Nerd alert

I {LOVE} school supplies. Give me a $100 and the choice of spending it at either Office Depot or JC Penney, and I'm more than likely going to choose the office supply store. It could be that it takes me back to my childhood and preparing for the first day of school. I loved being able to show off my new Trapper Keeper or Lisa Frank pencil case. Maybe it's the fact that I love to draw and create things, and stores like Office Depot and Staples help me do things like that. Or maybe it's just the absolutely, not a pencil out of place, organized perfection that is displayed in those stores. Everything is catergorized, alphabetized and easy to find. My kind of store. You see, I'm an organizational nerd. I consider myself to be pretty darn good at organizing. In fact, I think I could be a professional organizer (as long as people didn't have a problem with me throwing their crap away). There's little that makes me feel better than taking what was once an chaotic mess and turning it into a beautifully organized COMPLETED project. And therein lies my problem. Having a beautiful 6 month old that is going through a "I-need-you-please-don't-leave-the-room-or-I'll-scream" stage makes it very hard to complete any project that I begin. At night, I sit on Pinterest and browse pages and pages of organizing tips and projects....and I drool and sigh with envy. They look amazing. And effective. Unfortunately, I can't find the time to implement these projects. I want to be THIS woman. However, I have accepted the fact that I will not have a clean house until my daughter can entertain herself and can come looking for me whenever I walk out of the room (instead of screaming at the top of her lungs until I come back) and organization just be darned. But I did get a tiny little organizational fix this weekend. My parents decided to come visit our house in Bardstown since we were keeping our sickly little baby inside. If you're anything like me, you know that a visit from the parents calls for an immediate and all-encompasing clean sweep of the house. Not that I think my mom or dad would judge me (I do have a baby, afterall), I just don't want them to think that they raised a complete and total slob incapable of loading the dishwasher or providing clean clothes for her family. After a wonderful lunch and visit with my family, our house was empty again......and finally clean. And it. felt. amazing. I hadn't realized that I could breathe better when my house was picked up. I had forgotten what it was like to have a vacuumed living room rug or a 409-ed bathroom counter. Before I put the baby to bed, I looked at my husband with pleading eyes and said "Can we pleeeease keep the house looking like this???" He agreed that it was much nicer having a clutter-free(ish) house. I was so inspired that after little Miss "Sleep is for babies (and by babies I mean ones other than me)" to bed, I went in to tackle our master closet. Don't get me wrong. I love.love.love having a walk-in closet. But, as it is with any other space in our home, the more area you have, the bigger the potential mess. Before pictures:

I'm aware that this doesn't look all THAT bad. It was. I promise. Pictures just don't do this one justice.

I'm ashamed at the number of shoes I have. I'm pretty sure that could be considered a sin. *sigh* My winter boot collection is a huge source of unorganized stress for me. Currently, they were shoved under my hanging clothes so you couldn't see them and they weren't in the way when you walked in the closet. Which was okay, but anytime I wanted to wear boots, I would have to pull all pairs out into the middle of the floor, find the two that matched and then push the remaining pairs back. Repeat process EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. Annoying, right?

My closet wasn't overly messy like some of the other areas of my house...but it still made me feel frustrated because I saw the potential for organization. So I put my head down and started clearing out. I weeded through my clothing...again. I probably go through my closet and toss old clothes out 4 or 5 times a year. More so now that my weight has completely see-sawed over the course of a year. I attempted to bring order to Marty's clothing without messing with them too much. I organized. I tossed. I un-hung and re-hung. And finally, I was done.

Am I a total nerd? Can you even tell a difference? Shoot. Well, that's okay. Because I can. And the finished product looks awesome....in person. I promise. :)

Again. Nerd alert. I threw out all mis-matched hangers in the closet and opted to keep all of the plastic covered black and white and clear hangers you get at the department store. Best part? No more wire hangers!



My gianto tub of purses. I realize there's probably a better solution for storing and organizing these, but this works for now. And it keeps them all in one place. I can deal with that.


My pride and joy.....clutter-free shoes. I saw an idea on Pinterest (of course, right?) where you take skirt/pant hangers and use them to hang flip flops in your closet. Well, you saw my dilemma above with all my winter boots. So I modified the Pinterest idea and used the hangers to hold all my boots. Genius. I was afraid that the little clips on the hangers wouldn't be strong enough to hold my heavy boots, but we're on day 3 and they're still hanging in there. :)

Finally, my giveaway/yard sale pile. In 45 minutes of going through my closet and tossing a reorganizing, I got rid of the following things:

• NINE pairs of shoes (don't judge.)
• two purses
• two old pillows that had lost their "fluffiness"
• 15 shirts

and!

• three pairs of size 10 and 8 post-pregnancy Old Navy jeans that are now too big. :)

Is there anything better than having a little slice of organized heaven in a normally chaotic home? I say nope. :)))

Next project: my office. Note: you should probably prepare yourselves. I'm currently having a mini-panic attack just talking about it. Please. Don't judge me.