I’ve had so much fun dreaming up ways to organize everything in my new home! My Pinterest “organizing” board is just brimming with fabulous ideas that I can’t wait to implement! Here are a few of my organized spaces along with some “pinspiration” for my new home. These are all great ideas that any of us can adapt to our homes to make life run a bit smoother. And who doesn’t want that?
But. I’m loving this …
What a great way to store holiday decor and other miscellaneous items! Plus those bikes! Bikes take up so much room. Hanging them like this is such a fabulous space saver.
My kids have a lot of bath toys so the best current solution for us is using clear bins that stay under the bathroom sink.
But in my next house when Kole has his own bathroom, I want to copy this fun idea! Hang a decorative bucket to hold bathroom supplies. I think something like this would be perfect for a handful of bath toys! You could hang it right by the tub. Stylish and functional.
But I’ve always loved the look and and simplicity of keeping them close to the stove. Especially when they are grouped with similar utensils in fun jars/pitchers on a tray. Lovely, useful kitchen decor!
You all know I love an organized closet, but there’s one thing that my closets are missing…
a bin to hold clothes that don’t fit! What a smart idea! Clothes that are a bit big I will just leave hanging up, but I love the idea of having a set place in each closet for clothes that are too small that need to be passed on to another child or donated. That way when your child puts something on in the morning and it you realize it’s getting snug, you have a place to put it. Every few months you can round up the “too small” items from each closet and head to Goodwill or give them to a friend. Brilliant.
If you’ve read my time management binder post you know I’m a big fan of sticky notes. Huge fan. I use them every single day. I love them. I really do. Here are a couple of similar ideas of ways to use sticky notes to stay organized. You know. In case you are a fan too.
Keep your notebook/binder divided into two categories: things that are pressing (you need to do them immediately) and on the other side, things that can wait a week or two. So easy to move the sticky’s from one section to the other and then toss them when you’ve completed the task! Love it.
I also adore this idea of hanging days of the week tabs somewhere in a central location and then attaching a sticky note or piece of paper with your to-do list for the day. Such a great way to see a week at a glance! Is this making anyone else giddy!? :) Not yet? Check out this idea:
A rotating goal or to-do list with… you guessed it!… sticky notes! Oh the JOY! I am so in love with this idea too. Don’t be surprised if in my new house my scrapbook room/office is full of organized sticky notes! I want to implement every one of these ideas!
I’ve also been thinking about how I will display my kids’ art work in my next house. Nothing makes me happier than a wall full of artwork from my little ones.
Aside from the kitchen, I also display art in our upstairs playroom. These boards from Pottery Barn are fun, especially for big, colorful art projects, but I want to have a place in my next house that we can rotate the daily school work my kids bring home.
This is a great idea I’m considering. Using clipboards would make displaying and switching out school work a breeze! A perfect way to hang that math quiz or spelling test. I love that the clipboards make it easy to change the work weekly or even daily. Moms know all about the insane amount of school work that comes home each day! It would also be cool to have a clipboard for each child and he/she could decide what gets displayed and for how long. Plus it would be a fun DIY project to spruce up the clipboards so that they coordinate with the room they are hanging in. All sorts of ideas are popping up from this picture!
My girls’ bows and headbands are currently stored on this ribbon in their bathroom. It’s working great except for one tiny problem…
These aren’t even half of my girls’ headbands. Now one solution would be to get rid of some headbands and stop buying more. But let’s not be silly. As long as me and Addison are around that’s not going to happen. :) I’m hoping in my next house (which will thankfully have more storage space than my current one) I’ll have room to keep all the headbands in a drawer in the girls’ bathroom. But if not, here’s another great solution…
CLEVER. This is just an oatmeal container decorated in fabric. Such a creative way to organize headbands! Plus it would just look cute sitting on the bathroom counter.
Currently Kenny and I each have an “inbox” where I keep all of our time sensitive papers that we need to deal with. I keep them on this shelf in a closet under our stairs. I love that our paper mess is out of sight. I also hate that our paper mess is out of sight! It makes it too easy to forget about! Here is a fun idea to keep mail and important papers in the kitchen without looking too clutter-y…
Paint the buckets or baskets to match the colors in your kitchen and now your papers are not only in sight, but you’ve also created a stylish addition to your decor!
Not long ago I shared my newly organized craft cupboard – love it! It is working so well for us. I’m also a fan of this system for organizing arts and crafts for kiddos…
The nice thing about setting up something like this is that you are able to keep certain items (paint comes to mind!) up high out of little ones’ hands until you can assist. :)
Our star charts have been a fabulous way to keep behavior in check over the summer. Once school starts, I’m going to change the goals. They will include a lot of the same items on this fabulous back to school clipboard:
Things to complete after school! Homework done, backpack/lunch ready for the next day, clothes laid out, bed on time. Perfect! What a great way to help kids be accountable for each day’s school prep.
Well! I’m in a good mood! First of all, this post makes me SO happy. I love finding new, fun ways to organize my home and life. I’m also thrilled that our darling American girl gymnasts just won the gold! Oh my word! I started to cry! I’m so proud of them.
** Sidenote: They won right about the time I was typing about sticky note organization so my tears may have been tears of joy for more than one reason. :)
You are so awesome! I love your blog so much here in sunny Queensland! I do miss your fashion Friday though!
Um, the bins for outgrown clothes is genius!!! I need to do that as I just throw them on top of the storage bin I have in there. We know how that goes . . . the kids pull the clothes back out and it’s never right. ha!
guess what’s opening near us? A Container Store in October. Is it odd that I am very excited about this?
thank you for this post! I am moving into a new house next week! i Cant wait to use some of these ideas!!
Love it and agree was in tears when the gymnasts won gold. So awesome.
I am so excited by so many of these ideas!!! It is my goal to be more organized this school year, so I can’t wait to try to implement some of these ideas. Thanks for sharing!
Great ideas!!
You are totally inspiring me!! My house needs a MAJOR organizational makeover. Can you please come do it for me??? :)
The too big and too small bins for kids closets are genius. I swear, my husband finds the too small clothes every.single.time he dresses one of them. Never fails!
p.s. Made the star charts, but they aren’t quite as effective as I was hoping. How old were your girls when you started these?
Thanks everyone!
Justine – Thank you! I know! I miss doing Fashion Fridays! My time is so limited now. New house stuff has taken over my life! :) Hopefully in the fall when my kids go back to school I can pull off a Fashion Friday once in a while again. :)
Colleen – YEA for a Container Store! Fabulous news!
Sara – what’s your address? ;) I started using the star charts for my girls at ages 3 & 5. My 5 year old was way into them and the 3 year old just wanted to do whatever the 5 year old was doing. :) Couple things I’ve found as far as effectiveness: make sure you are being consistent. Whenever I would forget to do them a day or forget to reward them soon after the charts didn’t work as well. Also make sure the reward is something really motivating. My girls want to sleep in the same room each night so badly that they work hard for it all day. If the reward wasn’t as important to them I know the charts wouldn’t be as effective. Hope that helps!
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I used the clip board idea in my teen son’s room for photographs of family and friends. Easy to change out! I enjoy your blog!
OMG! I LOVE post-it notes, making lists, and organizing in general. Your picture with the post-it lists of urgent things on right side, not so urgent things on the other gave me heart palpatations!! How have I missed that one pinterest? Thanks for all the pics and ideas! LOVE posts like this!(Love all your posts)
just saying HI. I haven’t been by in awhile. Im off to do some “ERIN”izing of my classroom today.
Alway Inspired,
Sara
Thanks Christine! :)
Jen – Thank you! Sounds like the two of us would get along well!
Sara – always so fun to hear from you! I miss back to school organizing!
Loved this post Erin!! I bet you are so excited to implement these ideas. You will be there before you know it! I did the bins for holiday stuff but there is always one room in my house that I find hard to really organize. My garage is that room.I want it perfect and my husband keeps telling me it is just a garage. I guess I will have to go back to pinterest. :)
I love those “too big” and “too small” bins for the closet. I’m definitely going to have to get some of those for my girls! I wish my house could be as organized as yours, I don’t know how you do it!
Ryan and I were crying too. Over the gymnasts, not sticky notes. I did just get some new ones, but they don’t make me cry. The sticky notes. The gymnasts totally, they were AMAZING! My kids have been loving watching the Olympics, Madi told her teacher at swim lessons this morning that she was going to be in the Olympics. :)
My friends Kathryn (the one who redid her decor with the exact same aqua and white pitcher obsession as you) has a darling way to hang up her kids school work and art, it is a lot cuter than the clip boards, you’ll love it. I’ll take a pic and send it to you.
I love this post too!! and it was full of great ideas as summer is midway and school is upon us!! Thanks for the inspiration as always!
Cathy – I know! Garages are so hard, aren’t they? Such clutter traps. I’m excited to start with a clean slate when we move. We’ll have to both convince our husbands that our garages need to be pretty! Good luck, right!? :)
Thanks Mari and Paula!
Josie – email me asap! :)
I have a basket for outgrown clothing, and it’s so handy. I just throw items in there, sort keep and giveaway when it’s full, and then put the keepers into the proper storage bin.
Love the rest of the ideas!
You make me LOL with your tears of sticky note joy!
hi Erin! love the ART section. Been thinking lots about how to display my kids art so this is great.
Major motivation from today’s posting = BIG thank you!!
Some brilliant ideas here!
I use the too big/small bins but mine are boxes up the top of the wardrobe
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v295/lori_lee69/New%20House/?action=view¤t=IMG_3860.jpg
I love the IKEA Trofast system for storing toys. I shared my playroom on the LovelyLiving website and you can see how we use it http://www.lovelyliving.com.au/communityblog/blog/colourfuplayroom/
I absolutely LOVE the idea of the buckets for clothes that are too big or too small for the kids. I need to do that in my daughters closet.
Those “too small” “too large” bins are sold at Target and for under $7 if I remember. I use them as my laundry baskets. They are easy to haul to/from the basement (where my washer/dryer are) and easy for the kids to handle. I love them. Thanks for all the organization ideas.
Thanks for the tip Kimberly! :)