Planners & Printables to Keep your 2013 Organized

How do you keep your life organized?

I am a bit old school in that I have to have a planner--that I can hold in my hands and write in.  

I also love to have a big visual week at a glance in my kitchen where my whole family can see.

These are some of my favorites:

My planner this year is from Jen at IHeart Organizing

I bought the 2013 planner from her Etsy shop here and the disc bound notebook system from the Martha line at Staples.  I LOVE it!  It takes up less room than a notebook and you can easily switch out and add papers as needed.  I am kind of a sucker for fun new systems, but you don't really need it.  A cheap notebook works too:)

 I order our Week at a Glance from Erin Condrin here.  I love that it is personalized--so fun.  I fill this out every Sunday and hang it on the fridge!

Last year I bought my planner from another talented graphic designer Crystal Wilkerson.  It is also fantastic--check it her 2013 planner out here.

Now if you are looking to design your own system I LOVE these free printables.  Grab a 3 ring binder and you will be set!

Click here to the Tom Kat Studio to download and print

Click here to download and print

Here are some great Daily Planning pages you can personalize and print:

Click here to download and print from Simply Organzed Living

Week at a glance:

Click here to download and print from IHeart Organizing

Don't forget to print off your weekly menu planners at The Sisters Cafe:

Download and print here

Have you found any great printables or products that help you stay organized?

 If so, please share! 

Here is to a happily organized 2013!  woo hoo!

Organized Hall Closet and Giveaway

Happy Monday Everyone:)

Did you have a nice weekend? We had a Friday off and I have to say I really love 3 day weekends! Today is the last day for the IHeart Organizing Personalized Family Binder Printable Kit--to enter go here. It will help keep your life in order and family organized!  

 Trust me--it is a great product!

  Here is one of the 30 printables included:

 I meant to post more organizational tips and ideas last week--but I got busy being a Momma--which of course, trumps blogging:)   But, on the last day of the giveaway I thought I would share with you a quick project I tackled awhile back--THE HALL CLOSET.

  I unfortunately forget about this space in the hallway and since the majority of my family is old enough to help with laundry (but obviously can't fold sheets--yikes) , get their own band aids, sunscreen etc, this closet gets trashed very easily. When I opened the door ready to bring some organization to this area, I had to laugh because it was in BAD shape--total chaos in there. I decided I needed to take a 'before' picture' to illustrate to my family the DON"Ts when I am teaching them how to maintain the order:)

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I tossed some junk, divided items into bins, used these handy labels again,( laminated and attached with zip ties) and folded sheets.

This closet did not take me long and I am happy to report that it still looks like this 3 weeks later.  I have found that my family will keep things in order when their is organization with everything having a spot and the expectations are clear on upkeep:)

Now go and organize something!  Do it in baby steps, one drawer at a time and pretty soon your whole house will be in order!  And--you will love it:)

Organizing My Spice/ Baking Cupboard

As you can see, I am a BIG fan of little' lazy susan' turn tables!  You can pick them up for around $4-6 at Target or Walmart.  I started out with just two for my spices and then recently decided to use them to organize the rest of my cooking and baking items.  It is so great to be able to quickly and easily locate anything that I need in seconds with just a little spin instead of unloading and rearranging the shelf:)

 A little tip I learned from my Mom is to keep your spices on these little turntables in alphabetical order.  Now this is just a basic thing--all the spices that start with an A, then a B and so on as your spin it around.  It really  saves you so much time to keep them organized like this and it is super easy to keep up.

 I have little baskets for all the season packets (green one) and food coloring/ extracts/flavoring (white one).

 I keep these glass jars on my counter top for the baking items I use all the time--flour, sugar, brown sugar and steel cut oats (for breakfast, not baking:)  These jars are pretty enough to display and were not very expensive at Target.

I also keep big buckets with gamma lids (screw top) on the bottom of my pantry to refill the flour, sugar and the yellow one is wheat for baking fresh bread (my favorite:)  I keep my wheat grinder there too for easy access!

To answer a few of your questions from the 'Organized Pantry' post...

The Ikea jars pictured on the right ( middle shelf ) are from the kitchen dept.  on the label they say IKEA 365+

The blue containers on the left middle shelf are Rubbermaid from Target or Walmart years ago.  They have held up really well and I like how you can easily scoop our of them.  They sell similar ones still.

I hope these ideas help get you started in organizing your kitchen.

It was a little overwhelming to tackle for me--but now that it is done I LOVE it and can't believe I didn't  sooner:) 

I would LOVE to hear any of your tips or tricks for staying organized! 

 Please share--I welcome your ideas!

**Don't forget to enter the IHeart Organizing Giveaway here**

Organizing: Batteries

So I have been organizing and labeling like mad around here. It feels so good, I think I am addicted:) I need to take some pictures of my work so I can show you what I have been up to. That is on my to do list this week, but in the mean time let me introduce to you our handy Battery Organizer...

 I was brainstorming for gift ideas for my hubby for Fathers Day. When I ask him for ideas he says he doesn't need or want anything, just our love or something along those lines.  Which is sweet, but dang it the boys and I want to wrap something up, you know?!  So it is always hard to buy for my man and takes a lot of thinking. Some of my creative ideas do not turn out as awesome as they were in my head, but this one was a WINNER!  My husband always complained about our battery situation.  We put them in a zip loc bag which was usually spilling out onto the shelf in the sunrrom because with 5 boys and remote control cars alone, we go through A LOT of batteries.  Well, I looked online for a solution and found some battery organizers that were all around $20 with shipping.  Feeling thrifty, I set out to make my own.  I found this container with adjustable compartments at Home Depot on the nail and screw aisle(I think that is where it was) for $4!!

With the help of our labeler and a cute print out on the front Coleman and I transformed this box into a Fathers Day gift and the Daddy LOVED it! 

We have now used it since June with great success.  No more old ziploc spilling out batteries anymore! Yay!

Do you have some great organizing ideas that have worked for your family?  I would LOVE to hear abou them!  Leave a comment here or email me at melandboys@gmail.com.
Have a great week!!