save my sanity

There is no better feeling than this:

lots of trash bags and lots of giveaway piles.

I love, love, LOVE getting rid of things.  No mercy here.  It immediately reduces my stress and re-energizes me.  A cluttered home weighs me down just like my shelves and closets.

So while I have no problem clearing out I do have a hard time keeping the things I keep in there place.  I blame the dogs but we all know that they aren't placing all our home items in the wrong place.  The good news is that when I find the time - I also love organizing (and re-organizing) which helps keep me accountable and sane.  Here are some recent projects I have been working on to help me keep my most cluttered spaces in order:

Hats, gloves, and doggy items. One basket is labeled Bran & Jess for our snow gear and one for the pups for their gear.

A place for the incoming mail - right by the front door.  

(Oh and the random paint chip.  I am working on painting the entry.)

And the biggest thing to save my sanity.  My recipe drawer in the kitchen.  Equipped with all my recipes, blank recipe cards, a pad for my grocery list and plenty of pens (but not too many - that would be cluttered).  I love being able to send Bran to this drawer to pick out a meal - I use it daily and it hasn't failed me yet.  I decided to do this in place of an evil, hair-yanking, nail biting JUNK drawer.  

I highly recommend tossing your ENTIRE junk drawer and replacing it with neat and clean recipes.  And ladies, if you don't like the meal then don't keep the recipe.  Recipes can be a cluttered mess too.

I don't know about you but I use to have paint chips in every nook and cranny of my house.  But now, I can find them all in one space.  I just punched a hole in the corner and strung them on a metal ring.  Super easy and super accessible.  

I also love sitting down and reading looking through the pictures of a magazine.  I get so much inspiration and great ideas from magazines.  I end up ripping out half the pages and circling things, making notes or just compiling pretty pictures.  And with the sky-rocketing cost of magazines I want to get as much of my money out of them so I create binders of inspiration.

To make these binders even more useful I keep the plans and surveys of our home on the front page as well as paint chips and fabric samples of each rooms decor.  It makes it easy to add/remove and update each room.  If I ever am running to the furniture or fabric store it is also easy to quickly take out that one page and run. 

Binders are great for so many different paper needs.  I use to have one for recipes I found online or in magazines and wanted to try.  Of course, I emptied it into my drawer after the kitchen was finished but I know that kitchen drawers are a precious commodity so if you can't spare a drawer then use the binder.

And that is just some of the small ways I keep my sanity around the house.  Of course, there a million more spaces that need special attention such as the craft room. 

Just remember - you have to make a mess before you can clean it up.  

Well I am really good at making messes I guess.  I pretty much took every closet, basket and corner and emptied it into the center of the room.

And the best part - most of it will end up in the trash or in Goodwill!

I will definitely share how it turned out - hopefully soon too!