Under the Sink Organization

I hate it when I do this but I forgot to take a "before" picture. I was so excited to install our new sliding drawer thing, I just jumped right into pulling everything out and forgot to take a shot of the messy, gross, unorganized catastrophe we had going on under the sink.

But here are the lovely finished product pics. We got this smaller recycling bin that fits great in the small space under the sink. We just dump it out into the larger recycling bin throughout the week that we keep on the back deck. 

This basket came from bed bath and beyond and is perfect for those long skinny boxes of kitchen goodies  and also for stray bags who have lost their home. 

Then here is the fancy-schmancy rollout basket thing we got at The Container Store. It was on sale for $35 which may seem like a lot for a metal basket but it is oh so handy and made super sturdy. I think it was worth every penny! 

One more shot of the star of the under the sink organization project!

 I've found that something as simple and easy as spending a little money and time organizing a small space like this can make a big impact in the ease of your day. I now know exactly where everything is under there and no more reaching in the back for the windex and knocking 10 other cleaning bottles down. 

Happy organizing! 

Container store AKA Heaven on Earth

For my 24th birthday, my sweet wonderful husband took me shopping for a whole day! I'm not talking about an afternoon or a few hours, no I'm talking about leaving out at 9:00 am and getting back home at 2:00 am. This says a lot because he hates shopping. Haha. But he loves me and he told me we could do whatever I wanted for the day the Saturday before my birthday. 

And thanks to my ever-so-adicting pinterest love, and my inspiration for my closet board, I have been itching to update my wardrobe for some time now. Lucky for me, our families pretty much all sent cold hard cash for my birthday, so needless to say my shopping day was a great success!

So all that leads me to telling you about the the container store. I have heard stories of this place from friends who have been. I knew it was going to be good but it far exceeded my expectations. Now before you go start feeling sorry for Skot, I will tell you that he used my 2 hour container store experience to get a power nap out in the car. So it was good for everyone! 

So basically like this post's title states: it was Heaven on earth. (probably only to those of us who are obsessed with organizing but I think there's something for everyone in this store).

There's lots of great displays like this one with ideas of how to use the products they sell. What a great marketing tool because I definitely saw things like this and was like "Oh my goodness I NEED my closet to be more organized!" ha. 

The store is super organized too (go figure). it is arranged into sections according to what area of the house you would use the items in. They had office, gift wrapping, bathroom, kitchen, closet, garage, and laundry sections. They also had just a big area with lots of general containers. As sad as this truth is... I could seriously spend thousands of dollars in this store. But, I contained myself and just got things I felt like I couldn't live with out. (did you catch the pun harf harf). I'll post pictures soon of some of the items I got on this trip. 

I thought these little jars were just darling. They would be great for small kitchen items like toothpicks. 

They had your basic white and clear containers. Then they also had fun bright containers too. This would be perfect for organizing a kids room. 

I thought this was super awesome and handy. I can't wait until we hopefully one day build a house. I'm going to get them to install handy gadgets like this everywhere!

This was an isle in the office section. See all the bright and pretty colors!

Oh what a happy day! 

I hope that I somewhat got across all the greatness this store has to offer.

Business Card Holder

Ok so maybe I'm a border line hoarder, but I really hate throwing away things that I think could possibly, one day, just maybe be used for something great. I get excited when I find ideas like this on Pinterest, where I can actually put my craziness to use.

So this easy, short little project it pretty self explanatory

1. Clean an empty mint tin

2. Cut out scrapbook paper to fit the top and inside

3. Hot glue paper onto tin

and 5 minutes later you have a cute, easy way to carry your cards around with you… If you don't have business cards of your own, you could always store other peoples you have or those punch cards some businesses offer. Just some ideas as to why you should hoard Altoid tins :-)

Canisters - the solution to a bad week

Everyone has them, it happens to the best of us… and unfortunately it was just my week to have a BAD WEEK! Valentine's Day was amazing… don't get me wrong on that… it feels like that day belongs in another week… it just doesn't fit in to all the other days of this past week… so in my internal file cabinet, I have removed it from this last week to a special place so it doesn't get jumbled up with all the bad things that happened … like me going to the dentist and after bragging about never having cavities, being told I have 3 perfectly spread out cavities that will require THREE numbing shots all in my upper gum… awesome…. or me dropping my macbook on my iPhone and destroying the screen… double awesome…

Why I am venting on here about all of this?  Because I want tell you about my wonderful craft night, that I knew would start my weekend off great… success! Right when I left school I went to Hobby Lobby with my Pinterest inspired shopping list, then after dinner with a sweet friend, we came back to my house and crafted it up! Here's what I got done: a spring wreath, button magnets, framed fabric message board, rosette barets, and labeled canisters. I will be posting about all of these this coming week. But today I'm going to start with the canisters because I think they're my favorite "end-of-a-bad-week-craft-night" accomplishment!  So thanks for letting me vent, I know that zoomed out, my week wasn't that bad and the sun is still rising everyday and God is still God and thats all that truly matters, not my rotting teeth or smashed electronics… :-)

1. Cut out vinyl labels with a cutting machine (like Cricut, Silhouette, etc.) … If you don't have one, Here's a great place to purchase vinyl letters/words.

2. Using transfer tape, Carefully place your sticky side of the vinyl onto your glass jar/canisters. I found these at target for a steal of about $7.00. 

3. voilà! A beautiful, simple, stylish way to store all your kitchen necessities. 

4. Blackie especially loved craft night because she had 3 girls loving on her all night, she got to play with the crafting supplies and she got her hair-did

Organization Supplies Crush

Right now, I should be studying, I should be going for a run, I should NOT be eating left over Valentine's Day goodies and playing on my computer, but I am so I wanted to share on here some of the wonderful products I am dying to get my little organization-loving hands on. These new Martha Stewart products by Staples first caught my eye in my current edition of Martha Stewart Living Magazine. (There's a 40% off one product coupon in the magazine or you can print a 30% off on the Staples website) These products would be great for a organizer-newbie, who may be a little timid about taking on a big project like the pantry or a home office space. Here are a few of my favorite products that I am swooning over!

1. Planner Insert: NoteTabs & Ultra Sticky Notes

2. Kraft Labels

3. Kitchen Labels

4.File Pockets

Hope these inspire you like they did me! 

Kitchen Organization!

So I was already border line OCD when it came to labeling and organizing BEFORE pintertest but now it's a whole new level with all the great ideas I've found on there! I spent sometime over Christmas break getting our kitchen into a label-lovers Heaven. While I'm on the topic of organizing, I want to introduce to you to (if you already haven't discovered this fabulousness) this great blog! Just click the image below if you think can handle all the organizing ideas and still have a productive day!



Here are some of the things I did to our kitchen…

Bins Bins Bins = Love! Easy to grab and get small baking items out of… like sprinkles, nuts, etc.

small hangers from Lowe's for measuring spoons. Skot used some kind of super sticky glue to hang them.

Velcro a clipboard to the inside of cabinet for easy grocery list making when you run out of stuff

Target dollar bin plastic boxes with lamented labels stuck to them, so you can write on them with a dry erase marker

Shoe organizer inside the pantry to make snacks easy to see and grab.

I hope you don't think I'm a crazy person after seeing this post… I just REALLY like to organize things, it makes me smile :-)