We love Organization!! Sometimes I think nothing could make me happier. Alright, that might be a stretch, but it does get me excited! I live by the motto “A place for everything and everything in its place!” The problem - however - is we don’t always have a place for everything. If there isn’t a place for something my brain just doesn’t know what to do and that “stuff” winds up sitting wherever it shouldn’t be. Living in New York City there isn’t much room for extra stuff. Since having a baby that couldn’t be more apparent. For everyone’s sanity and happiness I knew we had to get this under control. Little by little, we are getting there.
I’m sure everyone read the blog post “Organizational Tips from Aunt Ger” and I know you all have been dying to know how we’ve continued to update our linen closet. When Aunt Ger left she said we needed more bins and gave us that task to handle ourselves. Lucky for us, I love to shop (doesn’t really matter what I’m shopping for)!! And after a very successful trip to one of my favorite hidden stores, we came out with the bins we needed so that everything had a place. If you haven’t been to The Christmas Tree Shops you should go as soon as possible. Don’t let the name keep you away, it’s more than just Christmas Trees. In fact, I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a Christmas Tree there! My New England friends have been raving about this place for years, but it wasn’t until my New Jersey friend brought me to this store that I realized its splendor! They sell everything you could imagine and it’s all super cheap. You have to be careful though, if you get carried away you could leave with a bunch of junk you don’t need. We stayed focused and for under 60 dollars we bought 16 bins!!
Just as a reminder, we started out with what some people might call “chaos” and then Aunt Ger wrangled it into a presentable closet. After our trip to The Christmas Tree Shop, our linen closet is now a functioning place for our necessities.
Chaos
Presentable
Functional
The first thing we did was PURGE! After Aunt Ger sorted everything it was easy to identify the stuff we never use. Once we got rid of that we moved the items we don’t use often such as guest pillows, blankets, and beach towels to the top of the closet.
Next, we laid out all the bins to figure out what fit where the best. On the middle shelves, which have the easiest access, we stacked our towels and arranged our bins filled with wash clothes, hand towels, toilet paper, paper towels, and tissues. Now when we are looking for a washcloth we don’t have to pull everything out. Smaller bins contain grouped items like suntan lotion and extra toothbrushes. And for some reason, we have a ridiculous amount of shampoos and soaps from various hotels. I can’t decide if it’s the result of good intentions fallen by the wayside or we are just kleptomaniacs, but I divide them into ziplock baggies and made a pack to make welcome baskets for our guests when they visit. If I don’t do this over the next 3 months, I will donate them to a homeless shelter because having things we don’t use isn’t worthy of the space.
Finally, we used a laundry basket to contain all of our cleaning supplies at the bottom of the closet. The basket lets us easily pull it out to get to things in the back without turning the whole closet into a complete mess (see “chaos photo”).
Done and done! Aunt Ger, we hope this makes you proud! Thanks for putting us on the right path! Come visit again, so we can tackle the tool closet. You might just get a fun welcome basket when you get here!
We hope this inspires the rest of you to go shopping and get organized!! Have a great week.
1 comment
G R E A T JOB…….. I couldn’t have done it better…….. I pass the torch to you…. pass it on..
XOXOXXO
Aunt Ger