Hi, and happy Friday! Ok, today’s blog post is a bit random, but it’s something that’s been bringing me so much joy lately: an organized home!
I think you either fall into the category of LOVING the organization process, or not really caring about it, but I’m pretty sure that most people love the result of an organized home. I’m clearly in the former group. I’m guilty of procrastinating on other projects because I have so much fun organizing my spaces (anyone else?) so I have to limit the time I allow myself to organize.
Way back in May of 2016 I read Marie Kondo’s popular book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and since then I’ve loosely used her method to keep my spaces clean. I actually really love the woo-woo aspect of holding each individual item and asking myself if it “sparks joy” before either disposing of it, giving it away, or putting it back into my closet.
Since we started our shelter-in-place back in March, I’ve been gradually working my way through little nooks and crannies in my house and organizing them. I’m a pretty clean and organized person by nature, so I was surprised at how many messy spots I found in my house once I started looking for them. (Being trapped in your own home 24/7 reveals a lot, you know?)
I don’t want to fill a full day of organizing, so I’ll just take 30 minutes while Milo’s napping and quickly clean out one space at a time (pantry, shelf, bathroom drawer, kitchen drawer, etc). I’ve come to the conclusion that organization is something that A) never ends, because there’s always new stuff coming into the house, and B) doesn’t have to be this huge, overwhelming project because I can complete a small project in 15-30 minutes.
Built-in bookshelf BEFORE:
Built-in bookshelf AFTER:
This bookshelf was so nicely organized when we moved into our house a few years ago, and since then it’s accumulated more of Nate’s brewing books, Milo’s new board books, and a bunch of my violin books, and it had just become messy. It took about 30 minutes to take the books off the shelves, re-organize them, and put them back, and now it makes me so happy to walk past this little space every day!
Recipe bookshelf BEFORE:
Recipe bookshelf AFTER:
This was a quick 10-minute project because our recipe books were already pretty well organized. They just needed a bit of shuffling around to make sure all of the books fit into the shelves. I actually added a few food-themed books to this shelf that had been sitting in another part of the house.
Pantry BEFORE:
Pantry AFTER:
Ha! I hadn’t realized how much my pantry had EXPLODED until I snapped the before pic. I’m a bit embarrassed to share that with you…but look at how much better the “after” pic looks?!
I got the urge to organize the pantry at about 7 am yesterday morning while I was making my coffee. The pantry is the hardest space in my house to keep organized because there’s constant movement of stuff coming in and stuff going out. If we’ve just done a big Costco haul, it’s packed full, and then if we’re about to go on a trip, it’s pretty empty. So the pantry is a space that gets a big organization session about 2x/year.
I took everything out (one shelf at a time), got rid of stuff that was old or we didn’t need anymore, and then put it back in a more organized way. This took about 60 minutes, and I did it first thing in the morning because that’s typically when Milo is happiest to play by himself in a nearby pack-n-play.
Bathroom drawer BEFORE:
Bathroom drawer AFTER:
Here’s one more little space that I organized recently. Ahh, it’s so satisfying to open my bathroom drawer and have it all tidy! This project took 20 minutes and the result brings me joy every single morning. Also, those little plastic organization bins are 100% necessary in a bathroom drawer. I think it’s impossible to keep everything organized without them. I picked them up at The Container Store last year.
Wishing you a happy weekend!
PS: if you missed it:
International Travel With A Baby: What I Learned On My First Trip
Tuesday Takeout: Where To Eat In Austin
SNOO Bassinet Review: We Changed Our Minds On This $1400 Bassinet
