We all know the struggle of jumbled spices. However, we NEED our spices to give our delicious home meals extra flair, so what do we do? Well, your favorite professional organizer is here to help! Having an organization system for spices not only makes your cabinets/drawers look better, it also helps you cook more efficiently!
Ready to stop digging through your drawers and cabinets to find that one spice your dish needs? Follow these 6 easy steps to organize your spices. Step 1: Gather all of your spices into one pile and clean the drawers and cabinets they were in. Step 2: Throw out any spices that are expired, no longer have any scent, and/or hardened. Step 3: Decide if you want to go the extra mile when it comes to spice containers. Are you happy with the different containers your spices are in? If they aren't working for you or your space, consider buying a set of matching spice containers like this one from Amazon which comes with handy labels as well. Step 4: Measure your drawer or cabinet and line it. This isn't absolutely necessary, but it helps keep your space clean and prevents your storage solutions from shifting. Step 5: Choose your organizer. Which organizing solution you choose will depend on the type and size of your space: -in drawer racks -slide-out cabinet shelves -cabinet lazy susan -three tier spice rack holder -cabinet door organizer Step 6: Place those babies in your new organizing solution! Some people prefer organizing their spices by alphabetical order and others prefer keeping the most commonly used spices at the front. Choose what works best for you! And just like that, your spices are beautifully organized and easily accessible! Need help getting the rest of your home organized? Contact me and let's chat more about how Sage Organizing Co. can help you! If you're looking for more organization ideas and tips, follow Sage Organizing Co. on Pinterest! Need more help with organizing your home or estate clearing? Contact us and book a consultation to start your organized life today! Professional Disclaimer: The ideas, recommendations, and opinions on this website, blog, and made in person are for educational and entertainment purposes only, and should not be considered legal, financial, or medical advice. I am not an attorney, doctor, or licensed financial professional. Sage Organizing Co., LLC is not liable for any losses or damages related to actions or failure to act related to the content of this website, blog, or in-person discussions. If you need specific legal, financial, or medical advice, consult a professional in your area. Related Articles: 4 Easy Hacks to Organize your Pantry How I created a weekly routine that works for our family 4 Kitchen Organizing Secrets That Will Blow Your Mind
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The holidays are over and the twenties are officially upon us. Woo hoo!! The phrase "out with the old, in with the new" is true for many people when it comes to starting off the new year fresh-- organization is no exception! New Year's resolutions are often well-intentioned, but let's be honest-- they are usually thrown to the way-side a month or even a few weeks into the year. Life is busy, work and kids are a lot to manage, how are we supposed to find time to do yoga and eat vegetables 3 times a day?! Whether it's quitting bad habits, starting a new hobby, or adjusting your lifestyle, you can set yourself up for success this new year by implementing organization in your home and schedule! Read on to find out 5 tips to organize your 2020! 1. Utilize a calendar Whether it be paper or digital, having (and using!) a single calendar for all tasks, reminders, appointments, and events is the first step to organizing your day, week, month, and year. Most phones come with a calendar app already installed, but if you aren't a fan of how it functions, there are plenty of other calendar apps you can download. A great benefit of digital calendars is you can also set up reminder notifications to prevent from any confusion. If digital calendars aren't your thing, a paper calendar works too! One thing to keep in mind is to make sure your calendar is portable so you can add events to it even when you're not home. At some point, we all have had to delay scheduling or adding an event to our calendar because it's at home on our wall or desk. A portable calendar makes it easy for you to keep track of your life at home and on-the-go! 2. Post-Holiday Present Declutter Presents are abundant during the holidays which is all great fun until our home gets cluttered. Think about all the presents you received and count them. Now, take that number and give away or throw away the same number of items in your home. Read here to decide if an item should be donated or thrown out! A post-holiday present declutter is a great way to maintain organization in your home and make sure you don't have too much stuff for the space available. 3. Cleaning/Chore Schedule Establishing a cleaning/chore schedule for your household is a must! None of us are excited about cleaning our bathrooms so it's easy to put it off. However, this often ends up in frustration and feeling overwhelmed. A schedule keeps everybody on track and spreads the responsibility evenly amongst all family members. Nobody can use the excuse anymore that they didn't know or forgot they had to do a house chore! Plus, by spreading the cleaning and chores across all family members, you have more time and can realistically plan accomplishing those new year's resolutions! 4. Family Message Board A family message board and a chore schedule sound like they may be same, but these are separate and have their own functions. The chore schedule should show family members their responsibilities for the week or month. A message board is perfect in the kitchen or anywhere everybody in the house passes through to communicate. Messages may be something like, "I fed the dog" or "I'll be back around 6pm" or "dinner is at 7pm." Message boards are an easy and fun way to make sure the whole family is on the same page and knows what's going on. 5. Meal Prep Prepping your meals for the week is another way to manage time plus eat healthy. Meal prepping prevents those times of coming home from work, starving, and not in the mood to make a balanced meal so you just reach for the instant mac and cheese for you and the family. Moments like these are what often lead to giving up on resolutions. Meal prepping gives you a sense of accomplishment and enables you to be more productive during busy weekdays. You can read more details on meal prepping (and how I manage to do it for my family) here. And those are 5 tips from a Certified Professional Organizer® to start your 2020 off organized! Set yourself up for success in the new year by getting your home, schedule, and life organized. What are your New Year's resolutions? Comment below! If you're looking for more organization ideas and tips, follow Sage Organizing Co. on Pinterest and get ideas from a Professional Organizer! Need more help with organizing your home? Contact us and book a consultation to start your organized life today! Professional Disclaimer: The ideas, recommendations, and opinions on this website, blog, and made in person are for educational and entertainment purposes only, and should not be considered legal, financial, or medical advice. I am not an attorney, doctor, or licensed financial professional. Sage Organizing Co., LLC is not liable for any losses or damages related to actions or failure to act related to the content of this website, blog, or in-person discussions. If you need specific legal, financial, or medical advice, consult a professional in your area.
Pantries are like the command center of the kitchen. Our kids and spouses shuffle through them looking for a snack, the chef of the house drags out all the spices for dinner-- our pantries are bound to become a chaotic mess without some organization. Read on for my top 4 easy hacks for organizing your pantry today! 1. Get rid of those boxes Empty out food that comes in cardboard boxes or oversized bags and use clear containers to store your food. This not only helps you fit more into your pantry, but it's also a better system to keep your food fresh longer since the containers will be far more airtight than a box. You can buy clear plastic containers from Amazon, Target, Walmart, or HomeGoods. Mason jars are also a great alternative! 2. Get those cans in order Before organizing your canned goods, it's best to go through them all and make sure there aren't any that are expired. Next, invest in a can rack to keep your canned food from getting knocked over or edging out of its given space in your pantry. You can buy a can rack from Amazon right here! 3. Separate your food by meals/needs Make sure that your food is organized by category. For instance, I like to keep all of my baking ingredients together so I'll keep my vanilla extract (for example) with all my other common baking goods instead of with all the spices I use for cooking meals. I also like to keep all of my "breakfast" food in one area together and "snacks" in a separate part of the pantry too. This makes it easy when you're cooking to just have to look in one spot of the pantry instead of going through the entire space. 4. Add wire shelves Maximize the space in your pantry before sacrificing some of your organizing goals. I personally love to use under shelf baskets like these from Amazon to utilize vertical space. If under shelf baskets don't seem right for your pantry, consider getting shelves for your pantry door like this one. The more space you have, the easier it will be to categorize and organize your pantry so it's not all jumbled. And those are my top 4 easy hacks for organizing your pantry and making your food accessible. It may take a little effort to get it in order at first, but following these pantry organization tips will save you far more time and stress in the long run. If you're looking for more organization ideas and tips, follow Sage Organizing Co. on Pinterest!
Need more help with organizing your home? Contact us and book a consultation to start your organized life today! Professional Disclaimer: The ideas, recommendations, and opinions on this website, blog, and made in person are for educational and entertainment purposes only, and should not be considered legal, financial, or medical advice. I am not an attorney, doctor, or licensed financial professional. Sage Organizing Co., LLC is not liable for any losses or damages related to actions or failure to act related to the content of this website, blog, or in-person discussions. If you need specific legal, financial, or medical advice, consult a professional in your area.
Listen up, y’all: I’m about to share with you how you can get your life and your time organized using the Erin Condren Life Planner! I love using an old-school paper planner to write down and organize all the things going on in my life. I've been using a paper planner since 1989 and yes: I do keep all my old ones.
Want to see how to use the Erin Condren Life Planner to get organized? Read on, my friend!
Since I share organizing advice with awesome people like you, naturally my content may contain affiliate links for products I use and love. If you take action (subscribe, make a purchase, etc.) after clicking these links, I’ll earn some coffee money, which I promise to drink while I am coming up with more organizing goodness for you.
#1 Use your erin condren life planner to set-up your appointments
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To make your life a little easier, I've created this free Back to School checklist.
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Want to see how i CREATED MY FAMILY ROUTINE? kEEP READING...
Who's running the show at your house?
I bet you're on "survival mode" a lot, Right?
- My spouse works and he travels for work. His travel isn't on a regular basis, so sometimes he is home and can help out, other times it is just me running the show.
- I'm transistioning from being a WAHM to becoming a new small business owner. I'm self-employed, so I create my own schedule. But I now have all the resposnisiblities of being the WAHM, with the added bonus of trying to get a business off the ground. Festive, right?!?
- We have one shorty who goes to school, after-school sports practice, tutoring, and everything that goes along with being a middle schooler.
- Our whole famliy has a busy calendar of volunteering commitments, carpools, as well as a full social calendar.
- We are always on the run! And we only have ONE shorty: I know that those of you with 2,3,4, and 5 have an exponentialy difficult schedule.
This is how we were rolling
Something had to give
When I finally stopped blubbering, I knew I had to do something to fix this mess. If you know you need to change your life, you naturally consult Oprah, right? That was my first instinct, too! Unfortunatley, neither Oprah or Gayle were available to change my life for me, so I had to do the next best thing: I went to Pinterest.
After lots of reading up on how to manage my family's time and thinking about how I wanted our schedules to look, I decided to commit to A Weekly Family Routine. This means carving out 2 hours once a week (I do Sundays) to dedicate to planning out the whole week in advance.
Two hours? On a sunday? Good luck with that.
NO: it doesn't have to be on a Sunday. If you have a couple hours of downtime on Tuesday morning, do your Family Routine then. If you have time while the kids are at volleyball practice, do it then. Just figure out when you have the time and do it. Sunday works for me.
NO: it doesn't have to be 2 hours all at once. I mentally split the project time into two portions: Logistics and Meal Planning.
I often find that I have one hour free on Saturday (while waiting at sports practice), which is when I bang out the Meal and Grocery Plan. Then on Sunday morning/early afternoon, I knock out all of the logisitical stuff.
Remember: I am not the Boss of You. YOU DO WHAT WORKS FOR YOU!!
so you do...what exactly??
What are these supplies you speak of?
- Iphone. We keep our work schedules, appointments, etc. digitally, so I need my phone to see what's on the plate for the week.
- My paper planner. I'm old-school and still use a paper planner. If you can survive with just digital planning, I applaud you, but that's not my jam. I need to write it all down and see how it is going to play out.
- Paper Family calendar, if that is how you roll. I don't, but if you do, get it down off the wall and show it who is the Boss.
- Pencils, pretty colored gel pens, post-its and binder clips. That is just how I do. I keep a pencil case in my car with all these supplies so I can plan on the run, if needed. I just heard you say "Nerd Alert", by the way.
- The Grocery List pad. I have a custom one, which is gorgeous, but I also love the All Out Of grocery list from Knock Knock. OrganizeHer also makes a great product, and they are availble at Target. Doesn't matter what you use, just have something you can write on.
- Meal Planner Notepad. Again, I'm old school. I write out the Meal Plan on a piece of paper and it is posted in the kitchen for quick reference. I love the Knock Knock product. It can be on the prettiest paper or a sheet of notebook paper: who cares as long as you have a plan!
Supplies: check. Now what?
- Work and travel schedules for parents. If your shorty has an afterschool job, add in that too.
- Afterschool activities. Practices, tutors, whatever.
- Carpool. Want to change your life? Start using the free carpool-kids.com/Carpool Kids app. It's a free app that lets you and other parents set up who is driving which kids to what activity, all within the app. No more Sunday carpool text chains from Hell!
- Social plans for everyone, including babysitter needs.
- Workouts
- Cleaning the house. Whether it's scheduling your cleaning lady or figuring out who is going to scrub the toliets and when, make a plan to get your crib clean. Don't be nasty.
- Date or Famliy Night. Sometimes that just means frozen pizza and Netflix, but who cares.
- Errands, including our big ones...Target and Groceries. If you're a famliy of more than 3, I'll guess you have a Costco/Sams/BJ's run once a week or so, too.
- What's for Dinner every day. I rarely plan breakfasts, and lunch is usually leftovers. When planning dinners, I take into account practices, work schedules, etc.
- Grocery list
- Cookbooks, Magazines, and/or Pinterest Boards
- Grocery Store sales flyer (which I access digitally at our grocery store, Harris Teeter)
get your game face on: now you have to plan it all out
Here is how I build-out our week:
- Work schedule and appointments come first. Those are the non-negotiables (aka make or cost me money), so they get priority.
- All after-school activites get scheduled next. Those activities cost me money too, so I am making sure I take care of them.
- Carpool is next, closely followed by any babysitting needs. *Note: I usually try to book my sitter as soon as I put an event on the calendar, to ensure I don't forget until the last minute. The Sunday Rountine has saved me many times from forgetting to book a sitter.
- Errands and Cleaning. My biggest tip is to schedule errands during downtimes. For example, on the day I drive carpool to a 1.5 hour practice, I drop the kids, hit the post office, library, and Target (including Starbucks) and get back to practice in time. The other way to roll is to just bite the bullet and do it all in one day. Again, do what works for you.
- Groceries fall in last. That is flexible, depending on our Meal Plan. I personally shop at two grocery stores: one I go in and the other I place my order ahead of time and drive through. The drive through service at Harris Teeter is the BEST time saver in the world. I highly, highly recommend it. The $5 it costs will be the best $5 you spend all day.
COngrats: you now have a plan of attack for the week.
Now you gotta share the love!
- My Work calendar: these are tasks specific to my business. For example, I might schedule "Write blog post" on Tuesday from 2-4pm, but this isn't vital for my family to know. It's just to keep me on task.
- C+C calendar: (the C's are my spouse and my initals). These are schedule items that my husband needs to see and/or be aware of. So all household appointments, my off-site jobs (for safety), etc. I do also add any household projects, like "shop for helath insurance" or "car in for service", so my spouse knows what household projects are in progress .
- Family calendar: all three of us see this. This includes all afterschool activites, carpools, social calendar and babysitter, and school dates. My shorty's school sends out a newsletter with test dates, so I put those dates into the Family calendar.
Get your fam on board, toot sweet.
How's that all working for you, you ask?
Ok: not 100%. You're going to forget to schedule things. There will be push-back from the famliy about "the crazy schedule Mom made", and maybe more. But trust me when I say: it's way better than it was before, and it will only get better as you keep doing it. The key is to not give up. Listen, we all know the Moms usually run the show at home, so if you have the job, OWN THE DANG JOB.
I own that weekly family routine. you CAN own your family routine, too.
You can do this too! You already run the show...just make it easier on yourself!
Want help getting started with your weekly Family routine?
Have questions? Let's hear what you have!!
Professional Disclaimer: The ideas, recommendations, and opinions on this website, blog, and made in person are for educational and entertainment purposes only, and should not be considered legal, financial, or medical advice. I am not an attorney, doctor, or licensed financial professional. Sage Organizing Co., LLC is not liable for any losses or damages related to actions or failure to act related to the content of this website, blog, or in-person discussions. If you need specific legal, financial, or medical advice, consult a professional in your area.
3 Ways to Organize Your Life + Time with the Erin Condren Life Planner
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