ROWAN HOUSE

I had some trouble deciding what goes where in my new kitchen. So, rather than pulling EVERYTHING out (as some organization techniques suggest), I discovered a much easier game plan and it doesn’t waste my time either. I labeled the doors and drawers with Post-It Notes.  On each note, I wrote the various kitchen contents I own.  Then, I moved the little notes around until I found the most logical fit.

Label with Post-It Notes

What I love…

1.  No kitchen clutter all over the counter tops.   With a Little One in the house, my kitchen is used all. day. long.  Performing kitchen tasks with all our contents strewn around would be stressful and chaotic.

2.  Allows for frequent (and easy!) changes until the perfect spot is found.  I’m of the tradition that everything has a place to belong AND that place should be convenient to the task at hand.

In other words, if I’m baking muffins, I don’t want the bowls next to the fridge, the wooden spoons in the island’s drawer, and the muffin tins over in the pantry. Arrangement should be in logical groups to complete a task efficiently.  (Mmmmm, anyone else have the urge to go bake blueberry muffins?)  ?

3.  A bonus discovery: things are easy to locate with a temporary labeling system on every door and drawer.

While the labels won’t remain there forever (I’ve already removed most of the tags), they have helped me get accustomed to my surroundings as I learn the new layout. No more opening 5 drawers just to find the cheese grater.

4.  Cost effective.  Please don’t waste your hard earned money on kitchen arranging kits available for moving.  Post-It Note labeling is the same concept but costs only a few pennies in comparison.  Nuf said!

5.  Simple enough and does NOT waste time.  Sure, pulling everything out to evaluate the contents has its place in the organizing world, just not here in my heavily trafficked, frequently used kitchen.

6.  A declutter strategy.  As I moved around the cabinet contents, it was a perfect opportunity to send unused items packing (aka the donate pile).  Which, let’s face it, every once in a while we just need to purge the innards of our cupboards and closets.  This is an impromptu way to get it done.  ?

And there ya have it, Rearrange with Post-It Notes

It really helped me get settled!  Whether moving to a new home or just rearranging your own kitchen’s “trouble spots”, I’m confident you will find this solution helpful.

There have been a few challenges that have accompanied moving into our new home.  Many of them involve trying to fit old familiar things into new places.  This doesn’t cause too much stress for me because I’m secretly excited about the organizing opportunities ahead.
Hmmm, that might have something to do with my burning passion to reunite with my label maker; it’s been packed in a box for the last 6 months.  Is it possible to go through label maker withdrawal? 🙂

In our last home, we had a convenient corner hutch that perfectly fit and stored all of our games and puzzles. Sadly, that hutch is no longer with us *sniff, sniff*.  So, I was forced to find our collection a new spot, which turned out to be the coat closet.  It just needed a little customization but it was a logical choice for two reasons.

First, the side of the closet was deep enough for storage, yet shallow enough to easily pull out what we need.  And second, it was underutilized because we only wear cold weather coats about 3 months out of the year.

PLUS, I knew I could manage some way to store our overgrown mess of games and puzzles ORDERLY.  Yep, organization ended up being the solution that allowed both our pile of family fun and our infrequently used outerwear to share a small space.  Dual efficiency, my dream come true.  🙂

One more consideration was our pre-school aged daughter. I’m trying to guide her independence in some areas.  I want her to be able to access the games she is able (and allowed) to play.  On the other hand, I do NOT want her getting into some games I consider too old for her or have too many pieces to lose/break.

I find training independence runs a fine line between teaching new skills and avoiding temptation for my Little One.  🙂  So, storing everything shallow and vertical on shelves solves my problem by keeping what is too old for her out of reach.

After a Home Depot run, some detailed measuring, and my PATIENT husband’s help, we had ourselves a homemade shelf system.  I customized it to our specific gaming needs; (3) 11″ deep Melamine shelves for the upper levels and (4) 16″ deep shelves below.

I chose Melamine covered shelves for the durability I anticipate this closet will need.You can see I was so excited to snap a picture that I forgot to paint the unfinished wood supports.  At least you get a good idea of the transformation that took place. In case you’re wondering, the top two green boxes are also game related.  One holds all our Play-doh, conveniently out of reach and out of sight for a certain 4-year-old girlie.  The other contains all our miscellaneous items like playing cards, dice games, etc.

Oh, and the white basket down on the floor holds all the Play-doh toys/supplies.  I don’t mind if she gets those out by herself or brings the whole basket over to the table. Play-doh toys are no big deal if they get strewn around the room when I’m not looking.  Play-doh, on the other hand, has a nasty way of smooching itself into the carpet if played with unsupervised… and will therefore remain up high.  🙂

FYI:  I purposely did not detail our shelf construction to keep the post short (and because there are so many talented blog writers out there who educate perfectly in this department), but please feel free to remark in the Post a Comment section below and I’ll answer any questions!

If you have children, chances are you have art supplies floating around your home. Formerly, I kept things like crayons, markers, coloring books, etc. on a shelf up high to avoid messes.  It recently occurred to me that my preschool age child should be able to access some of these goodies to busy herself while I’m unpacking.
May I introduce to you (imaginary drum roll) the Art Cart. Container Store cart organized with supplies. It was a quick project after a trip to The Container Store and the Dollar Store for all my needs. First, I set to work sorting and grouping items I thought were age appropriate and wanted to include in my project (ie nothing terribly messy or damaging to the furniture).

After I took inventory of our arts/craft supplies, I was off to snag this Silver 3-Tier Siena Rolling Cart from The Container Store.  You could get the larger size if you have tons of art supplies and need the extra room, but the smaller one was a good fit for our purposes.

I also grabbed a couple packs of plastic containers from the Dollar Store to corral the loose supplies.  Then I arranged everything into cart, easy-peasy!  The cart assembly took the most time, and even that was simple and didn’t require any tools.  Truly an easy organizing project!

The top shelf holds coloring books, miscellaneous craft packets, small notebooks, watercolor paints, markers, glue sticks, tape, and googly eyes. The second shelf holds a bucket of crayons, a small construction paper pad, puff balls, and glues.  The bottom shelf contains foam stickers, a bin of regular stickers, colorful ribbon, and our favorite Melissa and Doug stamp collection.

FYI, this Melissa & Doug stamp set is perfect for young children.  The stamp tools are designed for little hands, the ink is washable, and everything is stored in one of their trademark wooden boxes. I love using a cart for art supplies, it’s easy to wheel around wherever we want to spread out.  I also love that the compartmentalized bins allow us to set out individual supplies on the table next to her project.

That about wraps it up, folks.  I’ll leave you with a shot of our Art Cart in action. When we’re done, everything gets packed up and wheeled into the closet.  Easy clean-up and out-of-sight!

UPDATE:  I’ve updated and upgraded our Art Cart for several reasons, mainly because our supply stash was growing over the course of birthdays and Christmas gifts.