organization

How I Organize My Closet (Before Renovation!)

BrookeLeave a comment

Hello everyone!

Today I have another organization and room-related post. If you’ve been around for a while, you might’ve read my posts about the recent bathroom renovations in my house. My parents found an independent contractor through a friend for the renovations, and they also wanted to get the closets in our house redone. The contractor offered to throw them into the price of our bathroom renovations as a small addition (aka a LOT cheaper than actual closet renovation companies) since we had already given them a lot of business. We’re working with them to determine what systems of organization (shelving vs. drawers, etc.) we want in the closets right now, but soon we’ll be back in renovation mode.

As part of my New Year’s cleaning last week, I also tried to go through my closet, clean it out, and reorganize some things. I figured it would be interesting to do a post on how I’ve kept it organized before the renovation, and I’ll make a similar post after it’s completed. My closet initially came with nothing but one hanging rod and a shelf at the top, so I’ve had to figure out my own little do-it-yourself ways to put some sort of structure in and organize everything. As a disclaimer, I also have a dresser and I keep my sneakers/everyday shoes lined up in a different part of my room, so it is a bit easier for me to keep my closet organized because of that.

On the left side of my closet, I keep most of my clothes in plastic drawers. The three-drawer container on the top is from Target, and the one on the bottom is from Target but not currently in stores. From top to bottom, here’s how I organize the drawers: one drawer for fuzzy socks and other cold-weather accessories, one for socks, bras, and underwear, one for all of my cheer outfits and other school spirit wear, one for non-jean shorts and non-jeans or sweatpants pants, one for jeans and sweatpants, and one for all my pajamas. On top of the first container, I have my current memory box which is about to be overflowing. I have all my skirts hanging and a bunch of extra pants hangers from Target, and all my rompers/dresses hanging. In the small open floor space next to my laundry basket, I keep my cheer shoes, slippers, my UGG boots, and my two pairs of dressy shoes/heels. On the top shelf, I have an extra shoebox (my next memory box!) and another pair of cheer shoes on top of it, next to… another pair of cheer shoes. I have my suitcase leaning against these.

On the right side of my closet, I keep my laundry basket on the ground next to two more sets of storage drawers from Target. From top to bottom, I have one drawer for long sleeve shirts, one for fancier shirts, one for my cuter t-shirts to wear to school, and one for all my shirts I’ve accumulated from volunteer events, cheer events, and other extracurriculars. I have the rest of my dresses hanging, and all of my jackets, along with a bunch of extra pants hangers and other hangers. On the top shelf, I have a bin from Target full of tote bags and Lululemon bags that I can use for various things to carry stuff around to school and friends’ houses. I also have a huge plastic bin from Target which is kind of my ultimate memory box. I have yearbooks, scrapbooks, my childhood stuffed animals, and anything I actually thought was important enough to save from when I was little.

I know it’s kind of basic, but I’m proud of how organized I’ve been able to keep things. If you have a similar closet situation, I highly recommend going to Target and finding some plastic bins and storage drawers to help organize your space as much as possible. They’re fairly inexpensive, which is why I ended up using them until now, and they’ve worked perfectly for the purpose I used them for. I’m excited to get my closet professionally redone so I can sort of design my own organization system, but you definitely don’t have to do that and spend a bunch of money to have a nice and organized space.

I hope this inspires you to organize your closet. If you guys were interested in this, definitely keep a lookout for my closet organization post-renovations post! I have no clue when renovation will start and end or when I’ll be able to post about it, but it will happen eventually 🙂

-Brooke

How to Declutter Your Electronics

BrookeLeave a comment

Welcome back everyone!

I mentioned in my post a couple days ago that decluttering your electronic devices is an underrated form of organization, and that I would make a post specifically detailing it soon. Well, here it is! There’s probably tons of documents, apps, and other stuff on your phone that you’ve completely forgotten about and don’t need anymore. I highly recommend following these tips to clear out your phone and ~organize~ another part of your life, especially if you’re always running out of space on your devices.

  • Delete old text messages, notes, voice memos, and emails – These are all little documents you probably haven’t looked at in a long time and probably will never look at again. Unless someone has sent you something important or you have a few notes that are filled with important info, I would honestly clear most everything out. I feel like emails are the area where you’ll probably keep the most, because there’s a lot of important work/school stuff.
  • Delete pictures you don’t want (mainly screenshots) – Obviously don’t feel pressured to get rid of meaningful pictures you actually like, but I know personally I take tons of pictures of the homework for the day written on the board in school and other stuff like that and forget to delete them later, or screenshots of other school-related stuff from my teachers’ websites. Clear all these out unless you need them still.
  • Delete downloaded music you don’t want anymore – If you have a streaming service like Apple Music or Spotify, you’ll always be able to download them again later, but right now they’re taking up valuable space on your phone for no reason. Delete anything that you don’t remember what it is- that’s a good sign you don’t listen to it, and remove playlists you never listen to while you’re at it.
  • Delete apps you don’t use anymore – I find deleting games is a good thing to do since they’re relatively unused unless you’re on long car rides or flights and need something to do, and they take up a lot of space. Otherwise, just delete whatever else you don’t need.
  • Wipe down the screen/keyboard/etc. of the device – Time for the actual cleaning! There’s so many germs on our devices from using them all the time, so take a Clorox/disinfectant wipe and really clean off the surfaces.
  • Unfollow people you’re no longer interested in staying in touch with on social media – You can unfollow people’s old accounts they don’t use anymore, accounts you don’t like seeing, celebrities you don’t care about that much, and anyone else who you don’t feel attached to seeing their posts. I also recommend removing them from following you if they currently do, just so you don’t have to be attached to their account.
  • Delete old contacts – Approach this with caution since you never know when you’ll need to contact someone, but we all have those random numbers of people we never really knew from group chats we’d get put in… yeah, you can delete those.
  • Clear your search history and cookies – Not because you have anything to hide (if you do, that’s fine too), but because the website data actually takes up space. This is an easy way to free up a little bit of space, and you’ll stop getting all those creepy automatic fill-ins while browsing (nope, just me bothered by that?).
  • Change your wallpaper and password if necessary – This is totally optional, but it’s always nice to change it up! I like to change my wallpaper to a time that I’m currently missing- right now it’s the Amalfi Coast from my trip to Italy last summer. The water was so gorgeous.
  • Back up your device – Now that you have everything cleared out, you’ll want to preserve your phone/device how it is! Back your phone up to your computer and back your computer up to a hard drive.

I hope this helped any of you guys that wanted to clean out all the junk from your digital life! Since our devices are such a major part of our everyday life now, it’s just as important for them to be organized as our concrete workspaces.

Brooke

5 Little Ways to Organize Your Life in 2020

BrookeLeave a comment

Welcome back everyone!

At the start of a new year, it’s always nice to do some cleaning. I find it makes me feel like I have my life together and am prepared for the year ahead. However, if you’re already a pretty organized person or just don’t have the time to do a major deep cleaning of your room/house, here are a few little ways you can organize your life and feel like you have it all figured out (even if you totally don’t).

  1. Organize any surfaces in your room – This sounds like a lot at first, but you probably don’t have that many surfaces where things are out in your room. For me, I have my nightstand, my bookshelf, my desk, and my bathroom counter. Your room will look so much neater if you just clean off these few surfaces and minimize the amount of stuff you have on top of them. Put things back that have been left out on these areas (put things into drawers, etc), dust them or wipe them down, and organize them.
  2. Choose some sort of planning system that works for you – Whether this is a physical planner, Google Calendar, the Apple calendar app, or some other system, find what works best for you. Having a record of all your plans and responsibilities is super helpful, especially for remembering everything that’s on your plate. For us students especially, it’s an easy way to monitor all your schoolwork.
  3. Go through papers – This sounds vague, but I mean exactly what I wrote: go through all your papers. Old receipts, manuals of electronics, schoolwork from past semesters or even past years, random paperwork, flyers, mail- recycle everything you don’t want and don’t need anymore, and organize what you still want/need in some sort of file folder system. I have a few different folders- I have a huge accordion one for all my current year school stuff so I can keep it and study for finals, I have a smaller folder with important school stuff I still reference from past years (notes from math and Spanish, etc), and a folder with all my extracurricular stuff and/or extra school information.
  4. Do a technology clean-out – I’m going to make a post on this very soon detailing how to do this most efficiently, but get old stuff and apps that you don’t want off of your phones! This is helpful especially if you don’t have a lot of storage. I’m going to leave it at this since I’ll go into detail in another post, but basically just delete stuff you don’t want off of your electronics.
  5. Clean out backpacks and purses – This is a really good idea for your school bag before the new semester, but it’s also nice to clean out any other purses or bags you may use. Check all the pockets, take everything out, and dump them out upside down once empty over a trash can to get rid of crumbs and other trash. You may find things you’d lost a while ago, like your old favorite chapstick.

I hope this inspired you to go do some cleaning. Trust me, you’ll feel so much better once you see the fruits of your labor! I’m an organization-lover and I’m trying to up my game this year, so you’ll definitely be seeing more posts about cleaning and organization soon.

-Brooke