Baskets...add a little style for less

Before you buy and baskets or any form of organization items, make sure you have a reason to buy them. Don't just buy something because it is on sale and you "think" you may be able to use it someday. That ends up adding to your clutter mess. Just because it is something that can be used to organized. If you aren't using it for that purpose, then it adds to the problem.
If you are actively trying to find something to put your CD's in or DVD, stationary etc.. Then you can many times find things on sale. I think I found these at the Flower Factory or Old Time Pottery. I know I didn't pay much at all for them (like a couple dollars at most) and thought they really looked nice. With the photo boxes, you don't have to use them for pictures if there is some other way you need to use them. If it is not for photos (because I am not sure they are archival safe) you can take a regular shoebox and cover it with contact paper and make your own storage box to use that looks nice. Just keep in mind you will not be able to see what is inside, so label well.
You can add a bit of style to some of your shelves, be organized and not spend much!

Ask The Organizer - Organizing Plastics

I had Rebecca from The Copper Brick Road ask me yesterday on Twitter if I could give her ideas on how to organize her plastic containers. Along with trying to answer her question, I thought it would be fun to do a segment called, "Ask the Organizer". So if you have questions you want to ask me about how to organize something specific, write them down in the comments and I will try my best to answer one of them a week.
This was own I organize the plastics in my own house, so hopefully it may give you some ideas for your own.

You can find the cool spin around plastics containers on my Amazon store
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Thanks Rebecca for asking the Organizer! (see what you started?...LOL)

Cluttered in your Home = Cluttered in your Head

Clutter - we have all seen it, and chances are we all have it. Too much "stuff" for the space we have. What do you do with it? What do I keep, what do I give away? Where does it all go? Indecision on what and how and where to put everything is the source for the majority of people who have a problem with clutter.



How would you feel walking into this office to work? Relaxed, calm...ready to take on the world? I don't think so. If you are anything like myself or most of the people I know (and no, they are not all professional organizers by the way) you would feel instant tension, stress and frustration.

Take this office for instance. The man who runs this home office began his business building homes and it took off so fast that the conversion from old bedroom to office never fully happened. He felt frustration everyday walking into this office to work. He couldn't have clients come discuss house plans in his office because he was too embarrassed. There were bookshelves with baby books, wrapping paper from Christmas, out of season clothes in the office. (I could go on) This man happens to be very organized and neat but because of the situation and the fact that there are not 72 hours in one day...it over took him.

Clearing out the clutter, the extra "stuff" and "fluff" that you don't need and use, can clear out our heads. It can give you a calm and peace. Too much stuff in our visual field can put too many thoughts in our head of other things. Say for instance you have to go into the spare room to water the plant. You walk in and see a huge mess of things; instead of walking directly over to water the plant you think, "Oh, there is the shelf sitting on the floor that I have to fix and I almost forgot that I have to move that box of books up to Tommy's room. But wait I can not forget to get those pictures over to Grandma Millies! Now what did you go into that room for to begin with? Oh yes...to water the plant that is crowded on the desk and is almost dead."

Our lives are so complex in this world. Mail, e-mail, bills, taxes, work, family, lessons, sports, more bills, poor economy, cooking, cleaning, more bills, etc...
We already have so many things floating around in our heads and we are trying to keep them straight that we need a place that can be "de-cluttered", feel peaceful and be relaxed. If it isn't our homes, where will it be?

I know it can seem completely over whelming trying to think about how to get rid of it, how do I begin? There are people who are actually trained to help you. I know that money is a major factor right now, and if you do not have the budget to hire a Professional Organizer (they actually go through things with you and help you make those decision and work out a plan as to how a system can work) you can still find many resources that are free to help you.

The internet is one major free bookstore!! There are articles and web sites and blogs to read mammoth amounts of information on and gleam ideas from. If you go to your local library there are books that you can read to help you on organizing. There are TV shows (although not realistic in the time frame it appears to transform a room or home in)you can still pick up tips from them.


Don't try to do it all on your own. Make this a family project and work together to discover that living in a home with "less" can actually give you a lot "more" than you imagined.

Vlog on How to Use that extra closet for Great storage!

This is my first personal vlog where you are going to see me. I had serious reservations about doing this and I do not like to see myself on camera...I think I look totally goofy!! The eyes are bugging out..I am blinking weird...I am saying hmmmm to much...But oh well....I did it. Hopefully I will get better when I do more and will realize that I need to smile when I turn on the camera so that the first still shot doesn't look like I am going yell at someone. LOL!!!


I wanted to share this with you. I did a post awhile back on this closet, but from a still picture, you can't realize how useful a space can be like this. This was a bedroom closet and my client turned the bedroom into an office. This same idea can be used for any room that you may convert for other purposes. You may now have a sewing room, scrap booking room or general craft room....wouldn't this make great space? It may be a big extra hall closet that isn't being used for coats, but you have just a bunch of shoes thrown in the bottom and a few blankets on the top shelf..all the space in between is wasted. Just make sure before you go grab that bookshelf from the basement or go out and buy one...you measure..measure..measure. When the guys were moving this one into the room they were all saying it wasn't going to fit. But I kept saying I measured and yes it was. (I was right...thank goodness!!)

Who's socks are who's?

How do you keep track of who's socks are who's?
I just read about someone else and how they kept track of their socks. I posted a comment on her blog about how I did it, so I thought it makes sense to share that with you!
With 5 children to sort socks for...its not always easy. I try a couple of things. As the other blogger suggested, I try to buy different kinds of socks for the kids. I do try this to an extent. The problem I have with it is that the next time I go to buy them, I can't find the same ones for each child on sale again, or more likely I forget which ones I get for each child if there are several kinds. So the other system I have for clothes and socks in my house is "The dot system". My girlfriend told me about this years ago and it works great.
The oldest living at home gets 1 dot on his clothes. The next oldest gets 2 dots. Next is 3 and so on. Elise is our only girl, so I just make an "E" on hers and that is because I need to keep straight which clothes go back to her mom's house and which stay with us.
With the dots, when your oldest is able to pass them down to the next child..you just add 1 dot and then its the #2 child's clothes. (I DO believe in hand me downs!)
It's an easy way to quickly identify clothing. Our 2 oldest at home right now are 14 and 15 and close to the same size. We also get them some of the same shirts (school t-shirts etc) and so it makes it simple to keep track.
In the picture you can see 3 dots on Zach's sock and 4 dots on Alex's sock. Drew's shirt has 2 dots on it.
It makes life much easier when it comes to sorting the laundry.

Laundry Cubbies!

Here is another cubbie idea! This is what I use some more cubbies (can you tell I love them!!) for in my house. At the top of the stairs we have this little area that works perfect. By the way before Dave and his kids moved in, I had my scrap booking albums in these..and yes they were full. Anyway...I needed some way to sort the laundry (with 5 kids)and thought this would work. It works great.
I bring up the folded laundry in my laundry baskets and sort it into the proper child's cubbie. (By the way...does anyone know if cubbie should really be spelled cubby? Spell check doesn't tell me! Hee hee) The kids are then responsible for putting their own laundry away in their rooms.
The basket in the middle is for mismatched socks.
The basket on the top left is for my step children's clothes that need to go back to their mom's house.
If you look close you can see that the kids names are on the bottom of their cubbies. I just use scrap booking stickers for this.
I would love to have something like this in my laundry room...but it's not big enough.

Organizing coats and bookbags the easy way.

Another tool you can use to keep things somewhat organized for your kids is to simply hang some hooks on the back of your closet door. You can also use your basement door or laundry room door. I got the double hooks so a book bag goes on one hook and a coat can go on the other. They are labeled with colorful stickers with their names so no one can fight over where theirs goes.
The kids come in and they hand me their school folders and anything else they need me to see and then they hang their book bags and coats up. Easy and no book bags all over the family room floor! When kids are small they need to be able to hang their coats somewhere they can reach easily and just hanging it on a hook is easier (and more likely to be used)than a hanger.

Organizing your family with cubbies

This is the central family zone in our home. We do not have a very large home and I tend to be one who is very practical. Each child has a color and they know their color. There is one cubbie for each child and one for me. My husband has the station on top for his phones and keys etc.
Anytime I find something laying around the house, I throw it in their cubbie. They can put their dry hats and gloves in their cubbies, along with little things they want to keep downstairs. Have them clean them out every couple of weeks (or sooner if needed) and put everything away.
Works great for us. What do you do with all the little things you pick up around the house all day?