Under Bathroom Sink Organization Project

Happy Christmas Week!!

I can't believe it's the week of Christmas- this month has flown by! Today I just want to share a quick organizing project I did recently. Under our bathroom sink has looked like this since we moved in:

A total disaster. I literally would just toss products in here because there was no place for them to stand upright. I had no idea what was in the back and it was just a nightmare trying to find anything.

So I did what I always recommend everyone to do- pull everything out, organize into categories and put everything back in! Remember it always gets worse before it gets better. 

I picked up two new organizing products from The Container Store to help me organize.

The first is the Silver 2 drawer mesh organizer which is a reasonably priced container at $25. I feel like sometimes organizing products can get a little ridiculous, but $25 doesn't seem bad for the amount of products it holds!

The second product is the iDesign Linus Deep Turntable  which I think is another reasonable product, the large one I got is $19. I decided to use this to store all my cleaning supplies.

The only other product I used was a basket that I bought at Target years ago. Everything fit back in the cupboard neatly and having just a few places to corral products truly made a huge difference! 

It's definitely not "pinterest worthy" but not every organization project has to be about that. Most of the time you simply need to be able to organize in order to make your life easier! Every day I benefit from this project and I'm so glad I finally completed it!

Guys, I have so many projects (organizing/cleaning/redecorating/renovating) that I want to complete in the near future, so make sure you stick around!!

Have a great day!!

 

My Slightly Organized Kitchen Drawers and Cupboards

Hi everyone! Today I am sharing my "slightly organized" kitchen drawers and cupboards. I am labeling this "slightly organized: because BOY do we have far to go. This is a starting point and I truly hope that one day my drawers and cupboards will be Home Edit worthy but for now at least we know where to find everything!

For now we just have random organizers inside the drawers but I definitely want to create a more uniform look in the future but will be buying items slowly since buying a ton of product does get super pricey. Also, I feel like we filled up this kitchen super fast! We have been in this house for one whole year at this point and when we moved here I felt like we had so much room and now I could use some more space! My mom keeps telling me that everyone feels this way about their home, that there's never enough space but I know our house is on the smaller side so we will have to figure that out one day!

Anyways, let's take a look at what's going on in those kitchen drawers and cupboards and what my plans are for this kitchen in the future.

Here are my first two kitchen drawers. These hold all of our silverware and other kitchen utensils. The silverware organizer is just a cheap one that we picked up from Target back when we first moved into our apartment years ago and it works just fine but I would love one that is lighter and brighter. Also, our silverware is only a few years old but I can see it starting to tarnish. I need to either figure out how to fix that or purchase some new silverware at some point. Anyways let's take a closer look at each of these drawers.

Keep in mind too that our dishwasher was running at this point so some items are missing. I would like to get a slim container to hold all of our chip clips which all just get placed on the side of the silverware. In the back behind the silverware we also need a small container that can hold all the random items that get shoved back there. 

This drawer is full of organizers but also full of a ton of stuff! Tim and I need to go through this drawer together and decide if there are items we can get rid of. When I went through it by myself I identified a lot of items I could get rid of but I never want to get rid of things without checking with Tim since he is the true cook of the house. 

We also have a ton of coozies but I can't bring myself to get rid of some since they came from events we went to. I definitely need to declutter though. After watching Get Organized with The Home Edit on Netflix I feel ashamed that my kitchen doesn't look as pretty as they make others look!

This is our double cabinet that holds some of our food. The rest of our food is on the back of our basement door and on the shelves at the top of our basement stairs. I purged a ton of items in this cabinet right before this picture was taken. We also needed to grocery shop so there isn't a ton in here but honestly I prefer it that way!

This is our appliance cabinet, along with our cutting boards and grilling tools. We have quite a bit and I don't love the look of appliances on the countertops so it's nice that we are able to store them down in this cabinet. 

This is our notorious junk drawer. I don't love the concept of junk drawers, but there is definitely a need to store these types of items. These containers slide around in the drawer and drive me crazy. I need to purchase some museum putty to hold them in place. Add that to the "to buy" list.

This cabinet holds all our Tupperware on the top and our bowls and plates on the bottom two shelves. I love our fiestaware dishes. This is one of the cabinets I feel pretty okay about and there's not much I can do to make it any different!

Our island has two pull out drawers which are great for our pots and pans. I like the way that the top drawer looks with our colanders, pots, and glass trays. It is definitely nice and neat which I appreciate.

The second drawer however.....I'm not sure what to do here. There isn't enough room here for any organizer and we probably have too many pans. Right now it's just a lot of stacking and unstacking items but some day I will find a solution for it!

Also in the island we have three smaller drawers. The top holds some of Sophie's items. We keep smaller treats and some other items in here. 

I am a dish towel hoarder. This drawer is full of dish towels and there are a few molds for dog treats inside there as well. I am not allowed to buy any more dish towels! I always find such cute ones and can't help myself. 

This drawer holds our cling wrap, aluminum wrap, and all our ziplock bags. Honestly we don't use these items all the time so it's nice to have them in a bottom drawer where we don't need to reach for them constantly.

Our corner cabinet holds all of our glasses and mugs. We have far too many for only two humans living in the house. The top shelf looks slightly empty but that's because we had a few in the dishwasher, it is honestly normally full. We definitely don't need anything else in this cabinet!

This next cabinet holds random dishes, measuring cups and mixing bowls. I am in and out of here whenever I'm cooking for the mixing bowls and measuring cups but I honestly don't use any of our serving dishes very often. I love the Disney dishes my college roommate Megan gave us for our wedding but we haven't had much of a chance to use them yet!

Above our microwave we have all our spices. This is fairly organized although I would love to make this look more uniform in the future. I also want to make new labels and have bigger spice jars. 

This little drawer next to our stove just holds our oven mitts. 

We have this little cupboard next to the stove with a super small cabinet door. I just keep a few appliances in here including the blender I use daily.

Above our refrigerator I keep items we don't access every day. Vases are on the left and then on the right we have a ton of water bottles and cups that we received from different events. We could probably go through this cabinet and get rid of quite a bit but that will be a future project.

Lastly, under the kitchen sink! I decluttered this area before taking this picture but I do need to order some products to make this area look a bit nicer. I also plan to put some liner down to brighten this area up. I am thinking about getting some lazy susans for the cleaning products and some containers to hold things like trash bags and sponges. 

So that's a tour of my slightly organized kitchen. I hope that some day my kitchen will be as beautiful as The Home Edit makes kitchens look! I will definitely keep you updated on any updates I make and I plan to get started soon!

Have a great day everyone!

 

Keep Busy During Quarantine, Organize and Binge

Happy April fools Day, April 1st, Hump Day everyone!

I know that everyone is sick of being stuck at home at this point and it might be extra hard for all you extroverts who thrive on human contact. I'm an introvert and honestly my preference is always to be at home but this even has me wishing I could browse the aisles of HomeGoods, go out to dinner, and see all my friends and family.

I am fortunately still working from home during this time but I know many people are furloughed, laid off, or otherwise have no work to keep them occupied for even part of the day. I wanted to share some areas you can organize during this time and also some shows and podcasts you can binge during this time.

Areas To Organize/Declutter

• Coat Closet: This is a great time to go through all of your coats and see what you have worn this year and what you can potentially clear out. I recently donated a bunch of clothes and before I took them for donation I quickly went through our coat closet and found a coat that I haven't worn in years that I finally was ready to pass on. 

• Clothes: I recently went through my closet and dresser drawers and I was able to pass on quite a few things. I regularly declutter my clothes but I'm always surprised how many things I actually can get rid of each time. I try to be honest with myself and think about the clothing that I try on and then hang back up because I don't like the way it looks. It's also a great time to list your clothes on Poshmark to sell! If you have the time why not make a little bit of money on the nicer clothes?

• Under the Bathroom Sink: This is a great spot to declutter right now because you can really take the time to check expiration dates for beauty products and organize them the way that makes most sense for your daily routine. 

• Pantry/ Fridge: I did both of these recently and it was great to go through everything. I honestly just wanted a good idea of what we had to work with especially with everything going on. I went through every item of food and reorganized everything so it made sense. We also were able to buy groceries and spend less money because we knew what we had. It also prevents us having to make extra trips when right now we don't want to go to the store unless it's absolutely necessary! 

Shows To Binge

• Good Girls: Have you seen this show yet? It's hilarious! I highly recommend it.
• The Office: I just finished watching this and I still laugh hysterically even though I've seen it a dozen times.
• Friends: One of my all time favorites but unfortunately you will need the DVDs or to pay for them right now.
• Tiger King: Have you watched this train wreck yet? If you haven't go check it out!
• The Circle: I really enjoyed this reality tv show and even Tim got into it!
• Love Is Blind: So good!

Podcasts To Binge

• YoungHouseLove Has a Podcast: I love John and Sherry and they are always entertaining!
• The Office Ladies: This is a new favorite for me, but anything Office and I'm in!

What have you been organizing and binging lately? I am planning on sharing some organization projects with you soon to hopefully inspire you!

Have a great day!

Organized Kitchen Drawers

I know we've only been living here a few months but it takes no time at all to have all the kitchen drawers get unorganized! 

When we moved in I didn't do the best job of organizing things and just kind of tossed everything in drawers and cabinets in order to get it out of boxes. I had decided to line the inside of each drawer so I had a good excuse to pull everything out and reorganize it!

My knives and cooking tools were everywhere! I used these teal bottom bins from Target in order to section things off and keep the drawer looking nice. Yes, the teal Kitchenaid tools are my jam! I picked these out for my bridal shower and everything looks so nice together. Can you tell what my favorite color is?

My silverware lives in this silverware container from Target and takes up the majority of the drawer. I kind of just lined everything else up neatly for now.

My plastic wrap, tin foil, and baggies are all neatly lined up in this drawer.

Sophie's treats (and medicine from her hurt shoulder) live in this drawer. We also have a treat container that lives on our counter but this is for smaller treats.

This drawer holds dish towels and extra napkins and plasticware. 

Out junk drawer holds no junk! Everything in here is useful and organized!

This small drawer is the perfect size for our pot holders. 

I love having things organized and although you often have to touch up areas like this in order to keep them organized hopefully I won't have to do a huge overhaul like this for awhile!

Do you have your kitchen drawers organized or are they a total disaster?

I love lists

Guys. I think I have an unhealthy obsession with lists.

Seriously.

While scrolling through my phone I realized between my lists for the new house, my to-buy lists, and everything else I jot down it's something that I should discuss here on the blog. I do everything from using the notes section on my phone, using the app Evernote, and making lists in cute notebooks.

Here's an example of the shopping list I currently have in my phone:

As I'm shopping if I see something I like I'll jot it down if I'm not ready to buy it yet.  Right now I'm thinking of many things that I need to buy for the new house but I can't buy them until we have a place for them to go.

Another set of lists I love to keep are labeled "Adventure" on my Everynote app. I keep track of every  place I've traveled along with a list of all the places I'd like to go. I also like to keep track of the number of states I've traveled to and the number of countries I've traveled to.

I also organize lists of books to read and tv shows to watch. If you saw my list of lists you would think all I do is make lists.

Do you guys make lists in order to stay organized?

A Quick Broom Closet Fix With Command Hooks!

Today I want to share a quick fix I made to our broom closet! 

If you've been following along you know that I'm passionate about cleaning and organizing. The closet in our hallway is half a broom closet and half a linen closet. The linen closet side is pretty organized but the broom closet side was driving me nuts. When I went to pull out the vacuum the mop would attack me! I needed to get this cleaned up a little bit.

Here's where we started:

Just a disorganized mess!

At Walmart I picked up these command hooks. I picked up two packs so I could hang four items and once I put them to good use they made things look amazing!

Check it out! I'm so excited to get these off the floor and on the wall.

These command hooks are labeled heavy so I'm hoping they hold up nicely.

So much better right?! I am very happy how this turned out especially since I can't make any major structural changes in the apartment. I really love making small changes that make a big impact.

Have you done any small  projects that made a huge difference in your living space?

Spring Cleaning: My Beauty Products

Today we are talking about decluttering beauty and personal care products. I keep most of my products in my Alex 9 Drawer system that I purchased at Ikea. Unfortunately, this drawer system became overcrowded and I started storing items in my linen closet as well. I would like to eventually get everything into this drawer system but I have stockpiled quite a bit and it won't all fit at this point.

So let's get started!

This system fits nicely in our middle room. Our apartment has a weird "dining room" that we don't use as a dining room. We have a desk in here as well as my Alex 9 drawer, my jewelry armoire, and then some kitchen storage on the opposite wall. It is definitely utilized as a multi-use room but has worked for us so far.

The first thing I did was take pictures of all of the drawers in their original state. 

Everything was pretty messy and honestly there was lots of samples that were super old and had never touched. I was surprised by the amount of stuff I managed to get rid of.

After using my Mrs. Meyers mint multi-surface cleaner and a Makers microfiber cloth to wipe down each drawer I put everything back in neatly.

I managed to get almost everything on the top into drawers which was great!

So much better!

If you are interested in seeing the process and all the stuff that I got rid of you can check out my Youtube video.

What is on your spring cleaning list?