Labeler

Hi,
I know, I know, I am a slacker. Sorry it has been a while since I gave a good hint. Life sort of crept in and took over, but now I am recommitting to get back to passing along easy ideas.
Today I wanted to talk about my labeler. I used to think that a labeler took too much time to use to label everything, but boy was I wrong. I first saw the idea of using a labeler from Martha Stewart. Who would have thought? But as I have worked on getting organized over the years, many of the professional organizers recommended using them. I use my labeler alot and use it to label things I never would have imagined it would help me with. I use a P-touch labeler and they are available at many places. I got my at Costco and I bouguth my daughter-in-law one for her birthday from there as well. They are also avaiable at Walmart or any other vairety store. They cost about $20 or $25 and are well worth the investment. They are very easy to use and there are unlimited uses for them. I have used it to label my CD boxes, kitchen containers, drawers I wanted to organize, boxes with pictures in them, containers with decorations in them, tabs on notebooks, my various cords, (see post on organizing cords), the pockets of my shoe organizer where I keep my spice packets etc. (see post on shoe organizers), sewing notions, and about a million other things. It is really worth the investment and the time and effort to label things. Once something is labeled, everyone in the house knows where to find it and more importantly, where to put it back. It also saves a lot of time when you don't have to tear things apart looking for something because you have labeled where it is which makes it so fast and easy to find. I was really skeptical about how much this would really help me, but once I decided to try it, I really can't believe I didn't do this before. How easy is that?

A Problem...and A Solution

Sorry for the update Drought! My mom came to visit for a week, and then I had to finish with school! I now officially have my Bachelor's Degree in Nursing (Hooray!)....and more time to blog! Yippee!!

I had a problem. Well, it was actually two problems. But these were two big problems that had been causing me much grief. I was embarrassed when people came to my house.

Problem 1:
This is what my "nook" looked like. A mess, right? Like anybody could even find anything in this mess! Problem 2:
My spice Cabinet was a mess. It actually looked worse than this. We took this picture after we had already stuck one turntable in the cabinet. Let's face it. It took me longer to find the spices I needed when cooking dinner, than it did to actually measure them and add them to a recipe. Sad...but true.

So, it with a LOT of help from my amazing mother

Anyway, here is the result:

And this:

And yes, it still looks like that (my nook is a little messier, due to some current projects), but it has been clean for over a month now! Hooray! My mom is seriously the BEST!

And what I learned from this project?

1: Circles are BAD for organizing (except for a turntable for the spice cupboard). Squares or rectangles are MUCH better. I had a lot of round baskets and stuff...it just doesn't fit well, trust me. There is a lot of wasted space with circles.

2. When you find something you want to organize, measure everything BEFORE You go to the store. This helps make sure that whatever you buy is going to fit properly.

3. Square/Rectangle baskets are awesome. It is SO much easier to get things out and put them back (such as if you have to put a row of things, like my spices. I can pull out the basket, and still reach the spice that is in the back). And use baskets inside your totes!

Inside the drawers, I have long skinny baskets that hold things too. Remember the rule...you should be able to put it away in ONE step (you shouldn't have to move anything). If you want it bad enough, you will spend a few seconds to get it out, but if it's not easy to put away....things will become a mess.

4. Label. Everything.

5. Buy clear totes when you are buying them. You can see what is in the tote that way.

6. The Dollar Store is a GREAT place to buy organizing supplies. We bought tons of stuff at the dollar store. The rest, we found on clearance at Target.