Paper pushing: level domestic

The past few days I've been soaking in the last little bit of summer break with my kiddos and getting them ready for this next school year. So. Much. Paperwork. How you mommas do it with more than two kids, my writing hand bows wearily from over here! In all that paperwork-filling-outing (yes I just created my own language) I remembered that a friend of mine recently asked me what she should do with all the really super important paperwork. Since it's fresh in my mind, I thought now would be the perfect time to dive into this subject. I know that some of you may have even had kiddos start a new school and was expected to whip out important documents, I was right there with you, within a moments notice. Before you put it all back, let's make sure we make it easier for the next time, but first...

My babies!!! 3rd and 2nd grade better be ready!

When I did the command center, I created a place to hold the bills and other papers when I sorted the mail.

On pay days I grab the "Pay" folder to pay the bills.  In my office area I have a filing system that is broken down monthly and the files contain the bills from the past year. As the new month comes up, those past bills are shredded and replaced with this current month paid bills.  I can't tell you how many times I've had to refer to past bills or shown proof for various residency requirements. Also, I like to see if there have been any drastic changes with the utilities from year to year. I love keeping what needs to be paid separate from what has already been paid.

As for the long term important documents, one of the things that you should consider purchasing is a fire safe box. How big will depend on what types and how many items you want to store inside.  You may even want to consider a safety deposit box at your bank if there are items that you would prefer not to store at home. Whatever you decide, make sure you stick to it so if something unfortunate should happen, you can easily get to the important documents you may need quickly.

The first important document that will ever be associated with you is your birth certificate and the next most important item is your Social Security card. Let me begin with saying that if you carry these items with you, please stop. Now. If your wallet or purse is stolen, you have just given the criminal EVERYTHING they would need to assume your identity. Not to mention the fact that there are very few situations that you will actually need those items on a regular basis.

While we are on the topic of Social Security cards, rules have changed over the past year in regards to what you'll need to get a replacement card.  Without proper proof of identity, you cannot order a replacement card. Birth certificates are NOT proof of identity, but instead are just proof that you were born. Anyone can obtain your birth certificate if they know enough information required to obtain one. Check with your state vital records to find out what you need to do in order to replace a lost or destroyed birth certificate. Social Security cards on the other hand you can only obtain with having proper identification like a valid state issued driver's license/ identification card or a passport for example. If you go to the Social Security website, you can find the full list of what is needed to obtain a replacement or even a new card for either yourself or your children.  (NEVER pay to have the application done as there is no cost and is something you can do by going in to a Social Security office or mailing your documents to your local office.)

Next, do not get rid of marriage or divorce paperwork.  No matter what. Believe it or other, there will be times when you WILL need those documents.  Make sure you get a certified or stamped copy for your records, they're not valid without it.  Good, bad, or ugly save yourself the hassle and just keep it.

Now for the topic that many people dread, tax records. Once you have your W-2 and it matches your pay stubs, you can get rid of your stubs. You need to keep your tax records and the items (i.e. receipts, statements, W-2's) you used for those state and federal returns, typically for 3 years. The IRS website has specific situations where it may be important to keep your returns longer, but if you're not sure, keep it for 7 years just to be safe.  I keep mine in two pocket folders and have them labeled by year.

Other documents you should keep in your fire safe are any insurance policies, warranties, wills, military paperwork, vehicle information etc.  For insurance purposes, keep a list of your inventory, including serial numbers, and pictures with your policies.  We also keep a few sentimental items in our fire box, for example we keep back up memory cards of our digital pictures.  Most of the fire safes have the ability to hold hanging files you can add tabs to and inside the hanging folders you can place standard folders to sub-categorize for quick access.

Just one example of what you can do. 

Keeping track of monthly bills and important documents, gives you not only a safe place to store these items, but also a centralized location away from your every day stuff.  I've witnessed too many people not able to take care of important matters timely simple because care wasn't taken to protect documents. Whether they were accidentally tossed, destroyed or lost in a move, when you need something quick the time to replace them can take days, even weeks. If you know that you're missing something now, you may want to go ahead and replace it now.

Back to school hustle

I know we say it every year, but wow summer just flew by! It seemed like it wasn't all that long ago that I was picking the girls up from their last day of school and taking them out for a day of fun. In less than a week, they return to the daily grind and I need to get our space ready!!!

By the end of the school year I noticed that left over supplies were being returned home. At first I was annoyed because the girls insisted that we keep them, but then the light bulb went off in my head and quickly I snatched them in a Lord of the Rings sort of fashion (my precious) and hid them.  When I did the kitchen command center re-do, I decided that would be the perfect place to keep the boxes of those supplies handy. Each girl had their own plastic box (to eliminate disputes) and inside would be the tools they would need to complete their homework during the next school year.  Even if your teacher wasn't able to provide the plastic box they required in the beginning of school, any box will do! Or I've seen them for as little as 97 cents at Walmart.

As many parents know, with the start of school also starts the influx in the amount of paper that comes into the house. I mean seriously, there's no wonder we're all concerned about not being able to replenish natural resources fast enough and I've only witnessed 4 school years!  One of the first things we do when we get home at night is I go through the bags and pull ALL of the paper out. I quickly sort out the important stuff that needs to be signed and returned, or information for upcoming events. I also pull out any homework and give it to the kids to do. While they're not looking busy, I go through their art work and returning homework keeping my favorite pieces and the others I put in recycling, immediately. Let's be honest here, if I kept every piece of paper my child touched, or drew on, I would be featured on the next episode of Hoarders. I like to keep something from the beginning, middle, and end of the school year so we can see the amount of growth. Of course I keep most art projects that have their hand print, I mean I want to be tidy, but I'm not heartless. Each child has a folder in my bin where I keep these items to be filed away in their school folders down the road. Once everything is cleaned out, the backpacks are ready to go for the next day and are placed back in our hall closet for the next day. (Picture coming soon.)

We made a rule in our house that we don't wear shoes inside. It's something that I grew up with and has just stuck with me ever since. We feel that it keeps our floors cleaner and besides I want to keep most things in a contained area.  So one of the bigger projects I tackled before school starts next week is our hall closet. I don't call it a coat closet because living in the south, we only wear coats for a limited amount of time. If anything this is more of a shoe closet for the family. After I pulled everything out, I had the girls go through their shoes and we donated, trashed, or handed them down. While everything was pulled out I vacuumed and got really motivated and painted the inside of the closet. (I've warned you of my easy distractibility.)

Top shelf holds the backpacks. 

The shoe cubbies and drawers were purchased from Target and have been one of the better systems that is still full functioning after nearly a year. I keep a basket on top of the cubbies that holds sunscreen and bug spray, a southern staple. In the drawers this is where I keep the girls socks. My goal in the mornings is to keep a flow going. Once the girls finish getting ready upstairs, they come down stairs for medicine and breakfast. The last thing they do is grab their shoes and go, we don't have time for them to run up to their rooms if they forget their socks. And they always do, problem solved.

We also found that night time was the best time to get everything ready for the next school day. Little ones, and big ones, are usually tired beings in the morning and the fights that would ensue over clothing choices were minimized when selected at night. If you want to take it to a whole new level, buy the large hanging shoe racks, there are usually 5 slots, and have them pick out clothes for the entire week.  BOOM! This is the first year that we don't have a school uniform, but I have organized their closet into two sections, one is school appropriate clothes and the other is not school appropriate or things I would prefer they not wear to school.

When school starts I also try to meal prep grab and go snacks and I like doing this on Sunday's.  I'll portion out various snacks in little baggies be it Cheeze Its, grapes, blueberries, or even cereal. It allows them to grab something while I'm sorting papers and they're doing homework without the question of "Can I have a snack", me stopping what I'm doing and getting easily distracted by something else.  It also eliminates mindless eating, something they'll hopefully thank me for down the road.  Having snacks readily available also makes it easier on me when I'm taking them to activities and I can grab them something to munch on before dinner. It takes time to do on Sunday, but saves so much more time during the rest of the week.

Granted I still feel new at this mother of school kids gig, I'm still learning different things as I go. Of course these are suggestions based on what works for our little family. I would love to hear things that have worked for you and yours!

Another trip around the sun

Nothing beats a South Carolina sunrise

As I've gotten older, having a birthday means something different than it did when I was growing up. After I hit all the major milestones, I didn't know what else I could look forward to really as crazy as that may sound. Once I had kids the importance of birthday's shifted back to them because I wanted to give them the same kind of memories I had as a child. Regardless I made a promise to myself that I would always take my birthday off from work and make it a day about what I want to do.  This year was no exception. 

This past Monday was my birthday and I got up to take my Orangetheory class at 5:15am. When I was driving back home I made the split decision to stop at the beach and watch the sun rise.  I don't take it for granted for one second where I live. So much peace. As I sat there drinking my coffee and reflecting on the past year, cliche I know, I started thinking to this next year and all that I hope to accomplish. Namely what I am trying to accomplish with this blog in particular. Then it dawned on me. This! This, right where I am, this sense of peace, this happy place, this is what I want you to get from my blog. Life is complicated, and chaotic, and sometimes we have a hand in making things worse than they have to be. I want you to realize that organization is more than just cleaning out a closet or a drawer. Organization is better utilizing your time, your space, pretty much every aspect of your life. Make things simple. Find your happy place. We get so caught up in a world where more is better that we lose sight of the things that mean the most.  Or we make the excuse that we just don't have the time to get organized, but if you sit down and have the honest conversation with yourself, you probably have more time that you think.

I love asking others what areas of lives do they need the most help with, because I know that there's probably another person who may be thinking the same thing.  It doesn't matter if you're married, single, with kids, without kids, working, or staying at home, we all have something where we've thrown up the little white flag asking for mercy, or our hands in frustration. Hopefully I can give you the confidence and the tools that ANYONE can become better organized. Sure I get some sick enjoyment out of it (this is what my friends tell me), but when you break it down, organization really is manageable and maintainable. I also want this to be a safe place to exchange ideas. 

I just want to leave you with this... We're not promised that trip around the sun and too many times we see that trip cut short. Let's help each other make the best of those days and the journey more manageable. One organization and DIY project at a time. 

Honey oak no more 2.0

There aren't many times in life you get a "do-over" and sometimes they happen even when you don't want them. The original post about painting the cabinets unfortunately fell victim to the unwanted do-over...

When we bought our house, and what we've noticed about the houses that are about the same age, is that 10+ years ago, honey oak must have been all the rage! There are still some decorating styles where honey oak is more than acceptable, so please don't be offended if you love that sweet warm colored wood.  However, for the vast majority where doing a complete kitchen overhaul is not financially possible, there has to be another alternative.  And there is!

The previous owners did a pretty good job trying to disguise dress up the honey oak cabinets. They did what I call "lipstick on a pig" by adding granite, stainless steel appliances, and newer flooring. No matter what they did, I still noticed the cabinets, but the other cute features of the house did not deter us from purchasing.

I seriously do not know what anyone did before the internet or Pinterest! And because I'm new at this blogging gig, after all the hours of research, I can't give proper credit where credit is due and site where exactly I got the method to the madness that is painting cabinets. Oops! I solemnly promise that this day forward I will credit back to the source, but really I mashed up all the different methods anyway.

Let's get this started and I'll show you what I'm talking about.

Exhibit #1- the kitchen

Exhibit #2- the bathroom

To get the technique down, we decided it was best to start in our master bathroom.  Mainly because if it turned out badly, the number of people who would witness the failed attempt would only be my husband and I. Also, it was a smaller amount of cabinets, so we wouldn't be terribly overwhelmed.

1) We removed all the doors and the drawers from the cabinet checking to see if any needed repairs. If so a little bit of wood putty goes a long way.

2) Everything was cleaned with Krud Kutter, which is great at getting the deep down gunk.

3) Because I'm a little messy, I taped off the base cabinet by the floor and the wall, my favorite is the green frog tape.

Once all that was done it was time to get the show on the road! Bonding primer will be your friend. I chose one that had the same clean up as regular latex paint because I don't like high maintenance things that require mineral spirits. Personal preference. The bonding primer works like regular primer, but it helps the cabinets accept the paint a lot easier as well as help with durability.

I started with painting the base cabinets and next the doors and drawer faces. When painting the doors, start with the back first. This will be important later when painting the actual color because the dry time will finish with the front of the doors facing up and minimizing the risk of blemishing your paint finish. I used a brush to get in all the nooks and crannies, then finished it with a small foam roller meant specifically for cabinets. We found handy plastic triangles to sit the doors up as opposed to the doors laying directly on your protected surface.

Painting often goes from a normal DIY project to a life lesson in patience. All that time to wait for paint to dry, what does one do with ones self? You would think that having one project going in a small space would be enough, but nope, I decided to take the moment to also paint the walls. I mean the space was already in disarray, what's one more can of paint? Plus, at the end of it all, the whole bathroom would be "done".  At least that's how I rationalized it, my husband on the other hand just shook his head.

Let's add another painting project shall we?

Also when the doors are off the cabinets it gave me a chance to see what was living behind them. (I got nothing but time people.) Wow! We'll definitely be talking cabinet organization in the near future. I promise. One tip I can offer now has to do with the space underneath the sink.  I'm not sure what type of chemicals the previous owners stored under the bathroom sink, or the kitchen sink for that matter, whatever it was ate away at the wood. Yikes!! The solution? Peel and stick floor tiles! They cut with a regular utility knife and installed in less than 10 minutes.

Too. Much. Stuff

I did two coats of bonding primer because I wasn't sure how it would take. For the color coat, we used Valspar brand paint in a satin finish. No real reason we chose Valspar other than we have a Lowe's closer to us than Home Depot. The paint went on really well and to make sure that the primer was covered up, plus the need for durability again I gave it two coats. After all the painting, flipping, and drying, everything was screwed back into place and the drawer pulls and cabinet knobs were replaced.

Ta da!

We waited a couple months and decided to paint the kitchen cabinets right around Christmas time. Because what doesn't say holiday cheer than doing a major DIY project at the same time? (You can probably sense a theme that my timing is less than ideal.) 

See, Christmas decorations!

We followed the same steps: 

1) Remove the doors and check for repairs

2) Clean!

3) Tape all around!

4) Bonding primer, wait, bonding primer, wait.

5) Paint, wait, paint, wait.

The mess!

Lots O doors!

This time around we used Behr from Home Depot and again the only reason was that we were there and decided to buy paint. Again, we used satin in the kitchen because of it's durability. The coverage was really good even though it was a little harder to see where I missed since the bonding primer is white and the paint color we chose is an off white.  Overall, we were really happy!

Here's the thing that we learned, I have no patience and will get myself deeper in the rabbit hole of a project, but in the end it is totally worth it. Multitasking at it's finest. When the installers put the granite in, they did not use paintable caulk. To make matters worse, they were pretty sloppy about it. So I had to do A LOT of sanding to get the caulk off some of the surfaces in order for the bonding primer to even go on. Fru-stra-ting! Doors take up a lot of space and they are the longest part of the whole process. All the painting and flipping.... In the end we were extremely happy with the result and kicking ourselves for not doing it sooner. Painting the cabinets in both the bathroom and the kitchen gave the spaces an updated feel, made the spaces feel so much brighter, and totally changed the overall look. In the kitchen the counter tops toned down a lot. Where before I wasn't so sure about the colors, now I don't even notice them. The best part about it all, it's just paint! So if you hate it, sure it's a lot of time to change it, but think about if you put different cabinets in that you spent a lot of money one and hated them, all you're investing is about a gallon of paint. Not too shabby! We would love to add molding to the top of the cabinets and even a backsplash, but for now we'll enjoy what we have.

One last look!

I think I've died and gone to Haven!

A few years ago one of my best friends, Jen, introduced me to an amazing website and she kept saying "you have to read this blog, it will change your life!" (What is this "blog" thing she spoke of because I didn't have the foggiest clue.) Needless to say, Jen was right, this "blog" was nothing short of amazing, we're talking world changing.  Jen from IHeart Organzing became my new virtual best friend. Much to my delight new stuff would appear and it all spoke to me! Ever since I was little I would watch episode after episode of "This Old House" with my dad. I loved watching my grandfather build things- the smell of sawdust, and I was OBSESSED with decorating and making things better in my room. (Not my closet, that was a hot mess.) As the years went on, I fine tuned my love of anything home decorating, organization, and I still had my love of building/DIY shows. So when my friend introduced me to the blog, I instantly fell in love and it got me thinking, maybe I could do this!?!

Last year Jen mentioned in her post something about a wonderful conference she attended and my ears perked up. I did a little research and that's where I found Haven. The more I read the more I realized that I needed to be there, I HAD to be there!! I approached my husband and told him to mark his calendar because next summer, we were going to Atlanta and I would be attending Haven!!! While he had no clue what that meant, he was on board because, well he loves me and that's all.  I made a promise with myself that I would have my own blog launched by the time that Haven came around, but I instantly froze up. I had all these great projects that we were doing, and my husband would lean in and say "that's blog worthy." I couldn't do it! I signed up for my own blog page and then nothing, nada... zilch. Time ticked on and as the first of the year approached so did the announcements that Haven would be opening up soon for registration. (Cue sweaty palms...) The day came when I mustered enough courage and before I knew it, I had signed up!  For Haven. And I didn't have one. single. blog post. (Yikes) I decided right then and there I would do my first official one, you know- to kick things off. That was in February and again I froze. How in the world could I EVER be taken seriously if I can't do the one thing that's sort of a requirement for blogging, you have to actually post things. Somehow, someway, and 4 months later, I managed to squeeze out two more posts and did what could probably be considered the worst introduction of my new passion, I launched my site on a Wednesday at 10pm.  I sort of did it, ran to bed and prayed by morning I still had friends. I woke up and what I saw made my jaw drop. People gave me positive feedback!!  Maybe I can do this! Crud!!!! The conference is NEXT week!!!! Ahhhhh!!!!

I packed up our stuff, my family, and my freshly printed business cards (with very basic information) and we were off to Atlanta!!! Say what!?! I was nervous as heck! What if they didn't like me?? What if they thought I was a total joke because obviously I was an infant in the blogging world! I had that feeling of "freshman on the first day of high school around the senior girls I had admired from afar", but I did feel a smidge better knowing that maybe I'm not the only one in my predicament. And you know what, I wasn't! I met some of the sweetest people and quickly we discovered that we all felt the same way.  Sure there were some that had been blogging for about a year or even a little longer, but we were on each other's side! The best part, the more experienced bloggers were excited to have us there! Speaking of which, I met the most adorable lady who was extremely down to earth, Karianne from Thistlewood Farms! Little did I know she was about to wow me in a couple of days!  We all connected with one another, exchanged business cards, and for the first time in I don't know how long, I felt this breath of confidence and new life! It felt amazing!!!

The first day it was like walking down the halls of a DIY/ blogger dream!! Table after table of smiling vendor faces and all the pretties made my heart flutter. It was extremely overwhelming, I'm not going to lie. I didn't know where I wanted to go first or what I wanted to see! Breakfast felt like the first day of school, "which session are you going to?", "where is this session located?" Jon Acuff kicked off the conference with a bang, and if you ever get a chance to hear him speak, trust me, do it. He's a wealth of knowledge that one, entertaining, and motivating all in one sitting!

Everyone, meet Jon!

By the end of the first day I had played with power tools, learned about turning my blog into a brand, and what I already sort of figured, I need a better camera. I was trying to absorb so much information that I literally felt my head trying to pound it's way off of my body. Then it happened, I rounded the corner on my search for coffee and there she was, the very person who had inspired me from the word go! The person who still inspires me to this day and has introduced me to more amazing blogs that I also follow faithfully. Jen from IHeart Organizing! Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!! Great, so not only did I have to keep my head from jumping off my body I had to keep my inner fan girl on lock down. Trying to play it cool, I walked up to her (it's like I don't even know myself anymore) and I simple introduced myself. Despite the fact that at this point my hair and makeup were in their end of the day disarray, and inside I was screaming with excitement which was also aggravating my head, she was very warm and friendly. Then double shock she was with Cassie from Hi Sugarplum!  Seriously amazing!

Jen!

Cassie!

                               

The second day exceeded my expectations and was just as informative as the first. I took notes, and just incase my notes failed me, I took pictures. The whole time I was in awe of the information that was available to me in those two days. The people that I met blew me away and we exchanged ideas and gave each other suggestions. The experience was uplifting, empowering and humbling all at the same time. I ran into Karianne later on the second day. I told her that I was brand new, but she had given me hope that I CAN do this. Better yet, she said to contact her if I needed any help! Me! She would help me!! Blown away....

At the end of the day, my room looked like Home Depot had taken residency from all the super cool stuff they graced us with as well as all the free products from the numerous vendors. I was lucky to have won a bench in a raffle made by a very talented blogger Gail from My Repurposed Life. As well as winning the NEW Nolita chair from La-Z-Boy!  I walked away from the weekend feeling like I had struck gold. I was armed with new information and a renewed sense of why I wanted to go to Haven in the first place. The ladies who put this conference together took notice of every single detail that made the experience well worth the trip. From the set up, to the decorations, to the session subjects, I could go on and on. I felt like I was something of value in a world that often times isn't as caring.

After it was all said and done, the venders were gone, we still had a chance to have one last hoorah before we all parted ways. I made memories, I gained knowledge, but I also met new friends.  Life. Changing. Those opportunities don't come a long very often, but when they do, you have to soak them in. But before it was time to say goodbye, we danced!

Katie - Fun Home Things

                                       

Take Command!

Recently I posed the question to my friends "what's an area of organization that you're struggling with?" The response was amazing, but not surprising. I think it's safe to say that every home has an area where all things congregate, only to be dealt with later. A lot later. If I'm a betting woman, and I am, it's located somewhere in the kitchen. (Or pretty close to it, i.e. the dining room table.) Some call it the drop zone and in our family it's a part of our command center.  The more people in your home, the probability that your "stuff" grows at an alarming rate. I don't need years of research or mathematical equations about proportion to demonstrate this, just my own personal experience.  No matter what you call it, or where it is located, this hub is a vital aspect of any household and contains some pretty important information. So the time is now that we're going to claim this space back!

Our kitchen is not the biggest, but we have designated a set of cabinets next to our fridge that houses all things important. I don't care what house we have lived in, the kitchen has always had a space where the medicine lived, the junk drawer existed, and all the other odds and ends, paperwork etc found their home too. With each house I tried to relocate this to another space, but it eventually found it's way back to the kitchen. With the completion of school, I have begun to see this space spill over into the adjoining room and the fact that my eye is starting to twitch is not a coincidence.  (And as a reminder, this is a judgement free zone, just saying'. :)  )

(EEEEEEEK!!!!!)


In order to make any space better, unfortunately you have to make it worse. Before you touch anything, take inventory of what you have living in that space. Is there anything that truly doesn't belong there and if so, take it back to its home. Pulling everything out can become a bit overwhelming, make sure that enough time is set aside to deal with it properly. Otherwise you'll find yourself shoving it back where it came from and that's not productive. Trust me... seriously learn from my mistakes.

Remember those ABC's of organizing we talked about earlier? Use that to quickly sort through what you have and determine that items fate. In our space we keep our medicine, all kinds of school supplies (I have a slight addiction), electronic devices, and the mounds of paperwork that comes in and out of our house.  This is what works best for us and your family may have other things that you need to live in or near your command center. Keep your family in mind when you're trying to figure out what needs to be in that space.

Most people store their medicine in the bathroom, however due to the humidity levels it's not recommended for some medications.  Read the labels to ensure safe storage. I used the top two shelves of our cabinet to keep out of the reach of little hands. I found these handled containers at the Container Store, but you can easily find something similar that works just as well.  The upper containers have the big bandages and items that we don't need access to as often. The shelf below we have three containers: one for daily medication, children's medication, and the last for adult medication. I saved a wipe container from when the kids were babies to house the small bandages and ointment because we seem to visit this box pretty frequently.

The last shelf I keep the office supplies that I don't want the kids getting into, but that we need from time to time. The best investment I have made is my label maker since I'm not the only one who uses this space. It's not only important to tell people where things are located, but also eliminate the excuse "I didn't know where to put it back." The little drawers are great for keeping little bits and bobbles together.

As for our junk drawer, I try to limit what goes in here only because this is the space that seems to live by its name sake and gets junked up the fastest. Having two little girls means that they have a ton of odds and ends that they want to keep hold of i.e. their games and lip gloss. This is also where we keep the chargers and headphones. Usually the girls come home with a plastic school box at the end of the school year and I try to snag it before they get a chance to destroy it, this is just one of their many functional uses.

Down below the junk drawer I keep the bigger items like batteries, plug in refills, candles, packaging material, emergency radio and flashlights, and lastly I have those cute boxes the girls can grab when they come home from school to help them do homework. If you have smaller children, you will want to be really careful about what you put in this cabinet. (I would recommend moving those batteries to higher ground.) It may also be a great idea to have a cabinet lock just to be on the safe side as well.

The countertop is where I try to keep things clutter free, which can be quite a task. I have a metal basket that I've places folders labeled for easy access. Paper that comes into the household be it mail, school items, coupons, bills all have a place to live. And if I don't want it on the counter, it's easy to stow it in the bottom cabinet. My girls have their own folder for passwords on websites, permission slips, and each week I keep one to two items from their work that I really like (and when they're not looking recycle the rest...shhhhhh) I love my kiddos, but you absolutely cannot keep every single piece of paper they've wrote on or crafted, at least I can't.

We found out the hard way that our new fridge is only magnetic on the side so this cute galvanized metal envelope from Target is held on with the super strong magnets. This is where I put the party invitations or tickets for upcoming events. We also use a magnetic spice container to hold the box top labels for school. The printable is from my most favorite website i heart organizing,  found the plastic holder at an office supply store, and we use dry erase markers to update each week.

Keep in mind this is just one example of how you can utilize the space. I've considered putting a little tool kit in this space so we don't have to run in and out of the house for a screw driver or tape measure. However you decide to use remember that you're not the only person who will be using it and they may need certain items to be there as well. It could be a good idea that once you've finished your space that give your family or housemates a tour.

                                                  After!!

First things first

When anyone talks about organization people generally feel like they fall in one of two camps, they either love it or they hate it. Even the people who say they hate it often times say it's because they don't know where to start and they actually would like to be more organized. It's completely understandable because after years and years of living in disarray, the idea of organizing seems like more work than it's worth. Here's the thing, Rome wasn't built overnight either. (Nobody has ever heard that before I'm sure. ) But have no fear, I'm going to give you the simple suggestions to break down the organizing barriers!

1) Don't try to do it all at once! 

Start small and set a realistic goal. Work on a room a weekend, or maybe even a room a month. If you've ever tried to organize something you know that you have to dump everything out just to see what you have. When you do that, take a step back and breathe because it always looks worse than what it is and will quickly discourage you.  This is where many people will give up or maybe not even start at all. Just think of all those countless minutes that were wasted because you couldn't find something you desperately needed. 

2) Don't forget your A, B, C's.

It's a natural thing to get attached to stuff, we all do it and that stuff starts to multiply and will consume even the best organized person. Once the drawer, or the room, is spilled out over your space, now's the time to roll up your sleeves and get to work! (This is the fun part that I get all giddy about.)

•  A- Are you "Actively" using it? If it's been longer than a year since you last touched it, it's time to seriously consider if that item needs to remain in your space. I know I've held on to things out of fear that I'm going to need it soon, but unless it's a rare family heirloom, you can always replace it if you really need it down the road. 

• B- Does it have a place where it "Belongs"? Everything should have a home where it can be returned to and can be easily found for the next time. Friends of mine stayed for the weekend and when I was out, they wanted to make coffee. They literally stood looking at the coffee pot and said, "Where would Brooke put the coffee, coffee filters, creamer etc?" And just like they figured, everything they needed was within a close radius of the coffee maker.  Let's not forget that unless you live alone, other people in your household need to know where to return said items as well. 

• C- If you haven't used it in over a year or it doesn't have a home, it may be time to either "Chuck" it, sell it, or my favorite donate it. This holds true for things that are broken. If you haven't fixed it and it's been over a month, the chances of you actually fixing it are not in your favor. Selling it allows you to pocket the money and use it for something else you may need. Donating it can be helpful during tax time! Take pictures or keep a log of what you're donating as well as a cost sheet to accurately document the value. Most places will give you a receipt that you can use to reduce your taxable income. Win-win!

3) Once you're done, you're not done-done.

This is probably the hardest thing for most people who tackle their first serious organizing project or even the yearly purge and clean. Think to how many times you've had to clean out the garage, or reorganize your closet. Often times, it's because the "system" that was set up, didn't work for the space or even the individuals involved. Organizing can be a lot of trial and error to find what works the best. Needs change, spaces themselves change, family dynamics change, and what seems like a great idea logically may not be the best practical solution. Whatever you do, don't give up! It doesn't mean that you're not successful at organizing, it just means that you need a little bit more fine tuning. 

Whether you've been organizing for years or just getting into the groove, it is possible to do. It's going to take time and patience, but the end result will leave you with a huge sense of accomplishment.