Wednesday, October 17, 2012

43 Reader Space: Simply Organized!

Some peeps just have that organizing gene.  That oh so amazing gene where organizing seems to come so naturally and flawlessly....  I could tell just by checking out Samantha's blog, Simply Organized, that she was blessed with that special gene, and I knew that her ideas were too great not to share!


Samantha wrote:

"Hi Jennifer!

Thank you SOOO much for featuring my organized spaces on your blog. You are so kind!!  If we lived closer to one another, I have a feeling we would get into a lot trouble!

A little about me... I'm a married stay at home mommy to 3 little ones (7, 6, and 2).  For as long as I can remember I have tried to find a way to create order out of clutter.  I can vividly remember doing org projects as a child at home and at school.  Over the years I have shared my projects with friends and family, or I have helped friends and family members find new ways to simplify and organize their own stuff.  For years, though, people encouraged me to start an organization blog.  I was worried to get started because I didn't think I would have enough content to keep readers coming back.  Big surprise... I'm nearing the 1 year blog anniversary mark and I have about 1,000 more organization ideas to share! 


When my kids are a bit older, I'd love to start my own organization business...but until then, I love blogging about what I do here in the house and spend the rest of time enjoying motherhood...


Our family spends a lot of time in our kitchen space. With growing children that seemingly eat all day long, our kitchen, pantry and fridge are set up to be child-friendly. We want our kids to have access to healthy snacks. And if I'm busy changing a diaper, it's nice to know the bigger guys can easily and safely grab their own snacks and drinks. Earlier this year I tore apart the pantry, removed everything, prettied it up with a wall stencil, purchased baskets to contain everything and help create zones. I added a few baskets on the lower shelves for the kids to grab their own dry snacks.


The bottom shelf in the fridge holds plastic containers {not glass} full of fruits, veggies, cheese sticks, and more. 


When it comes to a household, there are always a lot of little things that need to be contained. And with kids in the house along with me and my husband, the little things seem to accumulate rapidly. Conquering the little things is an ongoing, never-ending project in our home. Maybe yours too? But I enjoy the challenge of creating new ways to contain it all.

For example, my scrapbook stickers.  I started by sorting them all down into piles...


Then, placed the categorized stickers into plastic labeled envelopes that fit perfectly into a bin.  {More details here}



When it came to my daughters hair accessories, the ultimate goal was to find a solution that would house ALL of her accessories in one place.Low and behold, I found the perfect solution at Target - of course, right?  {More details here}


When it came time to update our DVD system, it was just a matter of the time it took to sort through our collection, choose the keepers, and move the DVD's and paper inserts to plastic sleeves.  To maximize even more space, whenever possible, I placed two like DVD's together...


Then placed the new plastic sleeves inside new baskets, in alphabetical order.  {More details here}


Family photos are sorted by month. {More details here}


When it comes to those beauty supplies we love to sample, most come in very small packaging, which is perfect for traveling.  However, these small items can easily get lost in the shuffle of your bathroom drawers and cabinets.


I decided I was finally going to tackle this small bathroom issue and was on the hunt for a drawer organizer that might help me out.  Browsing the aisles of Target, I found these small plastic cuties!


Now I can see all of my samples easily and can be assured they will be used!  And it looks pretty! {More details here}


For my couponing, I use a binder.  I have an accordion file section in the front of the binder dedicated to stores I frequent and other general store/restaurant/online coupons.  Inside the individual plastic file pockets, I have store ads and coupons for the stores I shop at most often...


Since I am a visual person, I like to have a clean and organized looking coupon binder.

I don't like to fold the coupons over and stuff them inside an opening that is too small.  I found large coupon protectors at Staples and combined them with Post-It flags.  {More details here}


Buttons are also organized in a binder!


I also love to find new uses for old packaging - if the box looks like a good drawer organizer, I keep it instead of tossing/recycling!"

Samantha has an entire page of her blog dedicated to all her savvy organizing tips, you can find the details to the ones featured here, along with a plethora of others, listed here.

See what I mean?  She has thought of nearly everything yet it all feels so simple and effortless!  And what is not to love?  I adore she stenciled her pantry and keeps healthy snacks easy for the kids to reach, those plastic envelopes for stickers are super slick, pocket organizers are my all time "go to" organizer, she saved sooo much space by condensing those movies into two small baskets, she lined her acrylic drawer dividers {swoon!} and the button binder pages are simply genius!  I could go on and on!

What do you love most?


ATTENTION!!  Want to be featured in a Reader Space edition?  Have an awesome organizing story to share?  I am looking for projects that have made a positive impact to your life.  Please submit your story and photos here and I would heart to feature them right here, on the blog!!  Photos should be high resolution and unedited.  Please include a description of the project, including any costs, inspiration, and how it has changed your life and routine for the better!  Oh, and no worries my friends, we will NEVER judge "before" pictures because that just wouldn't be nice!  Only love goes on at this blog!


43 comments:

  1. That button binder is fantastic!! Such a smart idea!

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  2. JEN!

    thank you so much for this amazing reader space feature! you really went above and beyond - so amazing!

    thank you again - will be emailing you next :-)

    best,
    sam :-)

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  3. So many great ideas. Thanks for sharing!

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  4. The button binder is genius! I always try to hang on to them when I get new clothes but end up tossing them out since I have no place for them. Yup, she's definitely got the organizing gene! Great post :)

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    1. thank you! am so glad you like the button organizer...it has worked great for this family of 5 with lots of clothing. :-)

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  5. I've been following Samantha for a couple of months now and find her to be so interesting. I discovered Wunderlist through her, and that is my new favorite organizing tool.

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    1. hi carol!

      happy to see you here on Jen's awesome blog too! thank you for always reading along and leaving such sweet comments!

      sam :-)

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  6. i consider myself an organized person but i would have NEVER thought to organize my buttons that way-great idea!

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    1. hi there! thank you for the sweet comment and i am so glad you liked the button binder idea :-)

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  7. I laughed until I got the hiccups - I am a reader - that is, enamored of books! When I saw this headline, I thought it was about organizing books! Great post!

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    1. haha! i love that!!!

      thank you for reading Jen's post and enjoying!

      sam :-)

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  8. I have known Sammy for almost ten years and she is an amazing woman! Her blog is awesome, in fact, hers and yours are my two favorite organizing blogs :D

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  9. I'm feeling so inspired! Thanks for sharing!

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  10. I'm feeling so inspired! Thanks for sharing!

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    1. thank you! i love to help when and where i can so i am thrilled to have inspired you! :-)

      sam

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  11. Finally! An idea for the little buttons that come with clothing! This one, I want more details on; particularly, what type of binder dividers are those (I mean, what would I ask for in a store?), and also, are your buttons labeled, or how do you remember which is from which item of clothing?

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    1. "Finally! An idea for the little buttons that come with clothing!"

      my thoughts exactly!! which is why i was searching for the best way to organize them. :-) the binder works out so well!! i hope it will work well for you too!

      in regards to what the binder pages are, they are just 9 pocket plastic hobby pages - the plastic pages that are used to organize baseball cards, for example. you can find them anywhere - office supply store, target, and i even saw them at the grocery store this week. easy to find! i purchased mine in bulk on e-bay because i also use them for my coupon binder.

      regarding labeling, i don't label the buttons - but that would be a good idea if you had quite a few. what i do is leave them in the original packaging, which usually has the brand name on the package. if i had a lot of buttons, labeling would be smart!

      hope that helps!

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  12. I follow your blog all the time but only comment occasionally. This has come at the PERFECT time for me. We moved into this new home 2 weeks ago. We lived in our old house for 28 years! SO, trying to figure out how to organize these NEW spaces with all our OLD stuff (that all had a home before) has not been so easy. I am looking for all the helpful ideas I can find. So thanks to BOTH of you. Now I am off to her blog to look around there too. XO, Pinky

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    1. thank you pinky! i hope you can easily find what would be helpful to you on my blog. if not, just shoot me an e-mail! :-)

      best,
      samantha

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  13. Oh my word, that binder for sweater buttons! Genius! I always end up throwing mine away because they pile up due to my fear of tossing them, then one day I get so annoyed with them strewn all over my closet that they all just go in the trash! And you know right after that I always lose a button that I just threw away! Love this post.

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    1. "And you know right after that I always lose a button that I just threw away! "

      yes!!! haha!!! so true, my friend!

      truly hope the binder will help you out and you won't ever have the need to search high and low for a button again. :-)
      sam

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  14. I love the DVD sleeves. I think you did that with yours too, right? I've looked into them, and they're a bit of an investment, but oh, to get rid of all those cases! My 3yo really loves the cases right now (he carries them around and wants to hold them when he watches something), so I don't know if I can do it just yet. Maybe just the grown-up movies to start with. :)

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    1. After reading the other comments, I see most people loved the button binder. :) I keep my extra buttons in an old jewelry box. They're not organized, but to be honest, I've never needed one (yet). Ha. :) I'm pretty sure those sleeves are baseball card page protectors. I've used some for scrapbooking made by We R Memory Keepers:
      http://www.amazon.com/8-5x11-3-Ring-Photo-Sleeve-Refills/dp/B002V3EJ6K/ref=pd_sxp_f_pt

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    2. hi jenny,

      our kids LOVE the dvd cases too...and they ended up all over the house. honestly, we had a pretty bad eye accident one day when one of the boys was playing with a case an closed it on their eye - yikes! yup, complete with a visit to the dreaded ER. fun times! i am so happy to not have the cases littered all over the house anymore...and the kids haven't been asking for them. but we did have that phase where they loved looking at the photos and carrying the case. :-)

      it was really tough making the decision to move to this dvd system, so i can relate - but it's working really well! :-)

      all the best,
      sam :-)

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  15. Ok please come to England and organise me . I have a brain full of great intentions but they stay there an don't move forward

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    1. sounds good to me! i'm all in for a trip to England! :-)

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  16. I never thought of the button organizer. Such a great idea!!

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  17. WOW......the button organizer idea is great. I think I might need to start doing this! Thanks for sharing this idea with us.

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    1. thank you! so glad the button binder idea will be helpful to you!

      best,
      samantha

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  18. These ideas are all fantastic. Your refrigerator is perfect. My daughter re-purposes packaging to organize and it is such a good way to do it. I can't wait to share this post with her, she is also the ultimate organizer. I am still learning :)

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  19. I didn't know there were actually coupon protectors! I've been stuffing mine! I'll have to check that out. And I am so bad about actually using my samples, I need to get more organized with those!

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  20. Your blog is so neat!! I love it! Newest follower here :) I love being organized, so your bog will help very much ;) Looking forward to reading all your post. It's a shame I didn't found it earlier.

    -Mariely
    marielyvp.blogspot.com

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  21. I really like the button binder. So simple but such a clever idea.
    I try to label all the button and extra thread packs that come with clothing so I know which piece of clothing they belong to. This has made it really easy to track down buttons when I need a spare. Putting them into a binder (instead of ziplock bags like I currently have) would make them even easier to find.

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  22. OMG! I would LOVE to have a fridge that cleaned out & organized!! I really like the button binder! I always put them somewhere, thinking I need to hold onto them for later. Then later I end up losing them or tossing them. Thanks for sharing some wonderful ideas!

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  23. Wow! Love the button binder!!!

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