Nothing like a little spring cleaning to let you know you are back from vacation and knee deep in the real world! I have been slowly {turtle speed} making my way around the house with small organizational projects. Nothing too crazy, but trying to get a handle on some of the zones that drive me batty. I worked a little OCD magic on the children’s family room toys here and spread the love to the garage here. The latest thorn in my side was my ribbon supply. I LOVE ribbon. I really do. I pick it up from just about any store I go into. You will see from the photos that I must have a thing for polka dot ribbon! My laundry room is a bit of an office for me. I use that term very loosely. But I do store many of my supplies in this room. Well I emptied out my ribbon cabinet and found myself in this mess: 
Not at all pretty, I know. And this space can’t handle a disaster since the laundry piles up no matter what. So I sat on the floor with all of my ribbon and got busy. It took probably fifteen minutes and was well worth it. Step #1: Sort through all of the ribbon and toss whatever needs to go. Most of you know I keep my little pieces of ribbon for when I entertain. But the ribbon that seemed out dated or no longer my style, I tossed. In fact you can see a trash bag on the door full of ribbon that needed to go. 
Step #2: Tape every end piece down so there are no loose ends. I can’t stand when the ends of ribbon start to unravel. I roll up scrap pieces and tape them to themselves. If the ribbon is still on a cardboard holder then I tape it to the cardboard. And if you are trying to save space, rip off the giant cardboard top and bottom pieces. Especially as you start to use a good amount of that ribbon. 
Step #3: The fantastic, can’t be beat ITSO containers. I use these everywhere!!! I enlisted two to help me tame the ribbon piles. I used Edwardian Script font to label each ITSO container. Then of course I wonder about why I label these. Do I really think anyone besides myself is going into my ribbon cabinet to whip out a gift. Probably not! But boy do I feel good when something has a pretty label. It’s the little things! 
Step #4: Gather the random items and group tiny ribbon in a small container 
Much better! Now everything has a home and I can find what I need easily. Now I just need to keep it this way! 
How is your spring cleaning going? Have you made any progress? I need to clean out my son’s closet but I am dreading it! I have let it become quite the storage closet so I am sure my procrastination will lead to many other small projects before I tackle that!
Ha…I "hoard" ribbon too! The girls get the scraps for hairbows (yes, even at 17 and 21, they love a bow for their ponytail). I wish I could say I'm making progress, but right now a mess is more like it. New carpet for the office and library tomorrow means everything from those rooms is now in our dining room. Oh, and our closet is still a disaster due to the shower leak. Hope to paint today, then use some of your tips to get it put back together. Yes, once again the snowball has started picking up steam! LOL
I just did the same thing to our ribbon stash recently. Can't stand it when things like that get out of control. Good to know I'm not the only crazy one! ha ha.
Great job- I love how you separated the ribbons with holiday, color, etc.! Great idea! We actually tackled the garage this past weekend. We finally have stuff like ladders, shovels all hung up and off the floor! Call me crazy, but I smile now when I walk into the garage! 🙂
This looks so good. I love the big labels and the pretty cursive font–might as well make it functional *and* beautiful!
Gah I lovelovelove that cabinet. So pretty. And so useful 🙂
I don't think you are nuts at all with the labels. A – they look pretty and B now you know where everything is!! Love it!
Definitely inspiring, now I just need some motivation to get moving on my spring cleaning!
It looks great now!! Love how a little organizing goes a long way!
oh my goodness, my ribbon shoe boxes are EXPLODING. I can never keep them organized. must get to it!
Yay! I love ribbon. And organizing, so this was a great post (: Something about ribbon always gets me…whenever I'm in pretty much any craft store, I "happen" to walk out with some!
I'm pretty sure that nothing gives me more pleasure than seeing a freshly organized, nice & neat space…even when it's not my own! It looks so perfect and wonderful I can barely stand it! Mine does *NOT* look like this, it looks like the "before" only worse )c: You may have inspired me to do a little organizing of my own…
Love your organization and the labels are the crowning glory. OK. Now I need to know what is an ITSO container? The only thing that I could come up with is: intergalactic, telepathic, storage organizer. I'm pretty sure that's not it. They look like the shoe storage boxes, but I'm sure it's something way more chic.
Oh, Linda . . your comment cracked me up. I should have mentioned that the ITSO container is from Target. They sell a line of organizational supplies made by ITSO. This size which is about 12" long is my very favorite. I even have them in my freezer to divide veggies from fish, etc!
Your ribbons looks so nice and tidy and the labels are the perfect touch. You are so organized, Courtney! I'm the same way…I have to pick up pretty ribbon wherever I find it. I have a ribbon obsession.
I'm obsessed with ribbon – we should start a support group! 🙂
What a difference! I don't have quite the ribbon selection you do, but mine still ends up messy anyway. (And I spied a TJs bag in the before pics! The big news here this week is that they are coming to Texas!!)
Huge props to you for tackling these kinds of chores. It so nice to get organized, isn't it?
I am a lover of all kinds of ribbons also.I use the plastic stacking drawers for mine and put them by color. I love the labels you used, your organizations looks great,Kathysue
Organizing, ribbon and labels- you know I love it all!
Beautifullllll…..I love that font!