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Inexpensive drawer organizers from Dollar Tree help corral the mess that once was my top bathroom drawer. My daily vitamins and supplements are neatly organized in their own containers, like items, such as glasses and sewing items, each have their own place; a vintage floral tin holds elastic hair bands.
Think creatively when displaying organized items. I used one of my mother-in-law's square Chinese plates as a tray to corral our perfumes and colognes.
Keep things you frequently use where you use them. I had stored all the extra soap in a bathroom no one used and moved it to this glass jar in our bathroom so that we can easily grab a bar when we need one without walking across the hallway.
Get innovative when creating storage solutions. These three picnic baskets were $5/each at a thrift store in Florida and serve as ample, attractive bathroom storage for bulk toiletry items and my essential oil collection.
Look around: every nook and cranny in your home can be used for creative storage. In this unused niche in our guest bathroom, I used a thrift store suitcase to hold extra rolls of toilet paper.
Life is too short for ugly storage. The little drawer on the bottom of this clock in this antique chest in our back foyer holds our car keys. The wooden "people panels" on either side of the shelves are actually hidden doors, offering more storage solutions.
Inexpensive drawer organizers from Dollar Tree help corral the mess that once was my top bathroom drawer. My daily vitamins and supplements are neatly organized in their own containers, like items, such as glasses and sewing items, each have their own place; a vintage floral tin holds elastic hair bands.
Think creatively when displaying organized items. I used one of my mother-in-law's square Chinese plates as a tray to corral our perfumes and colognes.
Keep things you frequently use where you use them. I had stored all the extra soap in a bathroom no one used and moved it to this glass jar in our bathroom so that we can easily grab a bar when we need one without walking across the hallway.
Get innovative when creating storage solutions. These three picnic baskets were $5/each at a thrift store in Florida and serve as ample, attractive bathroom storage for bulk toiletry items and my essential oil collection.
Look around: every nook and cranny in your home can be used for creative storage. In this unused niche in our guest bathroom, I used a thrift store suitcase to hold extra rolls of toilet paper.
Life is too short for ugly storage. The little drawer on the bottom of this clock in this antique chest in our back foyer holds our car keys. The wooden "people panels" on either side of the shelves are actually hidden doors, offering more storage solutions.
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FGG and I share a superpower: ruining our kid’s life by telling him to do chores in-between his summertime schedule of doing nothing and nothing. Just this past weekend, we assigned our 17-year-old, Jackson, some chores which involved (gasp) manual labor. Instead of “chillin” and playing video games all day Saturday (like he usually does), Jackson dutifully marched outside to shovel mud out of the street gutters and pull weeds. He had no clue what we were getting him into.
After several hours, my sweet but sweaty yet still non-complaining boy had shoveled enough mud to fill several large buckets, which he then had to haul to different parts of the yard. I was certain that our normally sedentary kid would be sore the next morning: muscles were being used beyond the usual few fingers needed to operate the control of his video games. My prophecy was foretold the next morning at 7 am when the complaining finally began. Jack, too achy to walk down the stairs to speak to me, texted me to tell me that he could barely walk because his muscles were so sore. I knew he needed Epsom salts to soothe his achy muscles in a warm bath, as well as some ibuprofen and some Sombra pain rub cream. A typical teen, Jack depended on Mom to fix this, and, being a typical Mom, I enabled it. I stumbled out of bed to look for the trifecta of remedies. I was sort of relieved that FGG was away on business because he's a typical dad and would have told Mama's Baby Boy to "just suck it up.” The only issue I had was that I drew a blank as to the location of the "things." Being neither fully awake nor properly caffeinated, I crossed my fingers and tried to find the "things."
Spoiler alert: Trying to find things in our home usually doesn’t end well for me.
I found the ibuprofen right away(yay!), but I couldn’t find the bath salts (and I had no idea we were out of them). Couldn't locate the Sombra pain rub without looking in a minimum of 3 different places for it first. Forty-five minutes after his text, I had 2/3 of the things, but still felt like I had failed him.
This isn’t the first time I failed to "create a tab” in my mind to remember where things are. In fact, I lose things so frequently that I am amazed that Jack still had faith that I could find what he needed. Just last week, I lacked a tab for where I kept AAA batteries or the cats’ flea medicine.
From this most recent "game" of “find the thing”-- a game which I seemingly play multiple times a day (and often lose), a new-found motivation to end the "chronic disorganization crazy-making" welled inside me when I rediscovered my unread 2004 copy of Get Organized with Heloise at the bottom of a cluttered bathroom closet during my hunt for the Epsom salts.
For those of you who do not know who Heloise is -- according to the book's amazon.com description -- "the name Heloise is synonymous with household hints. Today, more than 40 years after the original Heloise began her newspaper column, her daughter has carried on the tradition for dispensing reliable and practical advice, garnering a whole new generation of fans."
Essentially, the only thing that Heloise and I have in common is that we both write newspaper columns.
Heloise smiled at me from the book cover, looking very relaxed. I thought: how she could smile like that after spending so much time cleaning and organizing? YUCK! The very thought of organizing the crazy-making labyrinth of disorder that I call home had stressed me out for years. In spite of that, I have been carrying her smiling face around with me since 2004. No matter how many times we moved, Heloise's book came with me. In retrospect, I guess I held out hope that, “someday,” I would find the courage to crack the spine. I resisted organizing my home the same way some folks resist dieting or exercising: I knew it would be good for me, but I just wasn’t ready to do it, but maybe I would do it someday. The seemingly insurmountable task of organizing my home came with myriad of excuses: the kids were little and were going to mess everything up anyway, so why bother? I was working full-time, and I just wanted to relax on the weekend, not organize the house, or, something as simple as: I’ll do it next weekend, but then the weekend would come, and I would choose fun over organization. When Bella was a teenager living at home full-time, I did not need to think about organizing: I would just ask her where everything was. She grew up and went to college, leaving her organizationally challenged mother unsupervised at home.
So, this past Sunday, after getting Jack squared away with his 2/3 pain remedies and with Heloise’s book sitting in my lap, I drank coffee on the porch and did a quick Pinterest search for the keyword “organization.” Reading a Pinterest pin which said: "Having a simplified, uncluttered home is a form of self-care" was a lightbulb moment for me. I have a Ph.D in Holistic Life Coaching, and I write about the importance of self-care. Not getting organized was creating unnecessary stress and wasting my precious time: no bueno for self-care.
I refilled my coffee mug, picked up Heloise, and headed to the bathroom, mainly because it drove me crazy that I couldn’t find what Jack needed earlier that morning. Losing another game of "find the thing" in the middle of the night when someone was nauseous and needed Emetrol, or when someone had an outbreak of poison ivy or got stung by a wasp was out of the question. With Heloise as my new organizational coach, I was determined to win the game of "find the thing" next time. Several hours later, fueled by Heloise’s wisdom, a few gallons of coffee, and good music, I am happy to report: I feel like a win is coming my way next time.
Maybe you, like me, are organizationally challenged. Like I already said, if you have trouble finding things in your own home, that’s a tell-tale sign. Other ways to know that you need to get organized include:
• You hate to throw anything away.
If you fall into any of these categories, don’t lose hope. You can win the organization game, too, and make a positive change in your life.
Turning organizing into a game helped to change my negative mindset about the process. I never equated "organizing" with "fun," until Heloise got involved. With a full mug of coffee by my side, I sang along to my favorite Spotify playlist as I organized. I decided that, if the music was still playing by the time I completed my organization task, it meant I won the game. I didn’t even get overwhelmed by the magnitude of organizing the entire house. That was not my task on Sunday. Heloise advised me to organize one drawer at a time. Before I knew it, I had my bathroom drawers, laundry room, and even my bathroom closet organized!
Heloise’s “Make Organizing Easy as A-B-C” technique helped me to take stock of what I have and get rid of clutter. With this method, establishing order in any cabinet, drawer, shelf, or closet can be as simple as A-B-C. Heloise's instructions are simple:
Remove everything from the area and sort items into three piles:
• Items used almost every day.
• Items brought out only for seasonal or special occasions.
• Items that have not been used in more than a year or two, excluding items in group B (and, I would add to group C: anything with an expired expiration date.
Get rid of all items in group C. (If you can’t bear to toss out anything right away, put the C items into a box, date and label, and put away in your attic or garage. If you haven’t touched them in a year, you most likely won’t use them again. Throw them away, put them in your next garage sale, or donate them.)
Place B items in the back of the drawer or cabinet or put them in a separate storage bin.
Place A items in the front, or where they are easily accessible.
Heloise acknowledges that culling is sometimes easier said than done. Many of us are so emotionally attached to items we have but don’t need. I can relate: I once kept a designer purse that was out of style for years because I bought it as a reward for myself after I hit a record for real estate sales early in my career. It is easier to part with beloved clutter if you are giving it to a good home. In the process of my bathroom drawer clean out, I discovered a full bag of unused sample-size shampoos and decided to donate it to a women’s shelter. Many worthy local and national organizations have wish lists for items they desperately need. Every room in your house has something that can be used by them or by someone else. Call around to see what different groups are looking for, then check your home and gather up all the things you no longer need.
• Animal shelters and humane societies need old towels, sheets, or washers and dryers. I pulled several old sheets and towels as I organized my laundry room to donate.
• Battered women’s shelters and children’s chariti3es need clothing, luggage, soap, and personal items.
• Food banks and pantries can use food, canned goods, and other kitchen items.
• Libraries, prisons, nursing homes, and hospitals may be grateful for book and magazine donations.
• Schools or charity organizations may accept donations of computers and office equipment.
• Many charities will even take old cars—in fact, Heloise donated her mother’s 1977 Thunderbird to one such foundation.
You just may feel better knowing your stuff is moving to help others.
Heloise’s Emergency Organizing Kit
Don’t get caught without the right organizing tools. To help you de-clutter, always keep these essentials on hand:
• Glass or plastic jars of all sizes
• Trash, paper, or paper bags
• White adhesive tape for labeling
It’s hard to stay neat if your possessions don’t have a proper place in your home. Fortunately, there are many commercial products available that can help us get organized, from installable closet and modular systems to ready-to-use storage containers for every room in the house. Dollar Tree, yard sales, and thrift stores are great sources. Department, discount, hardware, and home improvement stores offer an incredible number of storage units that won’t require a Ph.D to set up. With a little ingenuity you can make your own budget storage system. Examples of creative storage ideas can be found by searching Pinterest and Tik Tok. Look for baskets and containers. Transform routine household items into storage bins. Heloise suggests using a large plastic garbage can for seasonal decorations. She suggests filling it to the brim with items you want to hide away, then placing the lid on upside-down. Top it off with a round piece of plywood and tablecloth, and you now have a lamp table and storage unit for any room in your house. There are no excuses for not storing the things you want to keep in an attractive way! Look around your house: every nook and cranny can potentially be used for storage. Get creative and innovative!
Even if you still can’t get organized, there are devices for the hopelessly challenged—Bluetooth locators! Attach these tags to items, and if they go missing, you can press a button and a base station will send an electronic signal to the lost item, which will beep until it is found (search Amazon for electronic locator tags). Unfortunately, there aren’t enough tags for me to do my whole house, so it’s worth it for me to continue the process I have begun and establish a place for everything in my home.
My “ah-ha” moment from Sunday was finally understanding why Heloise is smiling on the cover of her book. Jack was sore after a day of working out underused muscles doing his chores, and, after a few days, the unpleasant soreness ceased, leaving him ready and willing to take on more physically demanding tasks. Similarly, the thought of getting organized was initially unpleasant for me, but, after beginning the process, I realize I can make it fun and am ready for more. I just wish I had started this process years ago.
After spending time with Heloise this past weekend, I’m all fired up to keep winning the organization game. I now aspire to create a Word document called, “Where is it?” Which will provide an alphabetized list of all the things in the house and their exact locations! Until then, I'll continue to play the organizing game, one drawer at a time, and, next time FGG and I decide to ruin Jackson’s life with chores involving manual labor, he will know exactly where to get the pain rub.
Used copies of Get Organized with Heloise is available on amazon.com for as little as $1.46.
Share your favorite organization tips and tricks with me, and even your before/after organization photos, at lauren.gay@journalinc.com
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