Ordering Disorder
with Chris Jordan
Ordering Disorder is about making every day run more smoothly in small specific ways like quick, easy, and nutritious recipes, tips for prepareing lunches, and organizing tips, which add up to big changes
To learn more about Chris, check out her profile on
Work It, Mom! and read her blog at notesfromthetrenches.com.
I’m back on another organizing jag. Do you ever feel like the world is set up to drown you in papers? I spend at least one hour of my day browsing papers, some junk, some from school. If I ease up at all, by the end of the day I am behind and my kitchen and dining room are covered in various papers. It’s just me isn’t it?
Funny enough this has very little to do with my post today. Today I thought I’d share a couple organizing ideas which have inspired me in the last week.
First at Unclutterer, this idea for storing small packets in your kitchen. You know taco seasoning, ranch mix, hashish….those types of things that get lost in your pantry pretty easily. Try putting those packets in a plastic index card file box. The only question is how do you file the hash? ‘H’ or ‘J’ for just kidding?
I’ve been trying to get my kids more independent since the summer. I’m a person who likes things done quickly with as little frustration or mess as possible. In light of this personality trait I have been far too involved in my kid’s everyday tasks, like tying shoes and zipping coats.
I want them to be responsible for getting their homework done, I’ve gotten a good start but when I say, “Get your homework stuff and start working.” The pencils are in a cabinet they’d have to climb on the kitchen counter to reach and the paper is so high up, they’d often yank 30 sheets of it down leaving a pile of ruined paper on the floor behind them. This is why I liked this homework kit idea at Kiddley so much. All their supplies in an easy to grab and carry to their workspace container.
Here is where I like to keep all the kid’s stuff, just outside the kitchen in a cabinet in the adjoining family room.
The top shelf is devoted to craft stuff and the wooden drawers are from Ikea about 9 years ago.
I decided to use the bottom longer flat drawer to keep all homework supplies. The inside is very simple because my kids aren’t taking quantum physics…yet.
Next on my inspiration tour, gift wrap. Look at this mess I have left in my basement office.
Look at that? It’s so gross. Keep in mind I have gift boxes in there along with a few shipping boxes. But really, I’m so annoyed by that box every time I go to the basement. I’ve got to do something about it.
I loved this round up of gift wrap storage at Unclutterer but even more so I loved this post about the minimalist approach to gift wrap. Select brown craft paper and three rolls (black, white and red) of high quality ribbons and voila! You’ve got your signature look.
I’m mostly on board with this idea, I keep a roll each of a pretty green, a blue and a nice bright fuchsia paper for all purposes and just use white ribbon on all of it. However, I get caught up in Christmas wrap for some reason. Does it make my gifts more exciting to open? Maybe that’s it. I’m not sure I’m ready to skip holiday gift wrap, but I am sure I’m ready to get it out of that horrible box in the middle of my basement.
I’ll keep you posted as I tackle the mess.
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I have an ugly gift wrap dilemma in my basement too and I look forward to the answer you find for yours.
Have you already tackled organizing all your tupperware type stuff? I regularily open a kitchen cupboard and get bombarded by lids and containers. I can’t think of a good solution. Do you have one?
ms.carson | October 25th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
We have an old dresser in the basement … top drawer is ribbon, bows, and tags; second drawer is tissue paper, third drawer is gift bags, and forth is boxes. The gift wrap lives in a tall kitchen garbage can minus the lid. If the dresser had a fifth drawer, I would probably use that for the gift wrap and ditch the garbage can - although it does make is easy to find what you want.
JenR | October 25th, 2007 at 4:51 pm
I’m curious to see your solution to the giftwrap dilemma, too. I keep gift bags; the smaller ones are folded inside a large one, and they are in two categories: Christmas and Other. The tissue is folded neatly in a third bag. But the wrapping paper? It stands in an old wicker hamper and looks (gulp) a lot like your box. sigh.
Daisy | October 26th, 2007 at 12:19 am
i love that idea of a dresser! i dont have a basement so i need something that i can have around and not have it look like the ‘wrapping center’! plus i could keep someting simple on top of the dresser that can easily be removed/replaced while wrapping presents! so excited! will i actually do it? doubtful, but it’s fun to think about LOL
Kate | October 26th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Our gift wrap lives in the tvroom closet. I’ve got two rectangular wastebaskets. One houses the brown paper rolls and solid colors (teals, reds, etc). The other is all the ‘patterned’ rolls for xmas, childrens birthdays, etc.
For xmas, my ’signature’ look is plain brown paper with red or green twine for ribbon. I have a set of holiday rubber stamps I picked up at a craft store for 10$, and once something is wrapped, I’ll add one stamp to a corner or something as an artistic yet rustic touch.
Add a simple plain tie on tag (you can get mass quanties on the cheap in most craft stores) and I put a stamp on one side, the to/from on the other.
Aside from the initial stamp/pad investment, its uber-cheap. I think I spent less than 10$ on all wrapping paper, twine, and tape, etc last xmas, and I have a big extended family.
ms.carson - for tupperware, go to target/walmart/kmart and buy two long, short tupperware “bins,” approximatly the size of the inside of your cabinet. Get two. One goes on the top shelf of the cabinet and houses all the ‘lids’, the other goes on the bottom for all the ‘containers.’ Stash the bin lids in the garage for when/if you have to move. When you need a container, simply slide out the bottom bin like a drawer, pick a container, then slide out the top bin-drawer and find it’s lid.
Katrina | October 26th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
I also have a wrapping dresser that resides in the closet of our guest room. Unfortunately, after having a baby, I was left with 3,000,000 baby-specific gift bags and gift boxes. They, too, were stashed neatly in the guest closet until my in-laws moved in. Grr - now I have to re-organize and sort what was once organized and sorted. Will it ever end?
kate | October 29th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
Flylady had a good idea…put your wrapping paper, ribbons and tape in an old garment bag and hang it in a closet. Easy peasy and the rolls don’t smoosh as easily as if they were out in the open.
I have yet to follow this advice though. Instead, my gift wrap, ribbons, gift bags, shipping boxes, tissue paper, scissors, gift cards, calligraphy pens and tape are all held in an underbed storage container. When I need to wrap, I pull it out and don’t have to search for anything. The container keeps the rolls from wrinkling and I can just put the lid on it and slide it back under the bed.
mary | October 30th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
Gee…perhaps I could have clicked on your links BEFORE posting my comment about using a garment bag, since it’s basically the same thing you linked to…and I then could have read the comments since Andi*pandi said the same thing about using an underbed storage container. Sorry. Lalalala…don’t mind me…
mary | October 30th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
On the tupperware, I found it worth the money to pitch all my old stuff and buy all of one brand that would stack together. I like the rubbermaid stain-sheild ones in 1.5 and 3 cup sizes. I have a small wire basket for the lids. If I were buying now, I’d buy the ones where the lids attach to the bottom of the stack for storage.
SoftwareMom | October 30th, 2007 at 11:02 pm
[...] last week I shared the horror that is my gift wrap situation? I loved your input on that post and was [...]
Work It, Mom! | A Community for Professional Moms | November 1st, 2007 at 4:17 pm
Real Simple has a section on this in their November issue (Lis- I’ll bring it to you if you like)- it’s similar to the garment bag system, but uses trouser & skirt hangers and shoe organizer bags.
Teri Lynn | November 2nd, 2007 at 2:14 pm