{Tuesday 10} Shoes

I'm linking up with Mom2MemphisAndRuby's Tuesday 10, and this weeks theme is shoes from co-host Absolute Mommy.
I'm not huge on shoes...I'm more comfort than style, but I do love stepping into my organized closet!

Here are my {10} steps to get your shoes organized:
1. Count your shoes {to order boxes} 2. Buy matching shoe boxes {I buy mine from Uline}3. Find a space to take pictures of shoes {I just throw a white sheet on a chair for the background} 4. Take a picture of your shoe5. Print out your shoe picture {I order online from Walgreens because it's the closest to our neighborhood}6. Cut the shoe picture to fit on your box7. Use double sided tape to stick picture on box8. Organize your shoes by style or color9. Place your shoes back in your closet10. Do a happy dance, because your shoes are now organized and look pretty!
Happy Shoesday!

Attacking Bottle Chaos!

My kitchen has turned into bottle chaos since Caleb has arrived! {Now that's a good chaos!} And, I'm trying to attack this chaos by cleaning up my kitchen counters and cabinets by getting some organized storage. I first tried to create cabinet space and organize all the bottle parts by brand {Caleb uses 3 different bottle brands}, but every time I tried to grab something I ended up knocking over a stack of lids and created a mess. See for yourself:

So, the idea of stacking lids and parts was good in theory, but it didn't work. While I was shopping at Target, I stopped in the dollar section {my FAVORITE part of Target...I always find goodies there!}, and I found these cute little art supply trays. They were $1.99 and I bought 2 hoping they would fit in my cabinets and help with my bottle chaos. 

I filled the art supply trays with all the bottle parts and organized them by brand. Now, when I grab a lid or a part I don't knock it all over the place. Everything is nice and neat in the tray:

So here is my bottle cabinet now:

It's so nice to pull the tray out and grab what I need without making a mess. And, it's so nice to NOT see a mess when I open my cabinet!

My counter still has bottles drying on them, but now it's a lot less:

Target has a TON of other trays and buckets in the dollar section, so grab a few and happy organizing!!!

Working Momma!

Every Momma is a working Momma. Having a child, raising a child, and being a wife is a job in itself! Can I get an Amen?! So as I was preparing to go back to work {as in "the office", not my other 24/7 j.o.b.} I was a little nervous with how I was going to handle being a wife, a mother, and employee. My first thought was "are there enough hours in a day to have 3 jobs?!?". I'm going back to "the office" part-time, so my goal is to structure each day so I have enough time to get work done at "the office", clean my house, spend time with Caleb, cook dinner, spend time with my hubby, and have some quiet time with God {reading my Bible}. Not. enough. hours. 

I turned to some other bloggers for help and inspiration to organize my day better, and I needed to start by organizing how/when I cleaned and what to cook for dinners {quick/easy/healthy meals}. Let me share what I found and how it's working for us.

Here's my colorful command center, DIY dry erase, "to-do" board:

I found this great free printable from my favorite organizing blogger, Jen at I Heart Organizing. I used some contact paper to laminate this printable and turn it into a DIY dry erase board. The main purpose of this message board is to have a weekly chore schedule. The hubby and I came up with a schedule to clean one room of the house a day so that we don't spend an entire day cleaning, and so our weekends are spent as a family having fun.

We also use the board to plan our meals for the week...

...to write "to-do's"...

...and leave a quick message for one another.

 Last week was my first week back at the office {8am-12pm}, and so far this little board is working for us and keeping us organized! I'll be back soon to share some fun and easy slow-cooker recipes I found {less time cooking=more time having fun with my little C-man}. And if you have any organizing tips please share them with me!!! I could use the help!!

Nesting {aka OCD Organization}

My friends already know how OCD I am about organization. My college roommates made fun of me because I would color-code and label all of our groceries to shared items in our shared living areas. But, surprisingly I haven't really organized our house since we moved in {um..we built our house 2 1/2 years ago..that's a long time for us OCD peeps}.

Let me just show you how crazy Type-A organized I am with some pics.

#1. Growing up my mom always kept her shoes in the original box, and then would snap a pic of her shoes to label the front of the box. So, naturally, I thought that's how everyone organized their shoes. Instead of keeping the original shoe box, I like to order matching shoe boxes from Uline {they have EVERYTHING}. Here's my side of the shoe rack in our closet:

Organization is so pretty! I can yell to my sweet hubby, "Hey, grab me my green heals with the bow on it" and he can quickly locate the box. PLUS, if you don't keep your shoes in containers they get dust on them. Examine:

{I should really clean around here} Who wants that dust on their shoes...not I my friend!

I don't care about protecting my flip flops, so they all get thrown into a bucket:

So, you see...I am organized, but when we moved into our house I just stuffed all my junk priceless possessions into our extra closets. As I'm turning our guest room into a nursery I had to de-junk the closet filled with random crafting supplies. I decided the best thing was to NOT just throw everything into the next room's closet and actually find an official place for my stuff. So, it was time to organize my laundry room!

Here's the laundry room before:

So EMBARRASSED!

And now...here's the after:

Now, everything is in a basket/box instead of just thrown in. I labeled the boxes, added shelving, added hanging hooks, and still have leftover space to add more junk stuff later. My cleaning supplies, and crafting supplies now have an official home!

Next on our "Nesting" list is organizing the garage and the mudroom. I love our little mudroom, but I want to paint it and come up with a better design for it. This is what our mudroom/nook looks like right now:

I need ideas for the mudroom!!! This project will wait until after the holidays {after Caleb's arrival}...because I'm NOT painting anything right now {too many painting nightmares from the striped-room}.