All the Small Things

Do you often find yourself fighting to disentangle your necklaces? Are your bracelets tossed together in a manner that denotes a recent explosion? Belts in a pile? Scarves draped in odd places? Having trouble locating your favorite shade of nail polish? If you answered "YES", or even a less resounding, "yes", to any or all of the above questions, then, welcome to my guide to getting all of the smaller, yet still very important things in your life organized.

If you need to start from the beginning and get your clutter cleared, you can read my first post on here. The next few will walk you through getting the rest of your home organized room by room with tip and tricks that have worked into a lasting system for yours truly. I am not what you would call an organizing guru, but I know what solutions work to keep real people organized in real life with organizing systems that are easy to implement and even easier to maintain. In short, they really are solutions.

One of my favorite quotes is by William Morris. "Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful".  I try to keep this in mind when I'm deciding if an item is clutter or not.

 With that said, you will want to start this project, as we have all the others, small. Take one category at a time. Here, I am going to start with nail lacquer. As I have said previously, Michelle Phan (http://michellephan.com/) advises pulling nail polish in the fridge. If you are anything like me, then that isn't a practical idea. I'm not saying that she is wrong, just that it doesn't work for me. However, I do agree with her logic. Nail lacquer needs to be stored in a cool, dry, and dark place to preserve the product and extend its life as long as possible. Don't keep it in the bathroom (see my previous post for what not to keep in the bathroom). I find that displaying these creates a small pop of color to a room. I have created a display stand for all of my nail color. I used dishes from the Dollartree (dollartree.com) and some old vases that I already had. You can find them at Goodwill or another second hand store for very little.

I don't keep it beside this window, it was just a better place to take the photo.

It was very inexpensive to make. I had most of what I needed on hand, but if I had purchased the items, the price would not have exceeded $10. If you would like to make your own, you can check out Anneorshine (http://www.lifeannstyle.com).  I first saw her tutorial on youtube.com and thought "what a great idea". I took me about 3 weeks of rolling it around in the back of my mind to finally decide to make it.  Below is her tutorial. While you are there, check out her channel. Like and subscribe for some great ideas that are a lot of fun.

Moving on to necklaces. I have tons. I make jewelry and it tends to add up. A lot of the pieces that I make end up in the "keep" section for a time. I like what I make, so I often wear it. It's a great conversation starter that often leads to a future customer. I don't think that any conventional jewelry box would accommodate all of the necklaces I have. I love having things displayed in a way that is both beautiful and practical. Hanging a curtain rod on the wall as a display tool occurred to me recently, so I implemented it, first for my scarves and then another for my necklaces. It works great for bracelets too. You can also install these inside or closets to utilize all of your available space.

A few of my necklaces

My scarves

If you don't have a curtain rod, or a space to hang one, consider a clothes hanger that has the wooden dowel to hang pants with it. The one I have pictured below is the kind with a metal frame that allows for one end ot the dowel to be removed so that you can slide things onto it. I found a set of ten of these at Goodwill for $3.

Hangs neatly in with your other clothes

I'm sure there are other great ideas floating out there just waiting to be grabbed and used. When I find new things that I work, I will share them with you. If you have tried anything I've posted here, or you have an idea that you would like to share, feel free to do so. I would love to hear from you. The links to my facebook and twitter are on my profile page. I hope you enjoyed this. Have a great day and happy organizing!

Continuing Organization

I know that this is totally off schedule, and for that I apologize. I had a loose schedule going with this blog and then life happened. Moving on. This is the last part of my three part series on getting your home organized. In the last two tutorials, I covered conquering clutter and organizing most of the rooms in your home. Today, I'm going to walk you through the last couple of rooms and give you some ideas for getting them organized. Also, as promised, I will add some photos from my home so that you can see what I use.

Let's start with one of the most used rooms in most homes. You may call it the living room, family room, man cave, etc. This room serves as the entertainment center of your home and is most likely what guests are exposed to the most. It is a reflection of you as a host/hostess. Odds. are, this room gets the most foot traffic of all the home. It has dvds, game systems, seating, books, and other forms of entertainment. My family room has all of these items, but if you have children or pets it will probably have some of their toys as well. A room that has to be this functional has serious organizing challenges.

Bookshelves are a great way to store more than books. They can hold dvds, board games, video games, obviously books, and a plethora of other items with a little tweak here and there. In short, they are a great way to get items out of the floor and to utilize vertical storage space. I love folding storage bins. They can be added to a book shelf to create "drawers" to hold all kinds of items. Smaller items such as extra game controllers or the tv remote can be placed in one of these for out-of-sight storage. Pet toys and smaller childrens' toys can also be placed in a storage bin on a lower shelf for easy access. They are relatively inexpensive and can be found in a wide range of colors and sizes to compliment any decorative scheme.

A neutral color cloth bin goes with any decor.

Use brightly colored bins to accent a shelf or to brighten a room.

I would recommend using bins that are made of a sturdy plastic or laundry baskets for larger items. Placing the bins containing toys on lower shelves helps prevent injuries that might occur from a child dragging a bin or basket off of a higher shelf. Bookshelves can be found at many second-hand stores for a lower price, but if you can't find one, Target and Walmart both offer shelves that you assemble at home, complete with instructions. I tall book shelf can hold many different types of items and is my go-to way to get things off of the floor and organized in a way that keeps them put away out of sight. Keeping your items in drawers or bins helps create the illusion of having less stuff, and therefore, less clutter. 

You can also use the space under your furniture to store things for an out-of-sight effect. Couches and chairs often have space under them that isn't utilized. Storing items, such as magazines or smaller workout gear in short plastic bins is a great way to have these items near if you need them, but tucked out of the way when you aren't using them. The same goes for end tables and coffee tables. Coffee tables with a shelf built in are my favorite. They are the best for placing remotes and other items that clutter the table top.

Think of it this way, the most organized looking homes appear to have less items. This is mainly because the most organized people have a "home" for all of their possessions. By this I mean that everything has a place that it goes (it's home) and they always put the items where it is supposed to go (where it lives). This helps create a better system for organizing when everything has a home. The out-of-sight approach also makes it feel like there is more space in a room and creates a cleaner, neater appearance. 

Moving on to the bathroom. This is the one room that everyone uses. It's also often a smaller room with little storage space. I have this problem and I have had to get creative to develop a system that works for me. Let me first say, that there are a few items that you should not store in your bathroom, because it affects the product negatively. Here is a short list: 

• Fragrance of any kind. Fragrances, if not stored properly can break down and lose scent or change the way they smell. Two key factors in fragrance fouls are light and heat. The bathroom, because of the way that it is used, produces both of these. Heat, mainly form the shower and light from the need for plentiful illumination required there.
• Face creams. For the same reasons as above.
• Make up. Make up reacts poorly to heat and moisture. The shower or bath is the main culprit here as well.
• Nail lacquer. It breaks down under all three conditions: heat, light, and moisture.

In fact, Michelle Phan (http://michellephan.com/), in fact, suggests that you store nail laquer, fragrances, and face creams in the fridge to extend their shelf life. She has informative blogs and great videos (http://www.youtube.com/user/MichellePhan/videos). More on how I store these items later.

I keep bathroom-specific cleaning products in the bathroom, under the sink. I tend not to keep much under there except the cleaners. They have their own plastic container with a handle, so that I can take them all out when I need them, It's easier to see what I'm looking for and no one likes digging under the sink. These are available at dollar stores for a considerably lower price than department stores.

Plastic caddy with handles make for convenient removable storage.

My home does not have a linen closet and I do not have room in my bathroom to store my towels and such. I took a plastic shelf that I found a a garage sale and after a vigorous cleaning (it had been used in a garage) placed it in the hallway outside my bathroom to store many things. It holds on the bottom shelf in a plastic basket all of my extra bath and hair products. On the next shelf up, I have two cloth storage bins that have removable separators inside. These hold lotion and assorted other products. The second shelf from the top holds my bath towels. On the top of this shelf from left to right, are washcloths in the plastic bin, bath tissue, and cotton balls and q-tips in the small crate. f you are wondering, the closet to the left is unfortunately not for storage. It contains an air duct that was put in after the apartment was built. 

All storage containers on this shelf can be found at DollarTree.com

This has been a little more than I had initially intended to put into the family room and bathroom piece. Therefore, the makeup, accessories, and other small items will have to be in another post. This time, I promise it will be in the next blog. Thank you so much for staying with me this far and I am proud of you for taking the initiative to organize your home. Come back next time for my "All the Small Things" post where I share my tips and tricks on organizing accessories, makeup, and more!