Week 8: Home Office Organization

It is currently the first day of Spring break here in Montreal. Working from home with kids is definitely a challenge. Now is even more important to have a dedicated workspace, if you don’t already.

Find that space in your home where you feel productive. I have space in my basement and that’s where I initially set up my home office. I quickly realized that I was just never going down there to work. It’s a darker space, less natural light coming in and I just didn’t associate the basement with being productive.

I decided to switch things up and move my workspace to a little nook in my bedroom. I had space, and there is great sunlight that comes in, automatically lifting my mood and making me want to get things done. It’s a simple switch but made a huge impact.

So for your home office. First, you need a good desk and table. Good posture is everything! You need to get work done, and you need to be comfortable doing it!

Floating shelves and hanging racks for file folders can help use up that vertical space.

Create a place you love to be in. Whether colour brings you joy, or you need a minimal look to focus, personalize your workspace so you’re happy and feeling productive.

Don’t forget inside your desk drawers. Keep your most used items on the desktop, and tuck away everything else so you have the space to do your work. I love using dividers in a desk drawer to contain my items.

If you’re working from home temporarily and don’t want to invest in creating a home office, then using a rolling cart can easily help transform your space into a workspace. You don’t need to spend much. Create that working environment that will work in your favour.

Here are some handy items that can help transform your office space.

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases off Amazon. I get a small percentage of the product price (with no extra cost to you!), so thank you for buying through me and supporting my business.

Get files off your desk and into a hanging file organizer. I love using vertical space.

Drawer dividers in your desk drawer can save your items from getting messy.

If you don’t have a dedicated office in your home, this rolling cart from Ikea can easily convert any table to your work area.

Cord organizers to help keep your cords from falling.

Velcro wraps to keep your cords from getting messy and getting tangled.

Week 7: Bedroom Organization

This week we focus on a space where we spend almost half our lifetime. Our bedrooms.

The bedroom should be a space where we go to relax and unwind. Having a cluttered bedroom does nothing to help with those feelings. Outer order brings inner calm. So if your bedroom is out of order, how can you expect inner calm?

Let’s break our bedrooms up into zones, just like we did with the kitchen (insert link here).

• Nightstand for personal items.

• Clothing (closets/drawers)

• Memorabilia and Sentimental items typically also go in the bedroom.

Before starting, look around and focus on the area which is giving you that heavy feeling. Are there piles of clutter anywhere? Is a zone being used for something that shouldn’t really be there?

If that heavy area is not really obvious to you, let’s start with the nightstand. It’s small, easy to accomplish, and will help motivate you to tackle the other areas.

Empty out your night table and keep only the items you would need while you’re in bed or preparing to go to bed.

Phone charger, tissues, hand lotion, lip balm, a book/journal, pens/pencils for taking notes, cream etc. Avoid keeping odds and ends in this drawer, or it will soon turn into a junk drawer.

Drawer dividers are great for keeping the categories separate.

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Moving on to the next category: The closet. Yes, technically the closet is still a bigger space than your sentimental items: But that can be a little tricky. We might get caught in a rabbit hole and start reminiscing, and the task will just take longer than we thought. So lets’ knock out the closet first.

Organizing your clothes can be tricky. Let’s break down the steps. Create mini zones within our closet. (Again, this depends on the size of your closet, but still achievable)

Here are some of the different categories:

• Workout clothes

• Work clothes

• Pj’s/Lounge wear

• Undergarments

• Formal wear

• Seasonal clothes

• Everyday clothes

Now working with what you already have, figure out the best space for these zones.

In my closets, I like to group by category, and then within the category group by colour.

Now for the sentimental items. I don’t actually have physical steps on how to store your sentimental items. Everyone’s situation and items will be different. So I will only offer you this piece of advice: our memories are within us, not within our things. Now, repeat that. You don’t need to keep the physical item to keep those memories. If you do feel the need to keep the object to remember the moment, how about taking a picture of it? It will take up less space and the memories will always be there!

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I get a small percentage of the product price (with no extra cost to you!), so thank you for buying through me and supporting my business.

Now let’s move on to some of my favourite items for organizing the bedroom.

These fabric bins are pretty sturdy and can keep things contained in your closet.

No closet organizing job is complete without matching velvet hangers. Keeps things from falling off and gives a more streamlined look.

Drawer dividers for the win! These keep your categories separate and help keep your drawers from getting messy.

Week 6: Food Storage: Fridge & Pantry Organization

Food organization needed its own dedicated week! Organizing food is challenging because food is constantly entering and leaving the space, then you have other household members rummaging through - so it’s very easy for the space to get unorganized without proper systems in place.

Let’s start with the fridge:

Process:

1. Clear your counters and remove everything from the fridge.

2. Group your items by category. (fruits, vegetables, deli meats, cheese, dairy, leftovers etc.)

3. Examine each item for the expiry date. Get rid of the expired items and items you didn’t end up liking/using.

4. Now that the fridge is empty, give it a good wipedown.

5. When placing the items back, use the categories you created to keep the items together. I love keeping items contained. You can find acrylic bins to hold your categories. Bonus points if you have them labeled.

   Pro Tip: Don’t put milk inside the door. Because the door is opened so often, milk can get affected by the fluctuation in temperature. Dairy and meats need stable temperature. So the bottom shelf in the fridge is often the preferred spot.

Here are some products that can do wonders in the fridge.

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I get a small percentage of the product price (with no extra cost to you!), so thank you for buying through me and supporting my business.

No more losing things at the back of the fridge. Use this to group jars and condiments.

Drink organizer. If you are a big soda drinker, this will help you gain back some space.

Clear top protects eggs and makes it easy to stack more food or other storage organizers on top of the bin

Pantry Organization:

Follow the same steps as above:

Process:

1. Clear your counters and remove everything from your pantry.

2. Group your items by category. This depends on your own personal use (Some suggestions: baking, breakfast, pasta, rice, grains, snacks - if you’re a big snacker like us, separate sweets and salty snacks).

3. Examine each item for the expiry date. Get rid of the expired items and items you didn’t end up liking/using.

4. Now that the pantry is empty, give it a good wipedown.

5. When placing the items back, use the categories you’ve created to keep the items together. I love keeping items contained using bins to hold your categories together. Label your categories.

Importance of Labels.
Maintenance is key. It helps keep things in order, not just for yourself, but anyone else living with you.

Pantry Organization Favourites:

Use these shelf risers to stack your cans/jars/bottles so you can easily see them all at a glance.

Another option for your cans, this can organizer really uses the vertical space.

I’m a big fan of these oxo food storage containers. They have an air tight seal which ensures freshness.

Any bin, whether they are acrylic, plastic, or these wire bins all serve the same purpose: They help contain your categories.

Week 4: Linen Closet/ Laundry Room Organization

New Month, New Week! Since we last tackled our bathrooms, it only made sense to continue on to the linen closet. My linen closet is within the laundry room so this post will cover both spaces. Here is where I keep all our sheets, towels, laundry products, and extra household supplies.

Ready? 3 2 1, let’s go!

Let’s Organize the Linen Closet

Towels

So if you’re like me, you have a set of favourite towels that you gravitate towards, and some you only use if you have no choice. If your closet is overflowing with towels, let’s start going through them and start decluttering. Anything with holes, stains or if they have started fraying - get rid of them. (If you have younger kids, I would suggest to keep a few old towels on hand in case of big spills or messes, otherwise out they go)

Tip: You can donate your old towels to a veterinarian or an animal shelter. They’ll gladly accept them.

Sheets

Just like the towels, anything with stains or rips can go. We don’t need to hold on to so many extras.

Clients often ask me how many sheets they should keep on hand? The number can vary from person to person, but a safe bet would be 3 per person. This allows you to rotate your sheets and you’ll always have one on hand in between washes. I keep the sheets separated by which bed they are for. I also like to keep my sheets in fabric bins. This helps from sheets spilling over, and it just looks visually more attractive.

Pro Tip: Keep the sheets folded into their corresponding pillowcases. Helps keep everything together.

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Now is also a good time to go through the space you keep your laundry products, toss out anything you don’t use. I store all my laundry products together depending on how often I use them. The detergents and softeners are up front. Stain removal products are behind. (They used to be up front when kids were younger!)

All the overflow products and less used cleaning products are on a less accessible shelf.

Because my laundry room is on the same floor as the bedrooms, we don’t have individual hampers in each room. I keep one main hamper within the laundry room. I love finding ways to maximize my space. I found this 2 tier, vertical laundry hamper from Costco.

Also, since we’re on the topic of laundry. One tip I absolutely try to live by, Do a load of laundry per day. (sometimes it’s every other day, if we’re being honest).

Here are some useful Amazon products to organize the laundry room. See if they’ll work for you.

Over the door or wall mounted ironing board and iron holder

Slim, Slide out Storage Tower

Fabric storage bins

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(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I get a small percentage of the product price (with no extra cost to you!), so thank you for buying through me and supporting my business.

Week 3: Bathroom Organization 2021 Home Organizing Challenge

Ah, the bathrooms. Let’s be honest, when is the last time you pulled out everything from your bathroom and did a good purge?

Bathroom drawers or cabinets are not really high traffic zones so often times we forget what’s even in there.

How to Organize the Bathroom: The Process

• Empty out the products from your bathroom.

• Just like we did with the junk drawer last week, sort the products by category. Start by tossing the products you’ve had for a while and hardly use. Don’t forget the samples, testers, and the almost empty bottles.

• Containerize them by whichever category makes the most sense to you (by type, frequency of use, what body part that item is for teeth, hair care etc).

• Place them back.

Some Useful Bathroom Organization Tips:

• Don’t forget the inside of your cabinet doors. There are a variety of hanging organizers that fit right over your cabinet door that will help maximize the space.

• Shelf risers are not just for the kitchen. Use that vertical space inside your cabinets.

• Drawer dividers. You know I love them. We used them last week in our junk drawers, we use them in our kitchen, why not use them in our bathroom drawers to help contain items.

• Keep those counters clutter free.

Here are some of my favourite bathroom organizing products.Click on image to view more details.

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases

Makeup Expiration Dates

Mascara: 4-6 months
Lipstick: 12-18 months
Pencil Eyeliner: 1 year
Liquid eyeliner: 3-6 months
Foundation: 12-18 months
Concealer: 12-18 months
Eyeshadow/blush: 1-2 years

It’s hard to remember when the items were purchased, but even a general idea should be good enough as a starting point.

I hope you’re feeling accomplished after organizing your bathroom. Til next week!

Here Is a link to our facebook group if you’d like some extra support and speak to others also participating in the challenge.

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2021 Home Organizing Challenge. Week 1: Paper Management.

Welcome to our 1st ever 2021 Home Organizing Challenge. We hope to turn this into a yearly event.

What better time to start than January? This is the time many people resolve to get more organized. My job is to help, motivate, and hopefully inspire you to stay organized, long after the challenge is done.

Let’s start by doing a brain dump. Free your mind, write down anything and everything that you need to do. Sometimes just getting everything out makes me feel less stressed, even if i don’t actually do the items on the list! You can also just use any notebook, same concept.

First week we’ll start small. Paper Management. Now, I’m not asking you to go deep in your archives and pull out files from 5 years ago. We don’t want to overwhelm ourselves. Start now, where you are and move forward. Once you create a system for current paper, you can always go back when you feel ready to tackle it on.

Ready to Simplify? Let’s begin:

1. I’m going to ask you to go around your home and collect all the paper you see. Don’t include paper that is already in some sort of filing system, or archives. Go get all the junk mail, bills, magazines, forms, receipts, papers that need a home.

2. Separate into piles: To Recycle, To File, To-Do Eventually, To Do Now. Any forms or bills that are due within the week should go into the To Do Now pile. Make sure you get to them by the end of the week, if you can’t tackle it immediately. The key to not letting that “To Do Eventually” pile is to go through it weekly. Priorities often change, you may change your mind and move it to the Recycle Pile or it may end up being moved to To Do Now.

3. Set up a command centre for incoming papers so they have a home while they’re all in one place and waiting to be sorted.

4. Remember, maintenance is the key to staying organized. Make it a habit to tackle all incoming papers as soon as they enter the home. If you add this to your weekly routine, you’ll soon have your paper under control.

5 Ways to Start your Day off Right

Especially on Monday mornings which don’t have a bad rep for no reason. First off, think about what your ideal day even looks like. What do you want to accomplish? Then try these tricks below and see if it will help you achieve your goals.

1. Try to sleep early so that you get your 8 hours of sleep. This is something I need to remind myself because I love my free time in the evenings.

2. Lay out your next day’s outfit. I’ll even lay out my kids clothes just because I want them to be as quick as possible in the morning without asking me tons of questions. Also, leave whatever you need for the next day by the front door so it’s easy to grab and go. If it’s returns you have to do, your work bag, an umbrella if there is rain just leave them in a handy spot by the door.

3. Start your day with intention. Review your schedule the night before. Plan your day in advance so you know how your day will look. Less time wasted in figuring out what to do next. Even if they are small bite sized tasks, you’ll feel more productive crossing them off your list.

4. Exercise. Go out for a quick walk. Getting your blood pumping first thing in the morning will energize you. If you have time for a full workout, even better!

5. Eat a good breakfast. After all, it’s not called the most important meal of the day for no reason. A balanced meal will help you feel fuller longer. Breakfast replenishes blood sugar levels, which helps provide energy and improves concentration.

The key to having a great morning all depends on you. See what works for you, what makes you happy, and continue to do that.

Exercise and sleeping early are definitely areas I struggle in. What about you? What’s your morning routine look like? Anything you’d like to improve on?

Clutter Free Gift Ideas - covid edition

So this year has been…..interesting, to say the least and I’m sure we’re all ready for a better 2021!

The holiday season can be a stressful time, regardless of our current situation. Additionally, we’re not going to the malls as often and can surely expect delays with online deliveries making it more challenging to pick out gifts,

I’ve compiled some clutter free gift ideas, most of which you could purchase from the comfort of your own home and they can still enjoy during the pandemic. (no international trips on the list!)

These gifts won’t add clutter to your loved ones homes, also they will help out the businesses you purchase from. Win win!

Happy Holidays everyone and hope you all stay safe!