Tricky Tricky...

Today on Offbeat Home they are talking about housekeeping realizations - things that make your life much easier and make SO MUCH SENSE once someone tells you. You know, like keeping hair stuff in a basket in the bathroom, or using your suitcase and under your bed as storage space. (Check out the comments - there's some awesome stuff in there!)

I don't even remember where I learned this trick - I think it was from the internets somewhere, but it was years ago. Basically you fold your shirts an extra time, like so:

and then store them upright. Now you can see all of your shirts, so they don't get lost in piles, and you've got more room in your drawers. Tank tops get a quarter fold, and are along the bottom of the picture. The little dividers really help, too.

What awesome tricks have you learned? Please share - I need all the organizing help I can get!

5 things that have been on my to-do list for over a month

You know those things around the house that you keep thinking, "Oh, I should do that!" and then you never get around to them? Here are some of mine. Hopefully telling them to you will shame me into finishing!

1. Unpack hospital bag. Okay, this is just embarrassing. Jesse is 2 1/2 months old, for heaven's sake, and it's still hanging out in the corner of my closet. Ridiculous. Wait here a bit. Okay, done. Unpack hospital bag. Hey, it's working already!

2. Organize/clean out top drawer in nightstand. It's kind of my junk drawer for paper things. Programs to events, wedding invitations, church handouts, anything I might want later goes in. And never sees the light of day again.

3. Sort through books. Never-ending but very necessary. I used to have a really hard time getting rid of books (what if I wanted to read it again?!) but there is just no room! Now I have a one in-one out rule, and I'm a little (very) behind.

4. Jesse's birth story. I wrote it all up for my sister in Poland, now it just needs pictures. Is that something you guys would be interested in reading, or should I just keep it to myself?

5. Preserve my wedding dress. I...just don't have anything to say about this.

What's on your list?

Tidying Up

Much to the chagrin of my slightly-OCD husband, I am not an organized person (Don't feel too bad for him, he knew what he was getting into when he married me). Even a small amount of clutter drives him a little nuts, but I just don't notice it. It doesn't compute in my brain that a few catalogs, some boxes and a borrowed pot on the table equals a mess. (Probably because when I lived at home, the floor of my room was usually knee-deep with clothes, books, and various papers. See, honey, I'm so much better than I was!)

There is one exception to the chaos that is me: my closet.

Yes, my closet is color coded. It's the one area of my life that actually has some organization. I tell myself it just makes it easier to find things, but really, there is a (tiny) part of me that cries out for order, neatness and the American Way! My closet makes that tiny sorter fall over in relief and joy.

(No guarantees that all of my clothes are actually IN the closet. Usually they hang out in the clean laundry basket until I wear them. I'm working on that. But when they ARE put away, there is order.)

Can you imagine the reaction of that poor neglected organizer inside my head when Natalie linked to this?





"Oooh, it's nice. Such tidiness. Such harmony. Look how lovely it is! I bet we could do that to everything! Come on, you know you want to..."

So I indulged my inner neat-freak and went over to The Art of Clean Up. And that's where the real trouble started.





"The STARS? We could clean up the STARS! THE STARS MUST BE SORTED! MUAH HAHAHA!"

Awesome. Now my internal unclutterer is a psychopath who wants to take over the world. I guess she's been repressed for way too long - the closet just isn't enough of an outlet anymore.

Go check out the pictures, and then watch the HILARIOUS artist, Ursus Wehrl, at TED, and then tell me YOUR inner neat freak doesn't become a little unbalanced.