Welcome to Week Three of Organizing Your Homes!! How are you doing? Did you attack your main living areas and kitchen these past two weeks? I don't know about you - but this weather just sucks the life out of me. I hate winter. I love the snow, and I don't even mind the cold too much. It's these gray dreary days that never stop - when you have to keep lights on inside the house all day because it's so dark- that just makes me crazy. Day after day after day. I lived in FL the first 30 something years of my life, so I don't think I will ever adjust to gray dreary winters. THAT is one of the reasons I am focusing on organizing my house right now. Sometimes it takes a little extra strength just to jump in there and get the job done, but it's a nice distraction for me. Truly - the hardest part of starting any organizing job is just STARTING. If you can make yourself just get started, usually you don't want to stop until you are done. So - onto the BEDROOM!!
Your bedroom should be the ONE place in your house that is your sanctuary. Your own place to unwind, rest, and have a little solitude when needed. If your bedroom is the dumping ground for the laundry or anything else - it's not serving it's purpose as the most restful room in your home. This is the week to fix it! Try to take everything out of your bedroom that doesn't belong there. Only keep what you actually need in this room. Our room has a bed, two nightstands and two dressers, and a chair - that's it! Simplify - it's very important in your bedroom. Plus - some cheerful flowers make a huge difference in the middle of winter.
In the evenings after dinner, my favorite place to chill and relax is actually my bedroom. Most people prefer the family room but not me! My husband likes to chill in the evenings in the family room in front of the TV, and I don't generally care to watch what he is watching. The girls usually end up in my bedroom with me, piled in bed while listening to a read-aloud or enjoying some DVD's together (Downton Abbey anyone?). It's my most favorite time of day. I like to keep my nightstand clean and neat and ready for our evenings together. Lately, I have fallen in love with diffusing essential oils every evening. (The funny looking white thing on my nightstand is our diffuser.) It really helps us all unwind and relax - my favorite is Peace and Calming by Young Living.
In my top night stand drawer is a great organizer I picked up years ago, but I can't remember where. It holds all my little essentials that I might need in the evenings - because once I'm in bed, I don't like to get out! Things like hand cream, lip balm, ear buds, nail clippers, dental floss (obsession), ginger mints for my tummy, eye drops and hair ties are handy to have close by. Oh dear - I think I just realized this is the equivalent to a little old lady basket right beside her recliner. Y'all, I think I'm officially old. I just need some knitting needles and a ball of yarn in there.
In the other drawer I keep all my essential oils, our latest read-alouds, TV channel guide, a few journals, etc.
Keeping dresser tops clean and neat is a little tricky. I try and make a habit of gathering clutter in the mornings when I'm making the bed and opening the blinds. If you do nothing else - make your bed every day!! This simple task really makes a big difference in the appearance of your bedroom.
Getting some inexpensive drawer dividers can help you stay organized too - my husband has a freakishly large amount of socks so these handy organizers from Ikea help keep them somewhat sorted and not having to dig and search for the right socks in the morning. They can configure in many different ways.
The majority of "stuff" in our bedrooms is usually found in the closet. I have come up with some great ways to organize it all (mainly from Pinterest - I can't claim these brilliant ideas). Before you start on your closet - purge - purge - PURGE!! You can't organize clutter. If you haven't used or worn it in the past year, get rid of it!
How brilliant is this handy scarf/necklace/belt holder? My sister did this first and I copied her - I just love it! These are just towel bars installed on the closet wall and shower curtain hooks. They are PERFECT for holding my scarves, necklaces and belts. I have tried so many methods to organize my ever growing scarf collection, and this one finally worked!
Look for shower curtain hooks like this that are double sided. I think they were originally intended to hold a liner and a shower curtain. I found mine at Target. If you can't find the double hooks, the single would work too, you would just have less hanging space.
I have two hanging one above the other - which gives me double the hanging space. If you have shelving in your closet - or even if you don't - organize like items with like items. On my shelves I have top to bottom - sweatshirts, sweaters, shirts, leggings, jeans. On the floor are my more seldom worn boots. My current season shoes are stored in the mudroom downstairs.
I have two simple command hooks - one beside each bar. The top one holds my sweater/fabric belts and the bottom one holds my bras. So simple - yet so functional!
Keeping a hamper right in your closet (or beside it if your space is limited) is ideal since this is where clothes are usually removed. This great laundry organizer is a life saver on laundry day. If you are lucky enough to have your washer/dryer on the same level as your bedrooms, then you could just wheel this whole thing right to the laundry room! I however, have to take it down two flights of stairs. If you look closely, you can see I have labeled the bar on the back above each section. One for lights, darks, mediums, and colors. As we put our laundry into the hamper, we just toss it into the right bin. Then on laundry day (which is everyday), I can simply grab one bag by the handles and take it to the laundry room. Super easy! PS) Teenagers do their own laundry around here.
I keep my purses and handbags in these two bins on the top shelf of my closet. I purge these every so often and only keep what I think I will actually use.
If you look closely all the way to the right, you will see our ironing board and the iron just above it on the shelf. I really hate the chore of ironing, so I just don't do it - haha! No, actually - we hang all the laundry up and only iron things as needed. Keeping the iron right in the closet makes it very easy to just pull it out and use it while getting dressed. You can also see where I keep my off season shoes in the shoe organizer on the floor of my closet. Right now it holds my summer shoes - ahhhh, I can only dream of wearing flip flops again one day.
Follow me on Instagram here and post your pictures using the hashtag #organizeeverything You can follow along and catch up on all the organizing in the links below. It's not too late to get started!
MAIN LIVING AREAS - WEEK ONE
ORGANIZING THE KITCHEN - WEEK TWO
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