Organizing On A Budget

When I look around the web for organization ideas, I frequently find myself on pinterest.  The thing that strikes me most is that there are so many beautiful ideas for organization, but so few that seem budget friendly.  I know there are lots that have items from the dollar store, which makes it less expensive, but looking at some of the pictures, they've purchased 20 of this item, 10 of that item, 12 of these and 5 of those.  It adds up.  I don't know about you, but I just don't have the cash to spare these days.  Of course, I still want to be able to organize and have it look at least a little bit nice.  Using matching boxes and tubs would be great, but its not in the cards right now.  So what's a girl to do?

I'm going to closet shop and see if that gives me any options, the biggest problem with this is that after 2 garage sales and a massive purge, I'm not sure I'll have anything left that isn't already serving a purpose.  Hopefully I can find a few things that will inspire me, if not then I'm left with a couple of other options. The first one being, live with things as they are, neat and tidy.  The second is that I can try my hand at thrifting some storage options (my biggest issue here is that I sometimes can't see past what something is to what it could be.).  Last option is use the little bit I have left on an Ikea gift card to pick up a few small organizational items.

My goals are to better organize my little pantry.  To give you an idea of how big that space is, the door is 18 inches wide and standard height.  Obviously it's slightly more roomy inside, off hand I think there are 5 shelves.  To add some small storage both bathrooms (the master bathroom is the one most in need of this) and to give my little laundry room a greater sense of purpose.  Hehe.

Not really wanting to spend too much cash right now, I'll probably go with a combination of 1 and 3.  Who knows, maybe I'll go crazy and give all 3 a whirl!

A Little Weekend Decluttering

Since I had some free time today I decided to tackle a couple of cabinets and drawers.  It wasn't a whole lot of work and I only remembered to take pics after I was done with the hall closets, but I still feel good about doing something.

After playing Munchkin with the kids, I enlisted their help to clear out some books from one of the cabinets in the hall.  We filled two large bags we purchased for Costco trips(nice sturdy bags!).  Oddly, the cabinet is still totally full.  I think everything we fit into those bags was just overflow.  I'll have the hubs sort through his.  I know he'll give me the freedom to get rid of most, if not all of his books.  Since he got his Kindle and then replaced it with his Kindle Fire the books are just collecting dust.  I think I'll be the one with the most difficulty, I parted with a lot, but I can't bring myself to get rid of my cookbooks.  And I have a lot more than I remember.  Not too long ago, I forced myself to whittle down my collection of cooking magazines.  Dating back to 2005.  I spent a week looking through them, pulling out the ones I couldn't imagine getting rid of and ripping out recipes I wanted for the rest.  Then I scanned all of those.  I keep telling myself I'll be happy when we move and I don't have all of this stuff (junk) weighing me down.  It may not surprise you to find out that when the hubs saw the pile I was keeping he was shocked.  That I was keeping so many.  *wince*  I pared it down a bit more, but I still have plenty.

While I was in the area, I took a moment and pulled a couple of holiday plates out of another cabinet.  I think getting rid of a lot of the holiday stuff is going to be key in making this move work.

Moving on to the junk drawer.  Every kitchen has one.  Sometimes more.  I cleaned one of 2 and took on one of the lower cabinets.

Before:  As you can see, my junk drawer, is very junky.  Tangled wires, picture hangers, batteries, fast food condiment packets (loads of those >.<), paperwork and more.  Pretty much, a nightmare.

After:  I brought all the paperwork together and bound it with a rubber band I found in there.  There was also a bag of zip ties floating around so I used a few of those for the cords.  Birthday candles found their way into a sandwich bag and I neatened the rest of it up.  All of the collected condiments got rolled in the bag and stuck on top of a spare kitchen towel.  It's not perfect, but it's a heck of a lot better than it was!

Looking at the two picures now, I wonder why I didn't take the first one from a slightly wider angle...shame, most likely.  hehe.

 Since that took just a few minutes I went ahead and did another cabinet.

Before:  In this spot are all of my cake pans and cookie cutters, icing tips, cake plate and other baking miscellany.  I also have some spare plates, magic bullet and other crap stored away.  What a mess.  You want a little bit of truth on this one?  When I opened the cabinet, that round cake pan came crashing out.  D'oh!

After:  I made a couple of cuts.  Two Wilton pans will be landing in the yardsale bin, I tossed a try that was chipped, but mostly I just took a few minutes to neaten it up.  Much better!

That's about all the hard work I think I'm willing to put in today.  Haha!