Sometimes, it's just time for a fresh start.
You know, clean out the laundry room, donate some clothes and get rid of all the expired stuff in your pantry...
Yeah, I'm talking about reorganizing your entire house.
I recently graduated from cosmetology school, and between all of the time I spent there, all of the time my daughter spent at the babysitters and all of the time my boyfriend spent at his own personal business, our house got kind of messy became a total disaster, and I'm trying to put it back together piece by piece.
I found the "Home Organization 101: 14 Week Challenge" over at A Bowl Full of Lemons, and let me tell you... It was just the motivation I needed! After joining the challenge (by following the week-by-week tasks), you also have the ability to join a fantastic Facebook group where you can share your before and after pictures, your questions, and organizational ideas. Toni did a fantastic job putting all of this together and I honestly don't know if I would have done it without her... Okay, a little exaggeration but I probably would have done it all halfheartedly.
Now bear with me, I didn't start the challenge at the beginning of the 14 weeks, I started it 2 weeks ago, so I'm a little behind. I've started three different rooms simultaneously, and although that isn't the best way to do it, it made sense for me. I started working on my kitchen first (Week 1), and got most of the cabinets/drawers all done in one day, but it's not totally ready. I then moved on to my laundry room (Week 5) which is definitely one of the two BIGGEST challenges in my house. I've already done 9 loads of laundry (stuff that was all covering the floor...), donated two garbage bags full of clothes to a local thrift store (the guy asked me if I wanted to trade my clothes for... wait for it... more clothes! I quickly walked away to avoid temptation), and filled two garbage bags with clothes that were too small to put out into the garage. Now those 9 loads of laundry I did do not count the load I did this morning when I woke up to my daughter, happily chirping and covered in poop.
Anyways... moral of the story is while those loads of laundry were going I started working on my pantry (Week 5), it only took me one day!! Here are the before and after pictures of my pantry!
Before
After
Here was my process:
I found the "Home Organization 101: 14 Week Challenge" over at A Bowl Full of Lemons, and let me tell you... It was just the motivation I needed! After joining the challenge (by following the week-by-week tasks), you also have the ability to join a fantastic Facebook group where you can share your before and after pictures, your questions, and organizational ideas. Toni did a fantastic job putting all of this together and I honestly don't know if I would have done it without her... Okay, a little exaggeration but I probably would have done it all halfheartedly.
Now bear with me, I didn't start the challenge at the beginning of the 14 weeks, I started it 2 weeks ago, so I'm a little behind. I've started three different rooms simultaneously, and although that isn't the best way to do it, it made sense for me. I started working on my kitchen first (Week 1), and got most of the cabinets/drawers all done in one day, but it's not totally ready. I then moved on to my laundry room (Week 5) which is definitely one of the two BIGGEST challenges in my house. I've already done 9 loads of laundry (stuff that was all covering the floor...), donated two garbage bags full of clothes to a local thrift store (the guy asked me if I wanted to trade my clothes for... wait for it... more clothes! I quickly walked away to avoid temptation), and filled two garbage bags with clothes that were too small to put out into the garage. Now those 9 loads of laundry I did do not count the load I did this morning when I woke up to my daughter, happily chirping and covered in poop.
Anyways... moral of the story is while those loads of laundry were going I started working on my pantry (Week 5), it only took me one day!! Here are the before and after pictures of my pantry!
Here was my process:
- Empty out the entire pantry, throwing away any expired food, and recycling (almost) all boxes
- Wipe everything down
- Sort all the food that is left into categories, mine were the following (from top to bottom, left to right):
- Instant pudding and Jello
- Canned goods
- Pasta
- Sandwich stuff
- Hot tea and cocoa
- Baking (all muffin and cake mixes)
- "Just add..." meals
- Bread
- Seasoning packets
- Lil' Red's snacks
- Mom & Dad's snacks
- Chips and crackers
- Cereal
- Next search all your rooms for things that can be used as baskets and bins to organize
- What you don't have, if you can afford it, head off to Walmart (or you can check out these simple baskets from Amazon, 6 large ones are here and 12 small ones are here) and buy (if you can't stay tuned for a post with DIY fabric covered boxes!)
- Put everything into its proper bins
- Fit them in the pantry
- Make some labels and put them on your containers (thanks, Mr. Red!)
- Stand back and enjoy your neatly organized pantry!!
I swear, I can't open my pantry without smiling. I love it. Lil' Red loves it, too! She knows exactly where all of her snacks are and puts her basket back where it goes every time, and even closes the pantry when she's done!
I never realized how much better my deep, short shelved pantry, could be with the addition of baskets! I now know what I have in there, and where it is!
So what do you think? Not too shabby for a rookie, eh?
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