Getting Organized

So on my list of things to do a few weeks ago was to get organized around my house. Not always the easiest thing to do or something I sadly don't have a lot of time for, but I am trying to gain the feeling of some control and peace by getting things in order a few things at a time.

 

My husband and I have a home office where we each have our own desk and are each responsible for its tidiness or lack there of as it were. That being said, I will be leaving my hubby's side out of today's discussion because let's just say I can only control so much ;)

I have not consistently worked in my office for over 6 months due to the fact that my desk has been a COMPLETE MESS!  I just cannot work well in that situation. So I’ve been much more comfortable working in my den, on my sofa or on the kitchen table where I know I keep my space a bit more free and clear.

So last week I took a weekend to start chipping away at this Mission Impossible….

 

And after a few hours on Saturday and Sunday, and a TALL basket full of waste,

 papers (and crap) I finally got it done..

OMG!!
Space! Clarity! Organization!
Freedom!!!

Now here... I can work!

Oh it was so nice to let things go, throw things away and put things in there rightful spot. I felt so accomplished getting this done, and it gave me a sense of control over my space, and THAT felt good!

So I don't know about you but once you get organizing you start finding other things to work on because you get on a roll? Well I was on one too. 

My Kitchen Pantries
So the next thing I hit up was my kitchen pantries. I got the inspiration last week as I was looking through Pinterest of course, and I found this great blog called Lewisville Love about home DIY projects where the blogger Up-cycles her pantry amongst many other wonderful projects (see for yourself.)

I loved what she did! She up-cycled plastic almond/ice-cream containers, and uses simple paint and gives you some other great ideas.  It was beautiful and clean and I wanted something similar for my kitchen and I got totally inspired...at 12:30am last Sunday night. WHAT??!!

Yup, that's how I roll. I get an idea in my head and I've got to see it through asap (and then I wonder why my Mikey is relentless??) Anyway, so at 12:30am I decide to start organizing my pantries! Unfortunately, because It was soo late when I started this mission I actually forgot to take a 'before' picture to show the difference once I was done....I just went for it! I threw all kinds of things out, recycled food boxes, washed things, rearranged, shifted ingredients from one container to another, and put like items together.  I was clinging and clanging soo much that Jerry had no idea what I was doing.

But I finished... at 2:00am!! OMG I was sooooo tired but soo exhilerated!

My pantry looked so organized and maybe even... pretty.  I don't have absolutely everything in its own glass or plastic clear container, and it will never look like the one on this blog (because they're completely different setups), but it worked for me!







 And I wasn't  going to feel like I was completely done until I got everything labeled like she had done. I really wanted to get this look!! So the next night (not as late), I took my favorite free font from Ali Edwards (available here), and I made labels on Word, printed them out on card stock, and cut them out and labeled my glass and plastic containers accordingly.

Yes, some of the stuff I labeled was pretty self explanitory as my husband pointed out. BUT as I pointed out to him, we have boys, whom in looking for something in the pantry, can look straight at it and amazingly NOT see it...so hence, I felt it very necessary to state the obvious!!

So again, this all worked really well for me. It gave me a sense of control, order and a lot of satisfaction in getting this done. We'll see how long this order lasts, but taking that step to label everything really does give me an incentive to keep it up...it just looks cool! I found a few other ideas to add order to my pantries, but I haven't had a chance to put those in place, but I will let you know when I do. That just means more projects to do...oh poor me! ;)

So I just wanted to share a little of my week's organizational "achievements," and hopefully I have inspired some of you to take the plunge to organize that something or somewhere in your own home you've been avoiding for a while. Oh come on...you know its true! Get to it!

Stop by tomorrow as I show you how after getting organized, I decide to get creative too.

From my corner to yours... may you find the will, may you find your way, and may you find a sense of accomplishment in getting rid of your own disarray. (hey, that worked out nicely- haha)

Happy Monday,