my favorite subject....

Ladies, I love me some good organizing. I pretty much fell in love with Justin on a visit to his new city in Houston, when he pulled me into the parking lot of the Container Store. I had never been to one and thought that date was so perfect. (Yes I'm a total nerd, but I really loved that he knew me well enough to know that such a date would be so fun for me.)

I haven't always been the best organizer (my mom and siblings could attest to that;) but I have always wanted to be organized and felt so much better for living that way. For the past 10 plus years, I have ALWAYS had my closet color coded:

It is so simple to keep up with and really makes me "think" about purchases.....Do I really need another gray shirt? Clearly-no.

In becoming a stay at home mama, I maybe took up "organizing" as a little hobby, or maybe just being home all the time instead of working full-time made me realize I needed it. It started with this book I read while I was pregnant with Kate. Justin was living in Colorado doing an externship, while I was in Utah doing full-time Dental Hygiene temp work. Since I hardly knew any office co-workers, I would get lunch by myself and go sit somewhere and read. I had found a book on my big sis's shelf (I lived at her house) called: Sink Reflections by Marla Cilley. My sister said she had borrowed the book from a friend who told her it really helped her get organized, mentally and throughout her house. I took so many notes on that book and sure enough, after Kate was born, we got settled in DC and in life.....I came across those notes as I was trying to organize my house. I don't know if it was a bit of postpartum adjustment or just "new normal" life adjustment, but I really needed something at that time in my life to help me feel like I was "doing something" and being productive. I know, I know raising a child and taking care of the home is totally productive, BUT when Justin came home at the end of the day and said, "What did you girls do today?" I often found myself just thinking, "Not much, we went on a walk, I did a load of laundry, I read some of my book, talked on the phone. etc, etc." But it all felt kind of aimless. Sometimes (too often) I would go to Target out of boredom (just adjusting having not made any friends yet). The FlyLady, as she is called, really helped me get a handle on my new life as a stay at home mom and take care of the everyday housework/life stuff-so I could enjoy my family and feel accomplished in my new lifestyle. Her whole philosophy is to "shine your sink" each night so that you wake up in the morning refreshed and ready to tackle whatever could happen that day. She has MANY MANY many other great ideas, but I connected to the whole idea of getting the work done first, so you could enjoy life. "Our FlyLady system is all about establishing little habits that string together into simple routines to help your day run on automatic pilot. You can do this!" The website can be a bit much at times (until tonight I haven't ventured there in over 2 years, but has some great little tips to get started)
OK, not to be a plug for the whole website, lady or products (really I only read the book once) but basically this is what I took from it that has worked for me:

Every day of the week is a theme: (mine goes like this)
Sunday: Sabbath/Spiritual Day
Monday: Cleaning Day (scrub bathrooms, kitchen, mopping, dusting, all that weekly cleaning stuff) I found out that Monday worked best.....we could relax on the weekends and then Monday would be a fresh start to my new week.
Tuesday: Office Day (pay bills, go through all the mail that needs action for that week, plan out my groceries/meals for the next week or 2, make appointments, emails and calendar stuff)
Wednesday: Errand Day (always Target and a grocery store...lately it's Trader Joe's, and any other places like the post office, etc.)
Thursday: Project Day (any project I have going on, sometimes a decorating or organizing project whatever I feel in the mood that needs to get done!)
Friday: Family History Day (scrapbooking and picture organizing)
Saturday: Family Fun Day (I don't like to do laundry or clean on Saturdays or anything housework-ish. I love having all the "other stuff" done so we can just go have fun doing whatever we feel like or need to do!

These weekdays aren't always followed. Life does need to be fun and spontaneous too, BUT whenever I feel like I'm not getting much done, I go back to live my schedule and I start accomplishing a lot again. Currently the move is priority numero uno, so lately this is not followed much at all.......

I am trying to live a philosophy this year (instead of a New Year's Resolution, read post here) where I just be more mindful of the things brought into our home. We've pretty much decided we are staying in the Air Force (for this year at least;), and I really am sick of moving so much junk. I've been asking myself, "Will this really make my life better?" or "Is this just a good deal?". Target finds are usually the later, unfortunately;)

One other little *gem* I found to help label plastic bins and those sterilite/rubbermaid drawer things are these business card pockets I found at Office Depot. They work great to leave on the box and switch it out if I use the box for something else. (Kind of similar to Jess's idea....)

Anyway, I'm sure like with so much in parenting and life in general, this may all change in a year or two, but this is my current mindset of organizing and getting things done!