It’s probably a combination of school starting again and moving our son from his nursery into the larger guest room that has prompted a major purge, organization, and cleaning session lately.  That, and I’m reading The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up.  I’m already an organized person by nature so I wasn’t sure this book would make any difference in my life. But it has!  I’ll share more on that later. This weekend, I worked on three kitchen drawers, the linen closet, the massive amount of books in our house, and the paper clutter.  No wonder I’m starting this Monday morning off tired!

How about a peek into my freshly organized office closet?  It was quite the cluttered mess a few weeks ago, but I dug in and got her all cleaned up! I’m fortunate to have a built-in dresser with shelving above for extra storage, but I wasn’t taking advantage of that space and the stuff was just piling up.  My craft paint, pens and brushes are now at my fingertips, which has led to a few more craft projects lately.  

Of course you can see why I’m excited about this makeover once you look at the before! 

What started with wanting to get my son’s artwork condensed and organized turned into a weekend full of cleaning out and organizing my office closet where things tend to accumulate until I can’t even get in there, let alone find anything.  This closet is a good size and has lots of potential, but I wasn’t making the most of it.  I moved my two wrapping carts into the closet because they didn’t go with the calmer, more grown-up vibe I was going for in the room.  I still use them quite often (more on that later this week), but with all my mess stuffed onto the floor,

Later today you can find me at my friend Jen’s blog, I Heart Organizing, sharing how I keep my makeup organized.  I hope you stop by!  

On Honey We’re Healthy:  Bikini Contest Prep- 6 Weeks Out Progress Update

Okay folks, only took me 4 days to finally have some time to clean out and organize our mudroom, but now that it’s done, I’m loving it!  Hopefully, it can function smoothly and stay this way throughout the summer.

My son was at school when I snapped these photos, but his backpack goes on the empty hook. 

You may remember the before:

A few simple changes made all the difference.  

First, I removed the pillows (even though I sewed all of them myself) because I figured they were contributing to the cluttered look.

A new year, a fresh start!  Happy 2014 friends! 🙂  

I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t be happier to welcome the new year.   It’s a chance to begin again and create things anew, which I always love.  I’m excited to see what this year brings.  Of course, every January I get a giant urge to purge, deep clean, and organize.  I’ve been doing a ton of just that in my home since Christmas and I can’t wait to show you my new, tidy pantry.  Even the “playroom” got a big overhaul already.  Have you been on an organizing kick too?

We don’t have a traditional medicine cabinet, the shallow kind that hangs on the wall with a door that opens.  Instead, we keep our medicine up high in a cabinet in the bathroom. To keep everything organized, I use my favorite InterDesign drawer organizers and put the medicine into different sections depending on what it’s for.  I use those organizers in almost every drawer in our house- they are clear and have lots of different sizes to fit everything from kitchen tools to bathroom supplies.

Over the weekend, I decided to make labels so that we could quickly tell what medicine goes where.