An Organized Pantry (and a couple organizing tips that keep me sane)

This time I'm going to do it. Junk drawer by junk drawer, cluttered cabinet by cluttered cabinet, bin by endless bin, mark my words, this house is going to be organized. I have been on a rampage lately - and I mean serious RAMPAGE - to get this house free of clutter. Clutter makes me batty - it's like a symbol of my life - if there's chaos around me, my life feels like it's spinning out of control and I hate that feeling. Kind of totally impossible with 3 young children, to get it 100% clutter-free, but I'm determined to live with only what we need, and to weed out the rest. I'm all about simplifying these days. Living with less - just sounds lovely, doesn't it? Every time a charity calls with a pickup date, I say yes before they can finish giving me the date. As soon as my kids outgrow clothes, they are off to a cousin or friend within days. You get the gist, I love the feeling of freeing up space, getting it organized....which is very odd, because if you were to stop by any given day and open a drawer in the kitchen, or a linen closet in the hallway, you'd see something altogether different. But there are a *few* (and I do mean few) tricks I've had up my sleeves for a while that have been working very well for our family, so I figured I'd share them with you.

But first, let me share with you something that probably excites no one other than myself: The Pantry. I love a good, organized pantry; however, this is what I've been living with for years:

EEEEEK! What the what is that?! Something had to be done about that crazy business going on. I wanted to do this on the cheap, since, let's face it, I'd much rather spend our money on oh, I don't know, maybe some new throw pillows, or curtains, or, well, pretty much anything that isn't hidden 99% of the day. I wanted some bins/baskets/containers to corral the food. I checked the Dollar Store. Nothing. Checked Walmart, Target, etc, and they had bins and baskets and such, but I'd need at least 6, so even at $7 a pop, I'm already spending $42...that's at least 2 pillows! ;) Then on my Ikea trip last month, I found some clear plastic bins for only $2.49 a pop. I decided I could certainly swing $15 on this project, so I grabbed them. Now, I wanted something opaque - I feel like the less color you see in your pantry, the less cluttered it appears. But since these were clear, I figured I'd just spray them with spray paint made for plastic (which works GREAT by the way). But how's this for irony: last week, pretty much days after I finished spraying them all white, I found WHITE BINS. Where you ask? THE DOLLAR STORE!! MAN! Could have already had them white, and spent $6 total. Oh well, only took me a few minutes to spray them and the $9 difference won't break the bank;) But isn't that just the way?!

Here's the pantry now:

First, I painted the back wall with chalkboard paint (already had, shocker!). Then I used some leftover paint on the side walls that we had from our master bedroom - it's a gray blue, and looks nice against the black and white. I removed the bright green dustpan, and replaced it with our important phone numbers list that was on the side of our fridge, and there you go.

I think the whole idea for this makeover was the cereal containers I got a few weeks ago. I slapped some chalkboard stickers on them, and then they inspired this whole chalkboard idea for the entire space!

So there's the pantry. Woohoo! One thing checked off the list...

The laundry room is really coming along too - I can actually see the floor in there now! For those of  you who watched Friends back in the day, that laundry room was my Monica's Closet. No joke. It's a big room, and you could pretty much only walk in about 10 feet - and that was solely for laundry purposes. If the washer and dryer weren't in there, it would probably be 100% stuffed to the brim;) But since I've been on this 'simplify my life - live with less - etc etc' - mission, there is more room than I think there's EVER been! Yay!
There are still  bins upon bins - and there's no way they're leaving. You know, the Christmas decorations, the Fall decorations, the Easter decorations, the summer clothes, the clothes we've been (thankfully) handed down, that the kids don't fit in yet, or the summer clothes that *may* fit them next year, so we haven't given them away...it's literally impossible for us not to have what feels like 101 bins! And I always think I'm being smart, when I label each one with what's inside, only to have to rip it off and write a new one - "12-18months girl clothes" becomes "18-24mos" which then becomes "24-3T." It's a vicious cycle...until today:

Enter the chalkboard stickers ONCE AGAIN! (Ok, I SWEAR to you this is it for the chalkboards for a while...even I'M starting to get a little tired of them;). This is different though - I used these not because I love a chalkboard (although I do!)- I used them because they make sense. When the bins change, just need to wipe it clean - no need to make a new label or anything.

Love it. If you haven't run to Michael's to get yourself some of this stuff, you better get moving! Awesomeness. Pure awesomeness.

 Now since we're on the topic of organizing our homes/lives, let me offer you a couple oldies but goodies I've had up my sleeve. Now that the cold weather is here, if you have kids, then you're aware of the gloves/mittens/hats/scarves shenanigans + 20 extra minutes it takes to leave the house. Such fun, isn't it? And a mitten's always missing, or can't find the right hat...I started a little system in our house last year, and it works well to this day. In our coat closet, I set a large canvas bin on the floor - one for each child. I printed out a picture of each child and taped it to the wall. When I did this last year, only the oldest could recognize her name, so I just used photos. Each child's bin has their mittens, boots, gloves, hats, scarves, umbrellas, etc. and I swear to you, even the youngest, who hadn't even turned one at the time I made this, would always go get his things when it was time to go somewhere, and unload his things in his own bin when we returned home. This system works wonders for us. Keeps me from hunting for the missing mitten when we needed to be somewhere 10 minutes ago. And also keeps their stuff off the kitchen floor...or family room floor...or entry floor...you get the picture:)

While we're on the subject...if you have kids, I also swear by hanging hooks at their level. We have a little wall where we've hung 3 hooks, and after they've put their shoes, etc. away, they are able to hang up their coats and bookbags. And believe it or not, they ACTUALLY do it!

This is amazing to me, since their rooms look like a bomb went off on a daily (literally, daily) basis, and they can't seem to remember to put any toys away in their playroom, but this, THIS they do like clockwork when they come home. It's a small victory in my attempt to keep our house organized, but a victory nonetheless;)

Do you have any tips or tricks up your sleeve that keep you organized? I'd love to hear them! Leave a comment, or stop by my Facebook page! My friend Erin, recently implemented some pretty nifty tricks in her kitchen to help her kids become more independent - you can see what she did here. Oh, to be that organized! ;)

So there's my latest on Operation Organization...I'll keep you posted as I continue on this de-cluttering journey;)