I’m an Organizing Junkie » My passion is organizing, join me as I attempt to get others hooked along with me!

Speaking of closet organizers….

May 8, 2008 – 10:36 pm

Remember last August when I went to visit my sister in Ontario and helped her to do this:

(You can see the before pictures here)

Well it turns out that my organizing freakness abilities may have rubbed off on her because just recently in preparation for their new baby who will be arriving next week (yay!) she took this closet:

and turned it into this:

What a difference some purging (ahem) and a closet organizer can make!

Closet organizers are a must in my book and definitely worth the investment although I’m not even talking big dollars here necessarily. Closet organizers come in all different configurations and prices so you can spend as little or as much as you want BUT since you’ve come to my blog you know I’m all about the affordable. So it’s safe to say that if you are looking for the $4000.00 closet solution, you’ve come to the wrong blog. I mean I’m not knocking the $4000.00 closet organizer because I’m sure they are hunky and dorry and the things that dreams are made of but this lady just doesn’t have that kind of cashola. So instead here are some solutions that work for me and my bank balance.

First decide what your requirements are for the closet. In other words what do you want to store in there? Clothes, toys, books, or all of the above? Take your requirements into consideration when shopping for a closet organizer.

Most department stores will sell some kind of basic closet organizer for under $100.00. The one I’ve used a few times in my house and the one my sister used above is this one:

Closet organizer from Canadian Tire $54.99

You can see a picture of my entryway closet with this organizer here, the only difference is the addition of a drawer in the middle. Very effective I must say and if you are super handy (unlike me) you can customize these inexpensive closet organizers to suit your needs without spending a lot of additional dollars. My friend Shari is a pro at this and you just have to go check out the amazing work she has done BY HERSELF in both her daughter’s room as well as the walk-in closet in her bedroom. How’s that for inspiring!

The point is it is possible to maximize space in your closet no matter what the size. Just simply adding an extra shelf at the top of your closetlike my hubby did for instance can make a huge difference.

Or how about this new product I just discovered on the Solutions website which looks pretty nifty for adding extra space at the top of a closet:

2-in-1 Closet Combo $29.95

These closet doublers also look great for creating more space at a great price:

Closet Doubler $13.99

I’m also a HUGE fan of dressers and bookshelves in the closet especially in kid’s rooms. In fact I created a closet library in my daughter’s closet to house all her books and allow her visual clutter to be kept to a minimum. Putting dressers/shelves in a closet also frees up bedroom floor space which for a small room can make a huge difference.

Whether you have clothes, toys or books to store in your child’s closet using cubbies is also a fantastic idea as seen here on The Nesting Diary. You’ll even find the instructions for making the tags to attach to the cubbies to assist children in knowing where to put things away. Love it!

Need more motivation? Check out this picture that appeared in the very first issue of Organize Magazine. All three girls share this closet:

The closet organizer works to divide the space so each girl has a section hopefully alleviating some potential fighting.

I hope you find this useful today. If you are currently using any of the products mentioned in this post I would love to hear your thoughts on them.

Have a happy weekend everyone!

By Laura | Posted in Bedroom, Closet Storage, Kid Stuff | Comments (9)

There are some things going on around the blogland

May 7, 2008 – 9:25 am

Have I mentioned that I adore the organizing bags that my friend Lara sells? Maybe just once or twice? LOL They are so practical and functional and I heart them…a lot! Be sure to read my review here. So here’s the good news, Lara is doing another giveaway for a set of these awesome bags! Just go visit her site to find out how to enter and good luck!

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I’m not sure how many of my readers are participating with Rachel-Anne’s daily Small Things over at Home Sanctuary but she is doing such an amazing job posting some small thing you can do each day in your home to create a sanctuary for your family. She really is putting a lot of work into it and each month she also posts a free download of an amazing picture to print complete with a beautiful bible verse and her stunning artwork. She encourages us to post it where we’ll see it each day to remind us that God is working in us, helping us and rejoicing over us. Here is a picture of mine from April. I have it framed right beside my laptop station where I see it every time I sit down to work.

I highly recommend you also check out her download for May. All I can say is WOW! Thank you Rachel-Anne for all you do every day to encourage all of us in our roles as wives, mothers and homemakers.

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There is a brand new organizing network on the block called Organized Life by Design started by Alyssa Avant. The purpose of this network is to apply practical knowledge and Godly principles to life. Alyssa’s goal is for 100 members by the end of May. Check it out by clicking on the banner below:

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Finally look at this gorgeous button that recently caught my eye:

How cute is that! Sarah from Today’s Homemaker is holding a Carnival of Modern Home Dwelling from May 14th to the 21st. She is looking for article entries in a multiple of categories (one of which is organization) so be sure to go on over, check things out and perhaps link up to one of your own articles or, if you like, even one of mine :)

Whew that should keep you busy for awhile. Have a happy day!!

By Laura | Posted in Link Love | Comments (12)

One of my tricks for keeping the toys under control….

May 6, 2008 – 6:21 am

Put up your hand if it drives you crazy when toys are all mixed up and scattered all over the house?

Me, me, me!!

Seriously I go a little cuckoo if I find toy sets (like Little People, or Pirates or Pollys or Lego) separated and taking up residence in different rooms of the house or even worse on different floors of the house. Talk about chaos!

So we have a house rule. Toy sets stay together in their specific rooms. They do not move from room to room or floor to floor. We have downstairs toys, we have living room toys, we have bedroom toys and they stay there. Such a small thing but you would not believe how much easier it makes life. After much training even my two year old has it figured out. For instance, his little tool bench and tools are kept upstairs in his bedroom and whenever he’d come downstairs with one of his tools in his chubby little hand I’d send him right back upstairs to put it back. It works! He actually caught on pretty quick. Another example would be the dress up clothes which are kept downstairs, they don’t get dragged all over the house and abandoned wherever. So while everything isn’t always put away exactly, toy sets are at least all together in the same room which is nice when you want to sit down to play something and you don’t have to go looking all over the house for the pieces.

I only keep the amount of toys in each room that fit the space without being overpowering or hard to control. Everything not only has a home in a specific room but also a designated space within that room. It certainly makes clean up a breeze which allows me the ability to give the kids a little slack about the toy mess. I don’t want my kids to have to live with completely tidy rooms 100% of the time, that is just unreasonable. So this is our compromise and so far it is working. Do things still go astray every once and awhile? Of course but that is what a walk-about is for :)

Toy storage in my living room:

Do you have a favorite toy organizing tip? Please share it with us!

By Laura | Posted in Kid Stuff, Organizing | Comments (38)

Menu Plan Monday ~ May 5th

May 4, 2008 – 8:07 pm

Hello everyone! I have a surprise for you today. I realize it’s been awhile since I’ve introduced a new Menu Plan Monday banner so I thought I’d better make it up to you and went ahead and made 4! I got on a roll what can I say. I love change and get bored easily so why not a new banner for a great little pick me up :) I also know that many hosts of these types of carnivals like their participants to only use one banner but I like having options here on MPM. Oh yes I do although I did go and retire two of them on you but maybe you won’t even notice. I hope you like the new banners but feel free to use any of the ones listed on this page. Options, it’s all about the options people ~ go crazy!!

Our “Go Green” banner:

Our “Bring on the Summer BBQ” banner:

Another “Mr. Smiley” banner (isn’t he cute):

And now because a few of you have been asking for a sidebar button, I introduce to you the “I Love Menu Planning” button!

You can find the code for the button in my sidebar there on the left. Thanks!

Onto other news this Baked Chicken Teriyaki recipe is so absolutely YUMMY! I’m not just saying that either because I invited my girlfriend for dinner and she ended up making it for me…LOL. So delicious and definitely having someone else make it for you is a nice treat that I highly recommend!

Thanks to everyone for all the cookie recipes in last week’s comments. You gals ROCK!

Here is what we’ll be eating this week:

Monday: Spaghetti Bolognese (didn’t get to last week)

Tuesday: Grilled Steaks served with baked potato and grilled veggies

Wednesday: Baked Honey Mustard Chicken served with perogies and broccoli

Thursday: Homemade Grilled Burgers served with Caesar salad

Friday: Southwestern Chicken Barley Soup served with homemade bread

Saturday: Pizza Pancakes

Sunday: Happy Mother’s Day!

WHAT’S ON YOUR MENU THIS WEEK?

Menu Plan Monday guidelines and banners are here.

By Laura | Posted in Menu Plan Monday | Comments (83)

Kids, kids, kids….

May 1, 2008 – 11:02 pm

The Monthly Organizing Round-Up has us tackling our kid’s rooms this month. It’s enough to make us shudder just thinking about it isn’t it. It will be hard work but it’s not impossible. The two main problems I see in kid’s rooms are clothes and toys and I’ll address both of these issues over the next couple of weeks. Here are just some of the posts I am working on:

Rotating clothes for season and size

Organizing toys with your child’s personality in mind

Closet organizers

Rotating toys

Organizing keepsakes

Getting kids involved in the process

In the meantime if you want to get started this weekend, here are some links to a few of my previous posts that you may find helpful:

Getting to sleep amongst the clutter

Organizing my son’s room

Creating a closet library

Organizing a nursery for baby

Polly World

Organizing kid’s toys just got a whole lot easier

Looking beyond the mess

We are not our children’s slaves

Also if you are interested in guest posting with regards to organizing kid’s rooms or have a link to a post you’ve already done for future Link~tastic editions, I’d love to consider it. Just send me an email or use the contact form above. Thanks!

Have a great weekend everyone!

By Laura | Posted in Kid Stuff, Monthly Round-up | Comments (21)

Storage Star ~ Donation Station

April 30, 2008 – 9:42 pm

Not long ago I blogged about the purge pile I keep behind my office door for items that I’ve collected throughout the week that need to go to the thrift store. I like having a designated spot to throw these things as I go about my day. Quick and easy and just waiting to be filled…begging to be filled actually. This tiny little voice from the box calling out to me over and over again “help me, I’m hungry, need more stuff”. So annoying really but it seems the more I fill it the more it calls out to be filled. What’s a girl to do but feed that darn box a few toys, towels, clothes, or tools (just kidding honey!), breath a sigh of relief and enjoy the silence….whew!

Cruising around blogland I discovered that Homemaker Barbie also has a purge box but what I love is not only has she decorated her box but she cleverly calls it a Donation Station!! Seriously I love stations, why didn’t I think of that? Check out her post here to find out why she uses such a system and how she is going to ensure that it gets used by all her family members as well. Great job and definitely Storage Star worthy in my book!

Hmmmm, I wonder if she hears the voices too?

Related posts:

Backpack Station

Beverage Station

Art Station

By Laura | Posted in Purging, Storage Star | Comments (10)

Hey it’s the end of the month, let’s see what you’ve done….

April 29, 2008 – 10:05 pm

Whether you have been busy organizing your entire master bedroom or just a small part of it, I can’t wait to see your before and after pictures. These pictures are wonderfully motivating and inspiring. This past month we’ve talked about making our bedrooms a place to retreat, about getting our clothes up and off the floor and about straightening out our closets.

To participate in Org Junkie’s Monthly Organizing Round-Up you simply need to link up below to a post of your own which includes both the before and after pictures of your newly organized master bedroom or area of your master bedroom. Basically anything do to with organizing your master bedroom goes.

Those that participate are eligible to win the awesome prize package donated by Lifeorganizers.com, everything to do with organizing our wires and cables. You can read more about this great prize here.

A lucky winner will be chosen at random at the end of May from the list of those that participated in April and/or May.

So if you are sitting here thinking “oh drats I didn’t get it done” well never fear it’s not too late. You’ve got until the end of today (Wed) to link up in Mr. Linky below. So got nuts and get er done!

And tonight when you crawl into bed you’ll be so happy you did, oh yes you will.

Get ready, May will have us working on our kid’s rooms.

PS: Please remember to link directly to your round-up post and not your blog home page. Thanks!

By Laura | Posted in Bedroom, Monthly Round-up | Comments (9)

Try it, you might like it!

April 29, 2008 – 6:29 am

This weekend I purchased a new cookie jar but when I got home and filled it up with homemade cookies I decided I didn’t want to just tuck it into the corner. I wanted to display the loveliness of the new cookie jar. Well okay that and the small simple fact that hello I’M BAKING! That fact alone excites me to no end considering the disasters of my past. Ever since I got me a brand new pretty apron, I’ve all of a sudden become Miss Domesticated. Not domesticated as in everything is turning out roses but just domesticated as in “look at me, I’m actually in the kitchen…BAKING!” The excitement, it’s sometimes just to much. And yes my cookies are flat but I’m totally blaming it on my baking soda.

Okay where was I? Oh yes where to put the new cookie jar. Well I got to looking around my kitchen and decided I needed to free up some counter space which led to me thinking of ways I could get my microwave off the counter. Microwaves just take up so much darn space don’t they. After a couple of different configurations of moving things here, there and everywhere I’ve decided on this:

That is my tea cart which many of you will remember from the tour I gave of my dining room here. I don’t know if I’ll keep it like this or not but I’m going to give it a test drive for a week and see how it goes. For now I’m enjoying the additional space on my counter top.

(In case you are wondering why I have two toasters, one is for my gluten free son.)

Oh and here is the corner where the tea cart used to be.

I know it doesn’t look like a big change but even a small change such as this makes the place feel fresh and new and energizes me to want to do more. It’s amazing how addicting this organizing and re-arranging thing can be once you get started. I’m the kind of person that gets an idea but doesn’t really know if I’m going to like it or not until I actually move it and see it in place. I’m a visual girl that way. Don’t be afraid to take a tour of your house and switch things up a little once and awhile. You may end up discovering a new system that makes life just that much easier for you.

And if that fails, well you can always head on into the kitchen to do some baking!

By Laura | Posted in Kitchen, Organizing | Comments (29)

Menu Plan Monday ~ April 28th

April 27, 2008 – 7:15 pm

Well here we are at another week. Thanks for joining me here. I can hardly believe April is almost over.

Yesterday I purchased a new cookie jar and today that cookie jar sparked a frenzy of kitchen re-organizing that was just so much fun. I’ll be posting about that later but for now here is a picture of what started the whole thing. I’ve always wanted a clear cookie jar and I was so happy to find this one at Wal*mart.

The chocolate chip cookie recipe I used this time is just the one from the back of the Hershey’s chocolate chip bag but this recipe I’ll be trying next! I’d also like to try this healthier chocolate chip cookie recipe as well but I can’t seem to find rapadura which I’m guessing is a sugar substitute.

If you’ve got a favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe that you love I’d so appreciate it (as will my family!) if you linked to it in the comments for me.

So this is what our week looks like:

Monday: Bacon and Creamy Fettuccine
Tuesday: Baked Teriyaki Chicken served with rice and broccoli
Wednesday: Grilled Steak Caesar Salad with homemade bread
Thursday: Leftover Buffet
Friday: Homemade Pizza
Saturday: Spaghetti Bolognese (seriously the pictures on this blog are to die for!)