Preparing for a Little One Link Up

My friend Kaitlyn and I came up with a great idea that I absolutely love. 

As you know, Kaitlyn is expecting her first child. This can be so overwhelming and I know that other first time moms probably feel the same. She has so many questions and would love to hear the opinions of moms who have already been through this a time or two before.

Because of this, we are hosting a weekly series for a few weeks to try and get some answers to some of the most common questions.


We divided the series into two mini 4 week series grouped into questions Pre-Baby & Post Baby. The first mini series will be:

Friday, April 5: Registering (Everything you need to know, Must Haves, Don't Bothers, etc...)

Friday, April 12: Nursery Organization & Ideas

Friday, April 19: Packing For The Hospital: For you & the baby

Friday, April 26: Birth Stories (The good, bad, and ugly) / Birth Plans (yes? no?)

Let's get to it! Week #2-  Nursery Organization and Ideas

It took me quite a few tries to finally get things how I wanted in my first son's room.  In fact it's still changing  every so often because as they get bigger and their needs are different items need re-arranged.   Organizing babies room is so exciting and what makes sense to you before the baby is born will most likely change once he/she is here.  That's okay!  Set up the room, don't worry too much about it and once baby is here be ready to change a few things around.

Here are a few ideas in pictures!  Always better than words!

We have a changing table with drawers in our boys room.  The top drawer holds wipes, diapers and other necessities.  Similar to the one below.  This way all the items are right there when you need them.

www.neatmethod.com

We have always had a combination of hanging space, baskets and drawers.  Some items you will want hung up, others like sleepers, burp cloths, and extra blankets are good in baskets or drawers.  

http://www.kidspacestuff.com/blog/2012/02/baby-nursery-decor-closet/

Babies go through clothes so fast the first year, and change sizes quickly. This is a great idea to keep all the sizes separated.  

http://thestir.cafemom.com/home_garden/108537/nursery_organization_diy_for_babys?utm_source=pinterest

This is genius, wish I would have seen this years ago.  One thing you will realize with babies is it seems like you never have enough storage and you go through everything so quickly.  Great idea to keep extra supplies!

Get a bookcase or another type of shelving unit.  You will want some where for baby's book and early toys. At first we had a bookcase that was used for books and toys (we put baby toys in baskets on shelves).  Now that we have a lot more books it's filled up with just books and toys are elsewhere.

It's also nice to have because it's another flat surface for pictures, monitor and other items you might need a place for. 

http://rustsunshine.blogspot.com/2011/08/nursery-tour-part-ii.html

Enjoy organizing your rooms future mama's!  Before you know it your little one be in it!

Jewelry Organization

Jewelry is hard to organize, especially necklaces.  I have bought multiple different organizers over the years and none of them worked well for necklaces.  Then one day I was browsing Pinterest and saw the greatest idea to hold them, a TOWEL BAR.   Our master bath had a random towel bar (excuse the ugly gold, we haven't switched over our bathroom fixtures yet)  over the garden tub and it just held a decorative towel we never used so it was the perfect place for this.  All I had to do was take the towel off, and put on some shower hooks and viola, add the necklaces and I was done.  I have been using this for about a year now and love it.  I can easily see and get to all of my necklaces and they are never tangled!  

Have you ever blogged about jewelry organization, if so, comment with your posts, I'd love to see how you all organize! 

Happy Wednesday!

inking up with Semi Homemade Mom for Show and Share Wednesdays!

Spice Organization

I'm an organizing addict.  I love all projects that have to do with it.  I'm one of those weirdos that get giddy with excitement after I finish.  ( I say after because during, my heart is usually racing and I'm on the verge of a panic attack because the mess during a project completely stresses me out)  There are many things that annoy me in my house, mess wise and areas that are just constantly in need of reorganizing and my spice cabinet was one of them.  I have tried multiple times to fix the issue to where it wouldn't bug me and get messed up every week but just never worked.  Months ago I bought a carousel and a tiered shelf thing for my cabinet and thought that would help.  The tier shelf has worked out pretty good and I really do like it, however the carousel not so much.  It was a plastic piece of junk, doesn't spin well and hardly fit in the cabinet.

Then one day I was amazoning (if that isn't a word it should be, because let's face amazon has everything) for a solution for my spices and came across a spice rack for your drawer.  Genius!  Why hadn't I thought of that before!

I had a drawer that just held our foil, cling wrap and some baggies and knew I could put those somewhere else in order to house this awesome new organizer I found so I bought it and since we have Amazon Prime it was here in 2 days!

Here is my messy baking, spice, seasoning, random assortment of everything cabinet.  I may just have way more than the average person I don't know but to mess this is a REAL problem, haha!

Then here is my semi-solution.  I say semi, because I moved most of my seasoning and spices out but also kept the tiered organizer in the cabinet for all the larger bottles of stuff.  I just love the drawer organizer because you can easily see everything and get right to it, no reaching around other bottles and knocking them off the shelf, no more spinning that worthless carousel.  This drawer makes me happy everytime I need to open it!  Since I did this I also made a lot more room in the cabinet to spread everything else out and make nice and neat rows.  Have I mentioned how I love rows in cabinets, because I do.  Yeah I'm one of those weird people.  

Also just in case you are weird like me  and want one of these awesome drawers, you can go here to buy one.

Linking up SemiHomemadeMom for Show and Share Wednesday

Spring Cleaning

I'm a cleaner.  I'm one of those weird people who actually enjoy it, I just don't usually have the time/ chance to do it to the extent that I would like to.  Ironically enough this week though I have not been in the mood but that's besides the point.  Not only do I like cleaning but I also sell Norwex which their main product is  microfiber cloths that you use water only and they have multiple other products as well that  helps saves time while cleaning, saves money and is much better for my family and I as far as health goes.  I am all about reducing the amount of chemicals in my home and Norwex has greatly helped me do that over the last year.

  I have a cleaning schedule that I use every week.  I have worked through different methods and finally have one that works well for us!

In the beginning of motherhood I was stressed and overwhelmed that I didn't ever just have a day to clean the house.  Before kids I always took my day off, or a night and cleaned the whole house and it was done until the next week (except for those things that sometimes couldn't wait a week and the tile floor and vacuuming that I did multiple times a week because I was a little OCD)  Then I developed a plan.  I had set household chores that I was to do each day. It seemed like a good idea, that way I had little bits to do each day and could do it when kids allowed.  Well I found myself getting grumpy if my chores/ chore wasn't getting done when I wanted it to and when the schedule said it should.

I decided to restructure and made a cleaning checklist for myself with boxes to check off and spaces for dates that broke the chores down into:  Daily, Weekly, Bi-Weekly, and Quarterly.  I put it in a frame so that way it made it dry erase.  I don't even bother checking off the daily items but use the weekly one each week.  I love marking items off. I usually also write a letter for the day of the week that I did it just so I know when I did it because my memory is terrible.  Then I do the same for the other categories, mark them off once I do them and the ones that are less frequent I just date it so I know when the last I did it was.  (I'm not very good at keeping on the quarterly items because those are the things I just don't like to do like cleaning baseboards, doors, cabinets you know the really  time consuming ones)

This way has been much better for me.  I don't feel tied down to certain things on certain days.  Some weeks I have everything marked off by Wednesday and others like this week I haven't even started.  But each week is different and that's life.

I couldn't get my schedule to import onto the blog but put it on Google Docs so in case you were interested here is our general family cleaning checklist HERE

Then onto what I'm actually supposed to be  talking about Spring Cleaning.
I don't generally do "Spring cleaning".  I"m more a do things when they really need done and when we get to them type of person.  I stress easily, I have to keep my expectations low otherwise all I do is focus on what I think needs done instead of what is really important in the moment.

I would like to try attempt to do a little more "spring cleaning" in the next few months.  I do fine with the ordinary chores but need to catch up on some of those tasks you just don't generally think of or notice until they get gross.  Pinterest has a bunch of checklists and here are two I really liked to help be a guide.  There are some things I didn't think about but things that should get done.

Doesn't looking at these lists overwhelm you a little?  Sure does me.   After I really started reading each one you realize a lot of them aren't time consuming so you could knock multiple ones out in a fair amount of time.
Happy Spring Cleaning Everyone!

Mobile Desk

 I love my house.

But we had a problem, there isn't anywhere upstairs to put a desk.  My "office"  is downstairs so last year to fix that problem  we put a command center in our laundry room.  (which is right off the kitchen)

My command center consisted of a dry erase monthly calendar, a frame that held my cleaning checklist and weekly menu plan that make it dry erase.  Then below that was slots for bills and other incoming mail, and another dry erase for notes and to-dos.  I then made a household binder.  If you don't know what that is or haven't seen one, I'm cuing Pinterest for this one.  There are tons of beautiful ones and way over the top ones found there.    I won't show you mine because, well I put those ones to shame.  Mine was basic, the front was plain but it worked.  The binder had a front pocket that I put everything to file away, I then had sections for things that I needed/ wanted easy access to upstairs.  It was set up similarly to this one below from Jen @ IHeartOrganizing.

It was working okay but wasn't perfect.  For example, when doing bills, I would have to get my binder out and the basket off the top of the fridge that held my calculator, stamps, and envelopes.  (hard work, I know)  And basically I had that silly basket on the fridge for junk that would be in my desk.  I never liked it up there.

Then a few months ago binder broke so I needed to get a new one or rework the whole system.   I love organizing anything so I decided to try something else and this is WAY better for my house and the way I do things.  Now I have what I like to call my mobile desk!  I had a holder similar to this in the basement I brought up and had been using the last few months but it just wasn't quite big enough so yesterday I picked up this much bigger version at Target that is just perfect.

The front has a small section for pens.  Then their are two short rows that hold, post its, calculator, stamps and paper clips.  The next one is for envelopes and mailing labels.
Then the biggest part is where I can fit ALL of my folders (this time I'm using hanging because I put the others in their and they were short and fell then I realized hanging fit perfectly.  One of those moments when I was thinking I was really smart for figuring that out, but knowing me it was probably shown on the tab like that and I just threw it away without paying attention.)

I just love it.  Everything I need in one place and I can move it all at once.  It has found a nice little home in our laundry room!

Do you have a command center, binder or some other way of organizing your paper?  If so I would love to hear about it.  This girl is an organizing junkie.  It's sad that projects like this completely make my day!



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Kids Closet Oranization

This is my real-life boys closet.   My two boys share a room and that means they also have to share a closet.  The thing can get full, we always only have room for one season so it's about to get tricky come warmer weather.  I have a tendency to probably buy a few too many clothes for my kids.

Here is a look at the whole closet

On the very top shelf you can hardly see, I store baby blankets and the bins are for items outgrown and items that I have purchased for the next season that don't need to be hung up yet.  

Then the top row is all tops for my youngest and I try to keep them in order from everyday shirts to polos, to button ups that way everything is always easy to find.  

The middle bins are for supplies (we keep wipes in there since I buy a massive bulk box from Amazon every few wipes), hangers, and outgrown clothing.

The next row of hanging is for my 3 year old and I organize his the same way.  

At the bottom we have shoe shelves for their extra shoes.  The ones they normally wear are in the garage.  

Then on the left side, I have two hanging sweater organizers.  I love these and they worked so well in here I ended up getting one to add to my walk in closet hanging section because I liked putting stuff that I would normally put in drawers in it instead.  The far left one I use right now for an abundance of sweatshirts and bulky items so it doesn't take up the hanging space.  Then the right one, is all pants.  Each boy has 3 shelves 1 for dress pants, jeans, and sweatpants.  

The bins on the floor are for out of season shoes, extra blankets and sheets.  

Then we are lucky with Noah's current bed because we have some massive drawers in the bottom.  We use the left one for pajamas, socks and underwear and the right one to store extra diapers, swim diapers and swim stuff.  I love how big these drawers are.  I order diapers the same way through Amazon and we get a huge amount of once.  

Closets are one of my favorites things to organize.  I love the custom cabinetry stuff, but found these items for cheap when we moved in and they work great for us!  

Linking up with Semi Homemade Mom for Show and Share Wednesday!