Mission Organized

One of my favorite blogs, O My Family, is hosting a link up about home organization.  I love Allison's blog - she has a great writing style that draws you in with her honesty and humor and did I mention her adorable little boy?  I highly recommend that you stop over and visit (if you haven't already, there aren't many that are not familiar with her blog.)

So here is my feeble attempt at organization- enjoy!

In theory I am an organized person - well I think I am an organized person - okay I want to be an organized person.  I love the actual act of developing a system, putting things in order and watching the chaotic disappear.  The problem for me always lie in the maintaining of the organization.  I am sure I am not alone but it always seems that once life starts moving it gets harder and harder to take the time to follow my own rules.  The double whamy lies in the fact that by not taking a LITTLE bit of extra time from the beginning to maintain my organization, I create more work for myself later on.  Yet, I never ever learn.

I try though.  Oh boy do I try.  Let me show you some of my attempts.

I love magazines!  I spend way too much money on them.  These three are my favorites...Real Simple, Better Homes and Gardens and Country Living.  I leave the most recent copies out for others to read and take the all the old copies and cut out all the pictures and articles that interest and inspire me.

Here is a stack waiting to be cut up.  Every once in awhile I sit down with my scissors and a good movie and cut, cut, cut.

I take these cut-outs and put them in plastic sleeves in a binder for easy reference.

Things like tips for organizing (appropriate for this post.)

Or pretty gardens with pretty roses.

I keep a copy of our home's layout for reference.

And swatches of fabric and paints for each room.

And other goodies like pretty furniture, recipes, color schemes and whatever else catches my eye.  I love just flipping through the binders and rediscovering all the fun items.  It never fails to inspire.

Another thing I did to assist with this home decorating thing was creating my own paint chip fans.  A while back I was tempted to buy one for $20 and decided that it would be better to just create my own with various different paint brands and in the colors that I like.  I knew I didn't want any bright, crazy colors in my home so why have them cluttering things up.   They were super easy to create.  I just grabbed a bunch of inspiring colors and a ring, whole punched the chips and strung them together.   The fan is great for more than just paint.  I find myself just referencing it for various color combinations.

Another huge tip I have learned over time is that with a small home, the key to organizing is buying furniture for that purpose.  It can look pretty too.  Here are a few pieces that we bought to hold our essentials and keep them tucked away and out of sight.

I posted about this wardrobe recently here.  I bought this wardrobe at the Land of Nod outlet for $99.  Best money I ever spent.  It so cutely holds all my crafting items which can get quite messy and cluttered.  I think I am going to use the pole to hold ribbon or wrapping paper soon.  

We built these to hold the electronics for our TV along with photo albums and other knick knacks.

This bench at the end of our bed not only looks nice there and completes the room but it also holds our linens, toilet paper and some other stocked up goods.  It was free so I simply gave it some coats of paint.

This space in our kitchen use to have bench that stored things but it left our garbage and dog bowls out in the open.  Plus we needed more countertop space to set things - it really isn't for cooking.  One thing that has made all the difference when we are trying to head out the door are the hooks for our keys.  We simply just twisted them in and now we always know where our keys are.

Another must in our kitchen are glass jars.  I love that they look cute on the counter but can hold some of our practical, daily items for easy access.  Plus it clears up our cabinets for more unsightly necessities.

Let me just end with some images that I would love to implement (and keep) in my house.

Aren't they beautiful!?  Now go organize - you can do it!