Tip of the Week - FlyLady

I was on my cousin's wife's blog the other day and she had posted about this FlyLady. She had some links on there and I decided to check it out.

This lady has a whole website teaching people how to create routines to keep their house clean and be productive through out the day.

I had more time today to really sit and read what she has posted on her website and she has some GREAT tips on there. Some of these tips I already do, but she has some stuff on there that will definitely help me out even further in my life. Now that I have another little baby in the house and a husband that works from home now, it definitely doesn't stay as clean as I would like. I am going to start taking some of these tips and applying them to my life and my daily routine to help me create a more clean, calm space for myself and I thought that maybe there are some people out there that read this blog that could use this in their lives also.

After all, if your house isn't clean and is in constant CHAOS, what good are my design tips going to be! If your house is in order and clean, then the fun design stuff comes into play..... and when the fun design stuff is going on, you want to keep your house clean! :)

Check out her website http://www.flylady.net/

This next link is the part of the website that I think is brilliant. I have always had it in my head of creating a weekly plan like this but haven't really done it, now I have something to follow and am more likely to get it done..... now my goal is to get my husband on board with me and keeping up on the routine..... I can't work on this routine and have him not be a part of it and making things dirty...... just wish my girls were old enough to jump on board with me, they seem to dirty EVERYTHING up around the house! But you gotta love them :)

http://www.flylady.net/pages/FLYingLessons_Routines.asp

Cupboard Organizing

A while ago, I decided that I had had it with my baking cupboard.

This is what it looked like...

It was such a mess and I couldn't take it anymore.

I was at the dollar store and found these containers & decided to organize my cupboards.

of course I got my pet, the label maker out.

And then I had to do my pasta & rice cupboard.

Do you have a cupboard that could use some an overhaul? Once again, the Dollar Store is a great place to find containers for really cheap to help with that organizing problem.

Organizing-using what you have

Something that I love to do is organize things. I know, I know, that is probably weird to some of you, but I can't stand it when things aren't organized. I am sure that all of us would like all of our cupboards and drawers to look like something from Martha Stewart but that doesn't always happen. I would LOVE all of my cupboards to have matching little storage boxes that color coordinated, but that just isn't practical and cost effect in my life right now. However, I can have organized closets and cupboards just by using things that I have around the house. Let me show you some things that I have done.

Here we have a very basic Potterybarn box. I was given a gift in this box and I held onto it because I loved that it had a top that closed.

I needed to store some fabric samples that I have, so I took some ordinary gallon ziploc bags and organized all of my fabrics by color and stored them in the box. This is something that is so simple to do and doesn't really cost anything, but I LOVE having everything organized in the bags and not just thrown into the box.

Here are my larger fabrics that are folded up and stored in this box and bin that I had lying around. They are separated by neutrals and color fabrics.

Now this is my PET!!! I love this little thing to death! My trusty label maker. People who know me really well have to joke about this because they know how much I love this thing. Every household should have a label maker. I use this all the time.

Here is a closet that is my general closet in my upstairs. My office is in the open upstairs so I need to use this closet for normal linen closet things as well as office things. Everything in here is organized in it's box or designated area and labeled. It doesn't look like a Martha Stewart closet, but it is very organized and is storing the things that I need it to.

Here are some bins that I have had for years and they are storing all sorts of things (mainly my paints) but each one is labeled and I don't have any problems finding what I am looking for.

Now this is something that some may look at as weird, but I think it is very functional for me. I had this spice jar rack thing that I got for my wedding years ago. I did not like the look of it so I bought cute spice jars to display. I didn't want this thing to go to waste, so I turned it into an office supply caddy and I store it in one of my office closets. Each jar is of course labeled, but it stores, paper clips, staples, push pins, velcro etc. Sometimes you need to look at things in a totally different light.

Now this is one of my FAVORITE organizing tools ever! Simple energy drink boxes that have dividers in the middle. I used to buy a lot of these drinks and had a lot of boxes lying around and I decided to put them to good use.

I use these things to store socks, nylons, belts, scarves, tank tops rolled up, hair products, pretty much anything that will fit in the small little holes. I even use one to organize my blasted $500 markers that I have, each section has a different color organized inside of it.

I dare you to go through your house and see what random things you have lying around that can be used as storage bins. I have a lot of different things and I am sure that I will end up posting again on different ideas that can be used.

If it is out in the open, definitely find more decorative ways to store and organize, but if it is in a closet behind closed doors, by all means use things you have and save the money for something that is seen all the time.