Organised places, organised minds: Walk-in closet organisation

Few weeks ago I opened my drawers on the blog {here} and today I will open the door to my walk-in closet.

My closet is nothing special, it's not big nor small but I am (now) trying to keep it organised in a different way.

Few days ago you would enter in my bedroom and be shocked by the lack of harmony in the closet - basically you would have found this:

What was the problem?  I think I have few:

1. too many clothes - some of them I didn't wear in years;
2. no organisation whatsoever;
3. laziness - always ignored the closet.

I simply couldn't stand watching at my closet anymore and I had to take action.

1st action ::declutter::

I have checked all my and Stefano's clothes and picked the items I wanted to donate. This action has filled 2 big bags of clothes.

Do the same and donate all the clothes that no longer fits or that you have not wear for a long time.

2nd action: ::seasonal clothes only::

When I swapped clothes at the beginning of this summer I had left some long sleeves shirts and jumpers because "Summer hasn't really kicked in and I will store them later".. which I didn't do and they have been in the closet for the whole summer season! It is true that summer is ending, but it is still too hot for those shirts to be there, so I moved them away and let the other clothes breathe some fresh air. If you are asking how many clothes I took out, I'll say 2 medium size boxes... This time I will really make the change when time is right!

3rd action ::hangers::

If you look around for closet organisation projects, you'll see that one of the most popular tips is too buy same kind of hangers...to be honest, I had so many hangers ( some actually new) that I didn't want to spend more money on them - since I'm trying to control my spending habits, I decided to skip this tip and I simply grouped the hangers in order to give some sort of organisation:

Coloured hangers for shirts and work dresses;wood hangers for "smart" dresses and jackets.

4th action ::coloured closet::

I think that the best organised look is given when things are gathered by their colour. Obviously our clothes are not all the same colour and they probably have different shades of colours so it is not easy to gather them in one single bulk. I tried my best to make small groups with similar colours and style and hanged them together {I hope it does look organised to you as it does to me}.

5th action ::tha art of folding ::

This Ikea piece of furniture shouldn't really be there...but I bought it before moving into this house and I wasn't going to spend more money on my closet :)

I had also bought 4 ikea blue boxes and then organised the top row with baskets and paper boxes:

The blue boxes mostly contain jeans and homewear while shirts are nicely folded in the baskets.

I have used some personalised tags so Stefano knows where his staff is :), but the most important thing is folding!

If clothes are folded neatly, you will gain a lot of space. Stefano owns many sport shirts and I managed to fit them all in this pink box {he hates the colour though}:

I fold the shirt in a long band and then roll it neatly until I have a small square.

6th action :: the art of storing::

I always had problems storing belts and bracelets. I own too many -that's for sure - and I never had them stored correctly.

I have organised my bracelets in a box, and used some cartons to make the base:

Now they are perfectly organised and I can choose what to wear withouth ransacking a bag full of bracelets.

The belts are also stored in a box, but tidily folded into a box organiser:

I also need to store scarves...and they are all hanging behind the door [I have used an IKEA organiser...can you tell I love IKEA?]:

Stefano's belts are also organised in a small box {since he only owns 3 belts}:

7th action ::decor, decor, decor::

You can have the best organised room in the whole world, but it will never feel yours until you don't personalise it!

I have used our initials for my closet decor. Some time ago I bought the letter S and D and covered them with some tissue paper - I was going to buy the letter &, but then I decided to make it myself with some hayware and painted it in yellow (I already had the colour).



This is the final result:

Ta - chaaan!

How have you organised your closet? Share your tips in the comments!

Until next time,
Daniela

Organised places, Organised minds: Drawer Organising tips

Hello!

It's time for a session of:

Today, I want to share with you how I have organised clothes in our 4 drawer dresser:

Ugh..I need to seriously decorate my bedroom!

I personally have many clothes, but Stefano isn't kidding anybody!

Let's start from the shirt department:

Daniela's drawer:

everything in its place

On the left I have organised plain T shirt - the once I use in the house or for outdoor activities -  and also shirts with longer sleeves [10 points to whoever spots my refash shirt here ;)], while on the right and central side I have organised my shirts by color - I am not OCD but this way makes it quicker to pick the shirt I need! 

I try to fold them as neat as possible so they won't get any crease!

Stefano's drawer:

Look how organised Stefano is! I am proud of him :D

He owns a million sport shirts but they are neatly folded - I still don't understand why he needs to have 4  [yes 4] identical shirts of his favourite football team....at least they're folded right?

Let's move to the underwear department:

Daniela's drawer:

 I bought these boxes from Ikea, and they are perfect organisers. I always had messy underwear drawers but this time it's perfect! I no longer lose any sock, and everything is folded and easy to find.

Stefano's drawer:

I'm afraid Stefano buys so many socks because I always make one sock disappear!

Stefano decided he didn't need any box and succeeded in organising his underwear drawer pretty fine! Mind you - it's mainly socks in there, that's why it was easy! ;) 

How do you organise your drawers? Do you have any trick? If you want to share them with me, leave a comment!

Until next time,
Daniela

Organized places, Organized mind: Weekly Meal plan

I have set up a nice and coloured weekly meal plan for my home. My personal opinion is that every home should have a meal plan for 3 reasons:

1. It saves a lot of time thinking about the meal you want to prepare;

2. It saves money, since you plan your shopping ahead and you can make sure there is no waste;

3. It can be healthy! Since you know what to cook and what to eat, you will not be tempted by eating/cooking something you shouldn't! ;)

I use a food list where I have listed a selection of meals I can distribute during the week:

I would like to share 2 tips we have been given by our nutricionist:

*max 2 eggs per week
**max 2 times x pasta/arroz/patatas per week

When I plan the meals, I leave Sunday "free" where I can cook whatever inspires me ;) 

Yes, it's written in 3 languages......

If you like what you see you can download the free templates:

Weekly Meal Plan

Click here for the PDF file or Click on the below image and save it:

Food List

If you want to give my Food list a try, please help yourself :)

Click here for the PDF file or Click on the image below and save it:

What about you? How do you organize your weekly meals?

I hope I have inspired you!

Until next time,

Daniela 

Nail Polish Cabinet

Almost an year ago, I went shopping in a second hand market near my place. 

A nice lady was selling some wood furniture and I bought what looked like a spices cabinet for the kitchen.

Unfortunately I don't have any picture of the cabinet before my painting :( - but I can confirm it was a plain wooden cabinet.

What I can say is that I forgot it in my storage room for months (eh - ehm), until we moved into our new place and I didn't know where to place all my nail polish bottles! I turned around and I saw it: a perfect Nail Polish cabinet!

I didn't like the colour so much, and since I'm decorating the bathroom with white stuff, I have decided to paint it in white as well:

Since the cabinet had never been painted before, it was easy to give that antique style I wanted - without using any sanding block. 

While the cabinet was drying I started organizing my pretty nail polishes:

This is the final result:

Me likey!

I have also added some lipstick, and...

Did I say I was obsessed with owls?

I am very happy about the outcome, especially the way I organized them (by colour)

Hope I have inspired you!

Until next time,
Daniela

Organized places, Organized minds: Grocery List

I believe that organization is very important for our peace of mind. 

Since a few months I decided to have a better organized life and started arrange many documents in binders/folders, and also set up some tables for monthly budgets, accountings and... grocery lists.

Something I really don't like is going shopping with some messy grocery list:

I am sure I would end up forgetting something in the shop and wouldn’t realize until I really needed it ;)

Since I am a excel affectionate, I have created a grocery list which helps me keep a clean and clear record of all the things I need to buy.

I’ve divided the list in the most common articles we general buy: Bread&Cereals, Meat & fish, Fruit &Vegetables..

I think it is very functional because:

1. When I go to the shop I know already the sectors I have to visit;

2.   While filling it, I check the kitchen cabinets and see if I’m running out of some articles/products and directly note it down (one section per time).

The grocery list happily reigns in my kitchen command center:

Small but functional! :)

Do you need a functional grocery list? Below you can find my free template ;)

Grocery List pdf Free Template

If you don't have a google account, click on the below image and save it:

Until next time,
Daniela