Titus 2 Tea - Organizing - Week 1

As I am thinking of spring, I just want to organize everything.  What is it about winter that gets stuff cluttered where it's not supposed to be?  And then I look at a spot and think, "How and when did that get so terrible-looking?"

We haven't been able to buy bins and baskets and such, so I've given up the idea of getting organized.  Seems things stay where they go better if you have something to put them in.  But I don't think that I need to wait till I can buy a bunch of pretty and matching bins or baskets.  I  found that I have quite a few things that will work well.

They aren't pretty but they'll do the job.

The first thing I do is completely empty the shelves, and then keep the munchkins away from the kitchen table.  "No, you may not play with anything on the table right now."  Seems I've said it quite a few times as they look longingly at the things they haven't played with in weeks. 

Next I clean off the shelves and then measure them and draw up a plan. 

Then I sort the things from the kitchen table into the shoeboxes, and containers that I have on hand.  This is when I find out what my containers will be full of.   Today, I have labels of Guitar, Wii Remotes, Computer, Crafts, Coloring, Paints, Office and Star Wars.  I will make labels for my boxes today, so I don't forget.

Because I don't know what size of containers I need for each thing, I start by just putting things into a container - not neatly or how I want it, but just in there.  Inevitably, I will spend a ton of time making it look nice only to find that I need something bigger.

Now I pencil in where I think the containers will fit best on my plan.  I need measurements for that.  Also some of the things need to be higher, and some things need to be lower on the shelves - so I need to take that into consideration.

That's hard to see but you get the idea.  While in practice this sounds good, it didn't really work for me.  I found that for me it's easier just to move the bins around till they fit.  But if I was going to buy bins or baskets for this project, I would definitely draw it out so that I wouldn't buy the wrong size.

This is how the area looks with almost all of the stuff that came off of it, but I also put one puzzle on that hadn't been on there.  Lots of room!!!  So I added more puzzles, changed it around to suit and added labels.

My goal is to fill all the space with boxes and bins and baskets, so there isn't a lot of room for junk.  Though I'm sure they'll find the nooks and crannys.

Making the most of today.
Steph