Tag: projectsimplify

*tap, tap* Is this thing on? Sorry I missed you the last few days. Life is busy and sometimes time with family beats out time blogging. We actually went to a local campground this weekend and spent a night camping (in a cabin, but still) It was more fun than I expected it to be, honestly. Check out my instagram for some fun pics of the adventures!

Now onto our Monday series- Project: Simplify

I finally took all the toys from Payton’s room out to Once Upon a Child (while she was at Grandmas, ha!) and sold a bunch and made $80 and donated the rest. It felt SO good!

Now onto this week’s project: The Master Bath. If there is one room in the house that receives little to no attention from me it is the Master Bath. It is usually the last thing that I get around to cleaning because it is the one area of our house that no one ever sees. It is also one of the areas in the house that I use daily, if not several times per day. Things end up piling up and getting crazy messy. Let’s not talk about how often I clean (or don’t clean) the shower and counter area. I’m usually in a hurry and things never get put away. We have a pretty large bathroom but the storage situation is less than ideal. And let’s be real, I have a lot of crap I use for my hair/makeup/skin care routines. Since we have a double sink our counter space is rather limited. We have under the sink storage but I didn’t really find it useable or easily accessible for daily use. I ended up using a few shelves in our linen closet to store my stuff, but that gets cluttered up too. So, I got to work trying to fix the problem.

I got a storage container for the larger bottles of product I use on a daily basis. This way it’s easy to keep in the closet and take out when I need to use it. I also folded and organized all our towels and linens. Then I actually put to use the jewelry organizer I got for Christmas. I also organized my makeup into products I use on a daily basis and more special occasion type stuff. I have another organizer full of samples or other products I don’t use regularly, as well as an organizer for headbands and accessories. I put all of Mr Dreamer’s stuff in a container on the counter as well and then I actually cleaned the counter top and mirror. HUGE difference, right? This whole project took about 30 minutes and now makes it easier for me to get ready in the morning! Win-Win!

How do you keep your daily use products organized?

Hey Friends! Happy Monday! I actually wasn’t dreading this Monday. Man, having a week off of school really takes a huge load of stress off. The weekend was amazing and ended with a hair party where my dream finally came true… I got purple hair! If you follow me on Pinterest you’ve probably seen the abundance of purple hair pins on my hair-spiration board. While I’m not brave enough to pull the Kelly Osbourne (yet) I am SO loving it.

Now on to the agenda for the day…

So today is my third week of the Project: Simplify series. I’m so glad I started this! It gives me the motivation and accountability to follow through on projects I’ve needed to do. One of the biggest things I’ve wanted to do is make Payton’s room more inviting for her to play in. Since we work from home she spends a lot of time there. It was overcrowded with toys she never played with and the configuration of her room left her with little play space. I wanted to make her room something she would enjoy playing in (so she would stay out of our bedroom!) I spent all night Friday night going through ALL of her toys (minus the ones in the basement, but that is another post for another day). I had a box for donations, a bag for trash, and piles of toys she wanted to keep. I got rid of a lot of her baby toys and plan on taking them to resale or donating them. I also took down the vinyl dots from her “nursery” days since they don’t go with her big girl bedding *tear*

 I organized what she was keeping by category. She has a large tub of baby dolls, a container of horses, a container of characters/figurines, her music instruments, play food, and dress up. I also created an art station/table for her to color and got her some new crayons. I moved the bed over to the other side of the room to make her play area larger. We also put a TV/DVD player in her room so she can watch movies if she wants. I did this Friday night and I’m happy to report she has kept her room clean (with a little reminding from mom) since then!

And now for the before and after:

She was so excited to go to bed after I moved the bed. It was cute. I also went through a lot of her clothes and plan on taking some of the nice things to Once Upon a Child to try to sell them. She has played in her room more this past weekend than I think she has in the past month or more. All because I got rid of a bunch of stuff. Look at the amount of stuff I took out of her room!

She was there with me the whole way, asking lots of questions. I reminded her that these toys would go to other kids who would use them and she would have more room to play with her favorite toys and she didn’t seem to mind. She doesn’t miss them or ask about them (unless she sees them in the garage… which means I should probably get them out of there quick!)

It was probably around 3 hours from start to finish. It was so worth it. She now has a simplified and organized place to sleep and play. And it is less mess and clutter for me. I was able to get ALL her toys out of the living room downstairs and organized in her room. More fun for her and less mess for Mom. Win – Win.

How do you handle toy clutter?

Clutter makes me crazy. And far less productive. I stress about the clutter so much that it’s hard for me to focus on anything else. I’m trying to make life a little calmer and a lot simpler so I started this series called Project: Simplify.

Basically each week I try to tackle one area in my house that is stressing me out or is over cluttered. Last week we worked on my medicine/supplement cabinet in the kitchen. This week it is a place I spend a lot more time… The home office. Somehow my desk ends up being a landing place for all kinds of odds and ends. What usually happens is I clean up/organize the downstairs area… mainly my mail center… and all the stuff that needs to be filed or dealt with ends up on my desk. When my desk is this cluttered I feel like my creativity is zapped. So, it was time to simplify it…

The First thing I did was go through the big things (Like my broken macbook… and the box for my macbook air) and put them in a better place. I then gathered all the papers that were trash and other miscellanious items like the air freshener, headbands, lotion, nail polish and put them back in the right spots. I organized all my tech gear in one of the drawers of my rolling organizer cart. I also stacked all my books and journals in one place under my desk. I still have lots of mail/paperwork to file but I gathered them all together and put them in my file box. I also tried to organize the bulletin board. I have my calendar, my bill payment tracking spreadsheet, a picture of my family on a pirate ship, and a list of typical standards for CrossFit movements for games athletes… you know like 3:00 Fran, 4:30 Diane, and 15 strict pull ups… Gotta have goals, right?

So when it was time to get to work I was ready to hit it hard, no distractions. Simplified. Organized. Perfecto.

Do you have a home office? How do you organize it?