Well howdy! Hope you had a fantastic weekend and President’s Day! Did you get any purging done? Organizing? Getting rid of STUFF?? :)
If not, hopefully you’ll be inspired to do just that after this shindig!
One of my favorite little tricks of late is a bit of a decluttering/organizing combo. I’ve discovered a new love when it comes to organizing, and it’s not rocket science.
It’s the good old Ziploc bag:
This certainly isn’t anything new – I’ve seen folks all over blogland use them often. But it was just recently that it clicked how AWESOME they are for the kid stuff.
I have a love/hate relationship with the boxes that the Bub’s toys and puzzles come in. I love that they are so easily stacked and put away, but hate that they fall apart so easily and take up SO MUCH space:
Especially those memory games – the actual pieces take up so little space in that big box.
So, I started using bags instead, and I LOVE IT:
It’s such a simple thing! They’ve made a difference though. It must be something about seeing the pieces, or just the ease of getting to them -- but the Bub seems to want to play with his games even more now, and is so helpful when it comes to putting everything away.
Now, we just toss the baggies in big bin, which helps the clean up too:
I now have 14 different games in that one bin – there’s no way 14 boxes would have fit.
This makes Momma HAPPY. And you know when Momma’s happy, everyone’s happy. :) Ha!
But really…it’s the truth. For reals. YouknowwhatI’msayin’.
I also used the baggies to organize the little addition I showed you in our living room:
I pulled the former changing table/former office storage dresser into the room last week and LOVE it.
Like I mentioned, even though this is our “formal” living room, we use the space pretty much every day. I thought the dresser would be a great spot for all of our puzzles.
Oh, the puzzles. And…puzzles. Big ones, little ones, so many puzzles:
:)
But you can see that I could barely fit four large boxes in one drawer, and that wasn’t going to work at all.
Baggies to the rescue again:
Four boxes took up almost the whole drawer, and now six big puzzles take up just over half of the space:
Do you hear the singing? I. love. it. It’s just such a satisfying mix of decluttering and organizing – getting rid of the bulky, torn up boxes, but still having everything separated and easy to get to.
I’ve got the little puzzle pieces in bins, but am planning on putting them each in their own bags as well:
For the floor puzzles, I cut out a picture off the box so we have something to refer to when putting it together. :)
Someday when we’re done with these, I’ll just donate them in the bag – I doubt the box will matter that much to the next family. It’s working out GREAT for us!
So…let’s see what you’ve got! Link up any organization ideas, decluttering tips, even cleaning suggestions. Anything that will help us get our lives under control is perfect for this party!
Make sure to link up to your post – not your blog. The party will be open through next Monday evening.
Have fun and enjoy! (I accidentally made the boxes a little small, sorry about that! Tried fixing it but can’t for some reason.)
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