Pantry Perfection Take 2

Several years ago I did an overhaul on my pantry that revolutionized the way my family can find things in there. It has worked very well but now that my kids are older that means they are in charge of getting their own snacks and packing their own lunches and so I knew it was time for a change. Plus, there were some elements that needed tweaking for myself as well. Organization is a process after all. Sometimes the system needs to adapt and grow just like we all do.:)

I started with the bottom row of the pantry AKA the "snack bins". Originally, I had put all snacks into four different bins. I tried to organize them by category but they mostly didn't stay that way. And while everything is contained you can see that things were spilling out. Another problem that occurred was my kids were awful at using up a snack and then putting the empty box back in. When I'd make my grocery list I'd check the pantry, see the box, and assume that there was still that particular snack. It led to extra trips to the store and things taking up space that didn't need to. Kinda annoying really. 😕 So I got to work!

First I cleaned out all the snack bins and tossed stuff that was empty or old. That is the first must in any organization project! You don't want to store unneeded things! Next I went to the store and found clear shoe box containers for $1.50 each. Then I took all the snacks out of their boxes and put them into the containers by category. My thinking was if the snacks were in clear boxes I could see easily how many were still there which would help with grocery shopping.

With this method I can now fit ten boxes where there used to only be three! They look great and I was able to customize it perfectly for my family's needs. Now everyone can find the exact snack they need and I can see when I need to buy more of a specific thing.

The labels are an essential part to organization. It helps everyone find what they are looking for quickly! A friend of mine told me she has a similar method for snacks except she made a bin for each kid. I like that too!

With the kid section under control once again, I turned to the next section of the pantry that needed some help... The baking section. If you recall from my previous pantry post I have my pantry divided into zones: cooking, baking, breakfast, snacks, and then the floor hosts large objects that don't fit on the shelves. Still thinking on how to keep that more organized. ;)

The baking section of the pantry worked okay-ish, I had divided the spices up by tall and short and written their names on the lids. That helped a lot but I was still doing too much searching when looking for a specific spice or herb. So I began researching spice racks that don't take up a lot of space.

That's when I found this "beautious" (quoting my daughter Aftyn) thing! It's a spice rack that mounts to the inside of the pantry door!! I bought some clear spice jars and labels and suddenly finding the right spice has become so quick and easy! For one thing they are alphabetized and they are in clear jars so I always know when I'm about to run out. And I absolutely adored the "farmhousey" chicken wire style. Love, Love, Love!

With that taken care of, I turned to the rest of the miscellaneous baking items that used to be in a messy bin. I read about mini lazy susans in a January issue of Better Homes and Gardens (guys, if you are needing organization ideas check out January issues of homemaking magazines. They always have great tips!) I bought two mini lazy susans from amazon and put all my other small baking things on them. Now when I am looking for something, all it takes is a quick swivel! The baking chips are set snugly next to them in another clear bin for more easy access.

Doing those two easy things opened up a lot of space in my little corner pantry and I was able to slide my baking sugar and other canisters into the corner. Then I made a bin just for baking mixes, then another for bulk spices, and finally a shallow basket for cooking oils. Baking zone all done!😇

One more tweak. Originally I had been storing cans in two bins which kept them contained but made it difficult to find what I was looking for. I finally decided it was time for a can rack. It's a little big so I had to put it up on the top shelf in the pantry which I thought might be a pain because I'm not that tall but you know what? I like it where it is because I can look up through the rack and see what I need to get for dinner. 

Confession: I did all these projects at the beginning of 2019. 😳 I meant to blog about it but never got around to it. Life with five kids tends to be busy, y'all. But I'm kinda glad that I've waited until now because that means I've had my new ideas in place for a whole year and that's given us all a lot of time to see how well they work. Well, let me tell ya, they've all worked out great! I LOVE the spice rack and I'm keeping up so much better with the snack situation. All in all, it was time and money well spent!

I hope my ideas can work for you too!

Freeze!

A couple of days ago I did a quick little organization project and I thought I'd share. I organized my freezer... Prepared to be "frozen" with fear at the messy site! Ha ha! ;)

It was a jumbled mess, let me tell ya. :) Normally, I clean out my freezer and fridge a few times a year but with my major foot surgery and recovery this past summer/fall/winter, a lot of things got pushed aside. The freezer was one of many areas that suffered. Each shelf was packed and who knows what was even lurking in the very back? There were some mystery items, for sure. :)

The first step in any organization project is purging. Purging is where you take everything out of your space and go through it all, deciding what stays and what goes. Because I was working with frozen food I had to do this rather quickly. One very full garbage bag later, and I was ready to place all the remaining food back in.

Since I also have a large stand-up freezer in the garage, I decided to use the kitchen freezer for the things we use regularly and the garage freezer to hold the extra stuff that doesn't get eaten as often. To make the shelves able to stay neater I wanted to store the food into two bins, side by side on each shelf. The kids and I made a quick trip to the dollar store to see what we could find.

I was bummed to discover that my freezer shelves weren't wide enough to get two bins on each one. So I had to settle for one bin per shelf but it still works because the bins work as a divider of sorts which makes things easier to see and find. Here's how I categorized my freezer.

At the top is the "Treats" shelf. It's a terrible picture but for now all I have are my beloved boxes of Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies. I have a love/hate relationship with these things. I love to eat them but hate that they tempt me to eat an entire box in one sitting. ;) This summer it will also be the shelf for ice cream too. No one really wants ice cream until it's good and hot outside.

In the middle I have a shelf for frozen breads. My kids love the maple french toast bagels (they sound gross to me). They take them in their lunches and since I always have extras, I freeze them until they're ready to be used. In the bin I put our frozen biscuits from Schwan's. They're really good and we have them with dinner very often. The shelf below has the things the kids and the husband eat for lunch when they are home. We store the box of chicken nuggets on its side so it takes up less space.

The bottom shelf and drawer have our frozen breakfast items and veggies/fruits. My littlest guy refuses to eat cereal for breakfast like the rest of us so we always have a steady supply of Eggo waffles and french toast sticks around because those are the only things he'll eat. I love frozen veggies because they are so convenient to add to recipes. I don't particularly enjoy cooking so anything that speeds up the dinner making process, I'm all for. ;)

The upper door shelf got the meats I use most often in it. I try to feed my family healthy things so we use lots of ground turkey in our dinners, chicken meatballs, and when I do use hamburger, I mostly only use half and freeze the other half for a future dinner.

The middle and bottom shelves got the frozen potatoes and the kids' ice packs for their lunches. After all my cleaning I actually had a little shelf with nothing on it. I'm sure it will get filled up quickly enough. It always does. :) If you noticed I decided to label my shelves. I'm hoping it will help us all keep things more organized in the future. 

I also did a quick cleanup of the garage freezer as well. It was full of things we had intended to eat over the summer while I was on bed rest but my picky kids didn't like half of what we picked out. Grr. In the door are all my cherries. My silly cherry tree decided to produce a bumper crop of cherries over the summer and of course I couldn't do anything with them. So I had my mom freeze them all for me and nine months later, I'm still working on using them up! Anyone want any cherries? ;)

I didn't have enough "happy foot energy" to do too much to it, but at least it's cleaner looking now!

With a little time and a little effort my freezers are functioning so much better! And with the Dollar Store helping, this project cost me a whopping $3 bucks! How's that for a win?!? Woo hoo!

Everything but the Kitchen Sink

Today I looked at the cabinet under my kitchen sink and gasped. How on earth did it end up looking like this?!? I'm supposed to be organized! Then I thought back to the last time I had cleaned out this cupboard and suddenly drew a blank. When was that...? I honestly could not remember, which probably equates to never. At least not since we moved here. Eight years ago. Yikes.

As you can see, once upon a time, I had made somewhat of an effort to contain stuff. I see a couple of bins and a grocery bag container. There's too much stuff in the bins though and there's even more junk hiding behind. This cupboard is in serious need of a makeover! Well, ahem, that happens to be my specialty, you know. So I had at it. I love me a good organization project!

First the little dude and I made a meandering trip to Target. You know, the kind you can only make when four out of the five kids are in school. Yeah. I love those trips. The others? Not so much. ;) Anyway, I digress... Where was I? Ah yes, Target. I love that place! Knowing that I already had two big bins to work with I was on the look out for some stacking shelves called shelf helpers and some smaller bins. Target did not disappoint!

When I came home I got to work. First I pulled everything out of the bins and decided what was a keeper and what was a tosser. I filled a garbage bag with tossers. Eight years became painfully obvious at that point. As you can see the bins were nasty. Years of things being spilled in the bottoms had not been kind to them!

Thankfully, they were good quality bins and all they needed was a good scrubbing. :)

After I cleaned the bins I continued on to empty out the rest of the cabinet. There was a friendly little Easter sticker waiting for me in the back. Hello little Easter egg! How on earth did you get there? It's a mystery. After all the dirty work was done I got to the good stuff. Placing!

An under sink cabinet is tricky I discovered. There's plumbing and a garbage disposal to work around. I had to rearrange things a few times until I found the most accessible and logical way to place things. I used one of my shelf helpers to place the garbage bags. Always try to place like items together. It'll make it easier for everyone to find/ put things away later.

Here's my favorite Christmas present of all time right here. I LOVE my label maker. After all of my items were placed in their appropriate containers, I whipped out this bad boy. Most organization projects aren't truly complete without labels. I can't emphasize this enough! Obviously, you don't want to label everything but an under the sink cabinet (or anywhere not out in the open for that matter) is a perfectly acceptable place for some labels.

I opted to place the labels on the tops of the bin handles. Since the cabinet is under the sink, it will mostly be opened while looking down into it. This will make the labels easily seen.

And here's the finished product! The extra garbage bags are tucked away neatly in the back but still easily reached thanks to my shelf helper. Another shelf helper sits on the other side and contains the extra hand soaps and has my handy rubber gloves (I don't like touching raw meat) underneath. The dish products are now in a little bin of their own instead of being lost/ spilling out every which way. And all the miscellaneous cleaners that I don't use as often are grouped together. 

It looks so much better and I'm confident my husband will be singing my praises tonight when he reaches under the sink to find the dishwasher detergent. That's right. My husband does the dishes at my house. Every night. Jealous? You should be. ;)

And that folks is how I conquered everything but the kitchen sink.

Yes You Can(ister)!

First off, I am sorry this poor blog has been so neglected. I am pregnant with baby number five and unfortunately even though I am almost 6 months along now, am still sick. Go ahead, feel sorry for me! I know I do! Ha! Anyway, just because I've been sick doesn't mean I haven't been organizing. The big project at my house right now is a total redo of my craft room. I am so excited about it! It won't be done for a while but it will be awesome when it is. I'll tell you all about it for sure!

Today's post is about the glorious world of canisters. Hey when you're an organizer you get to use words such as "glorious" when referring to storage. It's part of the job description! So moving on... canisters can really make a difference when it comes to having an organized pantry.

Just look at how great my pasta looks! No clunky ugly boxes here and the best part is I can see exactly how much I have left of each. Looks like I'm running low on the mini-rotinis! All of the canisters I bought at Wal-Mart for a low, low, price except for the spaghetti container which a Tupperware product. You can spend as much as you like on storage solutons but I prefer to save money as much as possible when I de-clutter.

To aid my frazzled memory I simply write how long the pasta is supposed to be baked on the inside of the lid with a permanent marker. It doesn't get any easier than that!

Another thing I like about canisters is you can squeeze a whole bunch into a small space. My pantry is not very big but because these canisters are narrow I can fit six into a space that's only about a foot wide!

Currently, these are the things I am storing in canisters: dry milk, brown sugar, bread flour (I have a bread machine), corn meal, powdered sugar, whole wheat flour, white rice, brown, rice and I recently added a canister for dried potatoes.

For the rice and potatoes I simply cut out the cooking instructions and tape them to the canisters so I know how to cook them. Looks great!

I will try to be more regular at posting but I can't make any guarantees. In the meantime, it looks like you've got some work to do. Happy organizing!

Spring Cleaning the Garage (gasp)

Spring is the ideal time to clean out the 'ol garage. It's not too hot yet and most people are in a "it's time to be more organized" sort of mood. I know spring always signifies a new beginning for myself.

Garages can be tricky I found out. The house is generally the woman's domain but the garage? Well that's man land and if your man is like mine then he typically doesn't like his things to be touched! Our garage is a three car one and we generally use one half for the car and kid stuff and the other smaller side is my husband's work area.

Last year I took on the kid half:

Messy kid side

The only things that were contained were the Holiday decorations. Everything else was just thrown on the shelves, threatening to topple over at any given moment.

Clean kid side

After clearing out the things I didn't need, I organized everything else by category, designating the bottom shelf for kid items, ie bike gear, sand toys, chalk and bubbles, etc. I cleared out the space under the shelves so I could scoot all the strollers and bikes underneath it. My kids never put them back in the right way but hey, they're kids. I deal with it. :) Since this project was somewhat impromptu the bins don't all match because a lot of them were ones I had in the house already. A garage doesn't have to be pretty but it does need to be functional!

This year I decided to tackle my husband's half of the garage. I'm so brave! Here's what his half looked like:

Messy left side

 Nothing in a bin, virtually nothing placed with like objects, garbage, unwanted items, and wanted items all mish-mashed together.

Messy right side

The other side wasn't any better. We even had the box for a Christmas tree we don't have anymore stored up on the top shelf! Why? I have no idea...

Fearless girl that I am, I attempted the impossible and carefully started going through my husband's things until I could go no further. When my husband came and saw all the progress I had made on my own I was able to convince him to help me organize the rest of it into manageable piles. I couldn't have finished it on my own because I'm a girl. I had no idea which boxes of screws belonged together etc.

Clean left side

Finally after two days, a trip to the dumpster, and a trip to D.I., we were able to put all the piles into bins of their own. I bought the bins at the dollar store. They had 17 of them that day and I bought them all. Finally all the like items are together and my husband will be able to see exactly what he has before he goes out and buys the same thing. And because all the bins are labeled I can find what I'm looking for when I go in there too, sort-of. ;)

Clean right side

We got rid of so much stuff that the right side has space to spare. A good organizer always leaves room to grow after all. :) Of the 17 baskets I used 16 of them. I lucked out on that one for sure! During the cleaning out process I discovered that my husband had 4 full jugs of windshield cleaner, three unopened packages of paint rollers, and about twelve half used containers of putty. Now that his garage is organized we'll save money too!

So that my friends is how I conquered the man cave AKA garage. I lived to tell the tale. Show this post to your husbands... maybe they'll be inspired to do the same.

Hey, a wife can always dream, right? ;)

Containing Kid Clutter AKA TOYS

I am not a professional organizer. I want to make that perfectly clear. Organizing is a hobby of mine not a career. I feel a need to say this because there seem to be a lot of people out there who assume I am a professional. I'm not. Call it a talent if you will. It's just something I enjoy doing in my free time in my own home. Someday it might turn into a career but for now I am content sharing my ideas with those who are interested. If you are in need of ideas on how to keep your kids' toys neat and organized then read on because today I am sharing the love on that exact subject! :)

How to get started:
I like to view toy organization in the same way I view my wardrobe. If I haven't worn an item of clothing in a year then I get rid of it. I try to do the same with my kids' toys. We keep what they play with and donate what they don't. It's a little more tricky with kids' toys due to the various ages and like hand-me-down clothes there's always a toy hanging around waiting for someone to "grow into it".

However, in order to make your toy organization be as successful as possible you have to purge what your kids don't need. You can include your kids in this process if they're willing to be objective but if your kids are anything like mine they'll probably insist that every toy you hold up is their "favorite" and they "play with it all the time". If that's the case it's probably best to purge when they're not around. I guarantee you they won't miss what they don't play with. Mine never do. :)

What to keep and what not:
Ultimately you have to be the judge of what stays in your house and what doesn't but if you have so many things that the playroom gets trashed every time your kids play or they haven't a clue where to put things when they're done then it's time to downsize! When I go through my kids' things I start with the "junk" first. My definition of junk is anything that's worth nothing ie Happy Meal toys or just the cheapo "where on earth did we get this thing anyway?!?" toys. I don't donate them because I doubt anyone else wants them anyway. Instead I just toss them in the trash.

Then I look at the toys that are left. Try not to keep toys out that no one is developmentally ready for. For example, if you have a lot of baby toys laying around but don't currently have a baby then either box them up and put them in a closet until you have a child ready for them again or donate them. That goes for all rarely played with toys. Keep them up and out of the way; Only pull them out when they're asked for. If you bought a toy that no one likes, swallow your pride and get rid of it. The way I figure, it's better to give a toy away to a child who'll appreciate it then to have it gathering dust in my kids' room.

The fun part... Storage!
Now comes the best part. If you've successfully cleaned out your play space of anything unneeded or unwanted then you're now ready for some awesome ways of keeping all the toys contained! Most of my kids' toys are kept in a playroom in the basement. However, these ides would work for any child's room or closet. How do I know that? Because I have never had a playroom before I moved to this house so I am experienced in storing toys in smaller spaces as well. :) The key to any successful organization project is to utilize the space you have in the best way possible. This may take several attempts until you get the right flow in the room but that's okay. I have reorganized my playroom several times myself. It's working for now and when I see it's stopped working I'll do it again!

The best place I have found for inexpensive effective toy organization has got to be IKEA. I love that store! These metal shelves are $14.99 a piece with the bins running for about $1.50 each. I love bins. You can store so much in them and they look neat and tidy. See how I pushed the baby strollers under the shelves? Make every space count my friends!

These shelves are also good for free standing things as well. Just look at how many Littlest Petshop play sets fit on there! Also these shelves can be bolted to the wall which makes them safe. I had just enough room in between the shelving for the cute teatime table my sister made for my girls. Underneath it I slid the bin full of Little People stuff. My baby is the only one who plays with it so I wanted it to be at her level and I made good use of otherwise wasted space.

In the center of the playroom closet I made the boy zone. I put everything my one and only son plays with here so he has all his beloved cars in one spot for him and his friends. I love these open bins as well. I used to have one of these in each of my kids' closets back before we moved into this house. They don't take up much space and you can fit lots into them. Just make sure you label them so your child knows where to return their stuff. I got this particular storage unit at Target several years ago for about $70.00 I think. Looks like it's a little more expensive now but then again everything is these days isn't it? Back when I bought them there weren't a lot of options for kid storage but I still love them. They work very well for small people. :)

Here's another 3 tiered storage unit that houses the girl stuff. Next to it is an inexpensive set of plastic drawers where my girls keep their dress-up stuff, most of it anyway.

Tucked behind the playroom door is a simple set of hooks for my girls to hang their play dresses on. Another ingenious use of space if I do say so myself. :)

In each corner of the closet I have these wonderful shelving units. It was such a waste of space before but now look how awesome it is! Nothing drives me crazier than clutter. There's no clutter in the closet anymore now, thanks to IKEA.

The toys that my kids still play with, but only rarely, are tucked away neatly in the top shelf of the closet where only I can reach them. I'm happy to pull them down when they ask for them and happier that they are out of the way!

Phew! I think I've overloaded you enough so for now I'll leave how I store my youngest's toys for another day. :) I guarantee you these ideas will work for your child's toys. Heck, they'll work for your toys too! Comment on this post with any questions. I am always happy to offer up advice. :) Good luck!

Kitchen Drawer Dilemma... Solved!

The holiday season is upon us and you know what that means right? Lots of time spent in the kitchen creating yummy goodies for all to share! Why not seize the opportunity then to get a little more organization in your kitchen to help the Holidays be a tiny bit less hectic! Every little bit helps, right?

This used to be what my utensil drawer looked like. Not pretty, huh? It was a huge pain to find anything in there and sometimes it would take my husband and I a couple of tries of digging through it before we found what we were looking for. So frustrating, especially when dinner was already on the table! One day I decided enough was enough and began brainstorming to find a better way to organize my cooking utensils. Here's what I came up with:

I went to the store and purchased some very inexpensive drawer organizers. They can be found in the kitchen department of any Wal-Mart or Target. Seriously, they're like $1.50 each for the white ones. I think the black one was more like $7.00 and normally I wouldn't have bought it but two more white ones wouldn't fit. :( I measured my drawers first so I knew that! I then categorized the utensils as best as I could and placed only the utensils I use the most in there.

The every-so-ofteners found a new home in a separate cupboard in my kitchen that had some extra space. The rolling pin was a bit too awkward even for this space so eventually I moved it from this cupboard to my kitchen towel drawer which is the only other place I knew I would remember where it was. My mom always kept her rolling pin in her towel drawer too. Why was that Mom? Probably because it didn't fit anywhere else!

Finally, the serving spoons and spatulas went in a caddy right next to the stove for easy access. I love this caddy. It's very homey don't you think? Plus, it uses hardly any precious counter space.

These drawer organizers work for any drawer. See how I used them in this drawer? To the right I have all the baby utensils and medicince droppers. Up at the top I have my measuring spoons. I love that they're in their own space because when I'm cooking or baking I just pull out the whole basket and have all the measuring spoons right at my finger tips.

So there you go, a super easy (and cheap!) way to organize your kitchen drawers. No more excuses, get to work! ;)

Oh, the Possibilites!

I am always on the lookout for unique storage containers, especially for things that need to be stored in plain sight. While a plastic bin is great when it's hidden behind a door, I think containers with personality add visual interest.

Take these mini washtubs, for example. I found them in the dollar section at Target for a whopping $2.50 each! When I bought them the cashier said, "What would you use these for, Easter baskets?" She's just not looking at them from an organizational perspective. When I saw them I knew I had to have them. First off, they're cute (and inexpensive), second they're wide, and third they're deep. The possibilities are endless! I used two in my laundry room (how fitting!) and two in my kids' bathroom to store hair accessories.

There are so many different ways to store things that can bring a smile to your face. Wicker baskets are a favorite of mine because they are pretty and functional. You will find them all over my house. These washtubs are pretty high up there too. Storage doesn't have to be expensive or boring. See what you can find to de-clutter your life today!

Christmas in a Bin

One bin for each kid!

Yes, I know my last post was also about Christmas. It's because I'm trying to tell you something... Get your Christmas shopping done early so you can enjoy the Holidays!

My husband, Nathan, is my perfect match. He and I complicate each other in every way. Where I am weak he is strong and vice versa. We also share many of the same traits. One of them is list making. We both love to make lists and plan ahead!

Nathan and I start planning Christmas in September. We start by making a running list of all the presents we want to buy, complete with estimated prices. As we think of more things we add them to list or subtract them as we learn more about what our kids and each other really want for Christmas. Then we get to work collecting the gifts. Most of our shopping is done online which is much less hectic and much more convenient.

Each of our children have a bin in the garage numbered with their corresponding birth number. As the gifts arrive, they go in the bin to await wrapping time. My mom used to hide our presents in her closet and there were a few times that things got lost in there only to be found years later. Hmm, there's probably still some lost in there!

Thanksgiving weekend, the tree goes up and the presents get wrapped. They're all bought by then so why not? Nathan helps me wrap and we get through them in about a week. Then we have the whole month of December to enjoy the Christmas season. No last minute chaos at our house. See how much Christmas shopping you can get done this month. The less stress the better!