31 Days of Pinterest Projects - Day 22 - Paper Clutter Tips

Today I'm going to share three main tips that I have for reducing paper clutter around the home.

First, I'm a pile-r. And I like to keep everything out in clear view so I don't forget about it. But then all our flat surfaces end up littered with paperwork. And I hate that.

{imagine a photo of a countertop covered with papers}

And then I read and discussed this book by Marcia Ramsland last year with some other ladies from Oak Grove Mennonite Church {my husband's home church}.

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Let me just say that this book is crammed full of great organizational tips and secrets, written by a professional organizer. I learned all kinds of stuff! {Like why hanging file folders have a crease about 1/3 of the way down....who knew?}

Anyways...one of the main take-aways I got from reading this book was to keep a file box out on your kitchen counter or main household work area to contain all of your piles and to keep important paperwork in one spot.

Marcia recommends using 5 folders for sorting your mail right when it comes in the door: 1. Calendar, 2. Holding, 3. To Do, 4. To Decide and 5. My Interests. The key is to only touch each piece of mail one time. I think what Marcia recommends is great, but I don't really have issues with not opening mail.

So I chose to adapt this system slightly for all my paperwork. I have the following folders:
1. Personal - To File
2. Personal - Action
3. Business - To File
4. Business - Action
5. Events {this is where I keep wedding invitations until the day of the wedding, that kind of thing}
6. Coupons/Menus
7. Emily {this is where I'm keeping some formula coupons for my nephew}

Since I've implemented this system, I have noticed the following:
1. our counters are cleaner
2. I'm more up-to-date on the filing {since I MUST file when the "To File" folders get too bulky}
3. I no longer have that "freak out" moment the day of a wedding or other important event when I can't remember where the directions are. {and that "freak out" moment was definitely customary in our household before this}

Second, I like to keep all of our supplies for paying bills in one spot - in a colorful accordion file from Target a while back. It is nice to have one designated spot for our bills so they don't get lost in the shuffle and aren't sitting out. As they arrive in the mail, I walk directly in the house and promptly slide them into the accordion file.

I have compartments inside for:
1. bills
2. stamps and return address labels
3. envelopes
4. a blank calendar for each month with the companies and amounts due marked on their due dates - as we pay the bills we check them off on the calendars

Everything we need to sit down and pay the bills is right inside.

Third, I like to keep important receipts in a small coupon organizer - another colorful find from Target.

I divide them inside by store: I have one for Kroger, one for Walmart, one for Target, one for Lowe's and the back section is for purchases from a variety of stores that we rarely shop at.

I clean the receipt organizer out about once a year.

How do you organize your paperwork? What is one thing you can work on this week to eliminate some paper clutter in your home?

31 Days of Pinterest Projects - Day 20 - Toys - The Ultimate Love/Hate Relationship

We all want our kids to be happy and have enough toys to keep them entertained and to help them learn new skills. However, it is NOT fun when those toys start to become a burden rather than a blessing, a nuisance around the house. My pet peeve is when I'm tripping on tractors while making dinner. Happens every day. Grrr...

Also, I honestly feel like kids can get overwhelmed when there are too many toys to choose from. They end up just dumping them all out and then flitting around from one toy to the next without actually playing with anything. :(

Our solution with Levi's toys has always been to limit the amount of toys that he has to play with and to clean them up every night before bed so he can learn to be responsible. He is a fantastic cleaner these days and we are so proud!

However, just a couple weeks ago it seemed like cleaning up was taking an extra long time every night so I loaded up a handful of tractors/trucks into a large storage tub and hid them in the basement. He hasn't even noticed and the amount of toys now is a lot more manageable. I plan to rotate them back in and take a few current toys out in maybe another couple weeks.

We keep the toys that Levi is currently playing with in a storage ottoman in his bedroom.

Here's a peek inside:

There's a magna-doodle, a puzzle, a toy laptop, 4 or 5 vehicles to drive around and some building blocks. (And his tricycle is located conveniently nearby!) Honestly, he could keep himself busy with just this stuff for days. 

He drags it all over the house and then we clean it up at night (putting it back in the ottoman). Every once in a while throughout the day he will ask for something that's in his closet and we will go get just that one thing out then shut the closet doors again. (And he can't physically open them himself.)

This is what the inside of the closet looks like:

We use the hanging shoe organizer (that I got at Big Lots) for various items (diapers, wipes, sheets, Baby Bjorn, stuffed animals, etc.) 

And the bookshelf that we got with a wedding gift card at Pier 1 makes a nice organizer for his toys. There's a bin for "tools",

 a bin for "cars", 

a shelf for his books,

a bin for his wooden blocks,

 large trucks and tractors out front where they can be easily accessed 

and larger toys such as his race track and barn on the top shelf.

Above all that is another shelf where we keep the "Too Big" and "Too Small" baskets that I mentioned here as well as a few larger toys to rotate out occasionally.

This system seems to be working for us now. For other ideas on organizing Kids' Toys, check out my post from last year during the 31 Days to a Clutter Free Home series. 

I think the key to keeping kids' stuff organized is limiting the amount that they have to begin with and then teaching them to abide by the organizational systems that are set up when it's time to clean up, just like with organizing adults' spaces. Cleaning up and sorting items will have to be something you spend time teaching and training them to do. But once they learn those skills, it should be easier to maintain a clean space.

For the rest of the 31 Days of Pinterest Projects series, click here.

31 Days of Pinterest Projects - Day 18 - Laundry Hamper Switcheroo

Slight problem. Our hamper doesn't fit real great in our new bathroom. It is righinsidethedoor and if it gets bumped it can even block the door from moving. Grrr... Also, it sits right in front of Dave's towel when it is hanging on the towel bar. Annoying.

Essentially, this hamper is just another one of those things that worked great at our old house but didn't translate well to the new place.

 And it is rotting. Yes, rotting.

We bought this elite hamper to replace our basic plastic one that had worked for years and years for a whopping $49.99 from Tar-jay about one year ago and it is rotting. It is worthless. Really wish I had my $49.99 back. It doesn't breathe well and so all the moist towels and clothes inside just sit in there and rot out the press board bottom until laundry day. Every week. This is what it looks like currently underneath the cute lining.

Yuck. Ew. I don't really want my clothes touching that. Even if there is a cute lining in between.

So one day on Pinterest I saw this:

Amazon

And I thought, "I want that!" But I clicked over to Amazon and realized I'd have to fork over an entire Ben Franklin for it.

Then today in the checkout line at Wally World I saw this puppy for just $2.97.

And I thought, why don't I take this and the other pop up hamper we already own but aren't using, set them inside our large vanity cabinets and pretend they're pull-out or tilt-out hampers? It will be a great use of all the space inside those cabinets that we currently aren't even utilizing.

The best part was I can save myself the $97. Sure, pull-outs are fabulous. But so is having an extra Ben Franklin lying around.

Here's our latest solution in action:

The other plus is that now the laundry is already sorted by color as we put it in here - lights in one, darks in the other, as opposed to when I had to take the whole hamper to the laundry room and then sort out the clothes. Should make laundry days easier. And I'll be able to carry half our laundry at a time eliminating back strain from that heavy hamper that held it all!

So what do you guys think? Where do you keep your dirty clothes till laundry day? I know some people have a hamper in their bedroom or closet but we like keeping ours in the bathroom.

For the rest of the 31 Days of Pinterest Projects series, click here.

31 Days of Pinterest Projects - Day 15 - Organizing Erica's Linen Closet

We went to visit our friends, Jimmy & Erica, and their three adorable kids in Fort Wayne this weekend.

(the oldest two weren't in the photo...)

Jimmy just joined the National Guard so they had a combined Going Away party for Jimmy along with their daughter's 3rd Birthday party Saturday. Check out this amazing cake Erica made!

It was also really great for our little family to get away for a weekend. This is the first overnight trip we've made since before we moved 11 months ago. We had lots of quality family time and Levi was such a good little guy for our trip. Check out Levi imitating his Daddy warming his feet by the fire Saturday night...Melt my heart...

And the best part (in my mind) was that Sunday afternoon I got to help Erica re-organize her...get this: walk-in linen closet! I'm such a nerd...

Here are the before photos:

The top shelf holds lots of holiday / seasonal decor and the left side holds the family's towels, bedding, etc. The right side of the closet holds cleaners and extra toiletries.

After taking a quick peak at the closet after lunch Sunday, we headed out to her local Target store to grab some containers. Our goal was to spend as little as possible but still get quite a few containers and a good variety of sizes and make her space look amazing like all the linen closet photos I've gathered on Pinterest.  We also wanted to find some sort of hanging organizer to utilize the empty wall space on the wall opposite the doorway. (As a side note, I was also thrilled to learn that Erica's Target has a Starbucks inside - I miss Indy so much sometimes... ) 

We were probably in the store 20 minutes (and half of that was cuz I had to drool over all the Target merchandise and go to Starbucks). We grabbed 4 colorful containers in the dollar bin and then various sizes of clear Sterilite containers and a clearanced hanging organizer. Then we hurried back home and attempted to get this project done before all the kids woke up from their naps :) 

We pulled things out into the hallway and containerized as we went. Anything she hadn't used for a while or no longer loved went into the Goodwill pile and we also threw away any trash we came across (such as expired lotion or shopping bags and packaging, etc.). That whole process only took about an hour. And I was so into it I forgot to drink my pumpkin spice latte. Can you believe it?

I was so proud of Erica - she did a great job purging and organizing. We ended up with about two garbage bags of trash and two bags and a box of donations and a SUPER organized space (in under two hours!). All she needs to do now is grab her label maker and pop on some labels and keep up with the new system.

We ended up with one container on the top shelf holding kids' swimwear, swim diapers and a sleeping bag and two other containers holding Christmas decorations. The other side of the top shelf was for seasonal silk flower arrangements.

I sorted through the linens and grouped like items together, folding bath towels into thirds rather than halves so they wouldn't hang off the shelves and fall down when bumped. We grouped all the baby blankets and baby washcloths together in their respective containers. And I also grouped hand towels in a container. 

Sheets were piled together towards the back and pillowcases and throws were placed in the hanging organizer on the back wall (it looks a bit crooked in this photo because we needed another nail to hang it from on the top right corner). 

Toiletries were grouped into categories - hair care products in one basket, soaps and body washes in another, feminine products in another and hand soaps and air fresheners in another. First aid items were placed on the shelf above that.

Travel toiletries and cleaning products were placed in their own respective bins.

Christmas DVDs, party supplies and gift bags were put on the bottom right side.

Paper products were put underneath the toiletries. 

I am so thankful that Jimmy & Erica opened up their home to us this weekend, and that Erica even opened up her linen closet to me and let me help her re-organize it and share it on my blog! Not every friend would do that. I love you girl! Dave, Levi & I had a wonderful time with you guys. And you will all be in my prayers as Jimmy heads off to boot camp soon. :)

For more of the 31 Days of Pinterest Projects, just click over here.

31 Days of Pinterest Projects - Day 13 - Son's Closet

A while back I pinned this photo:

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I thought it was simply genius. It seems like with our son, Levi's clothes, there's always something he is growing out of or I'm realizing is still too big for him to wear. And I HATE having clothes that don't fit him (or that we don't love) in his dresser (or ours either for that matter). It makes it hard to put clothes away when there are too many jammed in the dresser drawer and heaven knows I don't need another reason to hate doing laundry.

So I thought it would simplify life so much to have two clearly labeled bins inside his closet to stash those "extra" clothes to deal with later. Just a place to hold it before I take it back down to the bins in the basement where we keep all the clothes he is not currently wearing.

So yesterday I grabbed a couple matching striped bins that we already owned (another great find from Big Lots - gotta love a bargain!), stuck on some labels, and cleared off the top shelf of his closet (all the toys we don't let him play with for various reasons), and plopped them inside.

Here's a before photo of the shelf. I show you this so you know I'm human. :)

And now, look at this. Doens't it make you happy? It does me!

31 Days of Pinterest Projects - Day 11 (a bit late, on Day 12!) - Shoe Organizer

For the last three years I've had only two, maybe three, pairs of shoes at a time. So, when the opportunity came to help my mother organize her shoe cabinet, I was thrilled, because I came home with at least ten new pairs of shoes that she no longer wanted. Woohoo!!!!! But blessings do sometimes come at a price. And while the floor space on my side of the closet used to accommodate my one pair of tennis shoes and one pair of black heels quite nicely, now it looks like this. Ahhh!!!!

I hate it. It's a nightmare to find the matching shoes and this massive pile gets jumbled up everyday by my two year old who now thinks the most fun thing in the world is to put on my shoes and dash out the patio door, hoping I won't notice him escaping.

So we were at Big Lots and found a four tiered shoe rack for just $10 and I could not pass it up. I had considering getting one from the Container Store but I think the one I wanted there was at least $20. It was super easy to assemble and it will hold up to 12 pairs of shoes. 

Now check out my side of the closet! Does anyone else's blood pressure lower just scrolling down to this photo after seeing the above photo? There's something so relaxing about organization!

For more posts in this series, just click here.

31 Days of Pinterest Projects - Day 10 - Bookcase Project Continues...

EDIT 10/31/12: I'm going to go ahead and link this project up to the Pinterest Challenge Fall Edition over on Young House Love. Thanks John & Sherry for having that linky party!! And everyone else, thanks for clicking over from their site and be sure to check out all the other amazing Pinterest Projects back there. :) And I mentioned the source of my pin on Day 5 of this series, but here it is again.


I pinned this shelving unit makeover by Melissa over on the The Inspired Room a while back.

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We're slowly inching our way through this Map Backed Bookcase project over here. Does anyone else get frustrated that they can't complete things like ginormous kitchen renovations in under 30 minutes just like they do on HGTV?

Today I finished mounting the maps on the other side of the bookcase. And then I was going to hang the maps on the middle portion but I came up with a better idea at the last second. I was feeling that maps on all three sections would just be too busy.

I spent the rest of my free time today working on a little "styling" of the two outer sections. Hopefully tomorrow I can finish my idea for the middle section and reveal it to you guys!

For now, here are the two outer sections all "styled". I'm feeling pretty good about it. I love the way the bright colors from the maps in the background help the colorful elements on the shelves stand out. It's a lot more cheerful than just the plain wood showing through from behind.

Those sections sure have come a long way haven't they? I think what helped a lot was removing liners from a few baskets for a cleaner look, eliminating nearly an entire shelf of self-help books to a basket in another area of the room and keeping only the main categories of books we like to read often on the shelves (marriage books, parenting books, Bibles, etc.) I also tried to layer in more accessories to mimic some of those inspirational photos I've collected on Pinterest.

There are a few things I may actually still weed out such as the four black CD boxes - I talked to Dave this evening and since we moved last year neither one of us have even opened those boxes. They were covered in a thick layer of dust. :) That will definitely help make the shelves seem less cluttered.

We're also considering relocating our beloved Epson WorkForce Printer - Wireless (Google Affiliate Ad) to the cabinet below where it sits now. But that would involve weeding out a lot of my scrapbooking supplies which are currently in that location. Another project for another day...

The following are a few more detailed shots of the shelves:

I love that I was able to add in that green dish that my Aunt recently gave me. I think it belonged to my Grandmother or maybe even Great-Grandmother. I love having all my local historical fiction and non-fiction books grouped together. Ohio history is so rich! And I love that we can include Dave's great grandfather's work book in this collection as well. And I love having fun things such as a few rocks we saved from Dave's giant childhood rock collection that we found upstairs when we moved back here last November.

The baskets hold unsightly things like our small DVD collection,

books on budgeting and books on fitness.

And now for the left side of the bookcase:

I grouped a few large books on the top shelf and brought in a fun wire basket that I've had for years (and I hope to fill it with something fun and colorful like hedge apples), along with a colorful canning jar my mother-in-law, Shan, gave me.

The next shelf down is home to a couple notebooks, a vase, a piece of granite with an inscription of Jeremiah 29:11 (from my in-laws for my college graduation I think...), a photograph I took of a beautiful church steeple in historic Charleston, South Carolina on a vacation and a couple books along with another cool rock from Dave's collection.

The next shelf down is home to a red step stool that belonged to Dave's Dad, Phil, along with one of his childhood books about trucks, a coffee mug that my Dad used to drink from when I was a kid and a cute glass jar holding our growing button collection.

Underneath that are a couple file boxes holding extra paper. Resting on top of those boxes are a couple special items. The framed photos are of flowers from our garden in Indiana and coffee beans growing on a farm in Costa Rica that we visited together on a mission trip in Sept 2009. Also, the ginger jar belonged to Dave's Granny and it actually holds lots and lots of random cords and things I don't know what to do with. LOL...honesty is the best policy. :)

I'll be back tomorrow with something - hopefully with the big reveal of the center section of the bookcase!

What do you guys think so far????? 

I've never in my life spent so much time deciding what to put where!! I need feedback. :)

For the rest of the 31 Days of Pinterest Project series on this blog, click here. 

~~~~~In other news, Levi had a ball taking some self-portraits today with the camera.~~~~~

And we had the pleasure of hanging out with our little friend, Wyatt, today. Here's a photo of Wyatt & Levi playing "parade" around the family room.

31 Days of Pinterest Projects - Day 4 - The evolution of our filing system(s)

~~~~I am super excited to have a brand new blog design thanks to Elizabeth from The Mustard Ceiling! In a matter of less than two days she re-designed my whole blog, added a signature, etc. It was the most hassle-free thing I've ever done online! Wow. Makes me wish I'd done it a long time ago. It sure beats me stumbling around trying to change html code. I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to that stuff. Thanks so much Elizabeth! ~~~~

Today I will be talking about the evolution of our filing system. Much like our spices, this was something that didn't come too easily after the big move last November. It also involved lots of trial and error and tweaking. It seems most organizing projects do.

At our previous home, we had condensed our home office into a small armoire in the corner of our family room and we were even considering going completely paperless in order to reduce our household files and further simplify.

While that worked marvelously there, once we got to our new home and started our own home-based business (an automotive shop), I quickly realized we weren't going paperless anytime soon. I soon became overwhelmed because the business and household paperwork was piling up at any incredible rate and I didn't yet have a plan for all of it. This is what our office area looked like for a good month or two. (And these pics were taken on a good day. . . I know it was often way worse than this!)

We couldn't find anything. I spent literally days searching for important papers and Dave was becoming increasingly frustrated. We had sold our filing cabinet on Craiglist when we bought our armoire and cleaned out our office at the other house, or I would have just stuffed them in there. So, we had to come up with a solution. ASAP!

I started by simply sorting all of our junk into two general piles - one pile for home and one pile for business. Then, I placed each paper from each file into logical labeled file folders inside two milk crates (one for home and one for business) and left them out on the table. That at least got some order to the chaos.

Then I was browsing Pinterest and got this idea from Martha Stewart.

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So, I adapted it a bit, and I just took my two milk crates and sat them inside our cedar chest (which we were using as extra seating at our work table in the office area) and then put the files inside. Why I don't have a photo of that, I'm not sure...

I loved this concept, but since our cedar chest was a good 15 feet away from our computer desk, I found myself not actually filing paperwork and just leaving huge paper piles lying around. And I also missed having our cedar chest for linens. We seem to have an over abundance of them but never want to get rid of them in case we might need them someday down the road.

That's when I spotted this lovely pull-out file system on Pinterest. It is from Rev-a-Shelf and is hardware that can be added into any cabinet. 

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I was intrigued because we just happened to have a couple base cabinets on either side of our computer desk and I could keep all our files conveniently located near the computer. 

Furthermore, Rev-a-Shelf is the same company that made a lot of hardware for the kitchen that we DIY-ed in our former home (drawer slides, lazy susan mechanism, pull-out trash can system, etc.). We had been thrilled with the Rev-a-Shelf products, so we ordered one of these off Amazon I believe for about $60 and installed it right away. 

The installation process was super quick and easy - thanks to the great instructions...and my husband doing all the work :) I'm so lucky to have him.

This filing system has worked out quite nicely ever since. I am so pleased that we persisted once again in finding a great system for us in this new home.

Yet the key to it is actually disciplining myself to get the paperwork put into these file drawers. And we all know that is not very easy! So, be sure to stop back by because soon I will share my solution for how I keep myself on track with actually doing the filing now and minimizing the paper clutter lying around.