Tuesday Tip: Hire a Baby to Help You Get Organized

Ok, so you may think I've lost my marbles with today's tip, but I swear there's also a point. Ever since our 10 month old starting crawling a few weeks ago, she has really helped kick our home organizing into high gear. To put it simply, everything must have a home (one of the cardinal rules of organizing)...even things we used to leave out. If it's out, it's fair game to her, but if it's put away, it's out of sight, out of mind!

Here are some good examples - shoes...in the closet; my bag...up on its hook; remote controls...in the remote caddy up on the TV stand. She has really forced us to make sure every little thing serves a purpose and has a home. If it doesn't meet those criteria, it's a hazard or at least a nuisance and has to go! Besides having a safe home for her, this has really helped streamline our cleaning up routine. I'm also finding that I need to vacuum more frequently with a mobile, food throwing baby, so having a place for everything, and everything in it's place has made it much simpler to whip out the vacuum for a quick cleaning...bonus!

So if you want an organizing boot camp for your space, think like a baby, or even better - borrow a baby! Look around for anything that's just lying around and figure out if and where it belongs to straighten up your space in no time.

Tuesday Tip: Simplify Spring Cleaning

Whether you're preparing for Passover, getting ready for Easter guests or just looking to bring that fresh and clean springtime feel into your home, it's time to get your spring cleaning on. Do yourself a favor this year and clear the clutter before you dive into cleaning. Removing items you don't use and love from your space will save you tons of time when it comes to wiping down surfaces, vacuuming, and cleaning out cupboards and closets. The best part is you can do both tasks together - take everything out of a space, toss or set aside for donation any items you no longer want, and give the space a good cleaning before you put the 'keepers' back in. Keep the clutter at bay and you'll save tons of future cleaning time, which you can spend outside enjoying the weather. So give your home a little springtime TLC, open up those windows, and enjoy the season!

Friday Find: Finders Keepers

Today's Friday Find is a follow up to last week's discussion on how to tame your pantry. We talked about how simple organizing tools - clear bins, Lazy Susans (or turntables) and tiered shelving - can really make a difference in helping you find what you need in your pantry. So here's what we used to turn this pantry cabinet from 'ok' to organized!

Pantry Before

Pantry Contents

Of course as you empty out and categorize the contents, be sure to toss anything that's expired or simply isn't getting used. With the goal of making everything accessible and keeping like with like, I used a combination of tiered bamboo shelving and two kinds of clear bins - Linus Handled Bins and Linus Pantry Binz. Because I didn't have much shelf height to work with, I didn't ended up using any Lazy Susans. If I had a little more shelf height to play with, I probably would've used a Lazy Susan like this for commonly used oils, salt, pepper, etc.

Overall, I'm really pleased with the improvements. The bins help keep categories from getting jumbled together, the labels help everybody know where to find things, and the best part is that everything on the top shelf is accessible without a step ladder! But I'll let you be the judge...

Pantry After

Tuesday Tip: Find Your Time

Today's Tuesday Tip comes from a fabulous survey conducted by Real Simple about how women spend their time and what we can do to reclaim some free time for ourselves. Check out the slide show for some eye-opening results. It's like they personally asked me the questions - I couldn't believe how the results fit me to a T. So today's tip is as much for me as it is for you:

Delegate household/family responsibilities and schedule free time for yourself!

I am extremely guilty of not doing either one of these very well, but I am trying to get better and hope many of you will too. Since becoming a mom almost 10 months ago, my life has been amazingly enriched by this new role and my wonderful little girl, but I also often feel like my life has become one long (read endless) to-do list of childcare and household chores. The days that I work here at Organizing Boston often feel like a break - ha, ha. That was one of the most interesting findings of the survey - for most of us, it's not our jobs that are causing our time woes...it's our homes and families, which isn't to say that we don't love them both. I think that's part of the problem. We care so much about our role in caring for our families and homes that we let them take over completely. I am slowly realizing that the household and family to-do lists are (or can be) endless, so the solution is not to wait to do something fun until all the chores are done. If my husband reads this, he'll say that he told me that a LONG time ago :) Two things busy women can do to make themselves happier (as the survey results prove) are to delegate, delegate, delegate and use your calendar for 'me time' appointments.

In order to practice what I preach, I just scheduled a yoga class for myself on Wednesday night. What will you do for yourself today?

Friday Find: Create Some Closet Space

Today's Friday Find is a great resource for creating some space in your closet...and who doesn't need that?! I realized the benefits of consignment a couple years back, but in December, I vowed to finally consign some of my clothes after employing the good old 'backwards hanger trick' to help me figure out what I actually wear. I'm pleased to say that I'm now on my second round of consigning with a GREAT store (actually multiple stores) in Needham, MA called the Closet Exchange.

As an organizer, I have to give it to them...they sure run an organized operation! From the phone inquiry to the intake process, they are very thorough in explaining what they do and what you can expect as a consigner. One thing to note is that I had to wait a couple months to become a first-time consigner, but it was worth the wait (and you don't have to wait for appointments after you're in the system).

What I love about the Closet Exchange is that they take a wide range of brands. Like most consignment stores, they have high standards in terms of the condition of the items, but they take more brands (from high to not-so-high end) than many other stores. They are also very nice, which I really appreciated! I am not much of a fashionista, do not generally buy designer clothing and have had intimidating experiences before that made me feel like I wasn't cut out for the higher end consignment world. But not here - by simply doing my homework and prepping the items as they ask, I was so pleased to find that they took most of my items each time. They also nicely explained why they didn't take certain items. It has been a very pleasant experience each time, which is more than I can say about my experience elsewhere.

Better yet, I am actually earning money - I earned a little over $70 from my past drop off - yeah! For full disclosure, I did spend it on several new items that I love, but that's allowed when you've created some extra space in your closet :) Speaking of, I took a picture of the wonderful space I created in my closet from dropping off my items today...

My New-Found Closet Space!