Improvements

Sometimes once you've organized something you don't give it a second thought. 

Last year before school started we started setting out our clothes for the week on Sunday nights. (Click here to read about it.) It's been working great; however, we have limited hanging space in the girls room so we've run out of room.  Another downfall of a house with no closets!  I've been getting frustrated with it but really hadn't done anything about it.

Then a few weeks ago, a friend showed me a new idea for how to set out clothes for the week and I decided I would give it a try!  So...instead of hanging the clothes for the week, I purchased two three drawer carts for the girls to put their clothes in.  I labeled each drawer with a day of the week (M-F) and left the sixth one blank for now.   

Last night the girls and I loaded up the drawers with their outfits for the week and it worked great.  The added bonus of the drawers is that they can put their socks and undergarments in the drawers too, so they only have to go to one place in the morning to get everything they need.   

Here are the drawers set up in our kitchen after we added the labels.
They now are in the girls room filled for the week.

What have you been organizing lately?  Or what have you previously organized that could be improved upon?

Storage Solution

It has been a long time since I have posted anything to this blog about organizing.  It seems like my summer has been crazy and has been going by too fast.  The next couple of weeks, my girls are visiting their grandparents so I will have a little bit more time to get some stuff done around the house.

At the end of the last school year, I had posted about the chaos that surrounds all the girls’ special papers (school papers, report cards, art projects, etc).  I have finally found a solution!  Hopefully this one with work long term, unlike the original idea (click here to read about it). 

I recently found and purchased some x-large file tote boxes and hanging file folders (from my favorite store - The Container Store)! The file box is big enough to store some of the odd sized art projects as well.   I got one for each girl.  I put hanging file folders in each box, using one (possibly this will change to two) hanging file folders for each year of school! 

This morning I went through the dreaded task of sorting out all the papers we currently had for the girls.  This was probably the most time consuming part because as you’re going through everything, memories of those times come back as well.  I probably lingered on this step a little longer than necessary!

And here is the finished product!  I am so happy that this is done!  Going forward it will be soooo much easier to save special papers.  No more overstuffed accordion file or basket overflowing with papers!  A small victory in the Kastenbauer house!

I also purchased the same file tote box for my stepson’s keepsakes.  We have a lot of his stuff that was just stored in cardboard boxes.  Finally, somewhere to properly store them in until he wants them someday.