables for other things HERE

i'm loving it.  now the hard part, deciding ahead of time what to buy.  i always seem to wait until the last minute, but not this year.  we're going to be prepared and planned. 

 

. organization / playroom .

our house is 3 bedroom, so the girls share one room and the other room is strickly a playroom.  having other kids here everyday, this works perfect for us and the organization of this has been a long time coming.  our new system has been amazing as even the littlest ones know where the toys go.  this makes pick-up time a breeze.

this is our main storage unit for toys.  i'm not a big fan of tons of toys, so i try to limit what we have.  all of these bins came from ikea and i LOVE them.

for the big bins, i made labels with pictures so each kid would know what is supposed to be in them.  they picked up on this rather quickly, which accomplished my goal.  i only put pictures on the big bins because those are the toys they play with most often.  all of the small ones have specific things that i only pull down to play with one at a time.

now, the whole shelf was all white when we bought it.  i wanted more color and design, so i used spray adhesive to glue some super cute wrapping paper to the back.  it was VERY easy to do.

here's a close up of the smaller bins.

i do have 2 little boys that i keep and several of our bins are pink.  i know that.  i want it to be a unisex playroom i guess, but i had all of these things before i started taking care of other kiddos.  i do have a white bin full of cars and trucks just for them!

here is the closet ...

 
there is a shelf on the very top that i couldn't get a good picture of, but there are more tubs up there with things that i specifically use for daycare.  one bucket is for things that i use for our sensory bins.  there's a stack of carpet squares that we use for stories.  and several other things.

in the picture are 6 tubs for more toys that either have little parts or there's just lots of ... legos, color matching activities, stacking cubes, cans that we use as blocks, etc.

the rest of the closet is full of dress up stuff and baby dolls, which is a big hit all the way around.

and, lastly, is a view from the other part of the room.  there is one more wall that i didn't take a picture of, but it's just a play yard and the little kitchen.  now, excuse the lack of curtains.  i just can't decide what i want and refuse to settle for anything else. 

. organizing / command station .

since the first time i saw a command station on someone's blog, i KNEW i had to make one for myself.  it would be perfect to have everything i needed during the day in one place, neat and organized, and where i could find it. 

here's my command station ...

now, let me explain what i have.  obviously there is my computer and my phone.  those are two things that i keep on and at hand daily.  i do keep facebook up usually on my computer, but since i am home all day, every day, that is my life line.  that is what keeps me feeling connected to humans over 41 inches tall. 

then, there's this ...

 
that's my diaper tub.  5 days a week, i have 4 kids wearing diapers.  when it's time for a regularly scheduled diaper change, i just grab this tub.  it holds 4 different kinds/sizes of diapers for each kid, wipes, diaper cream, and plastic bags to readily throw out those less than appealing diapers that need to be tossed out immediately.  right next to that tub, sits our Bibles and a box of kleenex.

 
on the counter i have a cute little tray that holds my chapstick, my wedding ring when i'm not wearing it, and a cd that i'm mailing today, plus my container of cough drops. 

obviously all of my pens and markers.

then, it's my favorite thing ...

this little guy is a file folder basket, with file folders that i labeled for things i need at hand.  clipped to the front is a calendar for each month of the year.  dates are color coded for each person and the bottom of each calendar has another label so i can quickly switch to a different month.  the labels for the file folders are incoming mail, to be filed, shred, coupons, menu/groceries, david, erin, karsyn, mykah.

 
lastly, there's my receipt holder.  i got this guy from target in the dollar section.  i labeled each section 1-12 for each month of the year, and we save every receipt we get. 

there you have it.  now, honestly, i would like LESS in my command station.  to me, less is more and i love having very little THINGS to clutter up my space.  if i didn't need the diapers handy, that wouldn't be there for sure, but i need them 5 days a week, so they stay.   now, we won't talk about what the rest of my kitchen looks like.

. organizing / entry .

looky looky what i finally finished.

 
my entry cabinet / lockers / way-to-get-bags-and-coats-off-my-counters.  this is the cabinet that i found the plans for and gave them to one of mr. hill's friends to build for me.  he did an amazing job.  all i did was prime, paint, and apply a clear coat for protection.  we added hooks tonight and voila.  it's perfect, but in a very awkward spot to get pictures of. 

 
i am in the process of finding baskets for the top and bottom cubbies.  it's proving to be a hard task as most baskets are either too small or too big for what i want.  i need them to be just right.  if you know me, you know that this process will take quite a while.  i have in my head what i want, and i must find them.

. organizing / craft space / office .

so, this is my favorite part of our house.  it's a big nook in the hallway with a built in desk and shelf for an office.  we have used this as another catch-all space, even though it houses our printer and filing cabinet.  the shelf was stockpiled with books that we never opened and my craft stuff was taking over my hall closet. 

here was my solution ...

office before {note: i ALWAYS forget to take an actual before picture, so this is just after i got started on the project}

 and the after :

i didn't add much cute stuff here just yet.  and i had to keep it functional still since mr. hill is doing grad school work.  in the tubs on the shelf, i went a little label crazy, but i need to know exactly what is in each tub.  and i love them.

i already had some supplies in these glass containers, so i just kept them in there. 

i already had these little red buckets, but they weren't being used.  so i screwed in some little hooks under the shelf and there they hang.  they provide easy access to little things i need such as extra phone cords and the girls leapster games. 

i found this cute little antique bike basket at my favorite antique store a while back and i've always had it hanging to hold our notebooks and clipboards that we use frequently.  we keep our checkbook register in a notebook and this is where we keep it.

and, last, but not least ... an old cooling rack.  i hung it and use magnets to hang stuff on.  lucky for you, right now it is karsyn's favorite picture of me.  she calls it my "princess picture".  it's me when i was a junior in high school!  yikes. 
 

. organizing / the washroom .

so as i was typing the title, i started wondering ... what do you call it?  washroom?  laundry room?  is it wash room, with a space?  or one word?  ok, moving along ...

i don't have a before picture of my washroom, but picture clutter.  lots of clutter.  stuff piled on the shelves, on the washer and the dryer.  just stuff.  and the washroom connects the house to the garage, so it's a main walkway that gets traveled daily.  if i see it, i need it to be organized.  so i gathered some tubs i had and got to work. 

here it is now ...

did you expect anything other than orange?  didn't think so.  so the orange tubs at the top have cleaners in one and my ironing stuff in the other.   what is "ironing stuff"?  i have no clue.  that's why its in a tub i can't see.

the white basket/tub in the middle has pads for my steam mop.  and the laundry basket has clothes that need that iron thing to touch them. 

to add a little something to the walls, i saw this print somewhere and printed it and added into a frame i already had.  viola.

here's a little more cutesy for the room.  the photo box is just there, nothing in it.  and the other aqua box has my stain remover stuff in it.  then i had these apothocary jars that i added too.  just for fun.  oh and the candle.  it's vanilla scented and makes doing laundry at least smell good.  i added some twine around it and called it done.

and this is our "landing spot".  everyone has one.  it's where we throw stuff that we need when we come in and out.  i keep my sunglasses here b/c i always forget them.  i usually put my purse here too, but it didn't look cute in the pictures so i removed it.  and the change jar.  that's just where we keep it.  no reason.

so, there's my washroom.   nothing too special, but it's clean and organized and makes washing clothes a little more tolerable.

. organizing / the medicine cabinet .

i have a few of you fooled into thinking that my entire house is organized.  i am a very organized person, yes.  i do like things in their place, yes.  but is my house always clean and organized ... uhm, NO.  these past few weeks, however, i've been on a mission to get every space oragnized and cleaned out. 

i'll post a few of my projects here and there, but we're going to start with our medicine cabinet.  here's the before ... in a cabinet mixed in with some of my baking goods.  the two do go hand in hand around here.  when i bake, i always need advil.  {sorry for the horrible quality pictures}

i bought new containers at wal-mart.  they were perfect for what i needed and i love the flip top.  i moved our meds to a smaller cabinet so i could better utilize the big cabinet.  the basket houses liquid meds, the thermometer, and anything else that wouldn't fit in the smaller containers.  the little bowl in the middle is for medicine cups and syringes. 

i made labels for the 4 containers so i could easily know what is in each one.  duh.  i know you didn't need me to tell you that, but i didn't have anything labeled before and was constantly opening every container until i found what i needed. 

now, these are meds and first aid things that i need access to every day.  in another closet down the hallway, i have our other meds which house things that we need, but don't use daily (such as breathing treatment meds, etc.).

here's a close up of my labels.  is it weird that i have a tub for "adult vitamins"?  i laugh everytime i see that.  inside you will find my juice plus vitamins, multi-vitamins, and something else that i can't think of and would require me to get up to see. 

 
so, there's our medicine cabinet.  all organized and makes me happy.  next up ... the laundry room.