Cleaning House

With back-to-school back in full-swing now, I must find the time to finish organizing this house!


I have completed the girls' closet. Sorting out clothes for proper sizing, storing sizes for next season/next growth spurt, etc, has been completed.

First up - sorting out all the hangers, and pulling out ALL the stuff from the closet.


How to organize this mess:

1. CLOTHES THAT FIT - pull out all clothes that fit and sort into a pile for each size (so I have two piles - size 5 and size 3).

2. SORT CLOTHES THAT FIT - sort out what you want to keep and what you want to donate/giveaway/sell.

2. CLOTHES THAT DON'T FIT - the other pile will be clothes that don't fit - now sort into clothes you no longer need (for us, size 2) and clothes to store (we will store size 4)

3. SORT CLOTHES THAT DON'T FIT - DONATE, GIVEAWAY, SELL - from the pile you no longer need now (for us, size 2) sort into donate pile, give away pile, and sell pile. My donate pile consists of items that are stained or a bit too ratty to give away to someone. My pile to give away consists of nice/good quality clothes that I am happy to give away (the ones I would be happy to receive). My sell pile consists of a few really good quality pieces that I know I could get a decent price for from ebay, or craigslist - this helps offset the price of any new items we may need to purchase. Put all these respective piles in a bag/box and move out of the room. Send an email to friends to see if they want any of the giveaway items. Put donate bag in car to drop off tomorrow. Take photos of to sell items and post up. Do all this today while your momentum is still strong!

4. CLOTHES THAT DON'T FIT FOR NOW- the size 4 clothing needs to now be stored away.

5. PUT AWAY CLOTHES THAT FIT - now all you should have left out is clothing that fits and now needs to be put back into the closet. I have one side of the closet for my 3 year old, and the other side for my 5 year old. This is what works for us, but it is important for you to really think about what will work for you. I initially sat down and drew out a plan for the closet - this definitely helped me plan what I needed to buy to make this closet house all these clothes. Next, I sort out long-sleeved tops from short-sleeved tops; long-sleeved dresses from short-sleeved dresses; coats and jackets

I decided on a new hanging "system" once I pulled everything out. I have a billion hangers, white ones, pink ones, green ones, so why not use them to differentiate the items I am hanging.

For Example - here I have long sleeve tops on the white hangers and short sleeve tops on the pink hangers:

On my 5 year old's side I have green hangers for her long sleeved tops, pink for her winter jackets, coats. The white hangers are for the girls' ballet outfits.

One side of the closet is for my 3 year old, the other side for my 5 year old. In the middle is this divider - a hanging 6 shelf contraption I bought from Target (? I think). I only purchased two drawers for it - and those drawers house their stockings/tights.

One box to store extra hangers. My policy for hangers is once the item of clothing comes off the hanger, the hanger goes into this box. This makes it so much easier to hang up their clean clothes - just grab the hanger box and hang away, then hang up into closet into correct section, all according to the color code. Got the hang of it? (sorry, couldn't resist!).

Shoe storage on the door makes it so easy to find shoes, and also limits what the little ones can pull out to make a mess. I bought these and the coordinating boxes from Zulily awhile ago, but I'm sure you could find comparable elsewhere (Target, WalMart, Bed Bath & Beyond, etc).

Top shelf has spare blankets, sheets, boxes for hangers and winter stuff (or off season stuff).

A few old toys tucked up in the corner.

Huggies box contains baby clothes I want to keep (gosh, I have such a hard time letting go!!).

All clothes hangers now color coordinated = happy mama!

Matching boxes contain size 4 clothing waiting for 3 yr old ;)

Oh, nicely organized closet - everything is now easy to reach, sorted out, and color coordinated. It is really amazing the difference the color coordination has made - it is now so easy to find what you need (and quickly) and helps when you are putting everything away too - you now know where it goes. I think it was definitely worth the extra time it took to set up. Just hoping we can keep it this way all year!

ahhh.....

Totally Awesome Interiors - Laundry

I really need to finish my laundry room, so here is some of my inspiration:

From Hydrangea Home

From Hydrangea Home

From House of Turquoise

Beautiful cabinets.

Source: inspirationfordecoration.blogspot.com via Kathryn on Pinterest

There are more ways to add color to a room other than painting the walls or cabinets.

Source: inspirationfordecoration.blogspot.com via Kathryn on Pinterest

Cute artwork - who says you can't decorate the laundry room, especially with art work!

Source: ballarddesigns.com via Kathryn on Pinterest

Now that is organized. To be this beautiful you must purge and only have the essentials!

Source: houzz.com via Kathryn on Pinterest

Love the light fixture.

Source: plainenglishdesign.co.uk via Kathryn on Pinterest

So clean. So fresh. Perfect for the laundry, don't you think?

Source: aglimpseofthegirlnextdoor.blogspot.com via Kathryn on Pinterest

Pretty shelves. Perfect organization.

Source: houzz.com via Kathryn on Pinterest

Satisfying Organization - Cupboard

BEFORE:

This was the cupboard in the girls' bathroom/spare bathroom - C.R.A.Z.Y! I hated opening the door, and trying to find anything - agghhh! So it was time to finally get it organized. Basically, up on the top shelf are the spare linens/ towels/ blankets, medicine, cleaning products (up high out of the kids' reach). On lower shelf - girls' towels, my hairdryer, bath products.

AFTER:

I used a couple of containers I already had - one is used to store the bath products up on the top shelf (don't want the girls getting into the shampoo) and another to store the medicines. All spare linen and towels are stored towards the back of the top shelf.

Girls' towels and guest towels now neatly on bottom, plus my hair dryer.

Up on top shelf - cleaning products, and medicines in container (the container makes it easy to get down and yet also hides what is in there, so it looks neater in the cupboard).

Top shelf also has toothpaste and brushes, toilet paper and bath products.

Overall, much more organized. Everything has a place, is in its place, looks good, and, thankfully, I'm not so stressed out when I open this cupboard! I find that proper organization needs to be done after you have considered the problem, planned out a solution that will work for you and how you operate, then do it! This works, and has for awhile now, because everything is easily accessible. I literally drew out a plan of the cupboard, took note of what was in there, then drew up a new plan of what I wanted in there and where it would go. This also helps to figure out what will fit where. Next, pull everything out, sort it out, clean the cupboard, throw out the trash, donation the stuff you don't use, then put back everything else - DONE! :)

 

Start with just one drawer or one cupboard and go from there. Organization comes so much more easily when you have somewhere to put your stuff, where you can find it again.