Fifty Two Shades of Shay: An Organized Home

Right now, my friends are mocking me. I can feel it. Especially Erika...she's really mocking me. She probably observes my obsessive organizing more than anyone (please don't ask her about my clean car of my perfectly tidy gym bag...she will make fun of me, I'm sure of it!).

Yes. My name is Shay and I like things organized. Everything has a place in my home. Everything. I don't have junk drawers because I don't have junk. Junk gets tossed in the trash.

I run a very organized home...case in point, after Christmas, we put all of the new toys in my office and the kids were told they couldn't open any items until they had gone into their play room and bedrooms and filled at least two bags each with items to donate. They cleaned out their spaces to make room for the new and then we (neatly) put the new toys out. The reason I do this after Christmas instead of before is that my kids are waaaaaaay more motivated to donate their stuff when they see new stuff.

But...my organization doesn't stop with my actual house, we're very organized with our calendars and schedules too. I don't do this to stress myself out...by being organized, I'm actually making our lives more calm. And that is the key to my happiness most days...we are not frantic, we are not rushing around, we are not late, we are not over-booked or double-booked...we are simply organized.

Here are some ways, we stay organized around our house...

We keep this little calendar on our fridge. I bought it for like $10 at Target one time and it has been so handy for us. Every Sunday night, we write down our activities for the week and plan out our meals. As you can see, we really tried to keep the first week of January nice and simple after the holiday madness! Andrew and I each keep personal calendars but having one central calendar is really helpful for big things.

Next to the calendar, I keep another marker board for grocery items we need. I do my major shopping on Tuesday mornings, so between Wednesday and Monday, when we think of something we need, we add it to this board. Then when I'm writing out my grocery list, I reference these items along with the items we need to make our meals. (To see how I organize my grocery list, click here.)

And I've said it before and I'll say it again...a good day planner is worth its weight in gold. And my absolute favorites are Erin Condren Life Planners. I love, love, love them!

I schedule everything in my calendar so that I don't over-book myself. I even schedule chores like "go by the UPS store", "go to the gym", "grocery shop", etc. Now, I'm not a slave to my calendar and some days, I simply don't have time or I change my plans but at least by writing it all down, I am never double-booked.

My biggest tip for having an organized home is making it specific to your family's routine.

I realized that when we're about to go out the door for the gym, the kids and I congregate near the back door to put on our shoes/coats and grab my gym bag...so, what did I do? I store this stuff in the playroom closet which is right next to our back door. This way, we don't all get downstairs and someone has to run back upstairs because they forgot something. The playroom closet might seem like a random spot to keep my gym bag but it's super convenient in the mornings (and then later when we get home, it's simple and fast to put everything back in its place too!).

Here are some other random items we keep in unusual places to simplify our lives:

1. Kids' coloring books and markers are in a kitchen drawer because they love coloring at the kitchen table.

2. The kids keep their outside shoes outside right next to the back door, so that every time they come in and out from playing, their shoes are right there and we're never having to get them from some other location.

3. I keep magazines I want to read in a drawer next to my favorite chair, so when I'm ready to read, I just pull one out of the drawer and am not just stacking/setting magazines just anywhere.

And here are a few other ways we stay organized...

We have DVD books for each genre of film. This totally goes against the grain of my family. My parents and my dad's parents keep every movie in its shell in alphabetical order in their homes. Not kidding. It's insane. I personally do not have the room or patience for that, so we have these books.

These books make it really easy to store DVDs, simple for my kids to flip through and find the one they're looking for, and great for tossing in the car on road trips. We have a Christmas movie book (like above), a Disney movie book, an action movie book and a romantic comedy book.

Scarf hangers make finding the right scarf so simple! And no judging...I like scarves.

And since I've never lived in a house with a big closet, I have learned that for me, stacking shoe boxes is the best way to neatly store my shoes. I write on the outside of the box what's inside and then in the morning, I just look up and select the right pair (I have a little step stool to help me reach).

My nail polish bins have been blogged about before but they're worth repeating. Two boxes...one for fall/winter colors and the other for spring/summer colors. Simple!

And I did an entire post on organizing my Kids' Closets. Check it out for ideas!

Also, check out my Jewelry post! I have lots of tips for storing all of that jewelry!

Gift Wrapping can be a big mess, so I did a post on organizing that too! Simple stuff!

So, I know none of these are earth-shattering ideas but they're sure simple and help me keep my sanity on a daily basis. What are some of your favorite organization tips? I would love to know!

And coming up on 52 Shades of Shay:
Saying no to all of those commitments
Organizing your photos and scrapbooks
Get out of the frump!
Getting your kids to nap (Finally! You people have been begging for this one!)

And I have two recipes for your Tuesday...

My Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings is perfect for a cold January night (and simple too!).