organizing my hall closet

i said that it was coming and it happened. i organized my hall closet, finally!

here is the before picture.

and here is the after.

i know it probably doesn't look that much different, but boy of boy it sure does feel a ton different in there.

first i pulled everything out of there.  sorted everything into a couple of different piles.
1. definitely going back in the closet
2. needs to be put somewhere else
3. get rid of - donate to thrift store
4. garbage pile

then i went to work organizing the items that i wanted to stay in the closet.  i reused some organizers and added a couple more.  i mostly wanted to use this closet for bed linens, paper, batteries, kids coloring and kid's craft stuff. to make everything more accessible to everyone, i labeled all the drawers with my label maker.

i also put anything the kids would need to get into down low and kept the stuff that i wanted them to stay out of on a higher shelf.

sorry, this pic ended up a little blury.

my drawers/bins included:
1. coloring books
2. notebooks
3. worksheets
4. cords and scale
5. magnetic dolls
6. construction paper
7. kid's craft items
8. AA batteries
9. AAA & 9V batteries
10. D & C Batteries
11. tape
12. rechargeable batteries
13. sewing stuff
14. markers
15. color wonder markers
16. color wonder paper
17. crayons

yes, a couple of those bins in there are old wipe containers.  use whatever you have i say.

now the only problem is that a bunch of the items that didn't make it back into the closet are sitting on my craft table in the basement waiting for a new home.  oh well, one space at a time, right?

pantry organization and cleaning

this past weekend, i cleaned out my kitchen pantry.  it wasn't super cluttered - i went through it not long ago and pulled a bunch of old stuff out and got rid of it.  but, a while ago, i had bought some contact paper to put on the wood shelves to make it easier to clean.  i have been wanting to tackle this project for quite some time.  but i knew it was going to be big. 

this is what it looked like before.

at first i thought i would just clean off the top two shelves and leave the rest for another day, but once i got started i didn't want to/couldn't stop there.  so soon everything that used to be in my pantry was out of my pantry and all over my kitchen.

 it looked like this.

thankfully, i had my kiddos to help.  they were great at taking stuff as i handed it to them and finding a space for it in the kitchen. 

once everything was out of the pantry, i cleaned the shelves.  i used clorox and a rag and wiped them down really well. after i had wiped them all down and let them dry, i started applying the contact paper.  i bought a pretty neutral color.

and i repeated for each shelf

and the little cubby in the corner (this space really needed the contact paper.  my kids use it as a stool to get stuff off of the top shelf)

once all of the contact paper was down, i took an impromptu visit to the dollar store.  they have great organization stuff there.  i bought a bunch of plastic baskets and bins.  then i hit up family dollar for a storage bin with drawers.  i really recommend buying all of this stuff beforehand, but since i didn't know i would be tackling this project all in one day, i wasn't prepared.

once i had returned with my organization tools, i got to work.  the kids helped out here as well.  i would say "hand me all the pasta containers", "hand me all of the school lunch stuff", etc... they made an assembly line and loved it and i loved having there help.  they also took a laundry basket full of food and other items that i deemed non-pantry worthy down to our storage room.  they also had fun "shooting baskets" into our big garbage dumpster of food and things that just needed to be tossed.

at work, we get snacks from costco.  these containers hold peanut butter filled pretzels.  each time the container is empty i snag it and bring it home.  instant pasta and baking mix holders!  they're all the same which i love. right now, i store all of my pastas, my rice and my pancake mix in them.  over time, i will gather more and use them for more mixes.

i used the bin with drawers to organize and store my paper plates, cups and utensils as well as extra ziploc bags.

used some of the stackable bins to sort out my little plastic containers.  i use these for my kids' lunches and they were always a mess before.  still not in love with the set up here, but it's a work in progress.  should have bought more black bins but i seriously thought 9 would be enough!  had to reuse my old orange bin for the lunch boxes and thermos'.

i used the black plastic baskets to organize "like" food items (lunch things, snacks, breakfast stuff, baking supplies, etc...) 

over in the far corner where it is hard to get to, i stored stuff i don't use often but still like to have on hand.  sprinkles, tube frosting, cupcake wrappers, cookie cutters, and cake decorating supplies.

anyway, it took quite a while to get it all put back and there are a few odd items still hanging out on my kitchen counters that i don't want to shove back in there, but i'm still not sure where to put them.

what's next?

a little early spring organizing

i can feel it coming on - my itch to start cleaning and organizing.  there is something about winter and the cold that makes me want to curl up into a ball, drink hot chocolate and not do anything! 

but when the sun starts to warm me up a little bit, i just want to tear through all of the stuff that clutters my house and my mind and get rid of it.

it started at the office where i work.  i attached one of my coworker's office.  she never saw it coming.  i went through there with a vengeance and made her get rid of things that she's had on her desk since 1999.  they needed to go. she wasn't a willing participant at first, but after things started looking more organized and clutter free, she "saw the light" and joined in.

it hasn't stopped there.  i went through a nightstand in my bedroom that is the "catch-all" for lots of stuff.  from a crochet project i started 2 years ago, to old books that i never finished reading, to nathan church books, to electronic games and electronic accessories.... basically just a bunch of stuff that needed to either be thrown away or put away where it really goes.  so i went through there, pulled everything out.  put a bunch in the garbage, put a bunch away where it really should be and then organized the stuff that stays.  i didn't take a picture, but it looks a ton better.

most recently my cookbook has been bugging me.  i have a few "real" cookbooks, but i am talking about the binder with sheet protectors where i shove random recipes that i find or like or have been given to me. 

pages weren't secured.  there were a ton of recipes in the back that i had never taken the time to put in the correct category, and there were a bunch of recipes that i have printed out, hoping to try them, but never actually making them.  it was really bugging me. but luckily, it's a pretty easy fix.

i got two white binders from my storage room and went to work, first, i took everything out and decided whether or not to keep the recipes.  a few years ago i went through and typed up a bunch of my recipes.  later i decided that it took to much work to continue doing that.  but since i still had them electronically, i went through and decided which ones to keep.  i printed new sheets to put in my new binders. 

i also printed out some new recipes from an office recipe book that i compiled a few years ago.  a bunch of people at my office donated recipes for it.  i went through and printed out the ones that i know are goodies to add to my collection.  (if anyone reading this wants a copy, let me know and i will email it to you.)

any recipe that wasn't typed, i went through and judged it's keep-worthiness on:

• have i made this recipe?  
• yes
• did i like it?  
• if not, in the recycle pile it went.
• if i did like it, it got separated into my recipe categories to be put into the binder.
• no
• do i still want to try it?
• yes - i put it in a pile of "recipes to try".  i won't be putting these in my categories until they have passed the try test.
• no - into the recycle pile.

i was able to get rid of a lot of the clutter just with this step alone.

next, i went through and separated my recipe categories into "meals" and "other stuff".  i wanted to separate my recipes into two different binders for ease of use.  if i am trying to make dinner, i just want to look through dinner type recipes.  if i want to make a dessert, then i just want to look at those types of recipes. (by the way, i put breakfast recipes in my meal binder, because those are meals to me.)

one of my new recipe binders!  i know it doesn't look that much different, but believe me, it is tons different.  my binders have pockets on the front and back cover (my old one didn't).  in the pocket on the front, i have put recipe cards and in the pocket on the back cover i put the recipes that i still want to try.

it seems like a stupid little project, but believe me, i feel a ton better about it.  next, i think i am going to tackle my hall closet.  it's sort of a smorgasbord of things: linens, batteries, coloring books, office supplies...  it is really bugging me.