Organized Bathroom Counter

If you don't have a drawer or cupboard within easy reach then a basket works great to organize bathroom essentials. It will keep your counter uncluttered and easy to clean.

Some day I'm going to make up a basket for guests that is filled with lotion, shampoo, toothpaste, a toothbrush, a hairbrush, etc. for them to use when they visit in case they forgot anything. Do you think it will happen any time soon?

Bathroom by Jane

Join me every day this month for GeMoOrgNo - Get More Organized Now! I started an official group at NaBloPoMo. If you would like to join you may go there and request an invitation.

More Participants
Multi-Tasking Mommy
My Pursuit of Happiness
With an Angel on my Shoulder
Just About Perfect
Tyler's Triumph

If you also want to join me in posting your own organizing photo every day leave a comment here and I'll add you to the list.

Organize Your Sink

It may not be pretty but I keep a little scrub brush next to the bathroom sinks for easy clean up. I'm much to lazy to go into another room to grab cleaning supplies. In fact I'm too lazy to even reach under the sink for it but if it's sitting right there I will scrub the sink out every day. Another bonus of doing it often is that you don't need any type of cleanser.

One night I got up to use the bathroom and the faucet felt sticky so I scrubbed it in the dark. Or I may have dreamt the whole thing. Who knows?

The scrubber is also handy for scrubbing out stains. Keep a squeeze bottle of liquid laundry detergent in the bathroom and your clothes will be stain free from now on.

(The scrubber is from Target.)

Join me every day this month for GeMoOrgNo - Get More Organized Now! I started an official group at NaBloPoMo. If you would like to join you may go there and request an invitation.

More Participants
Multi-Tasking Mommy
My Pursuit of Happiness
With an Angel on my Shoulder

If you also want to join me in posting your own organizing photo every day leave a comment here and I'll add you to the list.

*I'm sorry my permalinks aren't working for November. This has never happened before so I have no idea what the problem is! You will have to link to my home page instead of individual pages until I get it figured out. Thanks!

Sugar N Spice

Looking at my two girl's hair in this post, one blond and one brown, made me think of sugar and spice. Not only does it describe their coloring but their personalities as well!

Karen at Family Briefs asked me to show how I do the ponies in their hair. It made me laugh that someone asked for my advice on hair because I am not a primper, on myself or my girls!

Two High Ponies

I see so many cute girls wearing ribbons and bows with everything coordinated but the most I can manage is a few pony tails to keep their hair out of their eyes. Persistence is growing her bangs out so it's a necessity and Lovely wants her hair "pretty" too.

Four Diagonal Ponies

I found the elastics at a hair supply store for half the price I was paying at Walmart and was so excited to find clear and black and brown for a change which look good with any outfit.



The elastics are so cheap that I just cut them out of their hair at night. It fast and easy and painless. Just make sure your girls know not to try this themselves or they will be growing out more than their bangs. Ask me how I know!

Five Diagonal Ponies

Yes those are tweezers Lovely is picking her nose with. What else would they be for but booger extraction?

Two High and Two Low

I use a rat tail comb and a spray bottle and with the little Lovely I have to work FAST! That means things aren't always straight and even but I'm getting better at it.

And she is getting better at holding still. Well, I wouldn't say holding still but at least she's not climbing off the counter. I sit her in front of the mirror while she "organizes" our baskets of clips and elastics. It's great practice for her to learn how to put the basket of clips away before she gets out the elastics or the "Barbie" pins. (Do your girls call them that too?)


Cleaning the mirror with the spray bottle and a wash cloth is also a great diversion.

Three and Two Bigger Ponies

I've even been known to hide a baggie full of Craisins in our stash for her to munch while she gets pretty.

Three and Two Smaller Ponies With Side Curls

I'm sure all you creative types can come up with your own fabulous versions of these ponies with ribbons and bows and the works. Show me what you've got!

I forgot to mention how cute it is, when you have a tiny girl, to make little ponies all over her head. Especially if her hair has some curl to it. I did this a few times with Lovely's hair but I never got a photo of it. If you start when they're little they get used to having things in their hair and they don't complain. One year olds are the worst at pulling things out!

I keep remembering new things to tell you!

If your girls are going to be outside with these hair styles make sure you put sunscreen on every single part.

I try to be as careful as I can when I'm doing the girls hair but it still hurts them sometimes and they would like to cry. What I have taught them is to say, "Ow!" instead, which doesn't hurt my ears as much. Just because their head hurts doesn't mean my ears should have so suffer! I always use conditioner in their hair to make it easier to brush the snarls out but I will still often hear, "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow," and on and on. Which I can handle!

Oh, and one last tip. I put a tiny bit of regular, not leave in, conditioner in our hair when it's wet and I don't wash it out. It's very dry here so our hair needs it. If you have dry hair like we do this may work for you too. The bonus is that one big bottle of conditioner lasts us for years!

For more fun tips visit Shanon at Rocks In My Dryer!

It's a Beautiful Thing

In a "This is the first time its been clean in a year," kind of way.

We finally hooked up the water in this bathroom so I figured it was time to clean it. I'm so excited to have one more room to clean every day.

The Victor's Organized Closet

Before, I started with an unfinshed closet and dresser.

During

After!

Thanks to Laura and her awesome Challenge we now have another organized closet! (The Fall Challenge) Don't you just want to sit and stare at it all day? Ok, probably not, but I do!

Some of the features I built into it are (and when I say built, I mean with power tools and my own two hands):

1. A spot for the dirty clothes basket with enough room above it to throw the clothes in.

2. Shelves for toys. I bought the containers before I started so I could get the width and height of the shelves right. There is just enough room to slide them in and out of the closet. My nine year old doesn't play with these toys. He is just storing them for his little sister. Isn't he so sweet?

3. A spot for the dresser. He doesn't need space for long hanging clothes but I made the dresser space a little bit wider and added a bar for company to use since his room is where they always sleep. It made a perfect spot for the guitar to slide next to the dresser. If one of my daughters ever move into this room she can move the dresser out and have more space for hanging clothes.

4. I built around the secret door that leads into his sisters' closet. When he gets too old to use the door and wants more space for clothes then he can use the lower rod.

5. I put a storage container on top of the dresser to put outgrown clothes in. Its empty because we just sent clothes home to his cousin this weekend. Hopefully the container will keep him from piling junk on his dresser.

6. A high shelf for long term storage of clothing and suitcases.

Now for the questions.

1. What was the hardest part of the challenge for you and were you able to overcome it?

The hardest part was just commiting to the design I've had in my head. We've lived in this house for a year without closets and the reason I didn't build them sooner was because I didn't want to make a mistake! I knew I would have to live with it forever so I wanted plenty of time to think about it. I had to get over thinking it would ever be perfect and just do the best I could.

2. Tell us what kind of changes/habits you have put into place in order for your area/room to maintain its new order?

Since this is my nine year old's closet I don't know how well it will stay organized but Victor has been taking time to clean his room every morning as part of his Personal Time. He has a couple containers just for "treasures" so he will need to work on keeping his treasures in the boxes instead of all over his room. And of course I will help him re-organize as its needed.

3. What did you do with the "stuff" you were able to purge out of your newly organized space?

He didn't have a lot of stuff to begin with so we didn't get rid of much but when we went through it he was able to give a lot of out-grown clothes to his younger cousin.

4. What was the biggest lesson you learned from this experience?

That I should have finished this closet sooner so we could enjoy it! Also that I know why it is so hard to do projects like this. I had to neglect my kids for a week to get it done. I'm lucky that my son is a great baby sitter.

5. Now that you have completed the PROCESS, do you think having and keeping your space organized will make a difference in your life?

I know it will make a huge difference in my son's life now that he has a place for everything. It has been frustrating for him to try to keep his room clean when he didn't have anywhere to put anything. I am so happy that I was able to do this for him to relieve some of his stress!

Now his room is almost completely finished. Thanks again for the motivation Laura!!!

I Want Candy

Today did not go exactly as planned. Instead of working on my closet project we went horseback riding and to the local children's museum. I came home so exhausted that I laid on the couch surfing the web for closet ideas. I really hope I am not getting sick!

I have gotten so many questions through the years of how to divide up closet shelves so that stacks of clothes don't tumble into one another. One solution is to use a wooden or plastic crate turned on its side and stack clothing inside. You could even use a cardboard box if you don't want to spend money.

I think this solution is adorable however and you can buy these corbels at home improvement stores for a few bucks. If you had the right tools you could build your own. Click on the photo to follow the link to the story at BHG.com. You can skip most of their closet stories because they are so unrealistic for the average home owner. How many people have an entire dressing room in their home? Its great eye candy though!

I did spend the morning measuring and planning Victor's closet and I stopped by the lumber store to buy the type of rods I wanted that I couldn't find at the big stores last week. I didn't find anything particularly useful on line for my project so I'm going to stick with my original plans. I'm hoping it rains tomorrow so we can skip park day to work on it. The kids think I am just so rude!

30 Day Challenge

I am honored that Laura has asked me to help with the judging of her Spring Organizing Challenge! I'm excited to see so many of you participating. It's going to be fun to watch what you come up with this time. The projects that you tackled last time were amazing and I'm sure we will see even better stuff this time around!

I'm not competing for prizes but her last challenge was so motivating that I have to play along again. I am going to build my son's closet. We've lived in this new house for a year so it's about time don't you think? I've got about four more rooms to go after this one so I'd better get started!

I decorated his room in December so all I've got left in there is his closet. You can see the photos here. That is an unfinished dresser that I am going to build into the design and there will be hanging bars and shelves in various places. I guess it's time to rev up the power tools and hit the home improvement stores.

Ready?

Set?

Go!!!!

Organize Your Bathroom Drawer

*Updated
Alissa brought up a good point in the comments. Little girls love to get into all these fun hair accessories. When Persistence was little I kept them in a flat tackle box with a tight fitting lid. The clasp was too strong for her to open but she could get it out of the drawer and bring it to me. The tight lid andthe compartments kept everything from tumbling together. By the time she was old enough to open it she was old enough to stay out of it! Lovely hasn't made an attempt to get into this drawer yet. She isn't as, shall we say, persistent as my older daughter!

I was getting tired of this

It's a great organizing container that I bought at Target several years ago. It has lots of little compartments and the top layer slides back and forth. My problem with it was that it didn't have any big compartments for larger hair accessories. So I stopped at the dollar store and found some great stuff!


And so cheap! Why haven't I shopped the dollar store for containers before?

I don't know! I outfitted this drawer for less than three dollars and look how perfectly the containers fit! There is only a tiny corner of wasted space. I love it! I am just in want of some smaller containers to work with it. I have those round red dishes in there until...

...our next organizing adventure!

The Sweetness of the Sweaters

I've been at it with the hooks again. I realized it could take me 10 years to actually finish my closet so I installed some temporary hooks. I'm not even going to paint the boards because they are not staying there. Is that a bit too optomistic of me?

I have always kept my baby's clothes in my closet until they old enough to dress themselves and put their own clothes away. It makes it so much easier to get myself and the baby ready at the same time and in the same place.

I was organizing Lovely's clothes into gallon sized baggies but that was a pain so I gave up on it. I bought all these boxes over the New Year sales and I thought I'd see if I liked them better than bags. So far I do and I also think they're pretty! I have two outfits organized into each one.

The white bin holds her pajamas. Since I like to freeze everyone out at night she wears two pairs to bed. She has more pajamas than regular clothes. It doesn't look like a lot of clothes does it? There might be a few things in the wash but what you see here is about all she owns. I would rather have a few cute things than a closet full of cheap ugly clothes. That doesn't mean I buy expensive clothes. I live for sales! Three out of four of those sweaters hanging up were hand-me-downs from a cousin and I bought the fourth one on sale from Gymboree last year for $3.

I also got tired of throwing Organizing Bags on the floor in the corner of my office/sewing room and installed a few temporary hooks there as well. Thank heaven for power tools!

Click on my Power Tools Label to see more about my hook fetish.

Organize Your Socks

“I KNEW you were wearing my socks!”

“Why do I have to keep telling you I don’t wear your socks?”

“Then how come I can see them on your feet?”

“Well, of course I’m wearing them NOW. I mean, normally I don’t wear your socks.”

“Then why don’t I ever have any socks in my drawer?”

Taking him by the hand and leading him into our bedroom to see at least a dozen pairs of sock littering the floor, “I think I have solved the case of the missing socks.”

A few days later I excitedly show him my new idea, The Sock Basket! He doesn’t seem impressed.

“Look! I put a basket right here next to the bed for you to throw your socks in!”

“That’s just dumb.”

“What do you mean? Now they won’t be all over the floor.”

“Well, it’s dumb that I throw my socks on the floor. You should tell me to stop doing it.”

I’m speechless. That is something I have never considered. If you don’t want your husband to throw his socks on the floor then you should ask him to stop doing it? I think that is going to be my next “This has never worked for me Wednesday but you should definitely try it for yourself.”

The sock basket has worked for me though and you really should try it. And then when your husband walks in the bedroom and sees a pair of your socks laying on the floor next to the bed he can laugh at you and make fun of you for being such a slob.

So I have shown you dirty socks in a basket. Now you are going to see a real treat: stockings in a bag.

You know how I feel about organizing with bags. I put my nylons into their own separate baggies to keep them from getting snagged in my drawer. If you have a larger collection than I do you could label the bags or (and I just thought of this) you could attatch the bag, using a clothes pin, to the outfit you wear the nylons with. I don't know. Now I'm probably just getting too crazy for you.

Here is one last sock tip for you. Instead of keeping your kid's socks in their rooms, find a spot for them by the back door. That way they can grab their socks and shoes and be on their way in a hurry. Not that you would ever be in a hurry. You are too organized for that!

Find more wonderful tips at Works for me Wednesday!

For more of the wonderful world of Organizing Bags click here!

Organized Girls Closet

Were you just dying to find out what exciting thing I was working on last week? I knew it! I needed to get started on another project so I picked the girl's closet. I didn't feel like tackling the entire closet all at once so I began with one wall and lots of my favorite things (hooks) that work with my other favorite things (Organizing Bags).


The entire project took less than three hours. I cut and hung and caulked the boards one night, the next morning I applied two coats of paint and that afternoon I installed the hooks. I put one row down low. Another row up a little higher where Persistence can reach but Lovely can't and then a third row way up there for long term storage. It's still waiting for some hooks.


I added some cork board to hang jewelry on and we made labels so the girls would have a spot for everything.

While I was at it I put up two rows of hooks in our bathroom so we finally have a place to hang our towels by the shower. Ahhh, the small luxuries of life!

See those chrome hooks? Everyone grab your wallets and run to Target because I bought them in the dollar section at four for $2.50. That is cheap!!! Ok, they look a little cheap but they are great if you don't want to spend a lot. I wish I had found them before I put the hooks in Persistence's closet. I paid $2 each for those hooks. I'm going back to Target tomorrow to buy up their entire stock so you had better beat me to it if you want any!

The funnest part of the project was when someone left the bathroom door open and this little twerp found the paint bucket. After dipping my tools and her body in the bucket and flinging paint all over the bathroom, she wandered down the hall to show me how much fun she was having. Do you think it is possible for a one year old covered in paint to walk across the house without touching every single thing she passes? The answer is no.

Organize Your Closet

Well Rosie didn’t seem to think my advice was very helpful. Imagine that! Am I here to be helpful or famous?

I guess I’d rather be helpful so if you must know, in my old house I used wash tubs in the kid’s closets that I bought for $1 each at Big Lots. They were a poor solution though as you said. The kids would pull them all out onto the floor looking for what they wanted and never put them back.

In my own closet I stacked jeans in the cubbies. Are yours the right size for that? I liked them for jeans. We didn't have to dig through drawers and they didn't topple over like they would on an expanse of shelf. If you want to stack them on a shelf by the way, you can use boxes tipped on their sides to keep everything separated and neat.

I wonder if something like this would work for your cubbies. You could screw them in so the drawers would stay put. I'll have to look at home depot the next time I'm there. Kind of expensive though. I’d stick with the dollar store myself!

Has anyone else found something that works for them?

This is my dream wardrobe. In my next life I'm only going to buy white and pink and wear everything together. If it looks that good in a closet then it's got to look good on me, right? it doesn't have to be pink either. I could buy only brown or red or blue. Or green. Green is really my favorite color right now so that's what it's going to be. When I walk down the street people will point and say, "There goes that crazy lady who only wears green. Have you seen her house? It's green too." And friends will say, "Yes but she is so organized!" What better compliment could you ask for? Crazy and organized! And green.

If you could only wear one color for the rest of your life, what would it be?

By the way, I stole this photo from Lowes. I started feeling bad about it so I was just going to link to it but then I couldn't find it again! So I used it anyway. Does that make me a criminal? Going to jail could really solve all my wardrobe dilemmas too.

Sleeping Angels

Persistence saw my “Going To Bed” list and asked me what “Cover Angles” meant. “It says cover angels,” I replied. “So we’re your angels,” she asked smiling? “Only when you’re asleep," I teased!

You would think a little girl who could do this, could hang on to the back of a slow moving van in the dark of night over bumpy roads. Apparently not. One gentle turn and down she went. Luckily her brother was there to signal me to stop and collect her wounded body and spirit. It was one of my most glorious moments of Motherhood when I scolded her for falling off and getting hurt. Aren’t I a good Mother? I’m ready to accept my award now.

When we arrived at the house I pulled her into my room with me, snuggled up beside her in my bed, and tried to comfort her. I was little needed once Lovely arrived on the scene. She gave her injured sister many kisses and hugs and rubbed her hair and face. She covered her with her favorite blanket and lay down beside her. Once she perceived her spirits lifting she instinctively knew that sitting on her sister’s stomach and bouncing up and down was the suitable thing to make her giggle and snort. All better.

A few weeks ago Lovely sat on my lap while I was in the doctor’s office being examined for a sinus infection. All of a sudden she popped her thumb out of her mouth and offered it to me. Somehow she knew that I needed comforting and it was all she had to give. The doctor was amazed and declared that he had never seen anything like it but I wasn’t surprised. How does she do it? How does a one year old know such empathy? Lovely is full of more understanding and compassion than anyone I know. Sometimes when I tell her no she will instinctively swing a tiny fist at me in her frustration. Seconds later she will follow it with a kiss. It’s always fun getting whacked across the face when you know it will be followed with a kiss of the most sincere apology. And she never forgets. She has never hurt me, even accidentally, without apologizing.

Persistence and Lovely share a room. Big sister likes to read to little sister until she falls asleep. Nothing makes me happier than seeing my children reading together. I don’t know what it is. I think if they can get close enough to share a story together then they really must love each other. Well tonight when the story was over I didn’t even try to put Lovely in her crib. She made it perfectly clear that she was staying put. She scooted down under the covers when she saw me coming, waved at me and said, “Bye! Night night!” Persistence agreed that she could sleep there for a little while so I tucked them in and shut the door. I never heard another sound.

Tonight I couldn’t resist taking photos when I went in to Cover my Angels. Even snoring angels are sweet aren't they?

Get Well Basket

Thank you! I am feeling much better today. I can stand up without getting dizzy and nauseous. The kids have really pitched in and helped with the baby. Mostly I just lay on the couch while she uses my face as a stepping stool to reach things behind the couch. Things such as the Get Well Basket I made for myself. I think its way better than flowers. Don’t you? It holds tissues, cough syrup, Advil, water and my reading and writing books. I got tired of carrying all my gear from room to room in my weakened state so I dug a basket out of storage to contain it all.

Night Night

I think this one will win some kind of Exciting Blog award so hold on to your seat.

How many times to do you get in bed at night and have to get up again because you forgot to turn the heat down, or take your medicine, or turn the garage light off? I for one am sick to death of it. I’m trying to go to bed, not get my exercise wandering all over the house in the dark.

I’m making another list tonight. It’s my new going to bed list and it doesn’t include getting ready for bed because for some reason I always remember to do that.

1. Close the garage.
2. Lock the doors.
3. Turn the lights off.
4. Turn the heat down.
5. Take my medicine.
6. Fill my water bottle.
7. Cover the angels.
8. Make sure all the food is put away that the kids have snuck in to.
9. Take my planner and cell phone and reading book with me.

I think that covers it but I might have to update it if I think of something else. What is on your list?

Organize Your Quilts

Are you
A. Lazy – you don’t want to fold up your quilts every time you use them. And
B. Organized – you don’t want your quilts to look like a mess every time you use them.

Then this idea is for you. Hang them! And I don’t mean hanging them neatly folded on a quilt rack. I mean taking two seconds to pick up a quilt and throw it over a hook on a peg-board that you made out of a cupboard door that came from an old house that your parents tore down. I just had to throw in that tiny little fact that I can be very handy sometimes. I think I might just give myself an award.

Organize Your Towels

Here is my organizing project for the week. My kids will learn to hang up their bath towels when they are finished with them. This is something that I should have taught them long ago but I kept putting it off and picking them up myself. I finally sat down with them and explained how our new system would work.

• The red towels are Grey's.
• The yellow towels are Kate's.
• They each have a spot for their towels they can reach.
• I sewed ribbon loops to their towels so they wouldn't fall off their hooks.
• If I see one on the floor, I will know who's it is and they will pick it up themselves.

I have been amazed by the results of that one little five minute talk. Not only are they happy to hang their towels up but sometimes they even do it without being reminded!

I've been distracted again from writing. That doesn't mean I haven't been organizing. I wouldn't be alive if I wasn't organizing. Kind of like we say about my daughter, "If she isn't talking she's asleep."

For the first couple months of this pregnancy I was so sick that I had to scale down my expectations. I did dishes and laundry. The kids learned very quickly how to clean the rest of the house and pick up after themselves. The house didn't look great but it was livable. All the training that I thought was going in one ear and out the other finally kicked in. For some reason when Mom is sick everyone pitches in a lot more with a lot less complaining.

Three weeks ago we started getting ready for an Open House. We didn't end up finding any serious buyers but we didn't work hard for two weeks for nothing. Our home will now be perfectly ready when the time comes that we do sell it. We painted, we hung doors, fixed and cleaned windows, scrubbed carpets and bathrooms. We rented a storage unit and cleared out all the unnecessary furniture and storage. We worked harder than I ever thought I could in my condition and we manage to get it all finished. I am determined not to let all these types of little projects go undone for so long in our new house. Why should I fix up my house for someone else. I want it beautiful for my family to enjoy not someone elses.

The Return Cupboard

I only have Chris' organizing to write about today. He amazed all of us by returning some huge, un-used bags of insulation that we've been storing for two years. He also picked up new fence parts for our damaged fence. Tonight he took the entire section out and put it back together with the new parts and it looks great! That's two more things we can check off our list.

Do you have any returns you need to make? I keep telling myself I will never buy another item that will need to be returned but I just can't help myself! I like to bring things home so I can decide here that I don't want them. What works for me is to tape the receipt to the item and store it in a cupboard by the back door. I check the cupboard before I run my errands and grab anything that needs returning. This works for things that need to go back to friends and family as well as library books and such. When my friends drop by I look in the cupboard before they leave so I can send them home with their forgotten things.

You might think leaving an item out on your kitchen table will help remind you to return it. Sure you will notice it there for a few days but eventually your brain will get sick of thinking about it and you will look right at it and not know it's there. Don't clutter up your home and your mind like this. If you are afraid you'll forget about it if you put it away, make a note in your Planner to return it by a certain date and get the thing out of your sight!

I'm sending off a catalog return today that I've had sitting in my sewing room for the past three weeks. I knew right away that I wanted to return it. I should have sent it back the next day but instead, I choose to let it bother me for three weeks. This is exactly what I'm trying to teach myself not to do anymore. I'll keep working on it if you will!

The Organized Bed

Do what you can to make your bed more comfortable. Do you need new sheets, new pillows or a new bed altogether? Some people I know can afford to buy a memory foam bed. If you are like us you may have to go without such a wonderful extravagance. For a fraction of the cost of a new bed we bought a 2" thick, memory foam topper from Sam's Club that is a comfortable addition to our old bed. We're saving our pennies so that some day we can buy the real thing!

I keep our extra sheets tucked into their pillow cases and store them in the rooms they belong in. That way anyone can make a bed without searching for sheets that match and fit. I have extra sheets for all the beds but I rarely use them. I remove the dirty sheets, wash them and put them right back on the beds. This saves me the hassle of folding sheets every week.

I had a couple top sheets that were too short for the beds. They were always coming un-tucked so I sewed a 6" strip of muslin to the bottom of them. Now they stay tucked in nicely and the bed stays neater. To make things easier for my kids I tuck in the bottom of their sheets and quilts. All they have to do is pull them up and their beds are made. Investing in really good mattress pads helps the sheets stay put too. The mattress pad on our bed isn't that great so it, and the sheets are always sliding off the bed. I bought the kid's beds nicer covers so they wouldn't have the same problem.

You spend a lot of time in your bed so make it time cozily spent!