5 Tips for Organizing a "Real Life" Garage

Is your garage cluttered and overwhelming?  Has it become a dumping ground for anything that doesn't have a home anywhere else?

Now, be honest, do you avoid organizing your garage because you can't afford those fancy garage organizers you see on Pinterest and in magazines?

There are some mighty beautiful garages out there.  I'm happy for those people who have them.  But most of us have plain ole' ordinary garages.  Sure, we can do some things to pretty them up, but they're still not going to be magazine worthy.  But they don't need to be beautiful.  We don't live in our garages.  We store things in them.  And hopefully have space to park a vehicle in them.  If we have limited funds for organizing, more often than not we'd rather spend those dollars inside our homes, where we spend more time.

Having a "real life" garage doesn't mean it has to be unorganized though!  I've got about as ugly a garage as you can get... you'll see in the pictures.  But I do my best to keep it organized.  And I just use basic stuff to do it.

Day 27 - Shelves {31 Cheap & Easy DIY Organizers}

Think you have to spend a lot of money on costly organizing tools to get your house in order?  Nope!  Getting organized doesn't have to be expensive!

Throughout this series I'm sharing ideas to help you organize your home by either

• making simple organizers with things that don't cost very much OR
• using items you already have in a different way.

If cost has been holding you back from getting organized, now you've got no more excuses!  

Shelves are a great organizing tool.  But they can be expensive to buy.  If you want to use shelves to help you organize, but don't want to spend a lot, you can make your own shelves, often for a fraction of the cost of buying them.

Here are some ideas to get you thinking about how you can DIY shelves!

This post has been moved to my business website's blog: https://fromoverwhelmedtoorganized.com/day-27-shelves-31-cheap-easy-diy-organizers/. 

Please check it out there. 

Happy organizing!

Day 23 - Repurposed Furniture {31 Cheap and Easy DIY Organizers}

Think you have to spend a lot of money on costly organizing tools to get your house in order?  Nope!  Getting organized doesn't have to be expensive!

Throughout this series I'm sharing ideas to help you organize your home by either

• making simple organizers with things that don't cost very much OR
• using items you already have in a different way.

If cost has been holding you back from getting organized, now you've got no more excuses!  

I shared ideas earlier in this series for repurposing dressers to help you organize.  But there are lots of other furniture pieces you can repurpose that will create organizational space.  Here are a few other ideas.

This post has been moved to my business website's blog: https://fromoverwhelmedtoorganized.com/day-23-repurposed-furniture-31-cheap-and-easy-diy-organizers/. 

Please check it out there. 

Happy organizing!

Maximizing Vertical Space in a Small Kitchen

Do you have a small kitchen?  Or does your kitchen feel small because you have too many items collecting on your surfaces (or stored there regularly)?

A couple of months ago I shared tips for decluttering your counters to make your kitchen feel bigger.  If you haven't read it yet, you really should.  It kind of sets the stage for today's post.

The key to organizing a small kitchen is to maximize vertical space.  I've already mentioned this tip for deep drawers and cupboards (using wire shelves and under-the-shelf racks). 

Today I want to talk about how I used a small bookshelf unit to maximize vertical space in my kitchen and clear clutter off my counters and tables.

Office Progress Week 4B: Desk Shelves

Do you have any shelves that are overcrowded and make the whole area feel cluttered and overwhelming?  Do you use shelves to store items other than books?

This week as part of my office organizing, I tackled the totally overwhelming shelves above my desk in the basement this week.  In this post I'll show you before and after pictures and give you some tips to organize your shelves.

Today's post is part two of my progress in my "office" this week.  If you missed yesterday's post on organizing my dining room desk drawers, you can read that here.

Ready for more before and after pictures?  Me too :)

31 Days of Organizing Tips: Day 13 (Linen closet)

Welcome to Day Thirteen of the 31 Days of Organizing Tips series!  

Today's tip is to help you organize your linen closet. 

Organizing Our Hall Closet

These are "after" pictures of our hall closet, taken this week.  I wish I had taken some "before" pictures but I actually organized it before I started blogging.  I'm happy to say that it is still pretty organized 2 months later!  All I did before taking these pictures was tidy up the shoes a bit.

Organizing Gifts (Free Printable!)

We buy a lot of gifts.  A lot.  Parents, grandparents, siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins, our kids, our friends' kids, our kids' friends, and on and on.  It can be overwhelming to stay on top of buying all those gifts.  Not to mention the cost. 

Tips For Organizing Seasonal Items

A reader asked me for advice on storing seasonal dishes so I thought I'd write a post with some tips, while showing you how I recently reorganized my seasonal decorations and other special occasion items to keep them from becoming overwhelming.

My Daughter's Closet is finally HER closet

My daughter's closet is mostly used for storage because most of her clothes are kept in her dressers (yes, that's plural...if you haven't read my last post you can go do that now to find out why!).  The only clothing items in her closet are her dresses and skirts on the lower rod (including some for her to grow into).

Her closet is not very big.  When we first moved in, it was a basic layout with a rod and a shelf above it.  When my son was born (this used to be his room) my dad put in a closet organizer for us that is much more practical.

Storage Shelves Makeover

We inherited some metal shelves in our basement when we bought this house.  The previous owners used them for canning so each of the shelves is somewhat short.  We've changed what types of items we've stored on them over the years, but their height (or lack thereof!) has always been a bit of an issue.  I like shelves that are big enough to put big bins on so I can keep lots of things organized and accessible but these are too small for those.

Currently the shelves are in the furnace room and things just kind of get crammed in there.  See??

Garage Clean Out Part 2

In Garage Clean Out Part 1 I told you I joined the Great Garage Clean-Out Challenge and showed you how I followed the first 3 steps of Laura from OrgJunkie's PROCESS.  Today I'll show you the last 4 steps and reveal what the garage looks like now.  Here's a before and after shot of the whole garage: