Fast, Easy, Cheap Organizing

My son has been complaining about his socks and underwear being in the same drawer as his pajamas. He says they are hard to find. Here is a glorious before of what a drawer looks like after a 6 year old has rummaged through it to find what he needs.

After:

The solution!?! Cutting the lid off a shoe box which makes a natural 3 compartment storage! His socks are inside the shoe box. BOOYAH! For his pajamas we started rolling the shirt with the bottoms so he just has to grab a roll. This helps a lot because now he doesn't have to search through his drawer for a top and bottom and make a mess in the process.

This is a great solution for us because it helps him keep his drawers more organized and he has told me frequently that he loves the way his drawer is organized now;)

Next problem, DVD's. I hate having a zillion DVD cases or having to flip through page after page to find what I am looking for. Plus, we have 3 different containers so it's a pain. Solution: the mammoth sized DVD holder (you can even add more pages).

I put tags on the side to categorize ie: kids, adult, exercise, church, etc 

p.s. I did the same thing with our CD's too.

Organize

The flu is rampaging through my family. Sleepless nights spent cleaning up....ahem vomit... because tiny children couldn't make it to the toilet in time or missed the bowl. Sad news. I haven't left my house and I am going a little crazy. I am feeling nauseated too. If you haven't gotten my hints, I need you to feel sorry for me;) Really really sorry;) 

Now, sense I have been spending most of my time tending to sad tummies and fevers, I thought I would share some apps that I LOVE LOVE LOVE! I have found a few things that make life so much easier to organize. So let me share with you a few apps that are a MUST HAVE to keep organized in all aspects.

Cozi
Price: Free
Cozi makes your phone the ultimate family organizer with a centralized calendar, shopping lists, to do lists and a family journal the whole family can share on the go. This has it all.
I love how it color codes each family member. It automatically sinks phones so everyone knows what's happening. Perfect for a busy house hold with everyone on the go.

Mealboard:
Price: $1.99
Seriously people you have all your recipes on your phone so if anyone wants it you just text it to them. At the store and can't remember what is in a certain recipe, got it! You make a weekly, monthly, whatever meal plan and it will make a grocery list of what you need. You can set alerts to remind you if you need to thaw chicken or put in a marinade, or whatever. I am not really sure how I lived without this. I WAY prefer this over cozi because it allows me more flexibility. This is my favorite app.

Runkeeper
Price: free
It uses GPS to track your mileage. You can set a coach to tell you when to speed up for intervals, tell you if you are staying on pace, and much much more.

ReQall
Price: Free
Basically, this is a reminder app. You can save your ideas and your to-do lists and reQall will remind you when you need to do those things. It offers a voice-to-text feature too, so you don’t have to type it out if you don’t want to tap away. The personal reminder service is pretty handy too. This is one of my favorites!













Spellboard:
Price: $4.99
Whether you are a student, teacher or parent, we all know the weekly spelling drill. Monday, we get our weekly words. Wednesday, we have our pre-quiz and Friday is the spelling test.  Of course, during the week there are endless impromptu spelling quizzes, -- at home, in the car, at dinner, before bed -- you get the idea. Well, all that may have just changed -- say hello to SpellBoard! 
We use this ALL the time and it is so convenient that we do it driving in the car. Genius! P.S. you can only make the quizzes on an Ipad and transfer to an Iphone, but there are many spelling quizzes you can get from the website directly to your iphone.

SO those are a few apps that I have found are easy to use and basically essential to my survival and sanity!

Envelope System

Managing a successful budget can take time and patients. Also, a lot of discipline. I am not great at budgeting. See my budgeting motto has always been only spend money when necessary and buy everything on a really amazing sale or at a garage sell. It's worked fine because we have never been in unnecessary debt. We have tried a 'regular' budget where we write everything down, but I always forget to record everything and hubby doesn't always tell me what he has spent. So basically I needed to think outside of the box for our family.
I have had so many people tell me how they are able to save so much money with the envelope system. I thought I would try it; however, I have lost my wallet and purse more then I care to admit and I don't fill comfortable caring around that much cash.
Here is my solution. We use our credit card like a debit card and pay it off every month. That way we get the free perks from earning points (cash back in our case). So we make money by using our credit card instead of debit card.

I bought a note book and put these cute tabs on the side with the different categories for our budget.

I carry this little note book around in my purse where ever I go. But like the envelope system I have an allotted amount I can spend on each category. When that money is used up, we go without;) We do it week by week. This way takes a little more discipline, but doesn't require caring around so much cash.



















Every time I spend money I immediately (like still standing in the check out line immediately) write it down under the category.

Now for the fix for hubby. He's busy, he doesn't want a bulky note book in his pocket or white coat. Solution, every time he purchases something he texts me the amount and what category to put it under. Then I add it to the portable budget keeper;) And that's it. It works for us and doesn't require caring around a lot of cash. 

Kitchen

I am doing some organizing in my Kitchen and I decided to make labels for my canisters.

I cut mine out of vinyl, but you can easily print them on sticker paper or print and laminate them.
Here they are in all the glory. I have some weird ones like Chia Seeds or Bulgur so I decided to just give you the basics and empty ones to fill in yourself. Enjoy!

Download HERE

Pre-Holiday Decluttering

Pears were on sale for 77 cents a pound. So I got a big box and got to work. I dehydrated 2 gallon size zip lock bags!

Then I canned some pear jam. It's kind of runny, but it is my absolute favorite!

With the up coming holidays, I like to do a de-cluttering / organizing act to make room for the new and exciting goodies. To help me with that and future organizing projects, I came up with something that will help make the process easier.

I made 3 labels and taped them on a big plastic bin. Here are my notes to myself to keep me on task!

Put Away- Come on girl, just take the time to put it in the correct place
Donate- Just let go of it already! You haven't used it in three years and you didn't even remember you owed it, but it is still in good shape.
Trash- Time to toss it if it's broken

The fun thing is when I am not using them, I just stack them together and put them in my closet. As I go about daily life, I will sometimes find things to donate. So, I store it in the stacked bins.
You can download all the labels HERE.

Organizing Nature

My daughter is a collector of all things in Nature. Where ever we go, she has to pick up some 'treasure'. Whether it be a rock, a dead leaf, a stick, a feather, a flower, pulling a few leaves off a plant, or what ever catches her eye. She finds value in even the most ordinary of things. She doesn't like to throw it away. But ever week we dump it all outside and she gets to refill her bin with new treasures. It has a lid that snaps on and off very easily for little hands. The lid allows her to set it next to her where ever she goes and even take it to bed with her.

So, instead of stifling the curiosity of children and their need to explore the world around them, get a $1 bin with a lid and have them help you dump it out every week to make room for the next weeks treasures. The only rule is, you can't have more then what will fit in the bin:)

I read something like this somewhere in a book and I can't remember where, but I loved it. This is me paraphrasing it:)
Children are very imaginative. A simple bowl of water, a few toys that float, and maybe some measuring cups can keep a kid entertained for hours. Give them a few ideas of how to start and sit back and watch them get to work. You will be amazed at what they come up with. A sibling and or friend helps things get off quickly and tends to keep them focused longer. Leaving you time to watching the magic happen:)

Back to School

Today is my son's first day of school. He is entering the 1st grade and will be going to school a full day for the first time too! He is a little nerves and so am I:) Hey, what can I say he is my oldest and the only child in school. Using THIS (scroll to bottom of post about snacks. I have been using this all summer and LOVED it), I expanded on it for lunches.

Well, he will be taking lunch to school every day because he has an allergy to dairy and I feel like this is the only way I can guarantee he won't receive any dairy products (whether raw or baked into something). So with that said, let me give you a little low down on our lunch making center I have in our refrigerator and cupboards. I keep reusable containers for all of the items. I wash them as needed and restock them with lunch goodness.

In a plastic bin I loaded 1 weeks worth of all the essentials:

• non-dairy GoGurts, fruit cups, any veggies he decides he wants (right now it's broccoli and cauliflower), grapes, berries, small container of humus for dipping.

• In the cupboard, I keep another plastic bin loaded with easy to grab items such as pretzels, dried fruit, trail mix, crackers, the occasional cookie, and Luna Bars.

•  Because it is so hot here, the student's are advised to bring a bottle of water every day and keep it at their desks to stay hydrated. So he will have this water bottle to drink from. I also make sure he has a drink with his lunch. He uses a reusable water bottle that I put in water or rice milk. Occasionally, I will let him take a all natural low sugar juice pouch.

I tell him not to throw anything away to just stick everything back into his lunch box and I clean it out when he comes home. This way he doesn't mistakenly throw away any of the reusable containers or utensils.

Then every morning he can pick out what he wants to include in his lunch. All I have to do is make a sandwich and we are good to go!

I received this from Simplify 101 and thought I would share her ideas too. Funny she does something very similar to me:)

"Around here, back to school is just around the corner… which means it’s time to look for ways to simplify the morning rush. One task that will be returning to my morning to-do list is packing school lunches. So, to simplify the process this year, I’m expanding on my pantry lunch-making mini-zone by putting together a refrigerator mini-zone loaded with school lunch essentials. Here are some ideas for creating your own lunch-making mini-zone.

• Purchase (or repurpose) a plastic storage bin sized to fit on one of the shelves in your refrigerator.

• Load your bin with prepackaged lunch-making items such as cheese sticks, and/or small packages of yogurt, smoothies, juice or milk.

• Once a week stock your lunch bin with items such as grapes, baby carrots, celery sticks and dip, stored in small, reusable lunch containers.

• Add sandwich-making supplies such as bread, natural peanut butter, jam or jelly, or lunch meats and cheese.

• Keep unrefrigerated lunch-making items like napkins, cutlery, chips, crackers and cookies in a second bin in your pantry.

• If your kids are older, assign them the task of filling their lunch box each morning with the pre-packed items in your lunch-making mini-zone."

Kids Closet Organizing

I wanted to show you how I organized the kid's closet. Any one with kids knows how quickly they are growing in and out of clothing. It's hard to keep up with it sometimes. Plus, you have summer and winter cloths. I was trying to use a plastic drawer to hold the seasonal clothing that still fit them, but it broke and the drawers would no longer close.

I would put out grown clothing in the Huggies box until I was able to get it put away for long term storage. I also had a bag full of clothing of the sizes they will wear next. It just wasn't working.

I found this at Ikea. The drawers have the seasonal clothing that still fits. It's 115 degrees here today so there is no use for pants and long sleeve shirts:) I put their jackets and warmer pj's on the top. The 2 smaller drawers have socks.

For clothing that they have out grown, but I haven't put in long term storage, I put in the bottom grey bin. The top grey bin holds the next size up clothing. I even had room underneath to store a basket full of my daughter's dress up cloths.

Now the closet is split in half. My daughter's clothing on one side and my son's clothing on the other. This system works much better for our needs.

Getting Organized Day 7

I am a HUGE fan of Don Aslett. His products are AMAZING. When you by cleaning supplies in stores you pay for water. At Don Aslett you pay for a highly concentrated solution and add the water yourself. He has so many products ranging from wooden floors, to mops, to toilet brushes, and much much more. I have never been disappointed in any product there. My ultimate favorite is the X-O Odor Neutralizer. It works miracles people. My sister in law used it to get cigaret smell out of a matrices. We used it to get the mildew smell from something being spilled in the car. There is also a X-O odor neutralizer that cleans as well. Perfect for pets and and small children for accidents in the carpet.

I am off my soap box now (I got nothing for telling you about Don Aslett, I just love them so much I wanted to share it with you).  For today, I was able to give the cupboards in the master bathroom some greatly needed attention.

My side

Hubby's side

Here is the after. I got a drawer to organize  hubby's side because he WAS putting things he uses on a regular basis in a box.

My side:

And just in case you were wondering, here is the guest bathroom cupboards. I am not really sure why, probably because we don't use it very often, but our guest bathroom is surprisingly organized. I have band-aides, first aid kit, the shredder, and some towels on one side.

 

Cleaning supplies on the other side. And before any of you say anything, yes, I have child locks on the cleaning supplies.

Here is a look in the drawers of our bathroom. These have always been like this, I didn't even have to organize them for you! Guess I am not as bad as I originally thought!

I have a container for all of my hair ties (I know, I know, I have way too many). I also have a container in the back that holds all nail care items. For bobby pins, I use an old pin catcher. I am lazy and never put them in the little container I had. I had to get a new pin catcher for sewing because I dropped it one to many times and it no longer stays together. It got recycled to catch my bobby pins!



















Makeup is all in this drawer.

Oral care here. I love the long bins to hold toothbrushes because then the drawers don't get messy with toothpaste.

I want to eventually get a big bin for the kid's bathroom to hold their toothbrushes as well, but for now we have flossers and toothpaste in bins.



















Drawer for my daughter's hair stuff. A bin to catch all the hair ties. I am lazy people, they wouldn't get put away if there was a lid so they go in here. Easy peasy!

I asked everyone I knew to tell me their best organizing secrete. I came up with a really good list. Here they are in no particular order.

1. If you have multiple bathrooms, keep cleaning supplies under the cupboard in every bathroom. Then you don't have to search for something all over the house. Everything is always where you use it. OR, get a cleaning caddy that you keep everything you need and carry it from bathroom to bathroom. Like THIS one from Don Aslett.

2. When organizing storage rooms keep like items together and LABEL, LABEL, LABEL. ex: toothpaste, floss, and toothbrushes all go in one bin. Label Oral Care. Shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and deodorant all go together. Label Body Care.

3. When organizing children's cloths for storage, Have a seperate bin for shirts, pants, socks and underwear, pjs. Then within the bins, bag sizes together and label. For example my son wears size 6. In his shirt bin I have 0-5t shirts. They are all in their own bag according to size. All the 3T are together, all the 0-9 months are together, etc. That way when I need a certain size for a younger sibling, I go to that bin and get it.

4. Put things away as you use them. Then you don't get overwhelmed and not do anything. This is my problem. I get so overwhelmed that I just don't do anything because I don't know where to start. When cooking, I started putting spices, flour, sugar, etc away as soon as I was done using it and clean up as been much easier for me. My master-bedroom closet would benefit from this greatly;)

5. Put things away in the place you use them. It doesn't make sense to store cookbooks on the living room bookshelf if you use them in the kitchen. I use my cricut machine and vinyl by my computer. I use to store it in a spare bedroom. I would have to haul it back and forth and sometimes it just didn't get put away. Now I have my cricut on a shelf right next my computer and vinyl in a desk drawer. Problem solved.

6. When organizing a game closet, put the favorites on top. Then you don't have to dig it out and make the rest of the games a mess.  The closet will stay better organized.

7. For children, have coat racks at their level so they can hang up their own jackets and back packs. Put the shoe bin on the floor so they can easily get shoes in and out. We have a coat closet that my kids can't reach the hangers. I hung up hooks on the wall for them and now they can put their jackets and back packs away instead of throwing it on the floor.

And I'm spent!

Getting Organized:

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Getting Organized Day 6

Well friends, thanks for sticking with us. Tomorrow is the last day of our getting organized series. There will be a great giveaway and some really great ideas so don't miss it!
Today I am bringing you my master bedroom closet makeover. It needed a serious overhaul. It has been one of those projects that has been on my to do list for about 2 years. I am great at procrastinating. Well, let's just dive right in. Here are the hideous before pictures. Did I mention that I am learning to be more organized? So, please be kind;) Mom, look away now. I don't want you to be disappointed in me and wonder where you went wrong! (there is no charge for my hilariousness). Now, at the risk of looking like a slob, which maybe I already do, here are my before pictures. I swear we don't live in total chaos like this....... at least not all the time. HA! 

After:
This part was really easy. I just put the shoes on the shoe rack and put a few things away! Image that, actually putting things away helps things stay organized.

 I have some great plans for these built in shelves. But that requires a trip to Ikea

After: For now they just get organized better.

 In the corners are stuffed random things that really don't belong there.

 This is corner #1

This is the floor of corner #2

 Here are the corners now!
Corner #1

 Corner #2

Complete and utter disaster. You would think we just moved in. We did, like 2 years ago. HA!  Hhhmmmm.... good thing I am working on it.  So, what I would like to focus on is the boxes at the top of the shelf.

 And yes, those are a new package of underwear for my daughter right there.

We have been storing things in the milk boxes from Costco. Hey, we already bought it right!?! I decided to make it look a little better by cutting off the flaps on top and spray painting the outside of the boxes. I tried to do a fun bright red, but it have taken way to many layers to cover the writing on the box. So, I used "hammered" because I had it and wanted to use it up. This took about 2 layers.
Here they are in all their gloriousness (straight from the Made Up Word Dictionary). Looks much better right!?! The correct answer is yes.

While I was waiting for the paint to dry, I made some labels. If you missed the post about making cheap and easy labels go HERE. It's a lot easier to read what's in the boxes now. Before we had just written on the boxes.

That is the beginning of a closet overhaul. There are still somethings I want to do, but I think we can all agree that it looks substantially better. Something I am learning is organizing happens in stages. As I get more organized, I see ways to organize things better. It is a process I don't think I will ever be completely done with. blagh!

My sister told me about this idea. I loved it so much that we now do it! I have a bin for snacks that are proportioned out for my kids in snack baggies. You could use reusable snack containers instead. When they get hungry I let them pick one bag from the snack bin and then fruits and veggies after that. This keeps kids from over eating. This is also very helpful with babysitters. For snacks I just tell them to let each kid pick one bag from the bin. Also, this is perfect for on the go when you need to a snack! We went to Sprouts and I let the kids each pick 3 things they would like for a snack (I veto candy). We do trail mix, pretzels, dried fruit, nut mixes, etc.

After they have one bag, then it's fruits or veggies from then on. I keep the fruit and veggies prepared in the refrigerator. I prepare it the night before so it stays fresh, but makes snack time easier. Plus, it makes it easier for me to eat healthier. Today we had cantaloupe and honeydew, and watermelon. I don't like cantaloupe or honeydew so they went into a different bin today. As you can tell my kids prefer it over watermelon! We are using up our frozen vegetables right now so for veggies I just warm up some veggies. We alternate fruit and veggies. So, if they picked a fruit last time I make them pick a veggie. That way we get both;)

Getting Organized:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5