I used a label maker to name each container

Ta-Dah! 

I will show you an updated picture to see how this new organized pantry has been holding up...

so be sure to check back for the status. =) 



*Disclaimer: all items mentioned above were purchased with my own money. This is not a sponsored blog post. Affiliate links help fund a small amount towards my blog to continue to make content. Thank you so much for your support.

I love my customized shoe rack that Tricky and his brother Mikey helped me make. Living in New York, apartments are known for being small and not having enough closet space. So you really have to be crafty on your storage space. You have to utilize wall space and build up. Generally, people would put them in the closet: on the floor beneath the clothes or top shelf. Or sometimes even invest in furniture, cubby holes, etc to store shoes which just takes up valuable floor space. Either case, shoes take up so much space! I love my shoes, but hate how cumbersome it can be when I don't have enough space for them. It was a love hate relationship that I have had with them for quite a while...up until now. 

Tricky picked up some wood from Home Depot, took some measurements based on the width and height of our bedroom wall. 

Mikey cutting the wood based off Tricky's measurements.

 Painted the wood with some leftover paint that we already had. 

After a few nails and screws in the wall...VOILA! 

I am so loving the Container Store. I don't know why I never took any interest to go there after years of walking past the store on several occasions. If you've never been the Container Store, let me just warn you...it's like walking into a candy store. It's a place where you can find anything and everything to organize your life and make things so much easier. If you ever been to Ikea and you enjoy it every time, then you will love the Container Store. Every week I've been tackling a new project around the house. I started doing this regimen of mine since the New Years resolution that I blogged about was to be more organized. So last week I organized my pots & pans.


Yes, I know. My before picture looked atrocious. I had my baking pans on the top shelf along with other baking essentials and my pots and pans on the bottom. I gutted everything out. Donated a few unused pots and pans to a friend who just moved to their new apartment the day before I took this picture. Made the decision to designate this cupboard for only pots and pans and moved my baking pans to a new home.


I picked up a lid organizer from the Container Store for only $4.99 and put the lids on the top shelf and the pots and pans on the bottom. Putting the more frequent used pieces in the front and the remainder in the back.
I picked up some self-adhesive hooks and stuck them to the inside of the door to hang my oven mits and cutting board. The green cutting board is a thin flexible plastic cutting board. It didn't have any holes for me to hang on to the hooks, so I cut a small square into it with a utility blade. Perfect! Now I don't have to scramble anymore looking for a cutting board and the oven mits no longer have to take up drawer space.

As much as I love baking cupcakes, the collection of cupcake liners can get a bit excessive if you're collection begins to grow throughout the Holidays. Luckily for me, I just baked over 4 dozen cupcakes within the past 2 weeks so my collection is starting to dwindle away (but not for long). I came across an amazing idea thanks to pinterest. Blogger Torie Jayne came up with a brilliant idea to organize her cupcake liners in a spaghetti jar. I had enlisted this idea in my previous blog post: "Happy New Organized Year"


Here are the steps:

You'll need a 1 liter size bottle for this project.

Step 1:
Peel off the wrapper from the bottle

Step 2:
Clean any excess goo stuck on the bottle

Step 3:
Use masking tape as your guide to where you will cut.
You can skip this step and just eyeball it.
But I preferred to make sure it was as even as possible
since my eyeballing skills for cutting is like a 4th grader.
I lied.
A 3rd grader.
haha.

Step 4:
Cut. Cut. Cut.

Step 5:
Remove the tape.

Step 6:
File any sharp edges.
I didn't have any sand paper
(remember it was 2am)
so I just used an extra nail file that I have.
After this process, be sure to wash and dry the bottle.
Step 7:
Decorate!
Don't worry, the glue is dried now.
I was just too excited to take the picture to wait for the glue to dry.






Hope you enjoy it! If you do plan on doing this or anything similar to this...please let me know. I'd love to see it!

So for starters, here's 10 organization tips:

1. Organize Cords
I just did this yesterday in my kitchen. Instead, I used a label maker as opposed to a bread clasp. It look so much neater and you don't have to fumble while trying to figure out what cord goes to what device.

2. Organize measuring cups/spoons
This is brilliant!

3. Organize Closet.
Utilize the door to hang your bags.

As much as looking at this annoys me because the perfectionist in me wants to fix and revert everything back its normal order. There is at the end of this...a purpose. At the beginning of the year, turn all the hangers backwards (takes less than a 60 seconds). Everytime you wear something, hang it back to its regular fashion. By the end of the year, if there is still some clothing hung backwards, you have to either throw it out or donate. Unless it's something that doesn't fit you but you plan to wear, get it out of your closet and put in storage until you can wear it. I actually did this on New Years day. It actually forces me to look at my clothes differently and be more creative with my clothing because there are pieces that I would hate to see go.

Who uses the ceiling space in their closet? I know I do not. As a matter of fact...Christmas is now over and the next time I'll be touching the gift wrapping paper won't be for another 11 months. So why not hang it where it's out of the way. Genius!

I'm happy that I've finished organizing my closet. I used empty shoe boxes that I decorated.
My closet looks so pretty now.


9. Organize Cupcake Liners
Spaghetti jar to organize your liners? Creative!

At the end of each month, transfer your photos to a CD to save space on your drive and to act as a back up. Label each CD by the month and year and
use a CD label to symbolize a general idea as to what's on the CD.

If you find these compartments in TJ Maxx or anywhere else, GRAB THEM! You can even try your local dollar stores as well. However, if you can't find them...I found these organizers just as handy at the Container Store.
It has the ability to interlock and change the arrangement.
($2.99-$3.49)

If you have deep drawers, you can even try these also found at the
Container Store
($3.49-$5.99)

When it came down to actually organizing this drawer...I knew that I would get a little overwhelmed when I realized how much junk I had. So to make things a little easier and fun, I took 2 empty shoe boxes and labeled one "YES" for items to keep and the other box "NO" for items to throw or donate. You won't believe how many dead pens are lurking in a junk drawer. It made the task not only easier but fun.

At the end of it all....it was totally worth it! At first the drawer looked so full that I didn't think I would have enough compartments to hold the amount of junk I had. But to be honest....I didn't really throw that many items away other than pens, broken light bulbs, etc and even after all that I had more than enough space for everything and a home for everything now.