Tag: organization

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Easy Bathroom Organization For Under $10

  • Before I Kondo’d the heck out of my closet…
  • … and after 🙂

In my previous blog post I discussed how I am the queen of organization. Which holds true when it comes to grocery shopping, paying bills, school work, work life, etc., but when it comes to areas in my house I have been struggling to learn how to best get organized. It has been a goal of mine at the start of 2019 to organize and decorate our apartment to function best for us. The bigger goal was to not break the bank doing it. Everything at Home Goods and Target is so adorable, but c’mon, $30 for a basket to organize?! Yikes.

Although I made this goal at the beginning of 2019 and we are already more than halfway through… now is as good of time as any to start the organization! On my list- our bathroom is first. In our previous apartment we didn’t have a lot of bathroom space… so there wasn’t much that needed to be organized. I kept most of my make-up, body sprays, nail polish, etc., on my vanity instead of in the bathroom while everything else went under the sink. Now that I have more room organization is much needed!!

I have been keeping my make-up and every day products- leave-in conditioner, perfume, deodorant, etc., on top of our counter, which had been working, but it just felt so cramped. It was time for a change. I moved our shelving unit that I had in our entrance way into the bathroom and decided that was the best place to store my every day needs. This way it was not on the counter, but was within easy reach.

To start, I took every item out of the drawers and closet and put them into categories all over the floor and counter. I classified all of my items into 7 categories: beauty, medicine cabinet & first aid, Kevin’s, towels, paper products, oral hygiene products, miscellaneous. I also took every storage item I had been using in the bathroom (a basket, 2 drawer storage units, fabric basket, and a couple organizers for the drawers in the vanity) and took inventory of how they could be most effectively purposed. Once everything was in their respective categories I determined if there were any products that needed to be tossed, either because I wasn’t using them or they were expired. After dwindling all the bathroom products into what I use regularly- and getting rid of some OLD bathroom towels– I started adding each category into existing baskets.

The organized chaos…

With the remainder that didn’t have a home or storage bin- foundation, toliet paper, paper towels, nail polish, our eye “accessories” (aka glasses & contacts), my robe, and extra “medicine cabinet” items- I determined how many more organization items would be needed and what size would be appropriate. I made a list in my Notes App on my iPhone as I do with just about every list in my life. LOL.

Now, usually I would make a trip to Target to get some trendy baskets, but since a big part of my goal was to get organized without blowing my budget out… I headed to Dollar Tree! I’m not going to lie, this was the first time I had ever stepped foot into a dollar store at all, but I recently watched one of my favorite YouTubers who does DIY and home decor on a budget who said that dollar stores are the best place to get small organization needs that are budget friendly. Since these baskets were literally just going into my closet or a drawer, I decided that the dollar store was definitely worth a trip.

I started by going to Family Dollar. There I was able to find a door hook for my robe ($2.25), 2 small drawer organizers for my hair ties & bobby pins ($1.00), a small gray tub for the extra medicine cabinet items ($2.25), and 3 small black drawer organizers for my nail polish, foundation, and our contacts & glasses ($1.00). I was wanting baskets for the extra toliet paper and paper towels that we have, but the baskets that were available at Family Dollar were around $8-$10 and I knew I could find some more reasonably priced ones than that. I ended up venturing to Dollar Tree and found a white basket for $1.00. Yup, ONE DOLLAR. I bought two. So in total for everything to up my bathroom organization game I spent $8.50. Just for kicks and giggles I researched what I would have spent on similar items at Target and folks… it would have cost me about $58, WHAT?

Once I got everything home, I put all the items into their perspective baskets & bins and in the closet I put the things I use most often at eye level. I am planning to add some more decor to our bathroom- especially now that we have more counter space! If you enjoyed this organize with me blog post… let me know and I can post more because there are a few spots in my house that could use some TLC in the organization department. LOL.

Happy Organizing!!!

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How To Make Meal Planning Simple and Easy

Since we moved to Omaha I have been planning every meal of (almost) every day for Kevin and myself. This has helped us save money, be more organized, and eat more healthy-ish meals.

Every week we alternate who purchases groceries which week and we have a $100 grocery budget- this excludes any nights we eat out. Because I plan out our meals, it’s not likely that we won’t know what we’re having for dinner and run through a fast food restaurant for convenience. Instead of spending almost $20 on 1 night of meals, we’ll spend $20 for 2-3 nights of meals.

Anyone who has been to my house can attest that I am the organization QUEEN. I have a monthly calendar, weekly calendar, daily planner, and a monthly bill tracker. This excludes everything I have organized on my phone as well. I told you… organization queen here. Having a career that has a different schedule week to week, scheduling out our meals helps to keep the both of us organized. We also go grocery shopping the same day every week (most of the time)- Sunday. Not only does this help in my planning, (I can start planning fresh on a Monday) but this is something we can do together and look forward to.

I say “healthy-ish” because planning these meals around the most healthy ingredients is not my main goal (I like recipes with heavy cream & butter, too!), but when I can incorporate more healthy options- I do! Most of the time anything you make at home will be more healthy than if you ate out at a restaurant because you are in control of the ingredients.

On Saturday or Sunday morning I will begin my meal planning for the week. I start by perusing the pantry to see if there are any dry goods we have on hand that I can get rid of and utilize in any recipes. I will then go through previous weeks’ meal line-ups and add some of the rotating recipes- stuffed pepper soup, lasagna roll-ups, Andouille sausage cajun pasta, Mexican bake, etc.- into the current week. If I still have holes in my week, I will turn to Pinterest for inspiration-whether that’s to use a recipe exactly or just to get some ideas brewing in my head. I usually plan meals for Monday-Saturday, leaving Sunday day open in case we want to do something. For the past couple months we have been getting the ready-to-bake Hyvee pizza for Sunday night dinner. It’s our night to indulge and it’s a night where I don’t have to worry about actually prepping & making a meal. LOL.

Once all the meals have been decided, I organize the week in the Notes App on my iPhone. Depending upon what events I have going on at work will determine which meals are made on which day. Below each meal I list out the ingredients that will be needed.

Once I’ve gathered all of this information, I log onto the HyVee website and shop for all the items needed. This gives me an idea of how much we will be spending and if I need to change out a meal or use a different brand because we are past our $100 budget. I also try to see if there are any deals where I could swap something in the recipe for whatever is on sale or if a certain item has a lot of fuel saver opportunity. (Hy-Vee has the fuel saver program where certain items get you a certain amount off of gas). In addition to the ingredients for the meals, I check with Kevin about what lunches he will be having- he’s a simple guy, it’s either a deli meat sandwich or PB&J’s- as well as whatever snacks I’ll be having at work throughout the week. It’s usually only a few rotating snacks- bananas, pretzel crisps & hummus, carrots & ranch, and Cheez It’s. Once these are all added to the list and the Hy-Vee cart to be sure we have everything and are within budget we head to the store. Like I said, we kind of enjoy our time together at the grocery store so that’s why instead of just utilizing the Hy-Vee pick-up since everything is already in the cart, we go to the store.

And that pretty much sums up how I plan out our meals weekly! I really do think that this way of planning has helped us save money & make better choices for meals. Just because this system works for me, doesn’t necessarily mean this exact way will be perfect for you, but maybe my organization tips can help you create your own! 🙂

Happy Planning!