Neat and Orderly

I love organizing. So much so that I will organize and reorganize an area over and over and it really never gets old to me. Instead, with each reorganization that I do, I find it a challenge to myself to see if I can come up with a more efficient way. If I had endless money, I would go nuts with creating custom closets and cabinets all over the house and garage. Neat and orderly makes me oh so pleased. But even on a budget and with a little creativity you can still be organized.

I’ve found that the biggest step to getting your surroundings in order is to purge; you have to get rid of stuff that you don’t or will not use. My rule: if I haven’t used it in a year, out it goes. Most people have a hard time letting things go, I have a hard time keeping things. During the time that I had off at the end of last year, I made it my mission to completely reorganize the spare bedroom. It was too easily becoming the catchall for the items I either didn't have time to put away or didn't know where to put. No longer does it look that way. And the best part is that I didn't have to spend a penny to reorganize it because I was able to re-purpose storage solutions that I already had. I was very happy. 

So the other day when I came across a post on products to get you organized in 2012, I audibly let out an excited “ooooooh” and got myself ready to learn some new tricks. Most times the products shown are too expensive for me to go out and purchase, but it can still give me ideas on how to go about organizing. Sometimes even looking at photos of organized spaces can stimulate concepts that you might not have thought of trying before. A few of my favorite products featured in the blog post that I am tucking in my back pocket for future use are: the wall calendar from PB Teen (you could actually make something similar for much cheaper by using chalkboard paint), the pan organizer from Rubbermaid (uh, hello it's less than $8), and the household organizer from Lilypad (I can totally see this helping as Mallory gets older).