Organizing our "office"...

Okay... so we don't really have an office so we have had to improvise with this little shelf behind our couch.  It is slightly visible in our "great room" so we really should keep it clean and organized.  Here is the problem: get a piece of paperwork we say, "oh, we will file it later."  One piece of paperwork turns into a pile and kaboom... our before picture.

First I just sifted through it... and used my typical piles
trash
goes here
goes somewhere else.

Then I thought it might work to create a file that just simply says "to be filed" that is easily assessable.  So even if I don't file right away... everything should have its place!

So glad this is organized... it makes me feel like I can start the school year... kind of :)

What have you been organizing???

Organizing our living room storage...

I have already been all about some deep cleaning... pantry, fridge, and bathroom storage...

and now for our living room storage!

One of the best decisions that we made when we moved into our little apartment is we bought some storage crates to put under our coffee table. When you have a small place you have to get creative, and this was how we managed all of our individual school work without it sitting out all of the time.

Sometimes our crates get a little disorganized, and we need to revisit them to reinstate them to their full usefulness in our lives.

We have six crates that fit under our coffee table, and each has its own purpose (my school, Andrew's school, school supplies, etc.).  I go through one crate at a time sorting it into three piles:

1. What stays in that crate.

2.  What goes somewhere else .

3. What gets thrown away.

I organize each crate then go back to the "What goes somewhere else" pile and put it all away.  I having these organized help us to keep our whole apartment better organized.

What space have you organized lately???

Organizing our bathroom storage...

I have already been all about some deep cleaning... pantry and fridge... now for our bathroom storage.

We have this problem in the bathroom of having three bottles of shaving cream or the like because we were so disorganized we could not see the bottle we already had.  I cleaned off the shelf, tossed stuff we did not use or use regularly.  Then labeled the shelves...

Andrew thinks I have gone a little crazy with the labeler... all I know is that everything gets back where it goes.

Medicine Cabinet...

Storage...

and Shelves...

I have been an organizing fool... any of you have similar issue?  or obsession with a label-maker :)???

Back to organizing spaces series...

Back in October, I made this post about my plans to organize the spaces in our apartment. Then I guess I got distracted, because I only organized our pantry.

I am going to get back on this! These are the areas I will clean... one area a week!

• Fridge/freezer 
• “Pantry” 
• Bathroom storage 
• Bookshelves 
• “Home Office” 
• Under TV storage 
• Under coffee table storage 
• Kitchen cabinets 
• Under bed 
• My car 
• Andrew’s car 

This week I went ahead and organized the fridge, freezer and cleaned the microwave.

1. The Fridge:   Since we just got back from vacation, it made sense to go ahead and clean out the fridge since it was almost empty.  I cleared the shelves and wiped them down. Then I labeled the shelves so everything would have its place.

In the fridge I make sure everything has its spot.

I also label the shelves, so everything gets back in its place.

2. The Freezer:  Keeping the freezer organized is harder for me, because what comes in and out always changes.  I just took everything out, tossed old stuff, wiped the shelves, and put everything back in the most organized manner I could.  

3. The Microwave: I put a bowl of water with some vinegar in it.  The I microwave it for 5 minutes.  All the stuff that was hard to get out... easy to wipe out!

My embarrassing dirty microwave... 

Clean microwave!

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                                                  What have you organized this week???