Nesting Time!

I'm an Organizing Junkie has a great series going on this entire year with her "52 Weeks of Organizing". Since we are trying to sell our home and will be down-sizing our living space I have organized quite a bit already, but I still have some areas that need to be done. The nesting bug has hit me this week and I've cleaned and organized several areas in my house. Especially when it comes time to move, who wants to box up junk that is eventually going to have to be sorted through anyway? Sorry, but I don't want to do that!

I started first with the china cabinet in the breakfast nook where there were a bazillion and one papers my husband  crammed into the empty drawers. Next was the kitchen where I cleaned out the pantry and also got rid of more stuff (more below). Then I tackled the bathroom. I had a ton of bottles of half used bath gels, lotions, etc and I know some of them were about 6 years old! I'm trying to switch to more natural products anyway so out they ALL went in the trash. Epsom salts and lavender essential oil has always been my go-to products for a hot bath anyway. Plus most fragrances and lotions give me migraines and I hardly ever use them. My drawers are practically empty! I just have a couple of plastic bins organized with the few things that I need.

Here's my main 'project' for the week, reorganizing measuring cups! I have always had a messy shelf of a bazillion plastic measuring cups! Really do I even need that many?? No! I invested in a stainless steel set of 1 cup set and 1 spoon set. I already have a couple stainless spoon sets. I kept only 1 plastic cup set for backup. When I get another stainless cup set I'm tossing that one. Since we aren't going to live here much longer I used thumb tacks to hang up the measuring spoon sets. I also have a plastic set of funnels that I stacked neatly into each other.

Before

Ah, much better!!

I have a few more things on my list that I need to go through and organize which I'm going to try to do within the next few days. With a pending move and a baby on the way I don't have time to stretch it out all year ;-) I do try to re-organize cabinets, drawers and closets when I see it getting messy. We have also done a lot right before we put our house up for sell so I got a good start.  I wanted to share this series with you in case you are needing some regular motivation to de-junk and de-clutter your home.


~~~~~~~~~~
After getting several comments about the thumbtack/ hook idea I thought I would further explain a more permanent solution that thumbtacks for you.

I love using the vinyl coated hooks like these. They come in a variety of sizes and have a great screw to make a more secure holder. Depending on the type of wood in your cabinets, screwing it in can be a challenge. You can pick up these hooks just about anywhere. Just make sure your hook is large enough for your item :-)

Another space saving idea is to use these hooks to organize your coffee cups, tea cups and saucers. Screw hooks to the top of the shelf and hang your tea cups. Then you can have your stack of neatly placed saucers on the bottom (or you can use the space for bowls or whatever) of the shelf. I started doing this when I lived in an apartment years ago and it was a great way to organize them (I'm sure they appreciated me putting holes in the shelves!). I wish I had a photo to show you, but I don't have one. I never did get around to adding my hooks to my shelves in the house we currently live in and now we are going to be moving soon!