How We Organize

I married my opposite. Brian and I really are salt and pepper and I think the fact that we were married young (21 and 22) benefited us most because we have been able to age together, to flex, blend, and adapt a bit while still remaining who we are. This means when it comes to organizing we are opposites. Organization and structure are two words that people would use to describe me. I hope cheery, joyful, hospitable, playful, warm, inviting, and friendly are also on that list but when it comes to how I live I am organized and I am very structured (with a little bit of learned and healthy wiggle room from that cute husband of mine). Brian is easy going and flexible when it comes to our home which makes him, for the most part, super easy to live with. We have both grown and shifted over the past ten years in how we organize our home and how we like to run our home so today I am sharing a bit on organizing. It is what works for my opposite and I to make a happy home.

 Closets

We use bins to store almost everything. I was a teacher before I had The Brothers and a lot of the blue Ikea bins are from my classroom (I only had one for 4 months) and they work for our budget and personalities. I LOVE my simple and basic label maker to designate bins for purposes. That way we can find what we need from the bottom to the top of a closet or cabinet. Every closet we have you will find large amount of labeled blue bins.

Shane's closet

laundry room

Toys

For toys we stained wooden crates that I purchased from Lowes. We used to have baskets but they did not hold up from toddlers flipping them over and kept braking. I also like the size of the crates and that they blend in and are pleasing to the eye compared to our blue bin system in the closets. My only complaint is that they are a bit hard and sharp so there have been a few bumps and scrapes with these but I tend to keep them tucked away and only get a few out at a time so, for me, they work.

Pantry

Our pantry I one day dream of purchasing beautiful baskets or storage containers but for now I have  been using these ones from Target for about 6 years. I like keeping everything together to make my pantry easy to organize and use. All my oils and vinegar are together. I have a snack bin where I keep  healthy items granola bars, roasted nuts, and apple sauce. Canned fruit and vegetables get a bin and rice and pasta have a bin. I have a few others in there too but it keep items grouped. This also makes it easy for when Brian or anyone helps put groceries away or is cooking in my home. Everyone can easily read. My entire kitchen is structured with grouping. My spices are together, my cooking supplies, my baking supplies, storage, and prep supplies all live together in a little area.

pantry

pantry bins

spice drawer

Schedule

Our calendar is a work in progress. The past few years we had a wall calendar and used color coordinating highlighters to mark different family members events. My husband has an ever changing schedule so we have to have a family calendar. However, this year, in order to clean things up we are trying a little one on the office desk and I am making an effort to utilize our cell phones which have a linked calendar. So far, as with any new system, it is not running quite as smoothly but I have high hopes we will get into the swing of it and make it work. We also try and keep a consistent routine
with our schedule. For example, Sunday is church, doctor (chiropractor, massage, dentist, pediatrician, ect.) appointments we try and make for Tuesdays, and I try and make play dates on Wednesdays or Friday to keep things running a bit more fluidly. We can't always live by this but we make an effort. 

Important Documents 

The last organization area I wanted to share was our finance system. When Brian and I got married I was in charge of organizing and filing the bills, paper work, or important documents and Brian took over the bills and budget. We utilize Mint.come to keep our budget and it is WONDERFUL. Brian and I both can instantly look on our phone and know how much we have left in household, groceries, family fun, charity and donations, ect. It helps us communicate and not over spend. We also use a binder system for our paper work that we store in a fireproof safe in the garage. We have a binder for each person in our family, including our dog, where their health records and other important documents such as birth certificates and social security cards are stored. We have other binders for insurance, retirement, house documents, work (like a running resume with certificates and training completion paper work), car information, taxes, ect. It has worked so well for us to both be able to grab a binder that is clearly labeled and organized when we are looking for a warranty or checking when we last had the gutters cleaned out.

These are the areas that we keep a lot of structure and organization to. The rest I have let go of. When I married Brian I had color coordinated pens, closet sections, and chore charts. I kept excel spread sheets of expatriation dates and carried a HUGE planner with every detail but now we have simplified to a system that works for an organization lover and a easy going laid back personality. Salt and pepper really do go well together and we do it in a well organized, but not to organized, home. 

Today I am linking up with Andrea from

Momfessionals for her Show and Tell series on organization today. You can check out her page for lots of organization ideas and tips!