organizing: small changes

Hello there!  How are your new year goals/resolutions coming along so far?  Still working on them?  Did you give up?  If you're anything like me I know you won't give up that easily.   I'm cheering you on!  I know you can do it! (Hey we gotta motivate each other.  Right?)

I'm sure you're wondering how I'm doing.  Have I started them?  Yes, I have!  Small accomplishments, but rewarding ones.  So far I have gone back to the gym and plan to continue doing so.  I'm also going to bed earlier.  Yey!  I also started  working on a schedule to maximize my time during the day.  Maybe wake earlier (a hard one for me.  Even now that I've been good about going to bed early.)  and hit the gym first thing in the morning so I have the rest of the day to: parent, work, blog, craft, home school and so on.  I really want to find a way to fit all that and more into my days.  Ahem, any tips?

When it comes to organization, though I haven't necessarily started organizing my craft room, I have, however,  gathered a lot of inspiration through Pinterest.  I'm sure I've mentioned before my addiction to pinning and pinning and pinning.  I think my addiction may be as bad as buying fabric!

Well then, let us go back to the organizing shall we.  

I believe that sometimes tackling the smaller spaces around your home first, is better than trying to tackle a large room (like my craft room), so here are some small changes I would like to make around the house in the next few days to begin with.

In my closet:

portable hooks via martha stwart

 Reorganize my belts.  Currently my belts hang from a hanger, but slip off very easily.  That drives me crazy.  Isn't this the perfect solution to the problem? And so easy to make.  You can see the how to at MarthaStewart.com. 

creative scarf solutions via smallrooms

Tackle the scarfs!  I recently organized my scarfs by hanging three or four per hanger to keep them from wrinkling.   I thought I was the coolest person on the block, but then I saw this and well...all I could think of was- why did I donate all my old shower curtain hooks!!!  Another perfect solution for small spaces.  This way I can hang more scarfs onto one hanger and use up less space.  You can find more creative scarf organizing solutions at smallrooms.

In the linen closet:

there is no direct link to this photo, I stumbled upon it on pinterest.

Um, again- why didn't I think of this before?!!!!  To keep your bed linens tidy and organized simply put your folded linens in their coordinating pillow sham.  Wow!  I totally love this!  Really I do.  You don't understand how picky I am about folding my bed linens, how I carefully fold each sheet (fitted or not) until they all sit perfectly even on my shelf.  Craziness, I know.  But that is just who I am, and I am in love with this solution!!!!

In the kitchen:

scrapbook organizers in the kitchen via Chica and Jo

Our house is not small by any means, but I do have a small kitchen.  Something I didn't mind before I started enjoying cooking and had kids.  If I could make any changes to this house it would be just that, a larger kitchen (and maybe more closet space.)  So I'm constantly looking for solutions to organize my kitchen. You would be amazed to see how much I can fit in our small galley kitchen without keeping it all out on the counters (did I ever tell you I hate clutter? Especially counter top clutter!) Using a craft paper (or magazine) organizer to hold different items around the kitchen would be a perfect solution for my shelves.  To see other ways to use the craftbook holder in the kitchen visit ChicaandJo.com. 

Organizing, even in the van:

16 ways to organize your recycling via Better Home and Gardens

Need I say anything else?  Not pretty, but very practical.  Though I would skip the plastic bag to keep it greener. 

Finally around the craft room:

paper towel holder via realsimple.com, box ribbon organizer via marthastewart.com and multi-tiered pants hanger via cratingkeepsakesblog.com

Ribbon!  I have lots of it and need more ways to display it while keeping it organized.  I will share with you one of my own solutions (for a slopping wall) later, on the mean time I share with you the three solutions I found and plan to use for the rest of my ribbon.  I really like the paper towel holder solution RealSimple.com came up with.  I'll be looking for one (or several) of these on my trips to the thrift shops.  MarthaStewart.com also came up with a nice solution using photo boxes, but it takes a bit more work to make.  I really like the multi-tiered pants hanger solutions that they came up with at CreatingKeepsakesBlog.com. 

Jewelry organizer tutorial by Tonya Staab

Jewelry.  I like to make it for friends, as gifts, for me, for fun.  I like the idea of displaying it in my craft room using an old type set drawer.  I have one that was given to me and I planned to use in my nene's room for him to display all his small Lego pieces, but I just might change my mind and keep it to display jewelry.  Shhh.  Don't tell him.  Okay?

Are you inspired yet?  Want to start organizing?  Still need more inspiration?  Then visit DaNita's blog Delightful Order.  She created a roundup of all her organizing tips.  And she has many.  Check them out and get inspired!

Happy Organizing!