a place for everything

The other night I turned our DVDs from the picture on the left to the one on the right. I have wanted to do something about them for over a year now. We had to keep our movies two rows deep in our credenza. It was difficult to find movies, put them back in the right place… Finally I came up with a solution and executed it.

I’ve been planning what to do since I first decided the DVDs needed reorganization. My first plan was to get a small binder and put each DVD and cover in a protector. (I didn’t want to just do a cd booklet because anytime we’d get a new movie, the whole thing would have to be re-alphabetized.) With the binder we could easily flip through them. I liked this plan since we’d still be able to see the movie cover. The big problem was that finding the right size sheet protectors was kind of difficult and they were very expensive. I also wasn’t sure how quickly the binders would fill up because of the thickness the DVD would add.

After much more googling I came across these boxes from The Container Store. Okay, now I was on the right track. These boxes hold just the DVD and you don’t have to re-alphabetize every time you get a new movie. But I wasn’t crazy about the price (given that I would need two to start and extra sleeves).

Thankfully I came across the Memorex File-n-Store Boxes on the Office Depot website. Even better I could go to the store and actually look at them instead of just hoping it was what I wanted. So I bought one. Then when we could afford it I bought another. And finally just the other week I bought the last one I needed.

All DVDs got put in a white sleeve. I didn’t use the hanging file system that was included because I could get a lot more in the boxes this way. Movies alphabetized and split semi-evenly into the three boxes, check. Most likely I’ll label each box in some way so it’s easier to know which box to pull out.

Every movie we own is now cataloged in an Excel spreadsheet so we can “look through” our movies that way. When I transferred all of the movies into the sleeves, I checked to make sure they were in my spreadsheet. (The spreadsheet was probably 80% complete already because I’m a nerd like that.) Surprisingly we were only missing two movies that have been loaned out.

I can’t even tell you what a relief it is to have our movies organized. I feel like we gained a whole new collection of movies. I think that’s the great thing about keeping things organized. You can use them effectively and efficiently. It may be pretty nerdy to have a spreadsheet for cataloging movies but it’s definitely a lot easier to find the one I’m looking for. Now if only it didn’t take Josh and I all evening to agree on what movie to watch…

This weekend was Josh’s working one. It ended up being not so bad. Saturday night he got off because of a company party and then Sunday he worked during the DAY! First time in 10 months! It was so incredibly nice. Working during the day meant that he could sleep at night and doesn’t have to sleep today. I’m really hoping that maybe they’ll move him to days all the time soon.

I realized recently I have such a hard time keeping our house clean because of Josh’s work schedule. Yes, I’m blaming it on Josh working nights. When I clean the house, I have to do the whole thing at one time. With Josh sleeping during the day, it really limits what I can do. On his days off I don’t want to spend them cleaning.

Yesterday with him gone, I cleaned like a crazy woman. Jasper and I started upstairs and worked our way through the whole house. We dusted, vacuumed, sorted, picked up, put away… We did it all. It was such a great feeling.

So basically for the love of a clean house, I need a husband that works days!

I am about to show you my baking cupboard before I recently organized it. Prepare yourself. I cannot believe that I let one of my cupboards get this bad and I just don’t know how it happened. I should have seen the signs. Thankfully it didn’t take too much to get it reorganized…just a saw, some sandpaper and the garbage can.

So yeah, it got pretty bad. Honestly I feel like I just don’t have enough cupboard space. Really I need a decent size food pantry for things I stock up on. First thing I did was ask Josh if we could cut out the center wood divider. He sliced it out and then attached it to the door. (Otherwise when the doors were closed there was a three inch gap between them. Seriously stupid design.)

I put all cake decorating items (food coloring, decorating tips, sprinkles) in a plastic container I got from the Dollar Tree. This helped a lot because I can keep all of it at the top but it’s all together and easy to get down.

I can definitely use my baking cupboard a lot better now. Before when I had to put something back I would just shove it in, hoping the doors would still close. Now that it’s organized again I can easily put the item back where it goes. I also have a much easier time seeing what items I have plenty of and what I’m low on. So now…what can I bake?

Last Thursday evening Josh had just left work and Jasper was busy tearing apart the living room. I looked around and knew I had to do something about the mess. I was not in the mood to clean at all so I looked at the clock and told myself to just clean for 20 minutes.

I wasn’t sure how much I could get done since the kitchen was a wreck too.  Clean laundry was piled on the stairs and random items thrown everywhere.  Yep, it was that kind of day.  Poor Bebo was not too happy.

I turned on music, asked Jasper to pick up some of his toys and went to work.  Twenty minutes later, my downstairs looked like this.  And Bebo was relieved.

I’ve never been one to keep a lot of stuff in my vehicle. I think it’s easy to have a messy car if you don’t regularly empty it out. Last week I decided that we were ready to retire the diaper bag. We never take it out of the car and rarely need it since Jasper is mostly potty trained. I thought I would whip up a simple drawstring bag to hold a diaper, wipes and wet bag.

The diaper bag has had a permanent residence in the backseat since Jasper was born. I decided the much smaller bag can go in the back which makes things much less cluttered. This led to organizing the rest of the Jeep. With my little diaper bag, the back holds our umbrella stroller and reusable bags.  Underneath the floor, is the cart cover that I still sometimes use and a few random things.

I sorted through the toys and books in the car for Jasper. I took in most of the toys since he really can’t play with them in the car. We now have books (which he loves to look through) and an Etch-a-Sketch for him to play with. Under his seat is also a Ziploc bag with emergency clothes. The Ziploc works well too if his other clothes are wet, then I have something to put them in.

I got small clear cosmetic bags to keep in the vehicle. One has first aid items (band-aids, ibuprofen, Benadryl, Neosporin, anti-bacterial wipes and other misc). The other bag holds emergency food.  This is probably the most crucial item I store in my Jeep.  You never know when you’ll need a quick snack!

How I love having the vehicle clean and organized. Now when we leave to go somewhere I know exactly what is already in the car and what I still need to grab from home. Makes leaving the house on time just a little bit easier.

I’m a big fan of teaching kids early on to pick up after themselves. I can remember doing simple cleaning at a young age. There is no reason why a child can’t help out with housework. To make it easy I try to come up with simple toy storage for Jasper. He understands where his toys go and that he needs to pick up after himself. The other day we were leaving the house and he stopped at the door. He hurried over to a couple toy cars and said, “Mommy! I pick up!” and put them away.

In our front room I have a small open box that I keep a rotating number of toys and books. I alternate toys in this box because they get played with the most. It’s easy for Jasper to pull out, dig through and then put away.

Next to the box is a small yellow suitcase I’ve had for years. Jasper latched onto that forever ago so I recently decided to use it for car storage. He’s really into playing with Matchbox cars so it’s great to have them in one spot.

The giant container of cheese balls Josh thought was a good idea to buy came in handy. My parents found Jasper those awesome blocks but we really needed some way to store them. The Ziploc bag wasn’t easy for Jasper to get open and closed but I liked the idea of them being visible. Enter the cheese ball container! It works perfectly. The bag to hold all of the random balls we’ve collected was actually a laundry bag. It’s easy enough for Jasper to drag around, empty and then put them back in.

I like finding interesting ways to store toys. I want them to be accessible for Jasper so they are played with often but I also want to be able to put them away. Last summer we bought a set of old school lockers. They are waiting to get sandblasted right now and will soon be down in the playroom. I cannot wait to get them down there and figure out how to utilize them. It’s all about finding practical organization that works for the kid too.

I like to organize. I absolutely love the feeling of looking at a messy closet and then the satisfaction of seeing it in order. I like it when my house is clean. My days start so much better when I come downstairs to a clean kitchen. I grew up being taught the benefits of a clean and organized home. One of my very first words was “organize”. No joke.

I find that keeping my house clean and organized has so many benefits other than just for my sanity. For one I feel way more productive when my house is clean. I also save money by keeping my house organized. Whenever I let things slide I don’t realize if I have extra toothpaste or items in my pantry. Then I’ll buy more that I don’t need.

There are a few random things I’ve picked up that I thought I would share. Most probably came from my mom because she’s basically the Queen of having a clean house.

1. Make my bed. Even if I’m the only one that will see my bedroom, making my bed makes a huge difference in how clean the house looks. I feel better about my bedroom and in turn want to make sure the rest of the house is picked up. I make my bed every day even if it doesn’t get done until the evening. Side tip: I totally avoid all of those extra pillows that come with a bedding set. Sure they make the bed look pretty but what do you do with them? At night they get tossed on the floor and then it makes one more thing to pick up.

2. Keep cleaning products where I need them. I keep all my cleaning supplies in the laundry room in a handy tote. This way I can take them from room to room as I clean. The kitchen counters, the stove and sink, and my bathroom are things that need cleaned often. I keep cleaning supplies for those things right where I need them. My Method counter cleaner and stove cleaner reside under the kitchen sink. An extra toilet bowl cleaner and Dow Scrubbing Bubbles live under my bathroom sink. This way when I have a few extra minutes I have what I need right there.

3. Clean my stove. It really makes a huge difference in my kitchen to have it clean. I was “lucky” enough to get black stove when we bought our house. This makes keeping it clean super difficult. But I try!

4. Have a spot to collect misc papers and then sort through them once a week. Tucked in one of my cabinets is typically a stack of papers that needs to be sorted. Bank statement, coupons, random papers… The key is to sort through them once a week so the pile doesn’t get out of control. The other day I took my stack of papers over to the kitchen table and started sorting. Garbage pile, file cabinet, coupon file, crafty closet…my piles grew until I was done with the stack.

5. A place for everything and everything in it’s place. This is like the first commandment of organizing. Really it’s the key to everything! I am constantly working on this with my husband. He does pretty good but often times will just tuck something in a drawer somewhere instead of putting it where it should go. It seems like it saves you time to do that but really it makes the job last longer. When you need the item again often times you don’t remember where you tucked it so you have to spend extra time searching. Or someone else (ie. me) has to find the item and then put it in the actual spot, thus causing the other person to use up their time.

6. Use my time wisely. While waiting on Bebo when he’s outside, I’ll often use those five minutes to empty the dishwasher. If Jasper wants to play in his room I will sort through his closet or dust his bookcase.

7. Have a system for dealing with outgrown kid’s clothes. Toddlers outgrow clothing every day. Since we’re not sure if we’re done having kids I am saving most of Jasper’s clothes. (If we were done I would only save a few sentimental pieces and garage sale or donate the rest.) When I realize something is too small I put it in a basket in his closet. Once the basket is full, the clothes get put in a Rubbermaid container stored in the crawl space. Each Rubbermaid is labeled with the size of clothes it contains. The key for me is to empty the closet basket regularly. When Jasper was going through a huge growth spurt the whole bottom corner of his closet was full of too-small shirts and pants. It’s easier and quicker if I store them often.

8. Minimize how many duplicates I have and get rid of things I don’t use. How many spatulas do I really need? How many wooden spoons? (And yes, that picture is actually all of the wooden spoons and spatulas I own.) If I use something once a year, is it necessary to keep it? I try to only keep the number of pans/cooking items I use at a time. I have three cookie sheets which sounds like a lot but when I make cookies I use them all. I have one main cake pan because that’s all I really need.

I think the thing to keeping a clean house is to make realistic goals and slowly work on them. If your whole house needs work, start with one cabinet. You’ll feel so great when that’s organized that you’ll want to keep going. I recommend looking at your organized cabinet numerous times a day and showing it to anyone that stops by. Also, there is not just one way to stay organized. Though those tips work for me, they might not for you. Do what works for you.

My house is not perfect. I actually just found a scrunchie in my hair stuff that’s probably been there since I was in Jr. High. So yeah…I have drawers and closets that need some work. I just really love to keep things organized and think it makes me a much more productive person. Pretty sure I could be a professional organizer. And if you need some motivation just watch an episode of Hoarders. That always works for me.

*Wow…wordy post. I guess I have a lot to say about this subject. I might have to do a few more posts about this.

I have intended to organize my recipes for years. It absolutely drives me crazy that I have had to copy my mom’s pie crust recipe three times because I can never find it when I need it. I also don’t ever remember if a recipe I am looking for is on my computer or in a random binder.

I am a recipe junkie. I am constantly emailing myself some recipe I saved off the Internet. Sometimes I save it in my email, sometimes I print them, and sometimes I save them on my computer. If it has been printed out, it could be in one of many places: the kitchen pantry with the food magazines, tucked inside a random cookbook, inside a binder that contains recipes or folded up in an old recipe box I have. For someone who lives by the mantra “A place for everything and everything in its place”, this is completely frustrating.

I have analyzed the many different ways of organizing recipes. There’s Tastebook.com which seems pretty slick but not “expandable”. I am constantly adding recipes so I need something not so permanent. I really like the Russell + Hazel Binder set, although I am not hundred percent sold on the binder thing. I have also considered a software program or just making a folder on my computer to sort and organize all of my recipes.

Last year I did start slightly organizing my recipes in a Word document. The problem with that is that every time I went to bake I needed to print a copy out or run back and forth from the kitchen to the bedroom. I finally realized that I really love when I can bake or cook from actual recipe cards. There’s just something about it.

So that’s when I decided that I needed a cute recipe card holder. I’ve been hunting the Martha Stewart recipe box but my local Macy’s never seems to have it in stock. I also need to put all of my recipes on the same size cards. The thought of handwriting each one makes me ill. I’m such a perfectionist that I would probably end up starting over each time I messed up or if my handwriting wasn’t very neat. Solution: Just run the cards through my printer, of course! I’m going to set up an Indesign file that will be the correct sizing and then I’ll have to just type up the recipes.

I’m such a nerd but I’m totally excited to get my recipes all in one place and all matching!