Alternative Shelving:: Wire and Wooden Crates

Antique wooden crates are a perfect detail to create a unique shelving option on any wall in any room. If I ever see one it will be snatched up in a second.

Make your own crates! Ana White

There are also vintage wire baskets or crates that I just love too.
I was at Crate and Barrel this evening and saw these reproductions
that are just charming.

Etsy Shop:: Every Eskimo

A variety of wire baskets and crates.

This is a slight alternative version, using round baskets to hold this child’s stuffies!
Bleubird

Bookcase Inspiration

This post is dedicated to my BFF (husband) and the scary
bookcase that looms in our room. Here is some inspiration for you.

Storage boxes are a must if you are using your bookcase for more than books, which usually happens. We need a few nice boxes for paper and some magazine holders.


What do you think about papering or painting the backs of bookcase?




Just an interesting use of space. I like the shape of it.

What about colour coordination?

Including sentimental knick-knacks and pictures creates a
personal space within the shelves. 

Cupboard Organization

I’m always trying to find ways to be better organized, because if I’m honest, I’m not an organized person at all. But my baking cupboard is becoming a jumbled mess of chocolate chips bags, brown sugar packages, powder boxes and the like. The BFF is a big fan of saving glass spaghetti mason jars and they have been piling up under our sink! *Lightbulb*

Organize my baking supplies in the glass jars!

Step 1: De-stink-a-fy the jars of their garlic/tomato/herb smell

The BFF knew that stuffing newspaper inside for a few days would
eliminate most of the smell. Me, I was sceptical, but for the most part, it worked.

Step 2: Unstick labels
But I wanted to totally be sure that the odour was gone. So I also
soaked them in a sink full of baking soda afterward. This was dual
purpose as I needed to get their sticky labels off anyway.

Step 3: Scrap and Peel
Enter this funky little tool. It’s about the size of a crayon. It’s plastic and has a scrapy edge that can easily remove a lot of stuff. Like badly burnt rice on the bottom of your pot. I received it free at the Home Show I went to.

Step 4: Cut labels
A while back I purchased this chalkboard adhesive paper from Dollarama. Perfect for labeling my new baking supply jars. I simply found a round lid from a container to trace.



Step 5: Peel, Stick and Label.
Total cost was $1.00 for the chalkboard paper!

Autumn Resolution {2} Organizing Kitchen

(images Young House Love)

I found a piece of unused cork at work and knew just what I wanted to do with it. Here is a hidden cork board organizer. Perfect for tacking away all those loose papers like school calendars, a baby shower invitation or a weekly menu plan. (see below). Click the link to see more instruction on how make one yourself. Young House Love.

Life Your Way has free printable's. I'm going to try and faithfully use this weekly menu calendar to plan our meals and grocery list.

We bought an island on wheels to give a little bit more counter space and some extra storage. But storage can be messy and unsightly and so, after seeing the hurricane like mess that was building, I decided I wanted to use fabric to skirt the bottom. This will be a project that I will need my lil' sista's help on. 

A Reflection On Time Management

I'm posting someone else's writing today because I really found it to be inspirational and allowed me to reflect on my priorities. Enjoy! Motherhood Your Way: Time Management for Busy Moms

The following post is from Amanda of OhAmanda.com and Impress Your Kids:

This is the life of a mom.

It’s full of teeny tiny little events, activities and chores that fill up a day even before it starts. Most of these things seem insignificant, mundane and usually never-ending. We fill up our days with wiping counters, finding lost shoes and reading bedtime stories. In between breaths and during naps, we check email, update our Facebook and maybe even grab a cup of coffee. 

But what about the important things of our day?

What about the big events? The big projects? The big priorities? Big rocks like: reading to your kids every day, being attentive to your husband, spending quiet time with your Bible or keeping your body healthy with food and exercise? Will they fit into our lives when we are overrun with all the little things?

Hardly.

In fact, as mothers we generally spend more time focused on others—school schedules, husband’s work and kids’ activities. And our big priorities? Our big rocks? An afterthought. An I-hope-this-happens-one-day.

But what would happen if you put those rocks in first?

What if you got up early and read your Bible? What if you stopped fretting about spotless floors and spent time playing ball with your kids? What if you shut the computer during breakfast and talked about your kids’ day? What would happen to all those little things that “have to” get done?

They’d fall into place. You’d have room to spare. 

My pastor, Andy Stanley says, “Priority determines capacity.” I know, as a mom, I don’t have time for time management! But I do have time for priorities. I do have time to do the important. I do have time to focus on the good, big, significant things.

For me? My big rocks? Emptying the dishwasher before breakfast is done. Being awake enough to spend an hour or two paying attention to my husband before I fall into bed. Reading my Bible before the kids wake up. Taking a shower and getting dressed before breakfast.

And when I do those things, I find myself empowered to tackle more big rocks while still fitting in as many of the little rocks (Facebook, blogging, girls’ nights out and wandering through Target) as I want.

Spend a few minutes today identifying your big rocks. Then start putting them into your life’s jar first. You’ll be pleasantly surprised to see your life’s capacity expand!

An Autumn Resolution

If you know me like my sister knows me, then you would be aware that I'm not the most organized person. I would say that my biggest struggles are with paper and clothing. Not having a place for everything often add to my madness. So on top of trying to get our place together, I've set my mind to also personally try and organize myself. Over the last few years I've loved the blog called Organizing Your Way. There are always plenty of useful and practical tips that are easy to do and relevant to the everyday person.

 My Autumn Resolutions:
1) Clear clothes away after taking them off. Either hang them up, throw them in the laundry or put away in a drawer.
2) Have a basket/tray dedicated to 'paper'. Bills, mail, flyers, school forms and deal with it at the end of the night before going to bed.  I also love the ideas posted here and want to implement some of them into our home. READ the link, trust me it's good and simple.
3) Do dishes before leaving the house or going to bed.
4) Have main surfaces cleared before bed. (Coffee table, kitchen counter and kitchen table)

The Inspired Room had a great post about organizing rooms with links at the bottom that I followed for about an hour and found some great tips!

I've come across some sites about a way of life called "Minimalist Living."  Here's one blog I started reading. {Becoming Minimalist} There is something that strikes a chord in me about living this way, about being happy with what you have, not accumulating things you don't need or use, clean spaces with clean lines, simplicity in the home by not being bogged down by the 'stuff' we have. I believe that God wants us to live in a way that allows us to focus mainly on Him, and this seems to be a good start. Sometimes I find that there are so many distractions because of our 'stuff', whether it's something physical in the home, or emotional in our heads and hearts. The 'stuff' of life can weigh us down, but I don't think that God ever intended for us to be weighed down by the things we gain because of his financial blessings in our lives.

Opening Shelving

After viewing the blog post from The Inspired Room about opening shelving in the kitchen, it got me thinking, thinking that I am NOT the kind of organized person to ever attempt this! Unless I had a large kitchen where there was room for some decorative kitchen ware to be perched upon a pretty shelf. But as for daily dishes, for me they are better hidden behind closed doors! 

 

  

  

  

I may be able to do a smallish space like this with some baskets that still do some hiding. 

Ode to Organization: June Goals

There are a few dark and scary spaces in my apartment where disorganized piles of 'stuff' lurk in the shadows, or hide behind doors, or hibernate in the bottom of boxes. The one that irks me the most is the ultra visible toy box. She sits majestically in the living room, adorned with books, games and of course toys. In all her crowning glory she inevitably gets messy and is a huge eye sore. Sometimes I feel I want to trash the whole thing, and proclaim that it is "fit for the pit." (anyone remember Street Cents?) But seeing as I LOVE my sweet boy, I could never do that to his toys.

My Goal in June is to eliminate the clutter and chaos from these sinister places and spaces that seem to so easily lure me and Tayson's paper, junk, stuff, and do-dad's. In order to effectively achieve this goal and maintain it, (I believe this is the bigger challenge) it is important to ask myself these 2 questions:

1. What am I using this space for? (what doesn't belong and should be relocated or tossed)
2. How can I affectively use this space? (hooks, baskets, magazine holders, hangers, peg board)

Clutter Areas

Area #1: The closet
1. Stores clothing, winter hats/mitts/scarves, purses, belts, box of cd's, wrapping paper, 'give away' bag, computer equipment. All in all it's the 'I-don't-know-where-else-to-put-you' closet.
2. Make the peg board for the back of my door, put up the hooks I bought from ikea for the side wall, get rid of 'give away bag', sort cd's.

Area #2: The toy box (her majesty)
1. Tayson's toys, books, craft boxes, puzzles
2. Pack away,Give away, Toss away unplayed with toys. Relocate the books and toys on the exposed surface areas into the newly emptied bins. Use baskets on top to keep a neat appearance. Repaint toy box to freshen it up.


Check out this link to see one mom's toy experiment @ the blog Overcoming Busy.

Organizing Your Way also has some fab tips on toy organization.

Area #3: Kitchen Pantry
1. Food
2. Toss away old, stale food that is simply taking up space. Group together common things, cans, cereal, pasta, baking, crackers/cookies, chips. Label shelves (?).
(I can't believe I'm sharing this picture, YICKS!)

Ode to Organization

I seriously struggle with organization in my home. It's doesn't help that I live in a tiny apartment. With a child. Who has toys. And I like to do crafty stuff. So that means I have 'stuff' too. (I can't blame it all on the kid!)
I am very good at seasonal purging. I go through my drawers and get rid of clothes that don't fit I haven't worn all season, which means I probably won't wear it ever again. I'm not a clutter bug. I'm not overly sentimental, which means I can throw things out easily. But it's more the every day here and there that bogs me down. I've made a cork board to pin up important mail, bought some shelving units, a shoe rack, a paper storer that has turned into an, I-don't-know-where-else-to-put-it-collector. I thought I'd look online today to see what nifty little tips I can find to help me utilize my space to be a tidier person. Or I could just hire my sister who is a super freak when it comes to neat and orderly. (Man, did I get the wrong genes!)

Stuff your Plastic Bags here!?
Kitchen Stuff Plus

hide in sink storage

Umbra

Do you need a place of all those loose laundry do-dad's?
Laundry Shower Caddy
Real Simple

Lacking Storage space? I AM! I love this idea.
Why not use the inside of your closet door?
You can spray paint it any colour to give it a lift!
Peg Board Organizer
Real Simple

This is a joke to me!
Only in a magazine would a drawer look like this!