I’m back again with my second organizing update! Again, I managed to finish what I set out to do, but partly because I cheated and did the linen closet in December :). Never the less, it’s all done!
As I just mentioned, I did the linen closet first, in December. Unfortunately I don’t have any before photos because I wasn’t thinking I’d be blogging about it in January!
Linen closet after:
The linen closet is in out main bathroom so it also holds my deodorant, body lotion, shampoo/conditioner, soap, and toothpaste stockpile. I managed to find a box full of stuff to toss (old body lotions/perfumes/makeup) and some items to donate. I did end up buying the two white containers that you see (from Dollarama) to hold my body lotions, nail polishes and perfumes. One container is dedicated to baby bath time stuff. (wash cloths, hooded towels, shampoo) The top shelf, that you can’t see, hold our extra sheet sets. The bottom shelf that you can’t see again, holds our toilet paper stock, kleenex and a fan for the summer months. Overall, I’m quite pleased with the after as there’s still plenty of room to hold more stuff. Although I’m liking the emptiness a bit too much I think!
Since jewelery organization is a fairly popular topic, here’s a picture of how I store my necklaces:
It’s a mug holder! Does a pretty good job! (The Winnie the Pooh lunch box is something I’ve had for years that I’m holding on to for the kiddo)
My second project was to organize the recipes that I tore out of magazines or had printed.
Recipes after:
The recipes that were small enough went into my handy dandy recipe box.
The recipes that were too big to fit into the box, went into my recipe binder/household notebook. The recipes either went into our “favourite recipes” section or “recipes to try” section. I’d actually like to make a section for freezer cooking as I found a few recipes while I was purging magazines that would be great to freeze. A note on the household notebook end of things. I don’t really use the binder for that purpose! Maybe if I revamped it, it would better suit my needs, but for now I’m quite happy with my day planner that has plenty of room to jot down each day’s to-do list/shopping lists… etc.
For those of you that have a household notebook, how do you make it work for you?
Lastly, I worked on my coupon binder and ended up with a big stack of coupons to give away! If you’d like to see how you can win some coupons, visit the Simply Frugal Facebook page today!! (January 14, 2012)
I didn’t take any other pictures of the binder because I covered it in this Coupon Binder post. I still organize it the same way.
For those of you still joining me this month, how did you do this week with your projects?
You don't need expensive, fancy bins to get organized. All you need is a little creativity! Transform old jars, shoe boxes, cereal boxes and more into instant storage. Frugal organizing is just smart organizing.
As I'm going through my house this month, my goal is to use things I already own, to store the items I need to store. After all, I'm trying to declutter the house, so I don't want any new containers! In my mind, using what I have already is what makes my living more simple and frugal.
Here are some frugal and creative organizing ideas to help inspire you to be frugal and creative with your organizing projects:
Use mason jars or pasta sauce jars for pantry items.
Buy a couple packs of Magnetic Bulldog Clips and clip all of your winter hats and gloves to your magnetic back door. Now there is no last minute looking for these items!
Keep a bag or a box somewhere in your house and anytime you find something you're not sure if you need to keep or not, throw it into the bag/box. When the bag/box gets full it goes to a second hand store!
Scan your children's artwork, then save each year to folder on your computer of that year.
Empty shoe boxes can hold a lot of different items.
Use empty soda pop boxes to hold canned goods.
Empty and clean tin cans make great pen and pencil holders.
Cereal boxes make great magazine holders once they're empty
Use empty egg cartons for Christmas ornament storage or jewelry storage
With a baby on the way and a small living situation, I’m feeling like it’s necessary to do some fairly major organizing, purging and rearranging in our home to make it more comfortable for everyone. After asking those over at the Simply Frugal Facebook page whether or not they’d be interested in joining me, I decided to go ahead and post my list of things which I’d like to get accomplished this month, here on the website!
Although organization is not exactly what some would consider to be a “frugal” topic, I think it goes well with my desire to live a more simple life. (The “Simply” in my Simply Frugal name choice). Ridding my home of excess makes me appreciate my small home and the objects I choose to live with more. Never mind the fact that I usually don’t want to add any new things because I can breathe with the new found space! (as well as spend less time cleaning and wasting money!)
In all honesty though, the purpose of my desire to organize this month is because I know we’ll be adding some new baby items to our home. Fairly substantial furniture pieces actually! We’re willing to get rid of our excess so that our new family member will have a comfortable place in our home.
Throughout the month of January, I’ll also be posting some articles and tips relating to organization that you may enjoy. Which by the way, I’d love any suggestions or guest posts you may like to contribute! It’s always nice to have other voices to learn from!
Now that I’ve talked your ear off, lets get on with my list shall we? Since it’s my specific list, you may have to alter some of the projects to suit your own needs. I’ll be attempting to do three projects a week so that’s how I’ll write the list.
January 1 – 7, 2012:
Put away and possibly purge Christmas decorations (I don’t have too many decorations so I may not purge at all)
Purge magazines and books
Purge and clean the fridge freezer and deep freeze
January 8 – 14, 2012:
Organize recipes
Organize coupon binder
Linen closet
January 15 – 21, 2012:
Move computer desk downstairs out of baby’s room (husband’s job)
Purge the closets in baby’s room to make room for baby stuff
Purge our bedroom clothes closet
Purge jacket/shoe closet
January 22 – 28, 2012:
File/shred paper work
Clean up my computer files and email accounts
Organize the hot water tank closet
January 29 – 31, 2012
Organize the broom/pantry closet
I’ll be posting before & afters of each project every Saturday to keep me motivated and to prove I did do them! 🙂 I’ll also be cleaning as I go with my trusty natural cleaning kit I made. You may have noticed that I didn’t mention anything about the kitchen. Since we recently renovated the counter tops, I actually took care of the cleaning and purging when that was going on, since the contents of the cupboards were all over the place!
There you have it! My organizing list. (That looks a bit ambitious to me now that it’s all written down!)
For those joining in, what will your list look like?
