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Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Organization

OK.

Wonderful people who may read this blog from time to time- I (once again) need your help!

I HATE, hate, hate to admit it, but I am T.E.R.R.I.B.L.E. at organization.  

It's like a gene I was born without.

And yet, I CRAVE it.

Desperately, passionately, CRAVE it!

My biggest problem, what "trips me up" the most, are all the "little" decisions involved in organizing.

You know, like- okay, the bedding is all washed, folded, and sorted by bed size.  Now where do I put it?  This house has no- literally- NO storage space.

There are no linen closets.

There are no "extra" cupboards.

There is nothing but a single shelf and hanging rod in each closet.

And, the closets are tiny.

Compounding this problem is that I need to use things we already have- we are on a TIGHT budget, and there's no extra moolah for nice organizational systems.

Bedding is just one example, out of so very many.

Anyway, my point is that, lately, my house is looking a lot more like this:
(http://brasilmagic.wordpress.com/)



than this:
(http://maruschak.net/page/3/)
SO, help me out!

What's your best organizing advice?  

Got pictures?  I wanna see them!
It's nice to look at beautiful "show" homes, but this is the real world- I'd love real examples of how you've done something.

I'm still plugging away over here.

Trying to pare down, throw away, donate, sell, box up and store in the basement.

But, there are days- more often than not lately- that it just feels hopeless.

Sigh...

So, give me some hope!

:)

6 comments:

Erica said...

I have patterns we will look at them at thanksgiving. Can you hide storage behing the door? I'm think like the book shelves you liked. Maybe use a few thin wood planks, scrap from the shop? Maybe 2 inches tall and 1/2 inch think and as wide as you need. Make them fit nice and thight between the corners of the wall and maybe a door jam. Then you can hang bedding over them sort of like a quilt hanger? (Sorry if that sounds half baked just thought of it). Try googling "finding free storage in your home". Check Craigslist for free furniture that is in working shape, you can always repaint if it is ugly.

Jess, Sam, Elyse & Hadley Mickle said...

look at freecycle.org to see if there is anything storage wise. I have found that a good storage area when space is limited is under the bed. you could get totes that fit and hold bedding or you could have that crafty hubby make some pull outs for under the bed. Jess and I are really trying to declutter our lives and it is so hard. I have so much scrapbooking/sewing/craft stuff with no where to put it. And our kitchen is disatourous but with out $$$$ we are stuck. Please share your ideas as they come!

Brenda said...

I was thinking under the bed too, and if you don't want to buy totes, use ziplock bags. Put each bed's set under that particular bed.

Jennifer said...

Erica- eh? I'm lost,sista. To what bookshelves do you refer?

Sam- Sounds like us! I'm hoping to post my little organizational victories as they come. I do have a few under-bed containers, but for some reason our beds are really low (don't know if it's fixable) and they don't fit unless you really shove them under! :S

Anonymous said...

How about a junk drawer? For coupons, scissors, etc? Have fun organizing though ;)!...

Christina said...

if your beds are low have pete get some scraps of wood for all corners of the bed to make taller (jon built us a plat form cuz we didn't have a bed frame)....you don't want it real tall but enough to get more stuff under the bed! I also don't have storage so we turned a hallway that only had a window at the end of it, i turned it into a closet :) i put those plastic shelves against the wall (but pete can put wook shelves somewhere)the one thing that has helped us is the fact that in our old house some of our ceilings are really tall so i make jon put shelving all the way to the top cuz the closets are not big enough :) with your sheets can you put them in a cute basket? good luck!
I have had alot of luck with lowes in there sale racks....we got a ton of wooden storage cupboards for really cheap!