HOME ORGANIZATION TIPS

Every year when spring rolls around, we have a weekend where we pull out the summer clothes and store the winter items. Last weekend was that time for us. Well the seasonal chore opened up a huge can of worms. We slowly made our way through every drawer, cabinet, and shelf in the house and began to rid ourselves of things that were just holding us down. Even though it was a week long process it feels amazing to just have a clean, fresh slate. Plus, I suddenly went from about 6 bobby pins to 60- It’s amazing what you can find when you move the bed to vacuum!
If you want to tackle your home this weekend (or month if you have a larger home) here are my best tips to organizing your nest. And if you need a refresher on my homemade cleaning recipes see here and here. 

CLOSETS
Organizing your closet is the first step to organizing the rest of your home. This goes for dressers too. Get rid of unused clothes and accessories. If you haven’t worn it in a year chances are you aren't going to. If you are hanging onto clothes because they don’t fit anymore, donate them! Plus, you'll love to buy something new for your new look, and others can benefit from clothes you are holding onto. Below is my closet, I have had a few inquiries about the piece that I used to create my vanity/shoe rack- it is actually 4 of these attached together. It sits at just the right height for applying makeup and storing all of my jewelry for easy access each morning.

LIVING ROOM
Go through media cabinets and digitize your CD and DVD collection. You will  add so much valuable storage space to your home, and many companies offer the service for you if you don’t have the know how. Pull all of the cushions off your upholstery, and give everything good vacuum. Consider dry cleaning your drapes if they are custom and full of dust, but a good vacuum can do the trick here too.

BATHROOM
Bathroom cabinets need a little TLC after a few months. Pull out everything you have in each drawer/shelf and wipe them clean then toss beauty products that have expired. If your medicine cabinet is over flowing try using an over the door shoe organizer to store shampoos and lotions. If you don't have a full door to hang it on, cut it in half and attach to the inside of the cabinet door below your sink.  (I love these for holding cleaning supplies in the laundry room, or snacks in the pantry too!)

BEDROOM
Pull off all of your bedding and wash it. Vacuum your mattress, and if you have help, rotate it so it wears evenly. Move all of the furniture and vacuum under dressers, nightstands, and especially the bed. If you really want a “fresh start,” consider rearranging your furniture. Sometimes just changing the layout of a room can give you a mental boost of positive energy.

KITCHEN/PANTRY
Start with your refrigerator and food storage areas, then move to dish/linen storage areas next. Toss any expired food and donate anything your family just won’t eat to your local food bank. Take inventory of what you have left so you can use this food to prepare meals for the next few weeks. I like to use recycled glass jars to store my bulk foods in, so I can see what I have right away. Go through drawers and cabinets and clear everything out, so you can wipe out any crumbs that have been hiding. Wash any dishes that haven’t been used in 3 months, dust and grease can build up on things that you can’t even see.

GARAGE/STORAGE ROOM
Pull out your hoses, gardening tools and make sure everything is in working order, and service any lawn mowers/blowers. There is nothing worse than getting motivated to do yard work and having that motivation squelched by a trip to a repair shop, or garden supply store to replace broken tools. If you store holiday items in your garage consider getting each holiday its own container/box. As you go through the year if you find yourself not using those items to decorate with, donate them. Give your garage a good sweeping and dusting, it’s the room that gets neglected the most.

OFFICE/LIBRARY
Take down everything from bookshelves, and dust each item (it may take you an hour but you’ll be glad you did) Remove and discard any ripped dust jackets, or donate any books you don’t need to hold onto anymore- many book shops or library’s will buy them from you. Don’t just shove all the books back on the shelf, arrange them by size and color, laying some vertically and some horizontally. Try mixing it up by layering other items in with your books, like vases, photo frames, and other collectibles  Go through your desk drawers and craft bins and toss any pens/markers that are dry. This is also a great time to back up the hard drive of your computer if you don’t do it regularly, You will be in the room organizing, so you will see your computer if there are any warning notices.

image via

CLEAN GREEN: LAUNDRY TIPS

Wash in Cold Water:
Last year we challenged ourselves to conserve energy and reduce our carbon footprint. One way we came out big was in the laundry room, believe it or not! I looked into many great sites on conserving energy and consuming less and I was surprised at what I discovered. For example, did you know heating water to do laundry is one of the largest users of energy in a typical home. My first response was, well it won't kill germs on things like towels if I wash them in cold water- wrong. It gets clothes just as clean as hot water, while using less energy and money, and preserving fabric color. No Brainer! Energy Star states that almost 90% of the energy consumed by a washing machine goes to heating water. That's a huge percentage! Each household that makes the switch to cold-water washing eliminates about 1,600 pounds (sign me up for that weight loss program!) of carbon dioxide emissions a year, according to the Sierra Club. Now we don't use any warm water to wash clothes, and we wait until we have a completely full load before starting, which in my home means only doing laundry once every two weeks!

I love this eco-friendly hamper from Crate and Barrel's The Land of Nod

Don't Use Traditional Fabric Softener:
Although they may make your clothes feel soft and smell fresh, fabric softener and dryer sheets are some of the most toxic products around. Fabric softeners are made to stay in your clothing for long periods of time. As such, chemicals are slowly released either into the air for you to inhale or onto your skin for you to absorb. Dryer sheets are particularly noxious because they are heated in the dryer and the chemicals are released through dryer vents and out into the environment. Here is a list of just some of the chemicals found in fabric softeners and dryer sheets:

Benzyl acetate: Linked to pancreatic cancer
Benzyl Alcohol: Upper respiratory tract irritant
Ethanol: On the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Hazardous Waste list and can cause central nervous system disorders
Limonene: Known carcinogen
A-Terpineol: Can cause respiratory problems, including fatal edema, and central nervous system damage
Ethyl Acetate: A narcotic on the EPA’s Hazardous Waste list
Camphor: Causes central nervous system disorders

Here are some simple recipes you can use to replace traditional fabric softeners:

Fabric Softener:

1/2 cup white vinegar

Add to rinse cycle in place of liquid fabric softener.

This helps remove static, the combination of cotton and polyester is often the culprit behind static cling,  try drying natural-fiber clothes separately from synthetic materials. Better yet, line dry synthetic clothing, as it tends to dry fairly quickly anyway.

Scented Dryer Sheets:

Place a couple of drops of your favorite essential oil on a piece of wet cloth and put it in the dryer with your clothes (lavender smells great) and toss in with wet laundry. 

Skip the Dryer:

According to "Project Laundry List" It typically costs 30 to 40 cents to dry a load of laundry in an electric dryer and approximately 15 to 20 cents in a gas dryer. Over its expected lifetime of 18 years, the average clothes dryer will cost you approximately $1,530 to operate. When you skip using the dryer you are obviously saving money, and energy, and only adding about 6 minutes of your time to hanging clothes on the line. But here are some simple tips to make the most of your time. I always hang any synthetic clothing, like I pointed out above, it dries really quickly and most aren't designed to go in the dryer anyway. I put shirts and pants on a hanger and hang from my shower rod- and lay out delicate clothing on a drying rack in the bath tub. (You could do this anywhere really, but my bathroom is right next to my laundry room.) I hang all towels and rugs outside on our railing in the summer, and on doorknobs inside in the winter. 

What about Ironing?

I don't iron, first of all its 2012, who still irons... Although my grandmother thinks it is a sin that we don't even own an iron, I'll tell you how to get around it. Towels can be really stiff and scratchy if they were hung outside. To combat this I toss all of the dry towels in the dryer with a wet cloth. You can add some essential oils to the cloth if you want them scented. It takes less than 5 min and they come out soft and fresh. The same stiffness can happen to jeans and t-shirts. Once these are dry I just mist them with a spray bottle of water. It loosens all of the wrinkles and they take about 10 min to air-dry. This is also a great tip for traveling. I always pack a mini spray bottle in my luggage, when I get to my destination I hang up any wrinkled items and give them a good spray.

A drying rack like this one is a great option for a small laundry room

GUEST POSTING

Excited to be posting over at Opal Design Group today. Come over and checkout 

all my tips for cleaning recipes you can make from things you already have!

SPRING CLEANING CHECKLIST

Now that you are so EXCITED to do a little spring cleaning, and you have mixed up all of your home cleaning products- here is a checklist. Martha Stewart Home created this handy printable list. And she has thought of literally everything to help freshen your home. I know I am excited to get my summer linens out on the bed this weekend, and I've got a little DIY sewing project to share with you next week, assuming nothing goes wrong! I'd love to see your spring spruce-up projects.

SPRING CLEANING

After a long winter, I love to open up the windows, put out the summer linens, and give everything a good scrub. I've learned a lot of tricks on how to get the house sparkling without it smelling like chemicals. You can make your house sparkle with just a few simple supplies, many of which are already in your cupboards.

Mild dishwashing liquid is excellent for removing spills that water won't budge. Make a simple all-purpose cleaner by mixing 2 cups water with 2 tablespoons dishwashing liquid in a spray bottle. Use it on countertops and other hard surfaces.



Baking soda has scrubbing power but won't scratch surfaces. Mix a paste of 3 parts warm water to 1 part baking soda to scrub kitchen stains or clean the oven. Make a bathroom cleanser by mixing dishwashing liquid with baking soda until you have a thick paste.

Distilled white vinegar and lemon juice are both excellent for cleaning, deodorizing, and mild bleaching. They are acidic and can eliminate soap scum. Make a window- and mirror-cleaner by mixing equal parts vinegar and water, which also works well on most polyurethane-finished wood floors. You can also mix 1 tablespoon vinegar with 1 tablespoon dish soap with 2 cups of water for a carpet spot remover.

I also like to invest in some good tools. I try to avoid using paper towels and substitute with rags made from old T-shirts. I use a squeegee to clean windows, and shower doors because it gets them to sparkle without having to wash out rags afterwards. Because I clean my hard surface floors with vinegar and water I use an average mop, no Swiffer. I can unclip the mop head and wash it in warm water and reuse it. I have seen people who modify their Swiffers to have a washable terry cloth head. Which helps save money and the earth.

And if making your own cleaners isn't something you want to do, brands like Method, and Seventh Generation, make good quality household cleaners and products you can invest some peace-of-mind in.