Reclaiming Our Spaces: Organizing on the Cheap & a Giveaway! GIVEAWAY CLOSED

CONGRATS to Pamela Moore!!  She wins FREE organizing help this week!  We will be working on a section of her craft area.  Tune in Thursday to see the results!

This week let's discuss what we use to organize.  Not every little organizer needs to come from The Container Store.  (Though, their stuff is pretty fun if it's in the budget!)  Let's talk about what we can use if it aint in the budget.  Know what I'm sayin?

I use left-over perfume boxes, toy packaging, & really all sorts of random containers to contain my stuff:

This is a holiday perfume gift set box that I have been using since 2004!  I keep my jewelry in it right now:

I also like to gather fancy-looking containers to keep on my counter.  The white tray was a TJ Maxx find.  Pretty sure it was like $5.99.  Then there is a little porcelain plate & old Avon cream holder I found at garage sales.  Super inexpensive, but they make me smile.

- - -

Ok, here's the giveaway part:  I am offering to *virtually* organize a room for one of you.  You send me pictures of your space.  I will tell you what I would do to organize your space.  I will hang with you through your whole process from Monday to Wednesday.

Here's the deal:

1)  Gotta take before & after pics

2)  Gotta work on it this week, so we can post about next Thursday

I'll pick a winner Sunday night.

MAKE SURE YOU DO EACH STEP OF THE GIVEAWAY.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

This week Holly talked about Organizing your Time.

Reclaiming Our Spaces: The Flow of Paper

Now that I have organized just about every major area of my house, I'm going to switch gears for a bit and talk about how my house functions.  My house can go from sparkling clean & perfectly organized to Crazytown in the course of an hour (read 2 small children live here).  I know if I don't stop every once in awhile & evaluate how things are working, we could get all cluttered up again in a hurry.

One of the biggies for me (& probably most of us) is paper that comes into the house.  It's overwhelming!  Way too much coming in.  Here's how I handle it:

1)  Mail:

Remove the junk.  Everything that is not vital gets thrown out.  No time for it.  No room for it.

Deal with it.  Some things can be read & then tossed, no need to even bring it inside.  I go through the mail in my car or the garage.  Keep that paper from ever getting into the house if you can!  If it's need to get filed, I have a to-be-filed box on my desk if I'm feeling lazy.  If I have time, I go ahead & file it.  If it's an invitation, I put it on the fridge because they make me happy.  I don't magazines anymore, because I don't want to deal with them.  Pinterest is my magazine these days.  If it's for my husband, I put it at the computer ; which is right by my to-be-filed box.

2) Receipts!! 

There are so many!  My husband got us this great app for our phones called Home Budget:

Using this app, I can input my receipt & it synchs with his right away & I can throw the receipt away after that (unless I need to file it for taxes).  It's nice to not have a purse full!  It's also nice to be instantly balanced at all times.

3)  Papers brought home from various places:  There has to be a home for these items. maybe it's in the to-be-filed box or out on the fridge or on the desk in a "to-do" box.  If they don't have a specific home, based on what it is, it will become clutter.

4)  Kid's Art:  I have heard some good ideas about this lately.  Some people take pictures and print them in a collage.  

How cute is That?

Some people keep the best art of the year & have one binder per year.  Some people keep a large gallery wall with cute frames to display the art until new art is created.

Martha Mcglothlin posted this on HGTV's Rate My Space

Scribbles and Such

I'm sure there are other things that I didn't mention, but these are the things that come to mind right away.  They can really be stressors, right?  Keep a paper recycling bin in your kitchen that is readily accessible & toss all that extra!

This week Holly organized her kids' closet!  Brave woman!!  Here's her post.

Reclaiming Our Spaces: Reality!

Let me tell you about this afternoon.  I forgot someone was coming by.  I was still in pajamas (at 4pm!) Both children had no bottoms on, the house was a wreck.  I was so embarrassed!!!

- HOWEVER -

It really got me thinking.  This is reality.  This is my life.  Sometimes it's messy, ugly, disorganized--just crazy.  I am sure some of y'all can relate a little?  My sweet friend (& her husband & her 2 kids!) was so full of grace for me in the chaos of the moment.  That was such an encouragement to me in that moment when I felt like a complete mess.

See, my plan for this week was to work on organizing my daughter's room.  It's fairly organized, but I have needed to deal with the crazy amount of dress up gear that it always thrown all over the floor.  I hang it up, but it gets pulled back down & she's not tall enough to get it hung back up.  

I think the best solution is a trunk for her to store it all in.  Something like one of these maybe:

It would be easy for her to clean it all up, but she also wouldn't need my help getting it out when she was ready to play.  So, I'm on the lookout for one, but I haven't found one yet.  I also want to move her room around a little.

So, this project will have to be stalled until I can find what I'm looking for.  That's the reality for me right now.  Sometimes it is a real struggle to get even simple things accomplished, but I am pointed the right direction & making progress all the time.  I hope my transparency is an encouragement to some of you that may feel overwhelmed at the thought of your clutter; by trying to carve out the time to sit and think about where to start.  I am right there with you!!

Baby steps are still steps!

This week Holly felt a little frustration this week as well, but still got some work done.  Check out her post here.

Reclaiming Our Spaces: My Son's Room

This week I worked on my son's room.  Mainly, I worked on making a home for everything.  It was becoming a big pile of toys!

It took me awhile to figure out what to buy to organize everything.  I didn't want to drop much cash because who knows what will happen to it in the next year or so.  This is a little boys room.  So, I settled on an 8 cube organizer from Closet Maid.  I found it at Target.  It was pretty inexpensive, but sturdy enough.  The openings are a good size for the Dollar Tree organizing bins I've loaded up on. 

It's so much less chaotic!  And he loves it.  It's so fun to sit with him & talk about, "Where do the books go?" & "where do big cars park?"

I also pulled in the 2 storage ottomans from the living room that were already storing toys & books.

It's part of my push to get all the toys into their bedrooms and out of the living room.  They can bring them into the living room or kitchen, but then they get put back up in their rooms.  Lord willing, right?! I know they can do it!!!  Woo hoo Kiddos!

This week Holly gave a How To on organizing kids' rooms.  She went all out.  This is an amazing post.

This post is linked up with:

   

 Keeping It Simple: Motivate Me Monday &

Reclaiming Our Spaces: Kids Bathroom

Hey y'all!  I am so late in getting this posted today- once again.  I will give myself credit though for actually getting a little organizing done.  Just as you should not beat yourself up, but be uber proud of yourself for all the small organizing victories you make all over your house.  It's hard yo!  Life is busy & just nuts sometimes.

Well, this week I worked on a small area that is always getting on my nerves: the kids' bathroom.  Really where I worked was under the sink.  It's such a stash place for randomness because it's easy.  This is what is looked like:

Not the worst space in the house, but still crazy.

Here it is now:

I basically moved everything unnecessary out & organized what was left with plastic bins.  Not a ton of work, not a ton of time spent, but in about 30 minutes, I had a little less chaos in my house (read: LIFE).  

This week Holly worked on her entry closet.  

Are you looking for inexpensive organizing products?  Holly sells them.  See her website here.

Reclaiming Our Spaces: Hall Closet

OK, here is my belated post!  Finally tackled my beast of a hall closet; home to all sorts of crafts & toys for the kids.  I also have some extra items in there as well.  Here is what it looked like when I got started:

Ahhh!  Craziness.  There really was somewhat of a method to that madness, but it wasn't well
executed.  Since everything didn't have an exact home, things got put somewhere in the closet.

Here's the breakdown:

I went to the Dollar Tree & got a gazillion navy blue containers, so I knew I'd have enough to organize everything (on top of what I already had to work with).  I worked on this project over 2 days & it really wasn't too bad.  I had put it off for almost 2 years!  Most of the things in the closet were staying in there, they just needed homes!!

So, I had:
1) a box for items to re-sell in my flea market booth
2) a bag for things I was going to throw away
3) A pile of things to go through that didn't belong in that closet (still working on that)

I had to group everything in to categories & consider what bins/containers I had to put that amount of items in.  I moved very slowly, so it didn't feel stressful, but actually enjoyable.  Really!

I'm so happy for the result, but it makes things so much easier & the visual (& actual) clutter is gone.  Now it feels like a fun place to shop for ideas to entertain the kiddos.  They are excited seeing everything so easily too.  You now see most everything in there easily without having to dig around & knock things over.  Yay!  Winning!!!

This week Holly worked on her laundry room.  Here's one pic from her post:

Aren't those chalk board labels super cute?

Hope you had a lovely 4th!  We sure did:

I linked up!

Reclaiming Our Spaces: Organization Inspiration

I am currently up to my eyeballs in projects for our church's new Sunday school classroom, so I do not have time to organize an area of my home this week.  I will not leave you hanging though!  I'm going to open up some of my Pinterest folder labeled Organize right here for your organizing inspiration:

from iheartorganizing

oh em gee, You have got to check out Making It Lovely.  So. many. good. ideas. I die…

MadeByGirl

on IHeartOrganizing via The Lettered Cottage

From Simply Organized NWA

Reasons to Breathe

Traditional Kitchen by Millersburg Cabinets & Cabinetry Mullet Cabinet
*I mean to add this into my kitchen stat*

These are just a few pins, feel free to follow the board.  I add to it all the time.

Holly worked on her daughter's playroom this week.

Reclaiming Our Spaces: Files!

This week I took on a long put-off task; I organized all the paperwork that needed to be filed!  I have had several jobs that included filing as part of my responsibilities.  So, you would think that my files at home would be just so.  Not so!

What I have had is an enormous stack of papers with a a mental label, "to do".

So, I got together everything I could find and laid it on on the kitchen table:

I started making stacks to sort everything.  It helped me see what was there.

1)  To be filed: From there I broke it down further by what type of item it was to be filed & date.

2)  To be transferred to another location in the house by location

3)  To be thrown away

 I did it slowly all day.  In the afternoon, while the kids slept, I brought my party into the living room and spread it all out there:

 Finally finished!!!  I would like to go back on another day& streamline it visually, but I am satisfied that it filed away.  It is all easy to find & there is no crazy stack by my bed anymore.  Yay!!!

After I was finished all my work, we went into the backyard to play!!

Lovely summer day.

This week Holly worked on her entry.  Check it out!