Organizing Tips

Organize your hall closet / bathroom closet with shoebox bins.  Label each bin to be able to locate everything easily.  (these are about half of the bins I have, the medicine ones are on higher shelves out of little arms reach)

Bin categories are:

• Shampoo
• Deodorant
• Q-tips & Cotton balls
• Heating pack
• Dental Supplies
• Hair products
• Travel Size Items
• Baby Toiletries
• Children's Toiletries
• Batteries
• Vitamins
• Paid Medicines
• Creams & Ointments
• Cold Medicines
• Light Bulbs
• Tools (small basic ones for easy access)
• Extra Candles

Jewelry Storage:

This wasn't the original idea I had for jewelry storage, but this idea is working great for me right now.  I repurposed an old cork board and covered in with a piece of fabric (this happens to be part of a table cloth!) that matched my room decor.  I added brown ribbon to edge it out.  I inserted push pins where needed to arrange my jewelry at various heights so it would not get tangled with each other.  You could also do a mini one for bracelet storage too.


Shoes/Entrance:

I could give you lots of examples of what I really would want our entrance way/mud room to look like. BUT where we are in the house we are in we do not have a mud room, we have a small space by the front door.  I lined the wall space with a long row of hooks (as many fit!) and we hang coats, jackets, purses, diaper bags, etc on the hooks.  This Ikea storage bin sits below.  It is sturdy enough to sit on, but you can also use it for a flat storage of something fast as you come in the door.  In the bins we keep my boys shoes.  (For right now the white bin in the middle also houses the Mega Blocks, but that is a different story!)  Once winter comes I will swap out bins and have that middle space for hats, scarves, and gloves.

Laundry help: (maybe!)  got (single) socks?

Yep!  I do!  More than half of my socks have divorced each other.  It's crazy.  If I am really desperate, I wear mismatched socks.  It is really that bad!
So here is my storage solution for holding said deserted socks until their mate has been restored.

 I LOVE ThirtyOne.  I'm linking my friend's site just because.  But if you have a friend who sells it you can go to them for advise!  But I love this Littles Carry All!  It can be used for many things.  I had "got socks?" embroidered on here and keep this in my hall closet.  Any socks that have lost their mate go into this bin until the matching mate is found, or I decide to pitch it.  But I love this storage caddy for extra socks.  :)  Wonderful!

Any great tips you want to share with me? 

Organizing Your Kids Rooms

So I try to keep my kids room's organized.  I really do.  But most of the time I end up wondering why I spend so much time cleaning and organizing when it gets messed up in minutes!


But here are some of my favorite tips that have worked in keeping my kids clothes, accessories, and toys organized.


First up is the closet in my boy's room.  My boys get into EVERYTHING all the time! I didn't want a dresser in their room that could possibly be emptied in minutes and disaster in the clothing organizing area.  So I opted for this:


I put a small, three shelf bookcase in my boys closet.  (You could do a taller one, but I wanted to keep the clothes rod in the top to hang their dress shirts.)  I purchased the bookshelf and storage cubes at Target.  These storage cubes are awesome.  They are a great way to hide storage on bookshelves in any part of the house!!  There are also mini cubes which I put on the top of the shelf for socks and underwear.  The only way I could improve on this (for me) would be to label the drawers so my family would remember whose clothes are on what shelf.  Sadly for me my kids like to remove said labels, stickers, etc and so my labels have no chance on my kids stuff.  :)


My second tip would be to maximize storage space in your child's closet.  Take advantage of this especially while your kids are younger and the clothing is smaller.  Purchase a closet rod extender.  These things are great!  Here I have my newborn daughter's clothes on top and my 5 year old daughter's dresses on the bottom.  The closet rod is adjustable so you can make the bottom rod as tall or as short as you need.  This is also a great tip in other closets where you are hanging shirts.  You can double your closet space!


This tip is SO fun because I love being crafty and making things.  I painted a old picture frame, stapled ribbon from top to bottom and hung this up in my daughters' room for bow storage.  I also screwed some mug hooks into the bottom side to hold headbands.  As an added bonus it doubles as art!  You can get so creative with this piece to match any decoration or style you have.  (as you can see I even have two!)


Toy storage tips:
Once again I am using a white, three shelf bookshelf from Target.  I love that store!  The Closet Maid cubes are also from Target.  They have so many colors to choose from!  My daughter has the bottom bins for shoes, one for barbies, one for play food, one for misc, etc.  I also attached a small 4 count set of hooks into the side of the shelf for her to hang up her necklaces, headbands, or Rapunzel hair. (as pictured here) :)


Other storage tips I could give are the under the bed storage bins!  I keep extra winter blankets, toys, craft supplies, shoes, and clothes to grow into in the bins.  It is a great way to use extra space.

Also, utilized the back of the closet door or bedroom door.  In my boys room I have high hooks, so I can hang back packs or other things out of reach.  In my daughter's room I have multiple hooks of various lengths so she can hang purses, coats, and bags.

Hopefully some of these tips helped you out, and please don't get discouraged organizing your child's room! :)