Jul 9, 2012

I can haz more space?

If you are reading this now, I appreciate it!  I took a little vacation from my blog for a while and now I’m back.  I could lie and say I was exploring the world or say I was doing some sort of wonderful charitable act, but you otherwise. The truth is my birthday was towards the end of June and before that DH & I went to Lancaster (home of the Pennsylvania Dutch) for a weekend of Celtic music. Then work crept up on me and before I knew it, it was the 4th of July!!!  I couldn’t believe it when I looked at the date at work this morning, realizing how long it had been since I blogged!!!

So after all of the birthday fun (and it was fun thanks to my DH and family and friends!) I took a few days  off after Independence Day.  Thursday I relaxed and worked on ancestry.com stuff and then hit our city’s main library branch for some genealogical research that ancestry.com simply didn’t have, like local newspapers from 100 years ago.  (More on that in an upcoming post!).  Friday was another relaxing day.  I had a long overdue visit with my grandparents and showed my grandfather the information I had gathered on his mother’s family.   Then I visited my aunt and my mom’s BFF (they live next door) and we all played a few very heated games of Phase 10.   No real plans, just taking the days as they come.

Well I came crashing to reality on Saturday.  I am a champion procrastinator when I don’t want to do something even though I know I should.  There is always something ‘more important’ and this drives DH crazy.  My little boudoir (or dressing room/spare room) looked like a Hoarders episode and I am not kidding at all.  I would have taken a pic but even I am too embarrassed to show you.  But I did buckle down and spend a good chunk of time clearing out the mess.  Most of it was just stuff that needed to be put away and organized.  That is one habit I would like to change.  When I get home from work/gym, I just throw everything in a corner ‘for later’.  Then it just builds up.  DH says “If you just put away when you come home, you won’t have that pile.” Easier said than done for me, buddy.  But I am learning to recognize what a waste of time it is to do a big cleanup vs. a small one each day.

With that in mind, I am on the hunt for a new way to organize closet items.  Right now I just have all of my shoes stacked in boxes at the bottom of my closet.  Sounds great, right?  Not for this ADD girl.  I have a real need to ‘see’ everything and have always used visual cues to help remind me.  Basically, if it’s put away, I don’t ‘see’ it and then don’t think about it.  So while some of the shoes were put away, the ones I wore all the time were all over the floor and just made a big mess.  I needed a way to ‘see’ the shoes but still have them organized out of the way.

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Enter Pinterest!  Seriously---this site is my go-to for everything lately.  I had seen some good ideas on blogs but most of these people had more space than me.  So how could see my stuff but also make it look neater?  This was the image that jumped out at me the most (source is linked on the pic):

Doesn’t that look great? The shoes are organized and you can see them but they are put away.  It’s like a pretty shoe display!!  So I set out on a search for these types of cubes and found this one from Lowe’s:

I figure I can order 2 of them and put the shoes that I wearing the most often (based on season) into the cubes so I would always be able to see them and put them away quickly.  I can use the top of the cubes to put my little TV and lamp on there and a few photos and such.  Maybe even a few more pairs of shoes?  Either way, I know that if I use this type of visual organization it will stick with me better and I won’t want to throw it all into a big pile ‘for later’. 

I also think that if I move the shoes to the cubes I will free up some space on the bottom so I can maybe hang a 2nd rack to free up space.  Not sure if that will work with the height of the closet, but I am going to try at least. 

Thanks for reading!  Please pass on your closet/shoe organizing tips!  I need all the help I can get.  Check out my dream shoe closet:

I will be back tomorrow with an update on my family history findings! Let’s just say ancestry.com rules! 

Have a wonderful Monday and stay cool! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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