31 Days to a Happier Life - Day 4

I'm kinda impressed that I have make it to Day 4 (a little late, but I made it none-the-less)! Woot!! Okay, a little bit premature, I guess, for any celebration. Or not!!

By celebrating small victories we boost our confidence to be able to tackle the bigger challenges.

I have finally finished painting my closet. My hands are barely functioning. My back is permanently bent. I'm so tired (I also have two sick kids, and an anxiety-ridden husband, but that's all for a different post) but I did it! And it looks AWESOME!

Next up is the floor, then the dreaded clothing declutter, aka dump, aka less stuff more quality, aka get-it-out-of-the-bedroom!! I am not good at decluttering my closet - too sentimental. I'm okay at getting rid of the items I don't wear, outdated stuff, etc, but then my closet is full of sentimental items that I never wear but cannot get rid of! And I still have nothing to wear!!! So I need a better solution - a smarter storage answer for this dilemma. I also want more room in my closet so it doesn't look like I have crammed everything-and-my-grandma in there. I want it where you can go in there and breathe and relax AND find something to wear. Sounds doable, right? It.is.just.a.closet. OK :) I can breathe now.

Closet Makeover Before and After

So when I am in the middle of a project like this everything else pretty much flies out the proverbial mind window. I'm so lucky I remembered to put something out for dinner this morning, otherwise it would have been toast for us. And by toast, I mean actual toast! So how can I control my head, my days, my house and my life? With LISTS!

We have already established our long-term and short-term goal lists, now we need to implement them and all our everyday chores into a Daily Goal List. At the beginning of the week print out 5, or 7 pages and keep them all together. Each night you will write out your list for the next day - listing three daily goals - the main important things you need to accomplish that next day. Get a clipboard, hang it up where it is easy to see and access. Refer to it all day, everyday.

Being organized and not missing anything makes me happy!

P.S. I'm going to try to figure out a good program to use to do a Daily Goal Schedule printable - this may take me awhile!! Or I may just freehand it and scan it in...mmmm...stay tuned :)

 
Solutions - great tips for closet storage solutions.

Art - I'm so excited - I ordered this beautiful print for my closet.

Goal Chart - found this lovely goal chart/daily planner - worth starting with until I figure out my perfect solution.

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.....