Quick Way to Organize Dresser Drawers for the "In Between" Season

This summer, my 2 year old's shorts were out of control! The drawer they were in was just a mess, and since he has so many patterned shorts, I was wasting time trying to match shirts with shorts.

Enter baskets from the dollar store! For $2 plus tax, I was able to easily find the shorts I wanted at a glance! I used the rest of the space in the drawer for his shortalls and matching outfits.

shorts all nice and neat - thank you dollar store!

But here comes the bonus - we are now in the "in between" season, where summer and fall collide, meaning some days it is 65 and pants weather while some days (like tomorrow!) the high is 80, and it is definite shorts weather. For the first time, all of his shorts are secure in one place, so I can easily figure out what are his pants and what are his shorts!

shorts and pants, separated by cheap baskets

Now to organize his shirt drawer... it is a million times worse! :0

Bathroom Re-Organization

I have posted in the past about very slllloooow ongoing kitchen reorganization. We are now deciding if we are going to get cabinets or replace our mobile butchers block with a bigger one. Until then, I am once again slowly organizing other parts of the house.

Both of our upstairs bathrooms are small, very small. The toilet, pedestal type sink and bathtub run the length of the bathroom, with very little space in between.. The width is as long as the tub. Both bathroms are the same way. In the "before" picture below, you can maybe see how tight the bathroom is. The sink is just out of frame. Our best option to add storage was an open shelf structure above the toilet. It holds a lot of stuff, but it is an eyesore. Since it is the hall bath, that is the one company uses, and it was a little embarrassing!!

Before. I forgot to take a pic until after I had started!

The bathroom reorganization was prompted by my mom.  I think she got tired of looking at all our our junk while she was here lol! We went out and she bought some bins. I decided on the more eclectic but matching style. I am so not a mtachy-matchy person! I went through each shelf and ended up with a huge bag of items that weren't needed in the bathroom at all.

After. So neat!

I maximized space by putting a small bin inside a larger bin (seen on the top left). The small bin holds my free samples - shampoos, lotions and other sundries. The larger one keeps cups, cotton balls, and larger boxes of bandaids together. On the middle shelf, the left bin holds makeup that I actually use (aka a million lipglosses), and the one of the right holds all of my hair items. You can see what the bottom shelf holds.

This was soooo simple, inexpensive, and it didn't take very long to do. As a bonus, the bathroom looks a lot brighter! Major thanks to my mom for being the catalyst I needed to get this done.

Organizing the Pantry

No real menu plan this week... tonight J is making some chicken dish and later this week he's making spaghetti fritattas. Should be interesting. It's always nice when he has a work break, because he gets a lot done around here and cooks. :D He's very good about getting stuff done, esp. chores and cleaning the house... Me, not so much!! I need to be motivated and do better when someone else is doing it too.

So I try to get some cleaning and picking up done while he is out mowing the lawn. It's a very good motivator - he's out there working and sweating and I'm here sitting like a blob lol Ok, guilt. So on Sunday while he was out mowing the lawn, I finally tackled my pantry. As you can see below, it is tiny. And all of my spices were on several shelves, just buried and a mess. It was so hard to find them, and items would topple out as I was rummaging around. I have been looking for a spice rack for awhile but hadn't found anything that would work.

BEFORE

So as an easy solution,  I bought a plastic box on clearance at Target to put my spices in, so I could quickly find them when I needed them. I was so worried about the sides being high enough that I didn't think about the length... yup it was too long and didn't fit LOL Luckily, we had a smaller box in the give away pile that worked!

AFTER

Now, all of my frequently used spices are in one place, so I can just pull the box out and have them all there. And my baking stuff - sprinkles, extracts and baking cups, etc - are all together in one spot up top. I also took all of the free samples and single use packages and envelopes that were all over and put them in the plastic jar in the bottom. So much nicer and neater and easier to see what is in stock!!

Magazine Insanity...

Yoday, J and I drove 2 hours north to  meet my brother's girlfriend for the first time! We met at a Cracker Barrel halfway between where we all live - and close to where My brother and I grew up. It was a good time,she seems really nice. Afterward, J and I drove 30 minutes to a mall that we both went to when we were growing up (separately!).

Since I would be spending so much time in the car, I decided to tackle my magazine mess. The magazines were already organized, but again there were so many that they didn't fit into my 2 holders. So I grabbed a big stack.

And read and  read! I read 14 magazines! Granted, some were food or others without tons of articles. But it feels good to get through so many! My magazines all fit in the holders again! And I think that I have received about all of my monthly magazines so if I can keep up to reading 1 or 2 a day, I'll be allcaught up by the time it starts over again LOL!

Quite a few are expiring within a month or two, though, thankfully :)

Anyone else have magazine issues? lol