Clutter.

That's definitely one of the dirtiest words in our house. Pun intended. For those of you who know me, you know I pride myself in being organized. Nothing gets me as excited as new opportunities to clean out, weed out, and organize because I believe that everything should have it's own place. Now don't get me wrong, since having Harper, I've changed...slightly. Things aren't always in order here in the Holt household, but you can find them semi-straight and semi-where-they-should-be. When things are neat and orderly, my soul is at rest. But here lately, our house has not been free of it's clutter and chaos. Along with the mess, it's brought about one stressed out mama and wife. So it should come as no surprise that my personal goal for this summer is to rid our home of all the excess.

Since moving into our home, there are a few areas that tend to remain cluttered. Our garage being the number one. We still have boxes sitting in our garage that have remained untouched since moving in nearly five years ago. Last year we had shelves added to our outdoor closet so that all of those boxes could be sorted and weeded through and then organized on those shelves. Yet, those shelves still sit empty and those boxes are still lining the walls of our garage. Among our garage, our closets and drawers are overflowing with clothes and shoes that neither Kevin nor I ever wear anymore. And don't even get me started on our guest room closet and hallway closet. Both are filled to the brim with leftover wedding decorations, wedding and baby gifts we received duplicates of and couldn't return , gifts we've been given that we didn't need or necessarily like, things we've been holding onto just because, etc. But this summer, all of that is going to change!

I'm determined to tackle the clutter in our home and get organized so that I can fully appreciate, enjoy, and relax in our home. So here's my game plan:
Step 1: To Keep or Donate?  My biggest downfall when trying to tackle the clutter in our home is that as I clean out, I want to start organizing right away. But then I run into a problem. I slowly start to accumulate piles of stuff here and there that I've set out to go in this space or that space. Eventually I get so many piles I tire of seeing them so I just shove them in a closed space and forget about them. But not this time. This time I plan to tackle each individual space in our house before ever organizing. My goal is to go through each space and ask myself, Do I love it? Does it hold personal value? Would I buy it right now? Does it have a purpose? If the answers are no, then it'll be heading to Goodwill. If the answer is yes, it'll stay in it's place until step 2. Side note: I see several trips to Goodwill over the next couple of weeks! 
Step 2: Designate  After getting rid of all the things we no longer want or need, I'll decide where I want everything to go. Fortunately for us, we have tons of storage space in our home. Lots of cabinets, several walk in closets, etc. So upon seeing what's left, I plan to designate certain drawers, cabinets, and closets for specific things. For example, in our laundry room, I already know I'll designate one cabinet for cleaning supplies, one for toilet paper and paper towels, etc. Our hallway's closet will be used for home decor items. And Harper's playroom closet will be used to store more toys. 
Step 3: Relocate After designating where I want things to go, I'll round up the items throughout the house and put them in the space I intend for them to go. For example, we have cleaning supplies in our upstairs bathroom, under our kitchen sink, and in two cabinets in the laundry room. In an effort to keep them in their designated space, I'll be collecting them all and going on and putting them in the cabinet I want them to be held in the laundry room. 
Step 4: Evaluate + Purchase Once I have everything where it needs to go, I'll evaluate each space and see if I need to purchase items to keep them organized. For example, will I need containers, jars, more shelving, etc to keep it better organized and easy to maintain? If the answer is yes, then I'll be heading to Lowes, Ikea, Target, etc to gather up the supplies I'll be needing. 
Step 5: Organize Now comes the fun part! Once I have everything where I want it and have all the necessary supplies, I'll be getting to work and organizing a space I can live with! 
Fingers crossed this project can be tackled within the next month! And of course, as always, if you have any suggestions that may help, I am all ears!

Clothes,Clothes, & More Clothes.

One of the great things about being a teacher is you get a week long vacation right in the middle of spring. This could not be more perfect because it is the perfect time to do some spring cleaning. So for months now, I have been anxiously awaiting Spring Break's arrival! Now that it is finally here, I have been quite the little busy bee trying to get my house cleaned and organized.

Over the weekend, the hubby and I tackled our yard. It was a BIG project to say the least. We got the yard mowed, weeds pulled, and trimmed up some of the bushes. We even took a trip to the greenhouse with my parents and picked up a few hanging baskets for the front and back porches. I feel like we've accomplished a lot but we still need to plant flowers and lay mulch... projects I am not looking forward too. But once it is all finished, I know I'll be happy we did it. 

Since Kevin went back to work today, I decided I'd tackle the closets in the house. Kevin and I share the closet in the master bedroom and unfortunately, it's not quite big enough to house all of our clothes. So every Spring and Fall, we swap out our clothes from the guest room closet to the master bedroom closet. I decided I would tackle this project early this morning so I would have the afternoon free. I started around 10am and the next thing I knew it was 4pm and I was still working. My closet swap turned into me weeding out clothes I hadn't worn in the last year and then it turned into an organizing frenzy. But even though it took me all day, it was worth it!

This is my closet before I set off to work.

And here it is now (:

And these would be the clothes I'm taking to Goodwill!

Maybe tomorrow, I'll tackle my drawers because this is just from my closets!

I'm ashamed, I know!

Organizing Day 2: My Pantry

So as you know I am addicted to Pinterest and after looking at all of the gorgeous pantries I decided to try to redesign mine and make it look a little neater! Unfortunately my pantry and laundry room are combined so I don't have a whole lot of space to work with but I'm pretty happy with the end result of my hard work!

Here is the before picture!

Here is the after!

I am in love! I wish I could have found containers to match that were large enough for the paper plates, cups, and napkins but I couldn't but overall, I think it doesn't look too bad! I'm also going to go back later on and paint the shelving to look better than natural wood but you can only do so much at a time!

No More Messy Bags!

We all get them... They are given to us every time we purchase something at Walmart, the grocery store, or our favorite store. What are they you ask? Those infamous grocery bags!

If you're like me, you always save them because they come handy to carry your lunch in or to throw a few items in when you're on the go. However, when they aren't in use, they seem to just accumulate and take up alot of space. Not only does it take up alot of space, it's hard to make plastic bags look attractive! However, I solved that problem this afternoon! I found an easy way to make them look neat and attractive!!! 

Here's how!

1. Straighten the bag out.

2. Fold in half

3. Fold in half again.

4. Fold the handle down.

5.Make a triangle

 6. Make another triangle.

7. Repeat several times depending on bag size.

8. Take the end and fold it in half.

9. Tuck the end in the folded part of the triangle.

10. Voila!

See how neat it is!

I just spent the last ten minutes folding 30 bags! haha