A Note on Organization

I am not (currently) the tidiest person in the world, I'll admit to that. I do, however, have a thing for organizing. Few things are as satisfying as taking a messy pile or drawer and making everything fit perfectly with room to spare. I love the feeling of an organized house, and lately I have been given quite the challenge when it comes to finding a place for everything. We recently moved from a 1,000 square foot apartment to a 500 square foot home. Needless to say we have had to do some adjusting and some serious reorganizing. Luckily I find it enjoyable, and I like to think I'm somewhat good at it.
Today I had the daunting task of finding some place for all my card making stuff to go (that is, all my card making stuff that I didn't put into storage). It previously resided in a cardboard box and piles on the floor around the ugly desk. Some might say I should have just left it in the box, but since moving I cannot stand to look at another cardboard moving box. It had to go.

Here is what I had to work with:

A small, two shelf bookcase that is half full of books for school and music lessons, 

The bottom "shelf" of the ugly desk that is currently housing said cardboard box and some really junky looking bins and shoe boxes, 

And the floor around the desk that was the home of everything else that didn't have a "spot."

This was not an easy task. We only have one storage closet in this house, so most everything is out in the open. For what I had to work with I think I did a pretty good job!

The secret to my organizing success? Memory boxes! The kind I use are the Recollections brand from Michael's, they are almost always on sale when I go and today happened to be a particularly good sale, 7 for $10! I didn't buy 7, but for less than $1.50 each I am wondering if I should have.

These work so well for a house like mine, where everything is exposed, it makes it look cute and organized.

Here is the finished product:

I still needed a place to stick Shaun's books for school, so the feng shui wasn't perfect, but again, I worked with what I had and this seemed to be the best arrangement!

The ugly desk looks SO much better. This was such an eye sore in my living room and I think it really tones it down a lot to be rid of the cardboard box and the mismatching bins and shoeboxes that were just stuffed with...stuff.

This project cost me about $4.50, and the feeling of a clean, organized house is totally priceless!

Click here to see what else I use these boxes for besides crafting supplies.