Ever since quarantine hit, and we've been spending 200% more time inside our home, I've been nesting like crazy. Plus, my home is still a semi new home, after just moving in a year ago! I like to think that getting all settled takes time, right?
Then, I, like soooo many others, binged the first season of the Home Edit's new Netflix show last weekend and I've been rapid fire organizing different parts of my house ever since. I feel like a lot of others are probably in the same boat? So, I wanted to share what I've been organizing and how that's working in my home...
Starting with my small "master" bathroom:
It's a bathroom in our master bedroom, but definitely not what you think of as a master bath. ;) We live in an old house and a larger, two sink, bathtub AND shower kind of bathroom is one of the things we chose to give up for the area we live in (which we love).
So, I've been trying my hand at maximizing the sh*t out of this little bathroom and organizing it to maximize the space better. I've found a few game changers I wanted to share so far (but let's be honest, it's an on going process of trying new ways to organize as I use it and learn).
Before
Before wasn't terrible (was it?) - I did have a basket at least, but it was too big and we just threw stuff in it to be buried and never seen again. And the top shelf was getting so crowded and I was knocking bottles down trying to get to what I needed constantly.
The cubbies on the side of the sink weren't being used well at all (and I don't have a before pic for). Mostly just one item willy-nilly set there. So, I was able to actually find more space with these cubes.
After
I added a lazy Susan turntable to the top shelf to corral all my products. This is a huge game changer, because it holds a lot, but I can easily swivel it around to find the items I used most needed in that moment.
To the bottom shelf, I added to clear pull out drawers to store items less often used. I chose this so I could use the space above the drawers, too. I actually just ordered a long clear tray to sit across the drawers to play odd sized objects in (see? a work in progress).
Another look at those cubes on the side of my sink vanity. And then I use the space between the sink and the wall/window to hang my hair tools (blow dryer, curling iron and flat iron).
I have both my irons in heat resistant holders (with holes at the top so I can stretch them over the hook) so I don't have to worry about waiting until they're fully cooled off to put away. I also use them to lay my iron on while using it.
Every sink/bathroom vanity is different, but if you have space between yours and the wall - consider adding hooks so you can optimize that space! My sink set up is Ikea, so these hooks came with it and work for its shape. You could get suction cup hooks for the side or hooks like what I have if measurements work.
We also added a floating shelf over our toilet to use that space (but it couldn't jet out too much as we walk in from the right side of the toilet). I like clear bins because I can see what's in them, but with this being out, I liked the frosted look of this one. We keep our hair brushes and other items used often here.
This is a fake fiddle leaf plant, but want to test out a real one soon (I'm growing a baby spider plant now that I got off my big one to put here eventually). I like greenery for an addition of nature here.
And that is pretty much it.
Items Featured
Not Shown:
We have a pretty good size walk in shower that also has space for our dry towels. And we keep the trash can out next to our toilet.
Not in my Bathroom:
I keep all my skin care and makeup in another space. I use a little area in my bedroom as a vanity for all of that, and I'll be sharing that soon - as I've had to transition that to a work space + vanity for this new world of working/living/everything at home. Stay tuned!
My kids share a separate bathroom, so all there stuff has a separate place to live.
And we use our hallway closet for back stock, extra towels, medicine, etc.
Here are some other organization posts you can check out:
One way to organize your makeup in your bathroom (in my old house I didn't have a lot of drawers, so used a different approach that I'm doing in my new house).
Like many others, I've experienced a wide range of emotions over the last 3+ weeks of quarantine so far. Thankful that we have a home and jobs, sorrow for those struggling, longing for my old life back, missing my family and friends, anger for having to cancel trips and other plans, fear for the unknown, sadness for my kids when school got cancelled, and so on and so on.
But more that anything, anxiety for all the things above and the unknown of this situation still to come jumbled up at once . For me, it's helped to not pay too much attention to the news and to take one day at a time. I'm choosing to be concentrate on the thankful feeling and think about all the things I can do vs. can't do.
While my husband and I compete for the quiet spots in the house for our work meetings, and the kids are starting to get the hang of virtual school in-between kind of plying together/mostly fighting, we are finding a rhythm and comfort in other activities to make the most of the time home together.
Here are a few things that we have been doing:
1. GO OUTSIDE
Work outside
Eat outside
Walk outside
Draw with chalk outside
Draw on your friends' driveways
Nap outside
Just stay away from other humans outside.
Getting outside has been my personal saving grace, and I can tell it helps my family, too. Even when the weather has been cold, we bundle up and go on a daily walk.
2. EXPERIMENT
On a Zoom happy hour with some friends, we were talking about some at-home products to take the place of services we often get done elsewhere. We decided that we should each try something (that we can order online for delivery) and then we can share our findings!
This is the time when you can hide (or strategically position yourself) behind your computer, so a little experimentation isn't so scary. Now is the time to take chances!
I have never done at home tanning/tanning lotion. And now with the sun peaking out, my pale skin is glowing and no one will see if I mess it up - I'm going to give it a try (I'll report back). I did some research, and found that St. Tropez Self Tan Express Bronzing Mousse was the easiest to apply for beginners (read: hardest to mess up).
One of my friends is going to experiment with at home hair care to cover her roots and another friends is testing out some at-home manicure products.
{I also took this time to test a new hairdryer and skincare products!}
3. VIDEO CHAT (sometimes)
I dove headfirst into video chatting with all my friends, co-workers, family every day and night at first. And while that is really helpful and makes me feel good to connect with my loved ones outside my house, I'm getting sick of staring at a screen!
So, I pulled back a bit on the quantity of additional screen time activities outside of work and am focusing in on quality time each week (not every night). I'm loving Zoom best for video chat. Google hangouts is too walky-talky, FaceTime is running slow for me, and WebEx is glitchy for me.
Blue blocking glasses have also been a new purchase that I feel like is helping me. I was starting to have a constant headache after so much screen time, and since wearing these glasses (only $15 and come in a lot of colors) most of the day, I haven't had a headache (so that's a win in my book!).
Take up a new project or skill, like try a new type of art or dance. Maybe a house project you've been putting off or better yet, a new skill, just for fun. I know we are all learning some new skills for thriving in this new WFH, virtual school facilitator and keep everyone alive stage - but something else, something purely for fun...
Even better, learn something with your kid(s)/family/partner. I haven't done this yet. Trying to get into our new schedule with virtual school and work, but I have two ideas on my mind:
1. Learn to play the Ukulele (tons of free lessons on YouTube + relatively inexpensive to get the instrument if you don't already have one. We already have one!)
2. Stop motion with Stop Motion Kids Camp (for kids and adults). I plan to do this with my son!
My friend has been working on her Tarot Reading skills - which can be done on our virtual happy hours, so already very useful and interesting for us all.
...into doing things that helpful, but also while having fun. This is the ideal time for me to brush up on my creative parenting skills.
For example, we have a lot of big trees in our neighborhood/yard, so a lot of sticks laying around. If I asked the kids to pick those up, they'd complain all day and probably hardly actually do it.
So, instead, I gave them the idea that they could build a house out of sticks! That's all I had to do for them to get to work collecting allllll the sticks into a pile! Success.
I have also resorted to paying them to be outside. Well, paying them to clean out all our flower beds free from dead leaves, which happens to be outside. They are outside using energy, we get to get work done quietly, AND the yard work is getting done! It's a win-win situation.
And finally, my kids came up with a "secret family language" (kudos to them for this idea) that is keeping them busy writing notes in this language. Busy + practicing spelling in a new way! Win-win.
6. COOK MORE
This could also fall under "experiment" or "do something new" but I've been using this time to get a little more actual cooking in vs. just warming up dinner in the microwave. Get creative with pantry staples and items that can be more easily found in the current landscape.
I had gotten two new cookbooks for Christmas and just ordered another one to keep my creative juices flowing (while being healthy), but you can also find a wealth of recipes online!
Something, anything... small or big... it'll help! I've been cleaning out closets and drawers when I need a break from all the screen time for something more hands on. Seeing the progress relatively quickly has been encouraging for me.
I started tackling problem areas of my house (which makes up a good portion of my house) months before the new year, and I'm glad I did. I still have plenty of room for new year resolutions, but I feel good about having gotten a head start. To keep myself honest and motivated, I wanted to share my little head start, and tips for gaining control over inside your cabinets (the place I chose to start).
Hopefully in this new year, we'll start renovations to our kitchen, brightening it up, updated counters and backsplash, and streamlined structure. I realized through other friends going through kitchen renovations that I really need to clean out the extra stuff, declutter and start organizing the remaining stuff BEFORE our own renovations start. This will help the current living and kitchen usage, but also the cleaning out/moving back in process later.
Before we just had loads of food stuffed (literally) into our cabinets. Nothing organized, nothing finable - so much so, we would just constantly buy new items we needed immediately, instead of the stuff we already had. As I was cleaning everything out - I found items that had expired in 2009!
The first thing you need to do is enlist/bribe/coerce a friend into helping you. It's way more fun with a friend (and some music), plus they help keep you honest. Thanks, Tiff! And take before pics, because you'll forget how bad it actually looked and it'll be super motivating to continue/do more.
Second: Take everything out of your cabinets. EVERYTHING. Then you can start grouping items and throwing out things that are expired (like from 2009...), not used in over a year or multiples of items. Once the cabinets are clear, you can begin measuring your space to know what size of storage containers to get.
Once you've cleaned out a bunch of stuff and grouped your remaining items, you'll assess what kinds of storage items you need.
I immediately ordered these Sistema Bake IT Storage Containers in both the "Flour" (larger) size, and the "Sugar" (smaller) size for all my powders, seeds, oats, chocolate morsels and granules. I love these because they seal well and easily, plus come with a measuring scoop. They also keep everything lined up and visible to what is running low and needed.
I also got these clear storage bins for my spices. My friend had the genius idea to group my less-used or extra spices by alphabetical order and toss them in bins vs. lined up and lost to the back. I then use a lazy susan to alphabetically organize the spices I used the most for easy access.
As a final and added touch, get a label maker to make it extra clear where everything goes. Just beware, once you get to labeling things, it'll be hard to stop!
{for the record.. this was their ideas!}
My cabinet organization products:
Tell me your favorite life-changing organization updates or what's on your list to get organized!
For months (years?) my husband has subtly and not so subtly asked me to re-organize my make-up that has, over the years, grown to take up an entire half of our small hall bathroom (that the kids and guests use). I didn't disagree with him - but we didn't have a lot of other options... we share an even smaller master bathroom that is more of my beauty things (hair and skin) and his things. And our hall closet is stuffed with towels, sheets, backup products, meds, travel products, etc.
Enter a trip to Hobby Lobby, 3 new Creative Options storage compartments and a couple hours of cleaning and organizing later... We have counter space again. And now I'm looking around my house for other things I could use a variety of these functional storage boxes for.
But before I move on to other spaces, here is how I tackled this space:
So, I purchased a few different sizes of Creative Options' project boxes - which came with inserts so you can customize each box to the specific sized compartments you need. While Creative Options storage boxes are typically for crafting supplies, they come in some any different sizes and styles that you can really get creative with them.
They actually make fantastic make-up storage! They are easy to open/close for easy access, clear - so you can see which one you need to grab, and durable for stacking. I chose to get 3 different sizes so that I could organize each one by products/stage of when I am using specific beauty products.
My Three Boxes:
I used the medium utility box for my skin products (daily lotion, make-up primer, foundations, under eye concealer and blemish cover-up.
I used the small utility box for my lip sticks and glosses (that aren't scattered across all my purses), and blush.
Then, I use the larger utility box for most everything else - eye liner, shadows, mascaras, special occasion make-up, etc.
And the best part. I now can take them out and put them away easily in the cabinet space below the sink. So, all the products are out of sight when I am not using them, but super simple to grab, open and use and keep the products organized when I am.
I think I'm actually going to get another medium sized one to organize some other miscellaneous beauty products (like bronzer, brushes, brush cleaner, etc) that are stashed in a drawer and in pencil holder currently.
What is your best organizing tips (for anything!) or pain points??
I think the worst part about having kids is losing most of your home to little wooden and plastic death traps, and that anything nice you once had has been ruined or had to be put away for fear it might be broken. And if that's the worst part (despite sleep, of course), than I think we're going to be ok...
Both my kids have birthdays right before the holidays, and then Christmas came around, and our house was literally left looking like a toy store had just been ransacked. If you follow me on Snapchat (user name is: ChasingDavies), you probably saw some of my snaps featuring my mess (I love how real Snapchat is - haha!). But I'm happy to say that after some Pinterest research (you can check out my organizing board here for some of my favorite finds) and shopping for some useful items, I have developed 5 new toy storage solutions for our home.
Here are our 5 favorite ways to hide/store your children's toys so you can all stay sane:
1. Closet Crate on Wheels: We opted for one large crate (instead of two smaller ones, which we were also considering) so that we could store some of our larger toys that the kids don't play with daily. We store this crate inside our hall coat closet - and it's easy to roll out so the kids can play with the toys and then roll out of sight when their done!
2. Decorative Baskets: Since we store our larger toys in the roller crate, we use these decorative baskets (similar ones here) that fit into the bottom shelves of our entertainment center in our living room to store smaller toys, things the kids play with more often and books. It can get pretty messy pretty fast when the kids have these baskets pulled out the toys dumped all over - but it's easy for them to pick the toys up off the floor, toss into the baskets and put the baskets away all by themselves!
3. Inside Furniture: This might be my favorite - because hello, so convenient! I love anything that can multi-task, furniture no different. This storage ottoman from Wayfair is perfect for our downstairs family room. It opens up to store lots of toys and it won't slam shut - it has a safety guard in place to slowly shut the top, so no little fingers get pinched!
4. Maximize your Space's Height: We use the extra space above our fridge to house our kid's craft and art materials in 4 stacking wood bins. This is a good spot to easily grab or throw back markers, paper, play-dough, etc, but great that it's super out of reach from little hands to grab!
(Instead of using the over the door hooks this shoe organizer came with, we used heavy Command hooks at the top of the door to keep the door shutting properly.)
5. Shoe Organizer: This is definitely my son's favorite one. When I installed this over-the-door shoe organizer, he was SO excited to place all his superheroes, dinosaurs and race cars. He is really proud of all his toys in their slots, and therefore, it's really easy to get him to put them back in their "homes" when he's done playing with them and I find them all our our house.
Here are some of our favorite pieces as referenced throughout this post:
Do you have any great toy storage solutions or organizing tricks that work for your home??
I'd LOVE to know, so please share them in the comments!
