Baby Steps: T-Shirt Drawer Oganization

Hubs is a t-shirt guy…he has quite an impressive collection and wears t-shirts about every day. He does a good job at keeping the collection weeded out and getting rid of old ones when he brings new ones in. However, for a while, the t-shirt drawer remained in a state of chaos….

Every time we did laundry and put the t-shirts away, we would straighten everything back up into neat stacks.

But, the next day when Hubs pulled out a t-shirt on the bottom of the pile, the pile would topple like this and the vicious cycle of chaos continued…

I finally had a light bulb moment to help keep the chaos under control. I started folding the t-shirts an extra fold and putting in the drawer like files…no stacks to topple!

Now, Hubs can see the whole collection, choose the perfect shirt, and pull it out without touching the other shirts, in turn, keeping the drawer neat and organized! Ahh...organized bliss... :)

Baby Steps: Trash on the Go

Trash…yep that’s the title. I go MIA on the blog for a few weeks and come back with trash. Maybe this heat is getting to me.

Anyway…I’ve noticed that the busier our lives get, the more trash I find accumulating in our vehicles. Maybe that’s a sign we spend too much time in the car. Last week I emptied a full cup holder of straw papers, receipts, expired coupons and other paper that has accumulated. And yes, I said cup holder. That’s where I tend to stick trash – better there than the floor I guess!

I decided that there needed to be a better system for my car. What would ride without spilling and be easy to empty? Enter the $1.00 plastic cup. It fits perfectly into the cup holder and is easy to pull out and empty. So I can continue to gather trash in it and easily dump it when full!

So a cup works for me on a daily basis but what about on longer road trips? There are times I need to coral more than just receipts and straw papers. Of course, I don’t let my car become a dumping ground but sometimes you need a larger container.

I recently repurposed an empty wipes container into a trash bag holder for the car. I cleaned it out and filled it with some small trash bags so they pull out easily. You could also fill it with grocery bags.

And, since I can’t leave well enough along, I decided that I couldn’t live with a boring white container. So to dress it up, I covered it with some leftover adhesive ribbon from another project.

Now, I have a couple of easy systems set up to keep my car trash fee! I wish every clutter problem could be solved that easily!

What clutter solutions do you use in your vehicle? Share your ideas by leaving a comment below. What works for you might work for another reader!

Baby Steps: Under the Kitchen Sink

I think the biggest misconception about organization is that it takes too much money and too much time. But, actually, there are many simple "baby" steps that you can do in mere minutes to organize your spaces. As mentioned in my first post, I have many to-do projects on my list. I think the long, cold winter affected my motivation, and there are a lot of areas that have "slipped" as far as organization goes in this house. I'm on a mission (watch out!) to reclaim all of these areas and bring them back to their simplified state. I tackled one space that has been getting on my nerves tonight...under the kitchen sink. And, I did it in 15 minutes! Here's the story:

While slaving over the oven cooking my husband a delicious dinner....





(Ok, I know what you're thinking, and I'll address this now...my strength is organizing....NOT cooking!)

I decided to organize the area under the kitchen sink. This area is certainly not exciting and is a little hard to work around with the pipes and disposal unit. We use this area to house the trash can, a few kitchen cleaners, cat food and a fire extinguisher (insert cooking jokes about me here). Below are some before photos:

I began by taking everything out of the cabinet and wiping down the shelf liner. I weeded through the contents, removed the items that didn't belong and added a few containers to organize what was going back into the cabinet.

I put the cat treats and canned food in a basket and placed it behind their daily food container since we only access these items for their "special treats" once or twice per week.



Geez...anyone need some Temptations? I think Santa Paws went a little overboard in the cats' stockings...we have enough to last all year!





We use an airtight container with a flip lid which is a great option for housing pet food. It keeps the food fresh and is a great size for indoor use!

I put the cleaning bottles in the top bin of 2 stacking bins and added smaller cleaners and scrubbers to the bottom bin.

After 15 minutes and buying absolutely nothing to organize (I used containers I already had around the house) the cabinet looks like this:





I now have a smile on my face for completing an item on my to-do list, and the pizza is ready to eat! What a great way to start the week!