around the house: my favorite organizing supplies

I kind of always love organizing, but I'll admit that January always especially gives me the bug... just want to clear out the old, and make everything that's left look all organized and pretty. I've already delivered a big load to the local thrift shop, and feel loads lighter (amazing what a physical release that provides!). Haven't done any new major organization projects yet except for some rearranging in the disaster areas of the basement - working towards making room for that treadmill! - but if you've got the itch too, I thought I'd share some of my favorite organizing supplies and products from other rooms.

In the kitchen, I have used OXO canisters to keep the pantry organized for years - they were a bit of an investment (though, pro tip: sometimes you can find them for a great price at TJ Maxx or Home Goods), but they have held up for nearly 10 years, so they're very worth it! The ones in my baking drawer have labels on top for easy access to everything. And I've done a whole post on my spice drawer organization - pretty much one of my favorite things of 2020.

 

In the playroom, we have tons of built in drawers, many of which are admittedly a disaster inside the drawer, but at least they contain stuff out of sight. For Legos though we've used Sterilite containers for several years, to keep sets corralled separately into their own little bins, plus we've got one big bin for the "creative" pieces that don't need to be sorted separately. Another organization tool we love in here is the art cart, to corral all of our creative supplies in bins and jars in one spot.

 

And in the master bathroom, I am still feeling flush with storage space by the fact of having any drawers at all, compared to having a pedestal sink and zero drawer storage before our remodel. These aren't super heavily organized, but some clear bins from Target and Amazon have served us well to keep dental, skincare, and haircare stuff corralled separately.

A few other bonus items that I really love around the house: 

• Acrylic shelf dividers in our hallway coat closet, which I use to keep my purses standing up nicely instead of being a jumbled mess like they used to be 
• Ikea drawer organizers for dressers, which I use for all of us, especially great for undies/socks, but they also keep Hendrik's clothes contained a bit, instead of just being dumped into full drawers when he does his laundry putting away chores
• West Elm storage coffee table is so handy in the living room to stick extra magazines, remotes, and whatnot that I want handy but out of sight - bonus that when it opens half of it pops up to serve as an excellent height table for eating dinner on movie nights, or sitting with my laptop while I watch tv and type (like right now!)

And now after looking at all of these bins and baskets I'm having a bit of a Container Store craving... Got any fun organization projects you're working on lately?

five things Friday: the Home Edit edition

Like plenty of people (as evidenced by the top Netflix billing at the moment), I'm pretty obsessed by The Home Edit's new Netflix show. Watching a show with before-and-after reveals of organization is always up my Container Store-loving alley, but in a time of upheaval in life, it is even more satisfying to see. And even better when they organize everything RAINBOW STYLE! I'm so into it. And also inspired to organize more, of course... I've already done my bookshelves rainbow style; now I'm kinda wishing I had more colorful clothes so I could do my closet that way too. 

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Here are some of my other personal faves in organization that I think would totally be Home Edit ladies approved (they even have a whole collection page with The Container Store with lots of these type of goodies - no surprise).

The dividers I use in a coat closet to separate my purses on a shelf, so much nicer than how they used to just be shoved there with straps all tangled. The spice drawer rack/labels got a whole blog post, I love this form of organization so much, and the OXO container set is my other kitchen organization fave; my entire pantry is outfitted with these for storing everything from cereal to pasta to flour, etc. and they're still going strong after 5+ years. For office and playroom, the tiered utility cart is a fave for wrangling extra supplies. And finally I love these acrylic makeup organizers for keeping everything beautifully wrangled in a medicine cabinet - all of my makeup supplies are contained in 2 of these babies and I always know where everything is. 

 

If you haven't watched the show yet, definitely you've got to. I love how it's partly celebrity organization, so you get to see this fancy high-end stuff and fun appearances/peek behind the scenes with people like Reese Witherspoon and Retta from Parks & Rec and Neil Patrick Harris, and then partly regular people's homes so you can see real-life chaos turned to beauteous order (though the "regular" people do seem to be quite wealthy people as well...). I actually wasn't super familiar with this organizing duo before, but apparently they have quite the cult Instagram following and now I want to check out their book (also the new one that just came out) too!

Now I'm off to decide on a weekend organizing project. My idea of a good time!

organizing lately: spice drawer

I will admit that I am a person who likes control. And in a time when there's so much out of my control and upping my anxiety (okay, life isn't ever exactly in my control, but usually there's at least a bit more pretense of it!), I think that taking the reins and imposing some order in the world through organization is not at all a bad coping strategy. Because look at the results... I present: my spice drawer!

We always had this amazing built-in tiered spice drawer (which you can re-create by purchasing an insert like this), and fabulous as our remodeled kitchen is, this little thing is one of my favorite bits. But in my search for quarentimes therapeutic organization activities, I have turned it into a true thing of beauty by moving all of the spices over to matching jars and putting on these modern minimalist labels I got on Etsy.

All in all, a highly satisfying project, and useful as well - I recommend! Various supplies are linked above in case you could use something like this in your life too. And what do you think - do you want to see more of my organization therapy projects? There's definitely more where this came from - it's been a long pandemic already...

pin to present: new year cleanout

My mom's word for 2017 is streamline, which I kind of want to plagiarize. The new year always gets me feeling like I want to simplify and declutter in many areas of life... what I carry around in my gym makeup bag, how many junk emails I get on a daily basis, the outgrown clothes in Hendrik's drawers, the jars that have been hiding at the back of the fridge for months. So when I spotted a couple of "things to get rid of" lists on Pinterest, I was all in.

image: Magnolia Moon

I have a pretty low threshold for clutter, but it's still amazing what little things can build up, so I love that this list reminds me of the areas to check (e.g., the drawer with all the old receipts and the coupons that are probably all expired by now), and I also love that it forces me to acknowledge that I really should just get rid of a few things that I'm hanging onto just in case (e.g., those wrapping paper scraps that I really am not going to use).

Starting January 1, I began tackling the items on this list (sometimes 2 a day because I get a little over excited). Today's task is gifts you don't use/want, so out goes the large framed photo of my organization's staff that was sent to me by my boss... Each task just takes a couple of minutes, and they are so seriously satisfying to do. Just look at all these tidy places!

The cleanout of cosmetics and hair products beyond their "discard after" date, lip colors and other cosmetic samples I just didn't like, gloopy nail polishes, and over-stretched hairties made me especially happy as I'm loving my streamlined makeup cabinet and also makeup kit in my gym bag (so much less heavy now!). I know I'm pretty minimal with makeup application, so the prompt to be minimal in my little cabinet was a good one. Time to get rid of all that stuff I don't use and figure out the products that I love, to make my own little makeup capsule. Newest on the list are Beautycounter mascara, Lorac highlighter/bronzer, and Bioderma makeup remover. So I'm getting rid of anything in those categories that is not those items!

Are you into any new year cleanouts right now? Streamline 2017!

p.s. toward the end of the list is get off of store email lists, which I can already say makes such a HUGE difference in my email inbox. A while ago I tried the service Unroll.Me to round up all those email subscriptions, and now I just receive one summary email from them per day, instead of all those store things. Definitely check that out!

pin to present: jewelry storage mirror

We have a teeny tiny bathroom attached to our bedroom (which I'll definitely take as better than nothing (the usual option in a house this age, I'd guess), and as Peter does his grooming after the shower (which there is not one of in this teeny tiny bathroom of course), I decided I got to claim this one as my own for hair & makeup.

image: A Beautiful Mess

And then, inspired by Pinterest, I turned it into my jewelry box too! This tutorial is for building a jewelry storage mirror, but since I had this little medicine cabinet at my disposal, I thought I could just apply the organization/prettification ideas, like screwing in a few hooks and linking the inside of the door with a fun paper.

With very minimal time and money investment, now I've got a lovely organized space to get ready in - if you ignore the part where there's no counter space for my hair straightener and also no drain cover so I occasionally lose things like earrings down the sink...

pin to present: jewelry dec-organization

I'm someone who likes a good organizing session anyway, but the New Year especially feels like the time to clean out the old and reorganize, doesn't it? My makeup/jewelry drawer was really calling for some attention the last few weeks. It has a good base for organization with some handy compartmentalized holders, but things always get kind of jumbled after a while, partly because there was just too much stuff in there.

So I turned to my things to organize Pinterest board for some inspiration - which led to the completion of my favorite Pinterest project ever (and a drawer/vanity top overhaul!).

inspiration: Lucky Magazine via Pinterest

The reasons this is my favorite Pinterest project ever: it was completely free, came together really fast, was easy, and is super functional. Oh, and it actually turned out looking as nice as anticipated! That's kind of rare, really. It's just some clear push pins shoved into the wall next to my makeup/jewelry drawer, doubling as organization for and decoration with my favorite pretty necklaces.

Hanging up some of the necklaces freed a little space to have a more nicely organized drawer, plus I got rid of a bunch of past-due cosmetics, under-used nail polishes, and no-longer-worn necklaces and bracelets - so now everything fits much better. And feels much nicer too.

Now I need to move on to the closet in my office... maybe next nap time.

Sharing on Friday's Fab Favorites.

30 before 30 update

Making some progress lately on that 30 before 30 list! Good thing too, because there were 19 items left with under a year to the big birthday - now down to 15 (ish, since a couple others at least have progress) after doing these 4 in the last couple of months:

First up, the most fun of the bunch - I've been wanting to see my first Cirque du Soleil show for forever, but as with things in life, they can come to town (or nearby) and life just stays in the way enough that I never get around to buying some tickets... until it was time for babymoon, but we needed something nearby - so I let the arrival of Totem to Columbus (just 1.5 hours away) make the destination decision for us! Accomplishing two in one.

And it was SO FUN. Can't even describe the craziness of some of those acts - the chorus line of sky-high unicycle riders tossing bowls from their feet onto each other's heads, the acrobats flipping from one 2x4 balance beam/trampoline held up by pairs of strongmen to another. Definitely we will see another of these shows whenever we get the chance.

Another thing I've been wanting to do forever: putting in "graduate-level navigation", as Kayla calls it, since I saw the tutorial on her blog - a navigation bar with rollover effects. Part of what takes forever about things like this is once I want to make one blog design tweak, I want to do it all... I'm not exactly loving the overall design yet, but go mouse over the items that navigation bar and check out what I accomplished!

Quite proud of this - I started with Kayla's tutorial but then managed to figure out an even quicker way via some BloggerSentral instructions and this awesome site that produces HTML code for image maps. Now that I know how to do it, I have big plans for making all my buttons change color with rollover. Just need to come up with a more satisfactory design for everything first.

Also in the blog category, one of my goals was to invite guest bloggers to contribute - and what better time than to take a little blogging maternity leave. I'm excited to have all the above ladies lined up to share some great posts with you after the baby arrives!

Here's another huge one that I've been working on for a while and finally finished up this weekend: cleaning out the basement. I finally got started on it toward the end of the summer because it was a requirement for any nesting activities - the extra linens, etc. that were living in the guest room needed to go somewhere if it was going to become a nursery.

It was a major job, but after 2 huge carloads of Goodwill donations, $100 worth of consignments, 3 new shelving units and 5 new storage bins, several trash bags, and many hours of organizing, I've got all the non-baby stuff cleared out of the guest room and a cleaned out basement, reorganized and rid of all the excess stuff that we really didn't need to be storing. I even finished it off with vacuuming/mopping the floor. Feels good! (And as a reward for all the hard work, I let myself pick out some fancy Martha Stewart labels at Staples for all my bins. I love them.)

pin to present: dressed up dresser

Much as I'd like to be putting the finishing touches on the nursery and posting photos of it, there's not going to be a whole lot besides this inspiration board for a while. Since the baby's room-to-be is also our guest room, we're going to leave the guest bed in there for a bit so my mom can come to stay - and the little one will be sleeping upstairs with us in a bassinet for a while anyway, for ease of night-time feedings.

So while I've got the room pretty much planned out and all of the big stuff purchased or on order, for now just the dresser is going in - and since we put it together over the weekend, I just had to share at least this much, because I'm so excited about how it looks (and all the adorable little things now stored in it!).

inspiration: Small Shop

The choice of dresser was extremely Pinterest-influenced. When I saw this photo on Pinterest, I thought that was exactly the kind of dresser I wanted - great looking, lots of storage (the room has no closet!), plenty of surface to double as changing table - but I figured it would be way out of the price range I was interested in... turns out it's just an Ikea dresser that's dressed way up with some gold ring pulls. Sold!

Katie is doing the same dresser in her nursery, and she filled me in on just where to get the ring pulls - ordered from Lee Valley in the 51x43mm size. Aren't they great? Makes such a difference from the way Ikea sells it.

The little bear - isn't he so sweet? - and the blanket underneath were knitted by my grandma for the baby. We love them, so I had to have them on display even if the rest of the room isn't totally baby-fied yet.

spring cleaning

We fit in lots of fun things this weekend - a bunch of West Wing episodes, family walks, brunch at our favorite place, apple pie and ice cream with friends, golf (for one of us) and a little shopping (for the other)...

And then also: spring cleaning. Not the most fun part of any weekend, but ooh, it feels good to have done. Look how tidy and fresh it all is (if only you could smell the copious amounts of lemon-scented Pledge I used - makes it even better).

Have you done yours yet? A few ways I've found to make the process seem a bit less insurmountable and get it done a bit quicker:

1. Split it up: last weekend I tackled the dining room and living room, and this weekend I did the office and kitchen. (Plus as a bonus, since Peter's got extra time on hand these days, he deep cleaned the master bathroom. Yay for avoiding my least favorite!) Next weekend I'll finish things off with the bedroom and guest room, and that way I have time for both cleaning and whatever else I want to do in a weekend.

2. Focus: I tend to have some cleaning ADD - constantly getting distracted by a different project if I leave the room to put something away - so while it might be efficient to dust the whole house, then vacuum every room, etc., I force myself to stay in one room and just do the whole thing. The how-to below provided another excellent tip in this: create a portable cleaning kit, so you have all your supplies in one place. No more getting distracted when I go off to find the window spray!

3. Go top to bottom: seems obvious, maybe, but it was a revelation to me few years ago when I realized you should start with dusting, working from top to bottom of room, and then vacuum. Much more efficient than revacuuming after you stir up all that dust...

4. Check it off: when I deep clean, things tend to look worse before they get better, as I dump out contents of closets to sort and declutter, and then start to despair that it's ever going to get finished. So if you really need motivation, print off a checklist like the one from Glitter Guide below. Crossing off smaller items as they get done keeps me going all the way through to that final satisfying finished product.

printable checklists via Glitter Guide

five things Friday: organization edition

I'm thinking about getting in some spring cleaning this weekend... and in addition to getting the house scrubbed and aired out, spring cleaning for me equals decluttering. Nothing like a good purge of items you no longer need, or reorganization for better storage or use of the things you do.

The results are always so satisfying, but as always when I clean or organize, things tend to look worse before they look better (e.g. when I dump out the entire contents of a closet into the middle of a room), so it can be a bit daunting to get started. For motivation I've been looking at some pretty organization, Pinterest-style - here are five favorite ideas:

painted basket by Young House Love | colorful jewelry hangers by You Are My Fave | painted tray by A Fabulous Fete | desk organizer by Mochi Things | free printable labels by BHG

What's on your to do list this weekend?

weekend project: Pinterest cleanup

Saturday night while Peter worked, I spent some time wrapped in a blanket with my Good Wife DVDs and my weekend project: cleaning up my Pinterest boards. My pin to present resolution has gotten me to actually follow through on some of these images I've saved for inspiration, but I've realized I also need a resolution to pin only things that actually inspire me in the first place.

So I went through all my boards and removed a whole bunch of extraneous pictures that I didn't love as much as others. It's hard to be inspired when there are 200 images to wade through, and taking the time to pare down means I can actually see the things I really like. (Also, it was kind of fun to do. I like organizing.)

Plus, considering each pin and whether I wanted to keep or delete it helped me understand what I really like about each and how it could contribute to my sense of personal style (which I have been honing lately) or the feeling I want our home to have. Honestly, some of those oldest ones I wasn't sure why I ever pinned in the first place! I guess that says something about evolving style, but also something about needing to be a little discerning and actually know myself.

These were the questions I found helpful to consider in editing and for going forward:

1. Is it me? The starting premise: if your Pinterest boards are going to be something that inspire you to make or cook or decorate things, the images have to reflect you and your style. I mean, seriously, as delicious as the Sprinkle Bakes mint-white chocolate mousse cake looks and sounds, I know I won't make things that require that many steps or spring form pans. That's not me. So why is was it on my board? And so on with a bunch of outfits and home decor, etc.

2. Is it who/what I want to be? It's also good to try new things and stretch and change, so inspirations that draw that out are great - but they of course need to fit into who you are and the direction you want to be headed. (And not overwhelm you by being one of 200 images.) With clothing inspirations especially, I've narrowed down the boards to things I would actually wear, but that perhaps combine pieces or colors I already have in new, interesting ways.

3. What themes emerge? Once you've got all images that are you, you can also define and consolidate your style/tastes by analyzing themes and similarities across them. With planning our new kitchen, it was so helpful to put a bunch of images I really liked onto one board and then look back through to see which elements and materials the kitchens that I was most drawn to had in common.

Now I want to see what you all have been inspired to do from your Pinterest boards... So on October 18 I'm going to do a reader feature - if you have a Pinterest-inspired project or outfit or meal or anything to share, email me with: (1) a photo of your version, (2) a link to the inspiration pin/source, and (3) if you've shared it on your blog, a link to your post (or just a link to your blog).

So go forth and pin more carefully and follow through!