It seems that since the holidays last year, I haven’t been spending any time on my cleaning and organizing projects. However, now that spring it here, it is time to get back to work! I thought I would go over the segments of Operation Clean and Organized that I have done so far and to see if I have been keeping up with the organization.
Vol 1: Cleaning Charts & Recipe Clip Board – My master project list is still being used and I am slowly crossing off the projects as I get to them. The daily cleaning chart is sometimes used (usually when my brain is so scattered I need to remind myself what to do first) and sometimes forgotten (usually when I am running around all day and haven’t been home more than a few minutes.) I still use my clipboard for that week’s recipes all the time. I love it. I’ll have to try and post my almost done recipe binder next week.

Last week, I also added this small fabric board from Target to the little wall on the other side of my fridge. I haven’t put anything on it yet but I love the bright pattern.

Vol 2 – Weekly Menu Board
I still love my menu board and use it every week! I did need to make more blank labels to write in the names of new meals I’ve tried since then.

Vol 3: Shopping Lists & The Outdated Pantry
My fridge shopping list has changed a little but the rest are still working.

Vol 4 – The Cupboards/Pantry (Part 1)
I don’t think I’ll ever be fully happy with this mini-pantry since it is so narrow but so far it is okay. The mini drawers work great. The stacked baskets are okay and I finally replaced the random black one with a white basket.

My only complaint is that when I want something from the bottom basket I have to lift all the others to get my hand in there. I would love to get bins like this from The Container Store but even their mini sized ones are 9 ½ inches wide and my shelf has a depth of 8″ so I wouldn’t be able to close the door. So for now, I will have to stick with what I have.

As for the master pantry lists and rubber band-hook to keep the little kiddos out, still works well.

Vol 6 – The Cupboards/Pantry (Part 2)
The pantry still looks good but I do have to stay on top of it. I did however update my spice rack. The last time I just used mini labels and wrote the names of the spices. When Martha Stewart came out with her Avery labels, I loved the round ones, especially since it had a red border. (In case you haven’t noticed, I love red!)
I think they look a lot better!

Vol 5 – My Desk AND Vol 7 – Book Shelves & Desk Area
My desk area still looks good but it is a CONSTANT job to daily sort out and put away the various things that pile up when I am not looking. However, it is a job I don’t mind doing since it is my little corner of the house and it makes me happy to see it neat and nice looking. Now I just have to work on taming the cords underneath the desk. (BTW, I have to keep the big throw pillow in front of my chair to block munchkin hands from putting cheerios into the CD drive of the computer.)

Earlier this week, I was at the craft store and bought some ribbon and card stock to make labels for the top four bins on my side bookshelf. I got a lot of great suggestions from a commenter (thanks, Kate) but as hard as I tried, I didn’t like the way it looked on these fabric bins. I wanted a plain, clean look. However, I still liked the idea of the ribbon and labels so I used it instead for the baskets I am using to redo our DVD shelf. It worked great for that. (I’ll post the results when I complete it.)
When I bought the Martha Stewart labels for my spice jars I also picked up a pack of oval red border labels. Yesterday I tried sticking one to the fabric bin and it stayed on perfectly (since they were out of reach of curious little hands.) I used some black letter stickers to label the bins and I like the clean look with a minimal amount of money spent.

Well, that’s it for now. Hopefully, I’ll have another complete project to post next week. Have a great day!

For the last two weeks I have been working diligently on organizing a section of my home that I use constantly. In one corner of our front room I have my desk with our computer and “work” area. On the wall to the left of my desk there are four large book shelves. (Can you guess that Brian looooves to read?) However, in the process of cleaning, every time there was something I needed to take to another room, I would stash it on the shelf and put it away “later.” Well, it was finally time to tackle the shelves and put away all the collected junk.

Two weeks ago I posted about organizing my desk. I am happy to report that each night I put away anything that does not belong there and it continues to look nice. (Trust me, that’s a miracle in itself.) But this still left the one book shelf next to my desk that housed all my things. It drove me nuts every time I sat down at my desk to work.

I was at Target the other day (I really should buy some stock in their company since I spend so much time there) and I found these cute fabric bins in a red floral pattern. I bought six of them in various sizes. (Note, they sold out quickly in our store but I did find them online if you don’t mind buying them in sets. They are also available in aqua blue, orange, lime green and black. Other patters were ovals and zigzag lines.)

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Target also had these magazine files for only $4.99, although our stores didn’t carry them in red. Thankfully, my mom searched her Target 400 miles away and bought me the last two since I couldn’t order them online.

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My sisters brought them to me when they came to visit this weekend and I finished organizing my shelf this morning. I love how much better it looks! It actually brings me joy to look at it. And it is crazy that when I was looking for something, instead of searching through piles I knew exactly which bin to look in to find it. I tell, you this organizing business is really starting to make sense. 😉

I was thinking about labeling the top four bins but I’m not sure the best way to label a fabric bin. I’ll have to go back to my Pinterest organizing board for inspiration. I’ll let you know if I find something I like.
Until next week’s post, happy organizing!

I feel like I can’t get very much done in the house organizing department, especially since my project list is so long. But I figured that if I tackle one small job a week I’ll slowly but surely get my job list complete.
Before the holidays I started organizing my kitchen cabinets, particularly the mini pantry cabinet that I blogged about here. Now that holidays are over, I have been able to continue with the cabinet over the sink where we keep canned goods and baking items. I had a few blue plastic containers but instead of being organizers they were just catch-alls for anything and everything.

My spices were particularly a headache since I had to dig through this mess whenever I was looking for a spice, whether it was cumin or nutmeg.

I had this old circular spice rack from years ago but a number of spices that came with it were ones I did not use so they just gathered dust and took up space. I decided to dump out all the spices from the jars and remove all the labels. I washed them and relabeled them with the spices that I use all the time.

In the blue bucket I keep spices I don’t use as often (like BBQ rubs) and refills of frequent ones.

As for the cabinet I pulled everything out and reorganized, keeping the baking goods in top. Brian was shocked when he opened the cabinet to look for some tea and he knew exactly where it would be.

That’s it for this week. Upcoming posts will be the garage pantry, the living room bookshelves/my work area, and the DVD/media shelf. Happy organizing!

The other day I looked into Bella’s room to make sure she was doing her homework. I saw her kneeling on the floor using her chair as a table top. I wondered why she wasn’t using her desk until I took a look at it. It was so messy there was no room to write. She said she just cleaned it last week and doesn’t know why it was so messy again. I told her that she can’t just clean it once. She had to straighten it out every day so things don’t accumulate and look like a disaster area. She agreed and started cleaning.
I then walked over to my desk to check something online and ate my own words since my once clean desk looked something like this.

My desk area is my little sanctuary/work center but more often than not I cannot even see the surface of it beneath all the mess. I am trying to make it a habit to take a few minutes each evening and put away the stuff that always accumulates there over the course of the day.
Since I always have numerous piles of papers or projects that I am working on I bought these pretty file folders at Barnes and Nobles to sort and label the piles.

For Christmas I received this cute file folder that I wanted. I keep all our important papers and documents in it. I told Brian that if there is a fire in the house grab the kids first then grab the file. (Which makes me think, what if there is a fire while we are gone? Maybe I should scan those papers and store them online?)

I use these matching mesh pouches to hold pens, stickers/envelope seals and other desk supplies.

So my desk is once again pretty and every night (hopefully) Bella and I will be making sure our desk areas are kept that way.