Nesting Organization 101

My nesting is this huge urge to organize. Let's face it, my little house isn't ready for a fourth person to live here full time. I need to move things around, clean things out and make space.

I guess I should clarify what I meant yesterday by taming our children's chaos. It's not so much a matter of keeping everything neat and tidy. That's impossible with children - at least, I can say it's impossible with my Hurricane Monkey. What I really need at the moment is to find her toys homes. She got a lot of new things at Christmas and because there are no "homes" for these items, they are still literally strewn about the house. So, while Monkey is obviously not putting her things away, I can't either without places to put them!


I've started in her bedroom. My first project was her closet. I picked up this hanging shoe organizer at Target on Monday. I've got swim diapers stored in the top (she didn't use them all last year - hopefully she'll be out of diapers by next year!), the extra containers of wipes we keep filled are also stored neatly now. She got a few sets of flash cards for Christmas and they fit very nicely in the bottom, where she can reach them.


This got the top of the plastic drawer bins emptied off, allowing me to neatly stack extra diapers and wipes (we buy them by the case at Sam's Club so we always have a bunch ready to refill the wipes containers). I keep books and other toys she's not old enough for in the drawers.


Having the extra diapering supplies up off of the closet floor allowed me to park a couple toys in there. The door of her closet will be left open for her during the day so she can have access to her fun stuff, but easy enough for me to tuck everything away at night. Believe it or not, before Christmas, I was in the habit of tidying up her room before bath time every night.

Her clothes are all well organized. That's something I've never fallen behind with, luckily. The bins on top have 1) clothes she hasn't grown into yet; 2) clothes she's outgrown still waiting to be stored in boxes; and 3) baby items I know I'll need fairly early on once New Bean arrives (such as our Baby Bjorn).


I'm thinking another hanging shoe organizer might be a good investment. Something a bit wider, to fit big wooden puzzles and games, as we start getting them. I'm also looking for the perfect bins to put on her bookshelf to pick up some of the smaller toys. My Dad made the bookshelf for us, and he also made a matching hanging shelf which is still waiting in the basement for me to paint (one of the small paint projects of my cold weather goals). This bookshelf has been fantastic in keeping toys off the floor, but it needs some help now. Hence the toy bins.


So, I'm curious about the storage solutions in other's homes. I love seeing what other people are doing - and I always find an idea to incorporate into my own home!

And, just for Queenie - here's my gown waiting to go into it's new home under my bed. I'm going to let it hang until this weekend because I'm paranoid the moisture it had on it's hem causes it to mold (it's dry, but it can't hurt to wait a few extra days, right?).


Monkey and I are off to attempt another organization project. Today's project? Sorting through T's nursing text books to list on freecycle. I know there are a few he'll probably want to keep, but there's a bunch I know are safe to go. If nobody wants them, they're going to the recycle center.

Did I mention I'm clearing everything out? If I'm this bad at 14 weeks, I'm going to hate to see how bad the nesting is at the end....

UPDATE:

After posting this, I got an email from BHG.com all about storage solutions!

Here are the three that caught my eye and will hopefully be of use to you:

Best Closet Features

DIY Kids' Room Storage Projects

13 Kid Clutter Solutions

I'll be checking them out later and am hopefully able to find an idea or two that works for us.