Organization

When Mike was in Pebble Beach I decided to tackle a couple of organization projects.  I can't do these when he is around because he can not stand all of the stuff laying around.  Doesn't he understand that you have to pull it all out before you can put it all back in?  My major concerns were the pantry and the toys in the garage.  The pantry has been getting completely disorganized, things have just been tossed on the shelves and I can't ever find what I am looking for.  I like my pantry shelves to look like grocery store shelves, organized by food type and in neat rows and stacks.

         

In the garage when we built the house we had one set of shelves built so we could put the kids outside toys in them so they wouldn't be left all over the place.  Over a year later it was still a complete mess and I couldn't handle it anymore.  There was all kinds of stuff shoved into these shelves, stuff that had no business being there.  I remember reading somewhere about how the key to staying organized is having a home for everything.  I did this with the toy room downstairs, where I have bins with labels on them so the kids know exactly where to put their toys.  So I applied this to the garage as well.  I had the kids put the toys and sports equipment into categories and then I made labels for each shelf so they wouldn't have an excuse anymore about knowing where things belonged.

       

I must admit I love being organized.  In fact I crave organization in all parts of the house.  In my closet my clothes are arranged by type and color, as well as my shoes.  This must be why I can't stand shopping in discount stores where everything is all jumbled together.  Michela is starting to follow my lead with her clothes as well, or maybe she's just sick of me coming in and reorganizing her stuff when she isn't home.  I even have my sewing thread and buttons organized by color.  

      

And don't get me going on my movies.  Those are all organized by type and are then alphabetically ordered.  Sometimes I think I might go a little overboard, but it makes my life easier.  The label maker is one of my favorite tools, even though technically I did give it to Mike for Christmas a couple of years ago.  :)  Mike is not too happy with me right now because I am going through all of the kids' clothes and have piles and boxes of clothes all over the place upstairs.  Oh well, at least he should be happy that he didn't marry a disorganized slob!