Keep C.A.L.M. and Organize On

With back-to-school right around the corner, it’s time to get organized. Or at  least try to! Today I am kicking off what I hope will be very beneficial to all of us. Keep C.A.L.M. and Organize On is my new motto around here. I am going to show you how I implement C.A.L.M when I organize spaces. Then I am hoping that you will join in the fun and come back next Thursday to link up an organizational project you have done in or around your home. It can be past or present, the only stipulation is that it be a space you are proud of! Let’s inspire each other to keep C.A.L.M.! …………………………..C.A.L.M. We all have different ways of going about organization. I have come to realize that when I tackle any project around my home, I always go about it the same way. I Clear out, Assign a spot, Label, and Maintain. This seems to work for any project whether it is big or small. I definitely used this method when I organized my pantry. Most recently, I needed to reorganize the shelves in my son’s toy closet. We had done a great job of creating a space that worked. You can see the original project here. But over time, it wasn’t working well enough and our little man needed a better system for putting away toys. We notice the same thing with out daughter and re-organizing her closet made all the difference in the world. Here is how I implemented C.A.L.M. in my son’s closet just a few days ago. C = Clear Out Remove absolutely everything from the area. I have learned that working around things or just doing part of a space never works. So with this space, I dumped {literally} all of his toys into the middle of his room. You’ll feel better just having the space cleared out.   A = Assign a Spot Once everything has been cleared out I assign everything a spot. So I sort into piles that are Keep, Toss, Donate, Move to another room. Once I have those piles, I only worry about the Keep pile. I then start sorting toys by like kind to place into bins. I picked up the bins from HomeGoods and Home Depot. I know that canvas bins work well for my son. He has always kept his Expedit and bins very organized. They are easy to move around the room when he uses them and they make it easy to toss toys back inside. My daughter helped me sort. We made piles of toys with wheels, stuffed animals, books, large trucks, balls, sports toys, etc. Once we did that, it was easy to assign them an appropriate bin. L = Label Once everything is in place, it’s time to have fun with labeling. I kept it simple this time and just used the labels that were provided for the smaller bins.  Ahhhh. So nice to go the easy route. The chalkboard labels used on the other containers are from the Martha Stewart line. Or you can make your own.  For his Expedit, I made my own chalkboard labels out of plywood. You can read about those here. M = Maintain In a perfect world, things would stay neat and organized all of the time. I know that doesn’t happen. But I do know that if things have a spot, they actually stand a chance of staying pretty darn organized. I also have learned that spaces need to be maintained. Every couple of months, I will take 30 minutes or so to sort through and maintain a closet or storage area. This helps to keep things working and is a good way to pull out toys or items that need to be donated or tossed. I also scooped up this cute chevron basket from HomeGoods to keep on his floor. For quick pick ups, things can be tossed in here.       ………….grab a link party button I am super excited to be hosting a keep C.A.L.M. and organize on party next Thursday. Come link up your favorite organized spot. It can be a little project or one you’ve been working on for a while. It can be old or new. Grab your favorite organizational post to date and link up. The only rule is that it helps us get inspired to get our organization on! Grab my button above by cutting and pasting it into your post and come by on Thursday to link up. Text links are fine, too! See you back here next Thursday with your organized space!   … PS. . .some of you have been asking. My Joss & Main sale goes live tonight at 9:00 EST. If you need an invite to shop just click below