An Organized Home is a Happy Home, Part 2

I realized yesterday after I posted about my organizing around the house I forgot some pics and so here are some more after pics of some areas of the house. My linen closet is so tiny in my hallway that I have to keep in organized or I wouldn't be able to fit much in it, my pantry is also another place that always seems to be needing a tidy up since we use it every day, but I use baskets down below to organize some items that I buy in bulk so that way it is easy to access and also keeps things looking neat. 

 Using old jars is a great way to organize small objects in the garage or laundry room or really anywhere in the house, I used them to organize my batteries, which always seem to be a mess, plus its great they are clear so you can easily see which one is which.

 My garage is a work in progress until we move into our own home where we have a usable attic and hopefully a shed, but for now it is still pretty organized even with the Tahoe parked in the garage. I can't wait until we buy our next house so I can put my beautiful late 1800s piano (to the right) my aunt recently gave me in the house to enjoy its beauty, I hate that it has to be stored in the garage right now.

 Here is a picture of my desk drawer

I also wanted to share a quick idea that I came up with today while moving some stuff around to baby proof since Norah is now climbing onto the couch and chairs and can reach more things then she used to. When I'm getting ready in my room this drawer below was the only drawer she could open and I got so tired of picking up the clothes out of it and telling her no so I finally took it all out today and decided to put some of her toys in it. Now its her drawer when we are in the bedroom, whether I'm folding clothes or getting ready she can enjoy opening this drawer and playing with its treasures! Plus when were all done in the room we can close it and you don't see the toys, they are all nice and tucked away until next time! I don't know why I didn't think of this before!

An Organized Home is a Happy Home

The last few weeks I have been on a crazy organizing kick, it all started from wanting to organize my spare room because it tends to be the throw all room for toys Norah has out grown, but that we want to save for the next kiddos, my crafts and current DIY projects and everything else in between. I finally one day got fed up with not being able to walk in the spare room without possibly tripping over something and hurting myself so I went through the room and really got it in great shape, I didn't get to do a deep organizing of the closest and book shelf cubes, but it looked a ton better than it did so I was pleased, then a couple of days later I opened Norah's closest and was so tired of all her clothes that she had outgrown always in a folded pile in the bottom of her closest because I had no where else to put them until we invested in some nice rubbermaid roughneck tubs. We were on our way to Lowe's later that day anyway so I decide I was finally going to splurge and buy some storage totes to organize Norah's outgrown clothes so they could be easily accessed for the next girl if we have another one. I ended up finding pink smaller ones that were perfect for separating the clothes by 0-3 months, 3-6 months, etc. and I was glad they had pink because when they are stored I know that the pink ones mean girl clothes and will be easily accessible. So Norah helped me (helped is not the most accurate word, but she is so cute because she loves being with me whenever I am organizing and she moves things around thinking she is helping mommy and I just love it, she is just like me!) organize her clothes and get it into bins and I used my handy dandy label maker I purchased from Target awhile back to label all the boxes. I also purchased some cloth printed boxes for her top shelf in her closet to help organize the stuff that was halfway falling off the top shelf, I still need more, but I keep checking Marshalls (where I purchased the 2 I have) and Homegoods to see if they have any new ones, but no luck yet and since I am doing mix match patterns I don't mind waiting until I find some really cute ones. So once I finished her closet I felt so amazing. I had been wanting to do that since she was like 6 months old.

Next came a few days later when I was reading about organizing on the Young House Love blog and she was inspiring me to really go through things, like your nail polish collection and makeup and cleaning products and consolidating to just the basics and especially with the cleaners. I already try to use mostly natural, no chemical based cleaners, but I have to admit I have always been a product junky, I love seeing what new natural cleaner is out there and trying it and having a cleaner for every area of the house, whether its the toilet or tub or sink, but there was something about consolidating down to one do it all cleaner for everything (I do like Method's Anti-Bacterial Cleaner for my kitchen counters and I still use AJAX for getting tough stains out of the sink and tubs, I also use a natural window cleaner, but I have heard just water and a good microfiber cloth can do an amazing streak free job) and I liked the idea of not having to remember what I'm out of when I am at Costco or Target. And anyone close to me knows I am the return queen, if I don't like the product and the store allows me to return it I will, even if the product isn't open if I come home and realize oops I bought one when I didn't need it I return it the next time I hit that store. I was so inspired from the blog post that I started the next day. I started in our bathroom and went through all the drawers, every nook and cranny and it was amazing what I was realizing I didn't need and it felt so good to consolidate down because we really can live with so much less. When I was going through my bulk stash in the garage I decided to return my Swiffer refill pads and to purchase some washable mircofiber cloths for dusting that Sherry from YHL blog had said she uses, I also decided to return any unopened cleaning products I use on a regular basis because I really wanted to purchase the one all purpose cleaning product YHL recommend for cleaning which is Mrs. Meyers All Purpose Cleaner in Lemon Verbena (Concentrated so you can dilute it and it will last you awhile).  Are you ready for this, I returned $140 worth of stuff that afternoon after I went through my cleaning products and pantry items, there was a few clothes and unopened food items in that amount but it was mostly household items. I think the lady at Costco thought I was crazy but I didn't care it felt so good when she handed me $101.00!!

It felt sooooo good to clear out my cubbies in my house and narrow down so much. I still need to use up some of my current cleaners cause I definitely don't believe in waste, but it felt so good knowing I won't be buying all these things again, plus I loved not only the declutter factor but the money saving factor and if you know me I love to save $$$!! I even returned my unopened Clorax wipes which I love for quick jobs but I knew if I just mix up some of the Mrs. Meyers All Purpose Cleaner with some water to dilute it I can throw it into a spray bottle and use it for a quick clean up. Then after the day of going through nail polishes and my makeup bag and cleaners I decided the next day I would go through my kitchen cabinets and go back to the spare room and do the deep organizing I wanted to do when I cleaned out the spare room the week before, so I tackled every drawer and cabinet in the kitchen and had a whole counter's worth of stuff I no longer needed and then went into the spare room and went through every box, shelf and drawer. My cabinet in my living room that holds my TV used to be a dresser I got at my local thrift store so it has tons of drawers for great storage and I realized I wasn't using all of the drawers and decided I would use them to organize my crafts, scrapbooking supplies, pictures, and more, I was able to move a ton out of the spare room into the drawers and free up a ton of space, which abled me to move things around and make the spare room a spare room again!!! I could actually see the full size bed again!

Here are the After pics of the spare room, I wish I would have taken a before!! Oh and the comforter you see on the bed I just found at the Goodwill brand new in a Target Home box for $12.99 with a Target tag on it for $89.99!!! 

After these few days of organizing I realized I was accumulating some potential garage sale stuff and then my sister-in-law calls me and says she wants to have a garage sale because she has been organizing and wants to get rid of stuff and I laughed because I couldn't believe we were doing the same thing and didn't even know, we think so much alike!!! So we decided we were going to have a garage sale together that next Friday so then I went into full get rid of stuff mode! Over the next week I literally went through every drawer and area in my house and garage, I even recruited Casey on his day off to help me go through all our old keepsake boxes our parents gave us when we moved back from Virginia, it took us 4 hours but we consolidated 10 to 12 boxes of childhood papers, toys, clothes, etc to 4 or 5, it felt so good because then all of a sudden we had tons of room in the garage again!! When the night before the garage sale arrived I literally filled up my Tahoe and the only spaces that were left were me and Norah's seats and that's it!! I couldn't believe the amount of stuff I had gotten rid of even since we moved from Virginia because I had gone through everything in VA before I packed. But even this time I was more aggressive with letting things go then I am normally because I love to get rid of things in general and declutter. I hate holding onto things that have no meaning or that I don't totally love, but this time I was so inspired from Sherry from Young House Love blog that I realized less is more, even down to my nail polish collection and makeup bag. It was also great because we are hoping to buy a house by the fall and now all the going through everything before we move is done!!

Here are some After pics of my bathroom all organized!