Renee Nicole

I feel like we have all been there. Overwhelmed by our stuff, especially after the holidays, and we need to purge. The stuff gets the best of us and there is simply just too much of it. The overall feeling of this year has been fitness and overall well being. But its hard to have a feeling of well being when your overwhelmed. So time to tackle the mess and end the stress. I am sharing my journey of how to get organized to make my home and life a better place.

My biggest issue is well, everything exactly. I am pretty sure I am not alone when I feel like every space needs a clean up and a purge. From the kitchen to the bedrooms to the bathroom to the garage. I have two kids who love their stuff and a wonderful mother that makes sure we are all well taken care of so our home is overflowing at times.

Last year I started in the basement in the unfinished space of the house. It was full of totes, totes full of kids clothes, decor for holidays and apartment stuff. I decided to get rid of all the colors of totes and get all matching. Why is this a good idea you ask? In getting all matching totes it caused the emptying out all of the totes and get rid of stuff we didn’t need. I cleaned out all of the kids clothes, all of the decor and all the other items that didn’t have a home. This went for all of the other spaces that had totes. Under the stairs totes were switched out to all matching totes so all of those got cleaned out and organized. The garage as well had all the multiple colors got cleaned out and reduced to a couple of totes that all match.

I had a lapse in the last few months with the downstairs having all of the holidays stuff and Will being down there with me while I work out so it was a disaster. After one morning though I got it all cleaned out and organized. Totes can make a huge difference in how to get organized in the storage area.

I started working on the kitchen last year and got alot of items in cute little storage containers but the larger drawers will still out of control. I got a ton of cute plastic containers for all of the small drawers. Measured them and thought about what I wanted to keep in them and ordered accordingly. I also did this for some of the pull out containers. This had all the snacks organized and the same for the baking drawers.

I bought cute little containers after I measured for the short pantry in the island. Some Tupperware for all of my baking goods and labels I made with my computer and cute little baskets to hold all of the holiday decorations for cakes and cookies.

For the regular pantry I cleaned out all of the shelves and put down new contact paper to clean it up a bit. Having the paper down gives it a great clean new look and cleaning out appliances I no longer used. Expired food that had been taking up space was all discarded. The roll out pantry I just went through and cleaned out all the slides. Its amazing how you don’t look at it forever and all the items that have gone bad.

The spice drawer I wanted a nice clean look so I got new spice containers and jars that I printed off labels for. I wanted just an organized aesthetic. I think the jars and spices completely captured that. Its so clean and easy to find things now. I love how it looks and just feels clean. Two sets of spice containers were needed and jars for all of the larger spices that take up more space. To keep track of the expiration just write on the bottom of the jar.

The larger pull out drawers I just finished up on. The silverware and all of the things. I pulled out everything and got rid of all of the items that looked like they had passed their prime and usefulness and got rid of anything we didn’t use anymore. Its amazing how much you can get rid of when you just take the time to pull it all out and look at what you have.

I have made great strides in the kitchen and garage so far and plan on keeping it up. I still have a few more rooms to go and plan on sharing the journey with you.

How to get organized:

1. Buy matching totes-cleaning out the old ones helps get rid of stuff and makes the space look organized
2. Measure all of the drawers and think of what you want in there
3. Pull out everything and get rid of what you don’t use
4. Getting rid of the clutter makes you feel better
5. Having cleaning shows on in the background helps to get inspired.