Monday, August 16, 2010

A Weekend of Organizing

I spent almost the entire weekend getting some of my things organized.  This is something that was long overdue and as a result, took a long time to put back in order.  I'm joining Susan's fun party for Met Monday at Between Naps on the Porch. 

I don't have any before pictures to share, and that was intentional.  Who wants to see someone else's mess...and let's be honest...if you feel the need to organize, it means you have a mess.  Hope some of these tips you find handy. 

I use a dresser in an empty bedroom to organize my gift wrap supplies.  I had tossed things into a drawer where ever there was empty space available as I bought new items or returned the remainder of ones I had used, ie. tissue and ribbon.  I now have the drawers reorganized with tissue, ribbon, gift bags and tools organized in seperate drawers.  I opened all of my tissue packages and folded the tissue in half within the first drawer to make it easily accessible and I can do a quick flip to see each color and pattern for a quick match to my giftbag or wrapping paper.  Opening the packages and unfolding the tissue so that it only has one fold left is a great way to easily retrieve the tissue when needed...it is even possible to reach in with one hand to pull out the appropriate bundle. 

Tissue:


Gift Bags:



Ribbons:



Tools and Supplies: cutters, tape, labels, gift tags and bow making supplies



I also cleaned the clutter our of my china cabinet and it looks clean and sparkly now. 



I'm currently working on consolidating my dishware and decorative jars, plate stands and cloches.  I have things stuck all over the house and want to get them in more order and more centralized.  I have an inventory system that I'll be sharing in a future post that tracks what items I have with photos of the dish, where I bought the item and how much I paid.   The photos will help with mixing and matching to plan for tablescapes without actually physically pulling the pieces from storage and the information on the acquistion will help when preparing a blog post. 




All in all, a very productive weekend and I'm very pleased with the progress.  I'm on a mission to get everything back in order before Fall.  Of course, all this cleaning and organizing means that I did not spend any time reading blogs this weekend, so I am seriously behind.  Look for comments from me over the next couple of days as I catch up with your last posts.....If I drop by, I always comment so that you know I was there.  Hope you all had a great weekend as well. 



All The Best,
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11 comments:

Marty@A Stroll Thru Life said...

Oh how wonderful to have this task all done. I have dishes all over the place and not enough room for anything. I love how beautiful your china cabinet looks, and organizing your gift wrapping supplies is fantastic. Great job. Hugs, Marty

Julie Harward said...

Hi there, I missed you too! I love this idea of putting all the gift wrap things in an unused dresser! I don't know why I hadn't thought of this...I will be doing it today! :D

Kim's Treasures said...

Looking good! We organized this weekend too, I will post later today.

It feels so much better when things are in order, don't they? Love the cabinet you have your extra pretties hidden in!

Theresa said...

Girl, you really got a lot done! I did something similar in my poolhouse/studio:) I use a dresser to sort my craft supplies! It has some deep drawers and I was able to use some plastic bins that can be removed to put on my work surface!

Thanks for sharing your tips for the tissue paper and bags!

Have a blessed and productive day!

Anonymous said...

Hi Anita! Oh, you've been a busy gal! Ddoesn't it feel good to get all organized! Everything is looking good and now you deserve a break.
Thanks for popping in to see my tiny kitchen.
Be a sweetie,
Shelia ;)

Kathy @ Creative Home Expressions said...

That looks wonderful, Anita! You've got me thinking about re-organizing my craft closet again. It's been on my list of things to do for months now. I think my problem is that I want to incorporate clear storage rather than the baskets I have in there now, which is causing me to put it off. But, I think that if I manage it right, I may wind up with some room to put extra dishes. Your china cabinet looks great. A nice clean up before Fall is probably a good idea!

Ms. Bake-it said...

Looks great Anita! Love your china cabinet! Can you come over and organize my house now? I need to do some major reorganization myself. With kids moving in/out/in/out my house has become a mess. Even my office was hit by the kidnadoes! I definitely want to get it done before the holidays.

~ Tracy

Sue said...

Wow...don't you just love to finish a project like that? I have to do some work in my dish room. I started out organized, but I seem to carry things back down there and "dump" them.

Melissa Miller said...

Anita it all looks wonderful! :)

Kim said...

Okay, you SO gave me the idea to store my gift wrap supplies in an empty chest I just got at a thrift store that's just sitting empty in the mud room. Thanks girlie!!
xoxo,
Kim

René said...

Your china hutch looks great! This is definitely something I need to work on.

-Rene