// Operation ORGANIZE ALL THE THINGS!

I mentioned on Monday that my "word" for 2015 was Organize. I want to get my home, work, and life in order. Lately I've found myself super interested in things like meal planning, budgeting, and organizing. It's kind of weird haha! Since I'm home 95% of the time, I get a little crazy when things aren't where they're supposed to be or when my current method is insanely inefficient. We live in a pretty small home and with four of us, we're already a little cramped. I'm hoping that with a bit of work, I can transform our house into a well-oiled machine. I started an ORGANIZATION board on Pinterest to help organize (ha!) all of the good ideas I run into.

I'm still early in the planning process, but I thought I'd share a handful of my favorite ones and see if y'all had any suggestions or tricks up your sleeves! I have no desire to go "minimalist" or anything, but just give things a home that makes sense, ya know? We don't even have a linen closet (hot water heater is there) so we're hoping to build some shelves in our bathroom above our washer and dryer. Mike recently solved a small part of our kitchen storage problem by building an extended 4' cabinet to hold our new dishwasher and stuff. Gosh it's been nice to have that extra space! Anyway, here we go.

// 25 free ways to organize your home. 

// 7 items that keep your fridge neat. (Like these clear boxes from Crate & Barrel)

// How to detail your car yourself.

// Monthly meal planning made easy.

// 50 organizing ideas for every room in your house. 

// Weekly cleaning schedule.

// 12 DIY binder organization projects.

// 17 invaluable tips for anyone with too many clothes.

// 51 game changing storage solutions that will expand your horizons. I really wish I had a closet to do number 5 in!

// 43 practical bathroom organization ideas.

// 27 Brilliant hacks to keep your fridge clean and organized. (Like these DIY fridge mats!)

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I'd love to hear some of your favorite tips and tricks on organizing your life! Y'all, I need them! Seriously. Things are so chaotic over here and I need to feel like something makes sense again haha I have a feeling I'm going to be so so ready to just throw everything out when the Spring cleaning bug hits. Anyone else?! xo

Efficiency (or the lack thereof)

Okay, so here's a shocker, I'm sure (sarcasm!): I'm terribly inefficient. At pretty much everything. Yeah, it's kind of sad. I'm really not the most organized person, and I promised myself that my only real resolution for the new year/2012 was to become more organized overall. I've managed to kind of corral my blog/design work into an appropriate system that works for me (shared here!), but what I still haven't managed to do is: + Organize my closet, + Organize my office and craft supplies, + Organize all past design sheets, + Organize all past blog sponsorship sheets, + Organize business and tax information. (Oh My LAW! Don't even ask about the tax drawer...) 

I've noticed that being this inefficient has really caused me to stress out. (Duh!) I spend more time looking for something than I spend using it. And my office when I/we get on a creative roll? Oh boy... it's baaaaaad. (The image above isn't a good depiction of it. That's super tame.) It's kind of embarrassing to admit that sometimes we'll go to Target to get something but I'll leave it in the bag and then the bag makes it's way into my office and then I lose it. No clue where the original item went. It's not like Hoarders or anything, but I'm just forgetful and well, lazy, is what it'd come down to. Lazy about putting things where they go. Lazy about figuring out the best place for things. It's seriously sad.

I've taken measures to help fix the closet situation by tossing out 80+ items. Some will make their way to a Kaelah's Closet sale, and the rest will get donated or thrown out. Now I need to do the shoe purging, and craft supplies, too. Working from home is so hard because the office makes it's way into the living room, kitchen, bedroom, etc. 

I need to put a stop to it. Finally.

Starting today I vow to:

• Take an extra minute or two when I'm finished with something to put it away.
• Always put it where it actually goes.
• Stop keeping things I know I won't use. Toss 'em!
• Immediately remove purchased items from the bag and store them appropriately.
• Stop buying more clothes hangers. I already have too many clothes. 
• Keep an inventory sheet of all craft supplies I have as to not buy more of what I already own.

So I'm seeking YOUR advice + expertise. How do YOU organize your life? What are some tricks you've learned to help separate your professional and private life (especially if you work at home)? Any special supply or desk organizing resources you might have? Seriously, I'm looking for any and everything. Maybe even just some reassurance that I'm not the only one out there?! Haha

Ultimately I'd like to look back on this and say "Ha! Remember that time I was so unorganized I literally couldn't keep track of my hair?" (Sidenote: That's a real thing and has really happened in our house. Multiple times. In fact, almost daily.) I'd like to scoff at my formerly-inefficient self while I file all of our appropriate tax documents in the right folder and contracts in the right drawer... yep. That's the girl I'm looking to become. And I mean, I've still got 3.5 months left of 2012 right?! Share your knowledge!

PS; Let me take this quick chance to say that if you don't use Gmail's Priority Inbox feature, you're really doing yourself a disservice. It's one of the only efficient things I've got going for me aside from my blogging notebooks! haha It's a heaven send!