dots and details : My Organizing Tips: A fresh start to the New Year

Hi Everyone! Happy New Year! I took a couple weeks off of blogging right after Christmas which was so nice and relaxing but I am back to kick off the New Year with many exciting things coming up for my blog but also sharing ways to stay organized, new recipes, home decor ideas, and so much more! My blogging goal for 2018 is to share more content with you and hopefully inspire you to create things in your own home.

2017 was a wonderful year for us filled with ups and downs, traveling, family time, and so much more. One way to kick off 2018 is decluttering and re-organizing. As you know, I am a pretty organized person and love the feeling of cleaning and keeping things tidy. Some of you are like this and some of you aren't, either way I thought it would be fun to share a few ways to start off the new year by giving you some of my organizing and decluttering tips that I use for our own home.

Here are a few of my organizing tips:

First, start small

Pick a place in your house that needs the most attention. Start small by focusing on one room or spot, this way you aren't overwhelmed by all of the areas that you want to accomplish. For us, it was the kitchen. Once you pick your place in the house start by throwing away anything you don't use, need, or want.

Create 3 Piles

Create a donate pile, trash pile, and keep pile. This can apply to your kitchen, closet, office, kids play room whatever area needs the most attention. Once you start and give that one area a little attention, it will give you the motivation you need to start de-cluttering. Trash items you don't need, have wear & tear, or simply don't want. Donate any items you want to remove from your space to your local Goodwill or Salvation Army or maybe a family member/friend wants to go through your pile. I ask myself several questions when I am determining my "keep pile" (Is this something we need, something we will use in the future, or something we can do without?)

Utilize your space

Whichever room or area needs some help, once you tackle the cleaning out part of the job you can then start fresh with utilizing your space properly. What I mean by this, for an example we needed some serious cleaning and organizing in our kitchen cabinet area and pantry. With the rush of the holiday's we kind of starting throwing things left and right. Use plastic bins, fabric totes, door hangers, or containers to organize your space. This will not only make your area look better but it will feel better if everything has a place. Especially if you are working with a small space and need some extra room, using a door hanger for your cleaning supplies, crafts, or shoes will really help your space situation.

Labeling

I know you are thinking, I don't have "time" to label. Well, maybe you don't but I can promise you if you label the folders, label the plastic bins, or label your pantry items it will help you stay organized throughout the year. I really stick by this and this has helped me stay on track throughout the year and not just at the new year. Even if it is one label or two it will definitely not only look better but also feel better.

Here are a few areas that I have organized in the past week to make small changes in our everyday lives. Even starting with one drawer in your medicine cabinet or in your closet will start to make a difference and keep you on track. I hope you enjoy my own organizing tips and I hope this inspires you to create your own organizational needs in your own home :) Thank you for stopping by!

I organized the small areas of our pantry that needed some organization by using jars, containers, tupperware and bins to create an easier way to find things we are looking for.

Our kitchen cabinets quickly get out of hand and just taking some extra time to re-organize a cabinet or two goes a long way.

I received this spice rack from my parents for Christmas and it has been a wonderful way to get our species organized in our pantry and I love how it looks also haha :) Another way to organize your spices is by purchasing these clear boxes or trays to separate your goods. Very inexpensive and easy! I purchased these from Target for $6.99 and $9.99

I don't know about you, but we have books everywhere in different locations I thought it make a good statement in our sunroom but also a great way to organize our books! I created two simple book ends with greenery and larger books on the other end.

Same thing with my cookbooks, they were everywhere after the Holidays. I made a cookbook statement in the Kitchen to add some color and this was a great way to keep them organized as well.