This is me with my little munchkin. I'm smiling, she looks mischeivious (which she is) and we are standing in my kitchen which is the only room in my entire house that is organized. When I'm stressed, I go to my kitchen. Not because there's food there (I have this weird thing where I don't like to eat by myself), but because it's organized and decorated to my exact liking. It's an epiphany that I recently had... I always knew my life would be less stressed if I actually organized my home to my liking. But I didn't realize how much that need is ingrained on a very elemental level.
So here's my plan. I'm going to organize my life. And I'm going to post my progress, things that worked, things that didn't, as well as the reasoning behind the process on here. I've done my research and have figured out that you really have to do what's best for your own life... personalize your organization! This plan is what I think will work best for me, but hopefully you'll be able to personalize it to your lifestyle and your home as well!
So here's my plan. I'm going to organize my life. And I'm going to post my progress, things that worked, things that didn't, as well as the reasoning behind the process on here. I've done my research and have figured out that you really have to do what's best for your own life... personalize your organization! This plan is what I think will work best for me, but hopefully you'll be able to personalize it to your lifestyle and your home as well!
So the big question is: where to I start? It took me literally weeks to come up with an answer? It can be so overwhelming! Part of that was the pressure, part of that was laziness, part of that was busyness, and part of it was sheer procrastination. But I finally figured out I'm going to organize my life based on my routine. My theory for this is that if I wake up every morning in a clean bedroom, choose clean clothes from a well-organized closet and see the fruits of my organization labor, I might then be able to keep myself motivated to 1: keep organizing other areas of my life and 2: keep up the routine and change my habits to throw that sweater over the hamper instead on the hanger where it belongs! My hope is to then look forward to the next part of my routine (which is to go to my daughter's room to get her ready for the day) and organize that area as well! And so... here we go!
Below are some steps for organizing your master bedroom. Many are acquired from all over the internet and some I personalized to my own purpose: to make life easier.
1. Throw out anything you haven't worn in the past year. Now for us here in upstate NY that means anything we haven't worn in the past 2 seasons (winter and summer). For those lucky handfuls of you that don't have a winter, I would shorten the time frame. But make sure that means you get rid of all that "someday I'll need my prom dress", "but I got that shirt at a Brooks & Dunn concert and I remember it so fondly" and "someday I'll fit into those size 2 shorts". (PS-see the caveat on that last one below) (PPS- Thank you @ThePurposefulMom at http://www.thepurposefulmom.com/2012/03/front-closet-and-master-closet.html for this image and blog about this step! She did such a good job getting her closet organized and inspired me to do the same!
2. Guilty Hope Tote: So here's the thing, especially if you're trying to get to that pre-baby weight and don't have tons of money to spend on a new wardrobe, I'm proposing that we go AGAINST what many of the blogs and tv shows out there say. Which is why I've named mine the "Guilty Hope Tote". In there I put all those pretty sundresses that I wish I could wear, the bikinis that I swear I'll wear again, and that perfect pair of skinny jeans all made it into my Guilty Hope Tote. Guilty - because I know I should be throwing them away, according to all the "experts." Hope - because I really, desperately, hope to pull out that tote, try on those clothes, and actually feel good in them! Tote- because I needed to limit the amount of clothes I allowed myself to keep. I chose to use a 31 gifts expandable tote pictured below. Not only does it hold my hopes oh so well, it looks adorable on top of my closet!
3. Protect That Organization! Basically, it's easy to get the organizing started but the trick is to keep it going. Do whatever you can to make that easier! For me, I let go of some of my OCD-similar-tendencies and decided to NOT color code my clothes hangers. While it makes me happy in the short term, it's something that is difficult to keep up with. So out when the different color hangers and in when matching hangers in their place. Small, I know. But it works for me. I also got rid of my pretty bamboo hamper and replaced it with a double hamper so I could easily separate out whites and darks. Below is the one I went with. Still matches my decor but works for my new system!
After all of this, my floors were bare and it was easy to vacuum and dust. I cleared out 3 -- yes THREE entire drawers and now my closet hangers are so closely squeezed together that I lose track of what clothes I actually own. Most importantly, when I wake up tomorrow, I'm not going to have to do the sniff check to see if that shirt has been laundered or trip over my husband's shoes in the middle of the night. All in all, not bad for day 1 of Project: Organize My Life! Tomorrow? I'm tackling Mackenzie's closet and all of those totes that are filled with newborn-2T clothes she's either never worn or will never again wear. Wish me luck and feel free to post suggestions!!!!