Organizing Helpfuls

Most of the world of household organization requires expensive labels, racks, or totes. But I have found a few tricks of the trade to help cut down on space and time. I'd like to share them with you, as well, for they are virtually free.

I recently tackled the explosive cords drawer. You know, that grocery bag or drawer filled with random electronic cords, chargers, old cameras (still working but upgraded), headphones, etc. I hate that drawer. I feel like no matter what I do I never know what is in it and then ultimately end up going to the store and buying the exact same cable because I didn't dig through the heap of wound up cables in the "ever terrifying" drawer.

Well, a while back I started collecting recyclables that we could use to crafts. We have a box in the garage of old cereal boxes, various funny-shaped boxes or canisters, toilet paper rolls, etc for preschool crafts. Then I saw an organizational idea and ran straight to the recycles box. I found that old toilet paper rolls are wonderful organizers of chords. Simply fold up the cord, shove it in the tube, label the tube and if you're really tricky, leave the ends of the cord poking out the the ends of the tube. That way next time you want to figure out if you need to buy a new cord you can compare the cord's ends to the appliance to see if it's compatible without ever unraveling the cord.

I also used small snack bags to put earbugs in and then put them in a ziplock with my headphones in them. Next time I need to get any kind of headphones - voila! just take out the bag and have my pick. Maybe these tricks could be helpful to you to finally know what is in that electronics hodge-podge drawer. So now that hideous drawer looks like this:

(I put it all in a box in the drawer because I hadn't decided if I'm just going to store it all in the box and thus free up the drawer space or not.)

I also found that folding sheet sets and putting them inside a pillow case helps for neat linen closet shelves, uniform folding and easy "grab and resheet" options. That way you are not spending all your time and energy tracking down all the pieces (bottom sheet, top sheet, pillow case) when it comes time to wrestle that bed on "new sheets" day. And if you have a queen bed, just shove an extra pillowcase in the sack to complete the set. My shelves went from sheet chaos to:

(Don't judge the shelf below it. I haven't gotten there yet.)

I also found it quite helpful to label cords, especially on those power strips, with old bread bag tags. Not only does it help you to keep from resetting the alarm clock a billion times, but it allows you to make a judgement call on what you can unplug in the moment to plug in something else without having to trace cords back to the appliances. I have found this one very helpful in "I'm just going to use this once and the closest plug is full" situations.

 Yay for knowing what you're unplugging. =)

Yay for practical and FREE (or nearly free since you had to first buy and use the toilet paper) organizational ideas. By the way, I found these ideas at various locations online. I just thought I'd share what I've found to work.