My first order of business was to declutter the kitchen counters. We have a small, eat-in kitchen and counter space is at a premium. Also, flat surfaces in our house tend to become dumping grounds for junk and paperwork (as evidenced by these pictures). Warning: these are real, lived in pictures.
Before:
This is our main counter space. There's not much to it. The stand mixer and Keurig have to stay out on the counter due to lack of storage space (we use them a lot too).
Our teeny tiny counters next to the stove.
And after several hours of hard work and two full bags of trash we have the after...
After:
I eliminated the bread basket in the corner (the bread was moved to a drawer) and put the Keurig in its spot. This makes it closer the coffee mugs and now the Keuring doesn't hit the bottom of the cupboard when we lift the top.
Same counters, but from a different angle. I'm searching for produce storage solution that is better than one basket on the counter. I haven't found anything I love yet though.
The stove area. Another of my resolutions was to give up soda pop. With the bottles gone, it looks a lot better in this area.
Though technically not part of the counter declutter, I thought I'd add this picture of our dining table. I repurposed the old bread basket to hold art supplies for kids. In an ideal world I'd love to have nothing on the table (except maybe some fresh flowers), but the reality is that my kids spend a lot of time drawing and coloring at this table. At least the basket looks better than the paper piles they usually leave behind.
The next step is to organize the cabinets and drawers. After that I may get crazy and even shop for some window coverings. Ha!
I shared in an earlier post that I was spending time this summer organizing the areas in my house that need it the most. I wanted to share the first area I tackled because I'm so excited about it.
With 4 kids in school and activities, the paper clutter in our house was out of control. I really wish I had taken a picture of all of the papers that the kids brought home on the last day of school. It literally filled their backpacks so that they could barely zip them!
I wanted to sort through the piles to keep the most memorable pictures and papers and also to file away the important papers that I would need to reference later. I had saved so many papers through the year though that the thought of sorting through everything was very overwhelming!
I started, as I start most projects, by scouring Pinterest. I have always loved this idea by A Bowl Full of Lemons, so when I saw it again on Pinterest, I knew I had to try it. It seemed like fate that when I went to check the prices of the totes and folders that they were having a great sale! I ordered them on the spot - in 4 different colors (coincidentally, the 4 colors they had available were also the 4 colors that we already used to sort our kids' things).
They aren't perfect, but they look so much better than the stacks of papers on my dresser or the counter. Having a limited space to store things really helps me to weed things out and figure out what's most important.
To label the file folders I ordered a Dynmo label maker (which I also happened to buy while it was on sale for $9.99 - I had a lot of dumb luck with this project). I LOVE my labeler and can't believe it took me so long to buy one.
The totes took care of the keepsakes, but I still needed a handy place to store important papers that I need to reference quickly (and storing them in files was an out of sight, out of mind issue for me).
I came up with my school year action binder. I made the cover quickly in Publisher (you can download it for free by clicking on the picture).
Inside I added dividers and folders for each child and each activity. Here I can store class newsletters, contact info and class lists.
I also have a general school section for both our elementary school and our preschool. This is where I store info that is relevant to both kids at that school - things like calendars, handbooks, and login passwords for homework websites.
Here's hoping that the next school year is less stressful and chaotic and more organized!
What tips do you have for keeping school papers sorted and organized?
