These are a few of Christina's favorite things...: Organization

Showing posts with label Organization. Show all posts

Friday, September 11, 2020

Five Friday Favorites - Thriving During Virtual Learning

We just finished the first week of virtual learning and I thought I would share the things that are helping us ~~survive~~ thrive in this new world.

#1 - Headphones

The one lesson learned I had during the first round of virtual learning was that my kids needed to be wearing headphones so they weren't easily distracted...especially Little Mini who just started kindergarten. I got these gaming ones after a recommendation from a friend and they have been working perfectly for both kids. And I like that there's a microphone built in so I know the teacher will hear them. Highly recommend.

#2 - Rolling Cart

Another lesson I learned from last time was making sure we kept everything "contained" because their school stuff over took my kitchen. I wanted them each to have a dedicated space but then on the weekends we could put it away. Using a rolling cart has been great. It holds all their books and activities and then we roll it into the closet Friday night and bring it out again Monday morning.

#3 - Supply Organizer

In the picture in #2, you can see the desk organizer that I put on the table. They have everything they need at their finger tips and don't have to interrupt their Zoom or independent work to get something. I have pencils, glue, scissors, extra erasers, post-it notes, ruler and note cards. It's definitely help avoid distractions.

#4 - Evening To-Do List

Now that the girls are older we all can be involved in getting things done. In my opinion one of the best ways to be successful each day is to prepare the night before so I've created a nightly to-do list to help get us. Maybe it's my OCD but I love coming down to a clean first floor so a lot of the to-do items are around that. The list includes things like - lay out clothes, pack lunches, pack bags for after-school program, make sure we know what we are having for dinner the next day, wipe counters, vacuum kitchen floors, etc. Each chore has a couple of names associated with it and they are responsible for getting it done and initialing when it's complete. We are two days in and so far so go. I just used a Word doc template but you can get a fun printable from Etsy.

#5 - Something for the Moms

Virtual learning wouldn't be successful if it wasn't for the moms (and dads) out there helping guide their kids along. It's so stressful and such a harder job than any other position I've held. So at the end of the day, I take out these glasses and pour myself a glass of wine while I prep myself for the next day. These glasses stay in the freezer when I'm not using them and they help my wine stay cold because I don't have the luxury these days of just sitting and drinking a glass. These are also unbreakable so I use them outside too. They are the perfect glass, at least right now while it's warm outside and I'm drinking white wine.

Thursday, June 18, 2020

Quarantine Organizing - A Little of This, A Little of That

Over the last few weeks of quarantine, I've done A LOT of organizing and purging. My basement is currently a hot mess because that's where I've been storing everything we are getting rid of, sell or aren't using right now. I plan to start tackling it next week in the hopes that I can do a big drop off donation. Let me take you through these simple organizational projects that have made our house more tidy and easier to find things.

I've become really into diffusing essential oils and I needed a way to better organize my oil collection (eventually I will get around to doing a full blog post all about why I love it but till I get around to it, if you are interested in getting oils, I recommend doing the starter kit). I wanted them to be stored in our pantry for easy access. This nail polish holder from Amazon worked perfectly...and I have lots of remove to add more.

Under my bathroom sink has always been a hard area to keep organized. I got the right side figured out last year when I added the make up organizer (similar) but I struggled with the left side...until quarantine.

tiered organizer / white basket / make up organizer

The tiered organizer which I also have under the kitchen sink made all the difference. I have my hair electronics on the top portion and brushes and wash clothes on the bottom. In the white basket, I have my hair spray, eye masks and sheet masks. It all fits perfectly!

Our house has a lot of storage except in bathrooms. The only real bathroom storage we have is in the minis bathroom. That closet ALWAYS gets out of hand because we basically store everything in there. I decided to separate everything into categories - kids health, first aid, adult meds, kids teeth, etc. Once I did that then I used the bins/containers I already had to organizer everything. It's a little mismatched but I wanted to save the $$ since once you close the door no one sees it. The best go-to bins are the white (and one blue) ones I used throughout. Highly recommend.

One of my BIGGEST frustrations with our organization was towels and sheets. Everything was just all over the place and constantly getting messy. But I solved this problem with a $12.99 bin from Target.

I separated everything that was on the top shelf of my guest room closet (I wish I had taken a before picture) into four categories - sheets, towels, guest stuff (sheets/towels) and beach towels. Then I got four bins to put everything in. I rolled the towels for a better fit. So far everything is staying organized...even Hubs can mange to put things away the right way. Here's an up close look at how I have everything -

Friday, May 29, 2020

Five Friday Favorites - Quarantine Buys

For this week's Five Friday Favorites, I wanted to share some of my favorite quarantine buys. Most of them are household things because we spent A LOT of time at home and that has my brain going on how can we reorganize, improve or make prettier. :)

#1 - Bike

shirt / shorts (similar) / flip flops

This bike has been the BEST purchase! Now I can ride around the neighborhood with my girls...especially now that little Mini is off her training wheels. It was very affordable ($99) which was a must because I wasn't sure how much I was going to use it. I added the cute basket to help transport stuff on our adventures.

#2 - Outdoor Trash Can

This trash can was a must since we are spending SO much time outside during quarantine. There's a lot less in an out of the house while we are outside. While this one is sold out, I found a similar one here and here.

#3 - Stuff to Organize

drawer organizers / tiered organizer / basket

I've had A LOT of time on my hands these last 11 (almost 12) weeks of quarantine so I've gotten around to organizing projects that have been on my list for a few years now. And of the rooms/drawers I've tackled, these three items have been my favorites because they are affordable and really got the job done to help keep things neat, in order but still allowing for me to see everything we have. I've got another blog post coming after I tackled under my bathroom sink, the minis bathroom closet and the guest room closet (where I store our extra sheets/towels). Stay tuned.

#4 - New Kitchen Sink Set Up

soap caddy / soap / lotion / sponge holder

I wish I had a picture of the before of my kitchen sink set up so you can see how I simplified the space. I used to have a sponge/brush holder, dish soap, all purpose cleaner, hand soap, lotion and other random stuff. Now it's simplified to soap/lotion in one area and a simple sponge in the other. The other things I need like all purpose spray and dish soap are all under the sink in my new organized cabinet.

#5 - Olaplex #3 and Briogeo

I haven't gotten a haircut in more than four months...maybe five and my ends are hanging on for dear life. Until I can get my hair done these two products have been helping keep y ends on life support. I rotate using them every week or sometimes do both in one washing. If you haven't tried them I highly recommend you do.

Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Quarantine Reorganizing - Small Touches in Kitchen

During this quarantine, I decided I was going to make the most of it and use this time at home to reorganize and declutter my house...one room at a time. This was a New Years resolution that I started and now I have plenty of time to finish it. First up was the kitchen (since the pantry has stayed organized). Each day I went through one or two cabinets and drawers and reorganized and purged things. And oh it feels so good! I got rid of a lot and tackled a few small organizing projects.

Under the kitchen sink has always been a hot mess and so hard to find things till now. I got a two-tiered organizer that pulls out so everything has its place and the other side the bottles are neatly organized in a bin.

organizer / bin

I also decided to simply the kitchen sink area and loving that there's barely anything on it.

soap caddy / sponge holder

The last organization project in the kitchen was organizing the drawers. I picked up a few drawer organizing to make it easier to find things. I forgot I had some of this stuff.

organizers

all three sizes

The next project I'm going to tackle is the guest room closet/drawers. It is where I keep all of our extra sheets, towels and other random things.

Saturday, February 2, 2019

Saturday Sorting - Organizational Bins

This is a short and sweet Saturday Sorting post but I had two share two small bins that have really improved my organization. They don't seem like much but they have done A LOT to not clutter my drawers.

This nail polish organizer is AMAZING! It's two sided and fits all my nail polishes in an easy to find and organized manner. I'm obsessed with this. No more overcrowded bin. This holds up to 48 bottles of nail polish. I don't have that many but the collection is growing with two little minis at home. I also have clippers and files in here too. Highly recommend.

I have to give credit where credit is due on this one. Hubs came up with this organizational system for our batteries. This under $20 container so perfect to keep them all in one place and easy to access. The exact one we have is sold out but I found the same one in a different color palette and free shipping.

Saturday, January 19, 2019

Saturday Sorting - Kids Art and Activity Closet

As I mentioned in a post earlier this week, I'm in an in-between phase of my career so I'm home for a while. Part of this "at home" life is purging and reorganizing my entire house. I've already taken three trips with full car loads for donations and it feels SOOO good. I'm going to be sharing all the organizing on my weekly Saturday Sorting posts. First up in my kids "art" closet. In order to contain all the kids arts and activity sets we decided to convert our hall closet which wasn't getting much use into their closet. I didn't do any construction because I wanted to be able to convert it back at some point. I got a bunch of stuff at Target and went to town. Here was the final result -

We tried our best to separate it into categories to make it easier for the kids to put things back. On the top are all the art activities that the kids need us to play (they can't reach)...the stuff that gets really messy and must have our supervision. The hanging shelves are the things they play with most workbooks, kit for doing homework (pencils, erasers, sharpeners) and Osmo (we tried to eliminate as many boxes as we could so we have organizers and then Monster is out of its box with drawing pad and markers and Pizza and Detective are still in boxes.

To the left the white plastic containers are a mix of things. The top three pull out drawers contain stickers and other art stuff and the bigger bottom three drawers are all the Lego sets in plastic bags separated by project.

Then we have two rolling carts with ALL things art! Crayons, colored pencils, markers, coloring books, plain notebooks, scratch art, painting supplies, etc.

Here's an up close shot of one of them so you can see how I separated everything. On the top are two bins separating the crayons and colored pencils.

Sunday, December 30, 2018

Counting Down the Top Purchases of 2018

Let's countdown the FAVORITE purchases of 2018. If you've been following along on Facebook then you have seen I'm doing it every hour on the hour and recapping them all for you here. There were some favorites that unfortunately are no longer available so I didn't include them. I'm sure you will find some goodies you've gotten this year and a few you might want to add. Happy New Year!!!

25 - Dyson Blowdryer (and here's a cheaper refurbished one)