So I bought a new friend, a lovely new shoe tree friend.  She was only $20 in a discount store (Fields for those of you in Canada) so I just couldn’t pass her up.  These go for a lot more in specialty organizing shops for sure.  Besides she called my name when I walked by and I could tell she was lonely.

I originally thought I’d put her in my bedroom closet for my dress shoes because there wasn’t any room in my entryway closet.  However I’d really rather have all my most frequently worn shoes in the entryway closet as that’s where I need them as I’m walking out the door.  It just makes sense.

I forgot to take a before picture of the entry closet before I got started but here is an old picture.  However see those empty shelves on the tall white shelf?  Well just imagine them stuffed full of shoes instead because that’s what ended up happening.  With 5 people in the house and a daughter that now wears the same size shoe as I do, shoes were everywhere.

The shoes were piled up on top of one another and it wasn’t ideal because shoes would get pretty dirty that way.  So I removed the white storage unit (I haven’t quite figured out what to do with it next) and added my brand new shoe tree instead.

Better right?  We also did some shoe purging as well which definitely helped :)  I’m using the shoe tree to hold mostly mine and my daughter’s dressier shoes for now.  I love that it spins around for easy access!!

Unfortunately there’s a kicker though.  This shoe tree is supposed to hold six pairs of shoes per ring for a total of 18 shoes all together.  However I found I couldn’t fit all the shoes side by side without them bunching up and overlapping one another.  So I had to leave a space between each pair which meant I could only get four pairs of shoes per ring for a total of 12 pairs of shoes.  Still a decent amount in a small space though so I am happy with it so far.  If you were storing all small kid’s shoes on it you could definitely use all the spaces I’m sure and store more.

You’ll notice that we also store shoes in different ways on either side of the shoe tree.  We have the shelves on the left which hold quite a few and then my shoe organizer that hangs from the bar on the right.  Whew, 5 people generate a lot of shoes!

Do you use a shoe tree in your house?  What do you think of it?

Shoe Tree Organization is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

1.  Using Towel Rods:

My girlfriend hung towel rods behind her bedroom door and then hung her scarves off them.   I love this idea and as you can see it also works great for jewelry too.

2.  In a Basket:

Depending on how many scarves you have you might be able to get away with just tossing them in a basket.  Simple!

3.  On a Hanger:

Using shower curtain rings (from the dollar store) on a hanger I was able to add my scarves in such a way that they take up next to no room at all in my closet.  Very simple and easy to do and as you can see I could really get many more on there.  This is probably my favorite solution of them all.

All I’ve done is loop them through the rings.

4.  With a Scarf Organizer:

This scarf organizer I purchased from Solutions (a Canadian organizing store) for $6.99 if I remember correctly.  Ikea sells a similar one as well although it is bigger and available for $9.99.  I blogged about it here.

As you can see it holds quite a few scarves but because they overlap one another it does get a little bulky.

So there you have it.  Scarves, scarves and more scarves.  Which solution is your favorite?

How do you organize your scarves?

4 Inexpensive Ways to Organize Scarves is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

He has a bin in our front hallway closet for his caps but soon they started to spill over to the space beside.

(Just for the record he also has another stash in our bedroom closet but that’s another story)

Anyhoo I could have put my foot down, pouted, whined, pleaded with him to get rid of some of them but I decided not to do any of those things.  Instead I simply added another bin and hid them all away.

I could have perhaps gone ahead and tossed a few myself, I’m almost certain he would never have missed them but that would not be respectful.   They are his things after all and so what if he has a completely unhealthy attachment to his caps.  I’m pretty sure he would say the same thing about me and all my hair supplies.  So we live in harmony.  Me with perfectly coiffed hair and him with his hair all covered up.

It’s all good.

Don’t fight the small stuff, it’s just not worth it.

PS:  As you can see I also added some fun labels to my bins.  They are part of Martha’s new line at Staples.  I pretty much went crazy for it all and bought up a whole pile of the stuff the other day.  You know, in the name of “research”.  They called out to me, I couldn’t resist :)  The blue part is elastic so they were so easy to attach.  Read my blog post about where I got my bins here.

Related post:

Thin hangers can double your hanging space

Don’t fight the small stuff is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

Remember last week when I mentioned I organized my entryway closet? Here’s a refresher:

Before:

After:

In that post, I had mentioned a product that I used that has changed my life.  Only one of you guessed that it was my hangers!  Yep something as simple as a hanger has made life so much easier for me, believe it!

Now I must be a little isolated here where I live because seriously I’ve never heard of the Joy Mangano Huggable Hanger until I received them to review. Up until now I’ve never really found a hanger that I love.  I’ve never been a fan of wooden hangers and I know Professional Organizers are gasping at me everywhere but I’ve always felt they were ugly and because they bow out they take up way too much space in a closet.  So I’ve been using plastic hangers which are fine except for the annoying habit coats have of falling off them.  Drives me crazy!  These Huggable Hangers are made of velvet-flocked material which means my coats no longer slide off…yipee!  Not only that but because they are thinner they allow you to fit more into a space.  Oh and as a bonus they prevent those horrible shoulder bumps as well….blech.

These were my coats before.  Don’t even ask me how many times I’ve picked up that one there in the middle with the red trim off the floor.  Seriously, what a waste of time!

Now I don’t have that problem anymore and I’m a changed woman!!  Coats stay put!

Love, love, love!

Now some other things going on in my closet to keep me organized are my bins on top which hold my husband’s ball caps, summer hats, bags, etc.  I still need to label them.  I blogged about where I purchased them here.

And then tucked behind the coats on the back wall I’ve hung up a four pocket organizer using a command hook.  Here I’ve got some extra supplies for the vehicle (tissues, wipes, etc) that are quick and easy to grab and go.

And then beside that I’ve got my shoe organizer that holds quite a number of shoes.

Finally the basket on the cubby shelf is home for all my Bella’s dog supplies.

Ahh isn’t she sweet :)

So there you have it my small but organized entryway and front door closet.

Giveaway:

Would you like to win a 24 pack of Huggable Hangers for yourself?  Simply leave a comment on this post prior to Tuesday, May 10th at 2:00 pm EST.  That’s it!

Good luck!!

My entryway and a Huggable Hangers giveaway! is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

This week customers of Org Junkie’s Shop are eligible to win an Original Stash Organizer! (draw to take place Oct 31st….if you’ve already made a purchase this month–thank you so much!–you are automatically entered)

I love the Simply Stashed line of products so much that you’ll find them all in my shop.  You might remember the Mini Stash that I reviewed not too long ago.  I used it to house my office supplies.

Something I didn’t point out last time but should have because it’s awesome is that the door hooks that come with the Simply Stashed line of organizers are thin enough to still allow doors to close.  Very handy!

This same company also has another line called Gear Pockets.  I was stumped with what to do with my entryway in my new house as I have no floor space to store the kids winter hats and mitts at the door.  I have just a small split level landing.  Fortunately I have a garage door that enters right beside the main door so I decided to utilize some vertical space on that door.  The Original Gear Pocket Organizer came to my rescue here:

It’s working great!  You have no idea how happy I was to find such an awesome solution.  Since the Gear Pocket line comes with permanent hooks for the garage I just used Command Hooks to fix it to the door.  So easy to do and so easy to remove if needed.

By making a purchase from my shop anytime during October you are automatically entered into the weekly prize draws AND the final grand prize draw at the end of the month.

Don’t forget the GRAND prize is this amazing beauty below just in time to cook those yummy Thanksgiving turkeys:

Foldtuk Collapsible Roaster

This week on sale is a Collapsible Roaster and Collapsible Casserole Dish combo…purchase both for $69.00!

You can find more details of Customer Appreciation Month here.  Thanks everyone!  I heart you! :)

Velcro winner + Original Stash Organizer prize! is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

Oh my goodness I may have swooned when I saw what Diane of In my Own Style did with an old dresser in her mudroom to provide some much needed organization.  I love that she picked up this old hollowed up dresser on the side of the road and transformed it into something completely functional for next to nothing.

Mudrooms and entryways require storage for so many things don’t they?  We need space for things like keys, sunglasses, hats, mitts, library books, handbags, wallets, electronics, sunscreens, the list goes on and on.

What Diane create here was a home for all of it.  She added some shelves to the dresser and some dollar store baskets and voila, storage galore!

Beautiful!!

It’s all about taking the resources we have available to us and making them work for our needs.  This just goes to show you that not all solutions have to cost a lot of money.  I love it!  I also love the way she labeled each of them.  Go on over and read her post for the details :)

Thanks for letting me share your post and pictures with my readers today Diane, you definitely deserve today’s Storage Star!

Have you ever taken trash and turned it into clever storage?  I’d love to hear about it!

Storage Star ~ Mudroom organizing is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

Are all you cow-girls (boys?) ready to rope in your entryways into the Mr. Linky below?  (sorry, totally couldn’t resist :) )

Don’t be shy, we can’t wait to see what you’ve done.  So whether you’ve made a big change or a little change, it’s all good.  If something is working a little bit easier for you with some changes you were able to incorporate then let us celebrate that with you.   Please link up below to a post on your site that shows us both your before and after pictures and remember to use the direct link to your round-up post and not to your homepage.  That’s helpful for those of us who might not get a chance to take a peek at your post until later.  * Also, as a courtesy, if you are going to participate please be kind and link back to this post within your post.  I noticed quite a few blogs that didn’t do this last time. *

I want to give a big shout-out to our August/September sponsor, The Organize It Mom!  If you haven’t had a chance to check out her products then you really must.  I wrote a review over on my review site which you can read here.  Laurieann will be giving away a $60.00 prize package to one of the round up participants who enters in either Aug or Sept.  Entering in both gives you two chances to win!  Need more time?  Not a problem, you have until 3:00 pm PST on Sunday.

For more info on Org Junkie’s Monthly Round-Up and to visit previous round up entries go here.  Interested in being a future sponsor?  E-mail me!

Thanks all!  Next month we are moving on to our home offices.  Yikes!

We are rounding up the entryways today! is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

This is the last week of getting our entryways organized and I’m getting excited about it as I’ve had a sneak peek at a few of them and they are awesome! I’ll be putting up the Round-Up Mr. Linky on Friday so please come back and enter your link to your entryway then.

Today I have some most excellent entryway links that I think you’re going to like and may also provide you with some additional inspiration. Enjoy and then get to work :)

I got my dream mudroom ~ Just Beachy

Mudroom closet ~ The Shabby Nest

Are you handy? Make your own mudroom storage bench

Only have a small space available? Make your own mini-mudroom

Create your own organized home entryway system ~ Declutter It!

Organizing entryways ~ video

Front door hooks ~ video

photo courtesy of freakgirl

Sponsored by The Organize It Mom! who will be giving away a $60.00 prize package to one of the Round-Up participants!

Link-Tastic ~ The Organizing Entryways Edition is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

Thanks to all these organized ladies for letting us peek into their homes!

First up Debbie from Virtually Organized shows us her closet backpack station. I really love those fabric bins that really do hold a lot of stuff.

Next we have Amy from Mom’s Toolbox (great blog design by the way!). Below you’ll see that they did away with the closet doors in order to add some built in shelving to create plenty of shoe storage underneath the bench as well as in the cubbies above all the hooks. Amy just recently reorganized this space and you can see her before photo here.

Next Jen of Our Daily Big Top shows us her backpack station. I’m betting this makes her mornings run so much smoother!

One of my readers, who doesn’t blog, sent me these next two pictures of her entryway area. Julie dressed her backpack station up by adding some big name letters to avoid any fighting over the hooks. Great idea!

Here is the other side that includes a side table to house some trays for paper (one for each member of the family) as well as a magazine holder for all the magazines that come in and are waiting to be read. Love the mirror/bulletin board with the hooks as well.

Next Lori of She of 3 Angels shares her fantastic backpack station complete with shoe cubbies. Easy and inexpensive. Above the hooks she also has a terrific idea for keeping on top of the kid’s schedules. She goes into detail about that on this post. Check it out!

Finally, Jennifer of This Is My Munchkinland was kind enough to share these next two pictures of her entryway hooks and cubbies. I really do love how functional these cubbies are. You can purchase them at most department stores for reasonable prices and they really do provide you with a lot more space. Most excellent!

Happy Friday everyone!

Back to School with a Backpack Station is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie

And here it is today:

Okay so not that much different but it amuses me to see the basket shuffle in action :) Who doesn’t love a good basket shuffle? It’s fun to try new configurations to see what can be improved on. I’ve been able to add some pretty wicker baskets this time (they became available from my son’s room when we took down his change table). Of course I’d love it if all the baskets in this closet were decorative ones because the doors are left open so often but that will have to be something that comes gradually over time. Believe me, a good wicker basket on sale is worth the wait! Finding them at the thrift store is even more sweet.

Let’s take a peak inside one of those baskets now. This is where I store entryway essentials like chapstick, hairspray for last minute touch-ups, tissues, change jar, etc..

The other wicker basket holds my purse.

The very top long shelf of the closet organizer holds our extra bags like our carry-ons for when we travel, that kind of thing.  Things we don’t use too often.  The top white basket in the first cubby holds all my hubbie’s ball caps, the next cubby basket is what I call my entrance way junk drawer (can we say catch all!) and the clear container under that holds all our sunglasses.

We try and leave the hanging space on the right free for our guest’s coats when they visit.

Here’s a better view of the entire entryway:

I got the little hat tree by the door through some mail order catalogue ages ago and it makes it so easy for the kids to throw their hats on when they come in the door. No more picking them up off the floor!

So that’s it folks, doors closed.

I hope you enjoyed your peek into my entrance way today. Now I’m off to see if any more of my baskets want to dance with me :)

My Entryway Closet revisited is a post from: I'm an Organizing Junkie