Here's another fifteen minute project...clean out and organize a few kitchen drawers. I worked on my junk drawer, the drawer that holds the phone books and my silverware drawer. That drawer led to organizing my utinsil drawer. Overall it ended up taking twenty minutes and things got sorted and put where they belong.
If you do this for the next three days, most of your kitchen drawers will be organized! A great time to do this is while something is baking in the oven.
Terrific Tip Tuesday...Pencil Boxes
Pencil boxes are great organizers at a great price. Right now you can pick them up for around fifty cents!Stock up...before they run out! Okay, I’m being kind of dramatic, but you wouldn’t believe how many uses a pencil box has. These are great for organizing children’s art supplies, but they are also great for organizing lots of other things. Feel free to comment and add to my list!
Here’s my list so far:
Colored pencils/markers/crayons/scissors/glue
Rubber bands
Post-it Notes (my mom stocks up on these and they fit great inside)
USB Cables/chargers
Paper Clips
Jewelry
Hair accessories
Stamps
Small envelopes
Spools of thread
Mementos (hotel room cards, concert tickets, etc) I have a weird obsession with hotel room cards, and I hate throwing them away, so this is perfect!
Make-up
Let's Talk Kitchens..Another Fifteen Minute Project
I decided yesterday I would tackle the cabinet where I store all my spices. I’m not a big fan of cooking, so my cabinet that has my spices doesn’t get much attention. I probably haven’t attempted to organize this cabinet in years!
I took everything out. I had a few things (bread crumbs, fried onions that you put on green bean casserole, gluten free flour and baking powder) that were almost empty and expired. I had to throw those items away. I found some SpongeBob tattoos that didn’t belong in my spice cabinet, as well as a baggie of Chuckie Cheese tickets. Those items were moved.
Then I divided my spices into “sweet and salty”. The sweet baking supplies went on the right and the cooking seasonings went on the left. On the bottom shelf I use my three-step shelf system. It works great because you can see what you’ve got in a deep cabinet. It works best if the shortest items are in the front, tallest in the back. I purchased mine years ago at Walmart.
The second shelf has cooking oils, measuring cups and other tall spices.
My top shelf has candles and matches if the power goes out. It also has my meat tenderizer and a funnel. I suppose you never know when you need a funnel!
I used a small basket usually for pencils and pens and put all my packet seasonings in it. This is a great way to store these!
I took everything out. I had a few things (bread crumbs, fried onions that you put on green bean casserole, gluten free flour and baking powder) that were almost empty and expired. I had to throw those items away. I found some SpongeBob tattoos that didn’t belong in my spice cabinet, as well as a baggie of Chuckie Cheese tickets. Those items were moved.
Then I divided my spices into “sweet and salty”. The sweet baking supplies went on the right and the cooking seasonings went on the left. On the bottom shelf I use my three-step shelf system. It works great because you can see what you’ve got in a deep cabinet. It works best if the shortest items are in the front, tallest in the back. I purchased mine years ago at Walmart.
The second shelf has cooking oils, measuring cups and other tall spices.
My top shelf has candles and matches if the power goes out. It also has my meat tenderizer and a funnel. I suppose you never know when you need a funnel!
I used a small basket usually for pencils and pens and put all my packet seasonings in it. This is a great way to store these!
Talk about not having to worry about organizing your closet...Fashion Diet
I just read this article in the New York Times. It is a fashion diet. If you did this diet, there wouldn't be much to organize!
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/fashion/22SIXERS.html?_r=1
Essentially, people are limiting themselves to six clothing items and they wear them for a month. The idea is that you appreciate what you have and are not being materialistic. I believe this is a very noble endeavor, however, I couldn't last three days doing this!
I run, so I'd need running shorts and a top. That would leave me with four items left. I pretty much would be left with a pair of pants and three tops or two pairs of pants and two tops. I'm pretty sure I would want at least five shirts/tops (in addition to my running shirt). This way I could wear a different top everyday. Plus with Kansas weather, it could be cool one day and the next day hotter than heck! I'd need one long sleeve shirt and one short sleeve shirt. I'd have to hope the weather would cooperate with my fashion diet so I could alternate tops!
I don't like doing laundry THAT much! Think of all the water I'd waste washing my two shirts and two pants!
Plus, the people I work with would notice after about three days. If they didn't say something, the students I work with would sure say something! "Why are you wearing that shirt again?"
However, I could probably NOT go shopping for new clothes/jewelry/shoes for a month. Heck, I could probably make it to the end of 2010 and not buy anything new. That would be much more realistic and give me lots of time to appreciate everything in my closet!
Perhaps this weekend, I will go through my closet and make sure I'm giving all my clothes the love they deserve! I organize my tops by color and I always have my black and white clothes towards the front of my closet, which is usually where I grab from first. Perhaps I'll do a little rearranging and move the black to the back. It will be like a whole new wardrobe!
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/fashion/22SIXERS.html?_r=1
Essentially, people are limiting themselves to six clothing items and they wear them for a month. The idea is that you appreciate what you have and are not being materialistic. I believe this is a very noble endeavor, however, I couldn't last three days doing this!
I run, so I'd need running shorts and a top. That would leave me with four items left. I pretty much would be left with a pair of pants and three tops or two pairs of pants and two tops. I'm pretty sure I would want at least five shirts/tops (in addition to my running shirt). This way I could wear a different top everyday. Plus with Kansas weather, it could be cool one day and the next day hotter than heck! I'd need one long sleeve shirt and one short sleeve shirt. I'd have to hope the weather would cooperate with my fashion diet so I could alternate tops!
I don't like doing laundry THAT much! Think of all the water I'd waste washing my two shirts and two pants!
Plus, the people I work with would notice after about three days. If they didn't say something, the students I work with would sure say something! "Why are you wearing that shirt again?"
However, I could probably NOT go shopping for new clothes/jewelry/shoes for a month. Heck, I could probably make it to the end of 2010 and not buy anything new. That would be much more realistic and give me lots of time to appreciate everything in my closet!
Perhaps this weekend, I will go through my closet and make sure I'm giving all my clothes the love they deserve! I organize my tops by color and I always have my black and white clothes towards the front of my closet, which is usually where I grab from first. Perhaps I'll do a little rearranging and move the black to the back. It will be like a whole new wardrobe!
I made a logo...and other news!
I just set up a spot over on Facebook for Organizing Simply, and I needed a picture. This is what I came up with!I love getting comments. Next week I'll be starting TERRIFIC TUESDAY TIPS! Please let me know if there are specific topics you want covered. Two topics I'm planning on covering are meal planning and back-to-school organization. Plus, I have a number of ideas to help save time and keep things nice and organized.
My Scrapbook Room is Done!
My scrapbook room is done and was under budget (if you don't count tax). I gave myself a budge of $75. I love it! Remember, I used to just keep everything in tubs under the bed and would bring them out and put them back when I was done. It wasn't any fun to do this. I now have a great work area.
This is what was purchased:
$6.99 Desk organizer from Michaels. It holds hole punches, brads, scissors, markers, and corner rounders.
Three $1.50 each pink containers with snap lids from Walmart. One will hold scrapbook adhesives. Another holds small scrapbooking memorabilia that are not photos (hotel room keys, concert tickets, etc). The third one will live in the top dresser drawer to hold misc small stuff.
One $2.50 tall pink container with a snap lid from Walmart. I needed this to hold stamping supplies.
$14.99 six drawer cabinet with wheels from Office Depot. I used a $10 coupon that my husband got in an email, This holds all my stickers. Plus I have a drawer for stencils and books.
$14.99 wall organizer from Michaels. I used a coupon. This holds ribbons, adhesives, memorabilia, and photos waiting to be scrapbooked.
$2.00 for two photo 4x6 holder from Michaels. I used coupons. I used to just stack things on paper trays. These keep photos safe and
$13.02 for three cans of spray paint. The paint was used to paint the old brown dresser white. It looks so much better.
$6 for three photo frames from Walmart.
$8.99 photo board from Michael's. Used another coupon!
I made about five trips to Michael's in the last three weeks, since they have a one coupon per day limit.
Total: $73.98
There were other great organizing supplies I liked such as small crates for $1.99 at Office Depot, but I just didn't have a need for them. There were also great plastic jars with lids at Michaels. These would be great if you had lots of small craft supplies like beads, buttons, gemstones, etc. They have sets of three large ones or six small ones.
Right now I am using the top dresser drawer for my hot glue gun and all my stamping supplies. The second dresser drawer can be used to keep my current scrapbooks and photo albums. When I’m done with a scrapbook album, I have a bookcase upstairs that has a cabinet on the bottom with doors. That’s where my completed scrapbooks live.
Wall Shelf...I love this!
My daughter loved this. She felt like this was something that came from my dream scrapbook room. Here’s the deal: I had to assemble this myself and I’m pretty direction deficient. Actually, I’m horrible at directions and reading any sort of three-dimensional map or drawing. I have no depth perception aptitude! This is my dream scrapbook room:
http://www.kevinandamanda.com/photos/scraproom/new/
It was supposed to take 15 minutes to assemble. It took me 15 minutes just to make sure I had all the pieces. There were six steps. I would screw something together, only to find out it was upside down. It mattered what direction boards were placed, because there were little tracks for other pieces to slide into. I had the entire thing put together in a little over an hour. I was very proud of myself, except the top piece wasn’t lined up right. I knew this because it was sticking out about a half an inch on the backside. It couldn’t hang from the wall this way!
I took it off, and finally realized, I had to flip it over. That was it. One hour and fifteen minutes later, I did it (not including the time it took to make sure I had all the materials)!!! I put extra ribbons in one of the white canvas basket. At this point, the other basket is empty!
Then I set up my two pink containers on the shelf. The first one holds all my adhesives. The second holds all the little things I collect...event tickets, hotel room cards, etc. I also thought this would be a great place to store my 4X6 photos that are waiting to be scrapbooked. In the "old days" I would just stack all this stuff on paper trays. I like my new system much better
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