Organizing Machine

This is probably going to be a pretty boring post to most, but, for those of you who know me, know that I LOVE organization! Although I'm much improved since having kids, I am still very anal and like everything to have a place. If you remember, we moved into this new house in Mexico the week before my sister came to visit and two weeks before we left for the summer last June. I organized most things, but left others for another time. Since we haven't been around very much this school year on the weekends and the weeks always seemed to get away from me, my house became an organizational disaster! The past few weeks I've gone through toys, clothes, and all of our closets and reorganized. Since no one ever sees the organization, here's (way too many) pictures...

Each bin holds like items together. I even went

further this time and taped pictures to the inside

of the bin so everyone knows where things go.

The cloth bins also have a picture of what goes inside


One of the Ethan and Nolan's closets before

After...Each of the boys has a small bin for "memory items." The legos are organized by collection (pirate, star wars, etc) and labeled. That was easy to do because we've kept them separate since the begining. I still don't love the piles of clothes, but we don't have a dresser in their room, so it's what I have to work with.

Another closet before

After

One of Lydia's closets before

After: her out of season clothes are hung up nicely, clothes to grow into are in a winter and summer bin at the bottom of the closet, which frees up all kinds of space on the middle shelf!

I don't have a before picture, but here's another one of Lydia's closet with extra blankets, dress up clothes, little people, and her memory box. I'm sure you can imagine what it looked like before with everything just thrown in there.

The pantry before. It's hard to see, but it drove me CRAZY everytime I went into it. Stuff was just scattered about and don't even get me started on the medicine!

Again, it's hard to see, but it's much more organized and looks so much prettier. The medicine is also organized in baskets and labeled according to illness/ body part. I feel so much better!

This is our craft/ game closet before...yuck!

I got rid of the broken bins, added (and labeled) some plastic bins and even freed up a shelf on the bottom.

Another closet in the hallway that holds everything that doesn't have another home.

After picture

More random shelves on the way to the laundry room. I don't have any before pictures, but I cleared off enough space for Ethan's Tae Kwon Do bag and organized the playdoh, paints (up on the higher shelf so only I can reach them), and backpacks.

Towel closet organized!

Shelves in my closet (I didn't even remember half the things I had thrown on these shelves!)

After picture with everything we use when we travel and items going back to the US all in one place.

Before

After

Yes, I'm a big dork, but I feel much better that I have now shared my organization with someone!