Why Organize?

I wanted to share my story of why I started organizing and decluttering. Whenever I organized something even if it was just my bath towels I would feel really good afterwards and felt like I accomplished something. I believe there is a correlation between organizing and feeling good. I have heard many people say that they start to feel depressed when their house starts to get cluttered. I know for myself I like to clean and organize when I am stressed. Organizing is therapeutic for me in a sense. I also love the idea of being a minimalist and surrounding myself with just the things I love. We surround our selves with so much stuff that maybe that is why many people are depressed and overwhelmed. I figured I could share my tips and mistakes of my organizing journey to help others too!




♥ Hannah

Freebies for Mommies To Be!

I was actually working on this post while I was pregnant but never had the chance to finish it. Even though I am no longer pregnant, I figured this post could benefit some mothers to be out there! My husband and I live in a one bedroom apartment and we are on a tight budget, so I got really excited about freebies and who doesn't love a free gift anyways? Here are some freebies I got and discovered while I was pregnant.

Target & Babies R Us
At Target you get a cute little goody bag when you register for your baby items! I believe you only get the goody bag if you register at the store in person. Besides there is something satisfying about scanning items with the hand held scanner! When we finished and handed the scanner back that is when they gave us a little bag with coupons, a bottle, a pacifier, samples of laundry detergent, and other product samples like lotions. I used the free samples of laundry detergent to wash all of the baby clothes we got from our baby showers! Babies R Us also gives a little goody bag according to my friend who registered there, but she claimed it was not as good as Target's goody bag. I registered with Babies R Us online so I did not get one. They did send me some coupons in the mail though!

Motherhood
I had a really hard time finding maternity clothes in my area that I liked so I had to go to a bigger city for maternity clothes shopping. The store called Motherhood had cute maternity clothes I really liked and they give you a little goody bag if it is your first time there! I honestly can't remember everything that was in the bag, but I know there were several coupons and a baby bottle inside!

CarseatCanopy.com
This was one of the many websites that offers freebies if you have a promo code. Some people may not consider this to be free since you do have to pay for shipping, but I ordered a car seat cover because we did not get one at our baby shower. They even have the option to customize your car seat cover so you can add your baby's name to it. This site also has sister sites that give away free things like a baby sling, books, diaper covers and such! I found out about these sites because of the coupons from Target and Motherhood. I think it is definitely worth it to check it out! 

Seven Slings
I believe this is a sister site to the carseatcanopy.com but I had a free promo code for a baby sling too. I had to pay for shipping but I did score a cute sling! Here is a list of other websites that you can get some freebies with a promo code! (Promo codes were included in the goody bags from Target & Motherhood).

• http://www.nursingpillow.com
• http://www.uddercovers.com
• http://www.breastpads.com
• http://www.babyleggings.com
• http://www.babsybooks.com
• http://www.rufflebuns.com
• http://www.pregnancypillow.com

Free Formula Samples
I got a lot of coupons and samples from Similac and Enfamil. I didn't sign up on their website but I am guessing they got my information through my baby registry. Apparently you get free samples from them when you sign up online though. I got a box of formula samples which really came in handy because I ended up using them for emergencies. Even if you are planning on exclusively breastfeeding your baby, a few formula samples for emergencies wouldn't hurt! They also send you coupons almost every month for formula as well. 

Local Pregnancy Center
I know about this because I did my college internship at a local pregnancy center. At the specific place that I did my internship they encouraged mothers to attend parenting classes and Bible studies. By doing classes or Bible studies they could earn points which they could trade in to get baby essentials in their boutique. They had some really nice stuff from baby clothes, toys, blankets, diapers, wipes, to essential stuff for moms like body lotion and maternity clothes! They also had a one time only emergency give away where a mother in need could get a pack of diapers, formula, and wipes. I recommend that you check in your area for a pregnancy center! 

Freebies While Traveling
While I was pregnant I had to go to Japan unexpectedly due to a family member dying. Lets just say traveling over seas on a long flight with a significant time zone change is the absolute worst while being pregnant. Jet lag and eating different foods were never a big deal to me until I had another human being in my body! Anyways... one thing I would encourage expecting mothers to do on a flight is to tell the flight attendant. They gave me extra snacks and drinks (water and juice) during my flight and it definitely helped. 

Ask Around and Check Out Free & Yard Sale Facebook Pages 
We did not register for a crib, a swing, a diaper changing table, and some other things because we did not have the room for all these baby items. However a lady from our church had a friend who was giving away their diaper changing table away and we got it for free! We were able to barely fit the changing table by rearranging our entire bedroom haha. I also joined some Facebook yard sale pages because you can score some free or really cheap baby items on there too.

Hospital (After having baby freebies)
I was very impressed with the hospital I had my baby at! There were so many nice things about the hospital but one of them was the free stuff they give you! They gave us a diaper bag full of stuff like diapers, nose sucker, wipes, changing mat, hat, swaddle blankets, and coupons. I asked for a few more things for myself and they were very generous. Don't be afraid to ask the nurses for some extra goodies ☺

Am I missing any freebies for expecting mothers? Comment below!
♥ Hannah

♥ January Favorites ♥

Here are some of my favorite things from January!

1. Ancestry.com

My husband got me a DNA kit from ancestry.com for Christmas. Since I am half Japanese I was pretty pumped about getting one! I cannot wait to get the results for this because I know I am pretty mixed! I know the Holidays are over but you can score a really good deal around the holidays!

Get your DNA kit to find out your heritage!
www.ancestry.com/dna

2. Fresh Flowers

There is something about fresh flowers that really makes me happy. My husband got me Red Tulips just because :) I think my favorite are pink tulips but I loved the red ones because it goes well with the Christmas and winter decorations I had up in the apartment. Great job Honey ♥

3. Tervis Water Bottle

Drinking water is important for everyone and especially for pregnant or nursing mothers! Why not invest in a good water bottle to keep track of how much water you have been drinking?

4. Kisses from Katie (Good Reads & Faith)

This year I definitely want to do more reading. My MIL (Mother In-Law) read this and let me borrow her copy. I have heard good things about this book so I was pretty excited to read it myself. If you are a Christian and ready to grow and know more about missions then this book is for you! My husband and I are looking to sponsor a child in Africa after reading this book and I am definitely more thankful for things we had been taking for granted. We have plenty of food to eat, running water, medicine, and so much more. This book inspired me and convicted me to be more thankful and to truly live to the fullest every day just like the author Katie Davis does. 

This is Katie's ministry! Check it out!

https://amazima.org/

5. Marie Kondo and "the life changing magic of tidying" (Good Reads)

Marie Kondo is the author who wrote the book "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying." I got this book from my MIL also and I fell in LOVE with this book. I have always enjoyed organizing so getting this book was very exciting for me! (as excited as a child getting up on Christmas morning). Let's just say I loved the book she wrote so much I read it twice in the same month and took notes as I read through the second time. Her method called the KonMari method is truly amazing. I am planning on writing a blog post specifically about this in the near future.

♥ Hannah 

Extreme Organizing - Board Games

My husband and I love board games! We love having people over and having game night almost once a week. It seems like we always get a new game for Christmas every year but we don't mind! Since we have limited space in our apartment, I had to organize all of our games and get rid of anything we do not play with. 

I got every single game out and made a pile on the floor. This included card games, board games, and any electronic games such as catchphrase. We got rid of a few games that we don't really enjoy playing with or some that are out dated. 

Card Games

I put all of our card games in a basket to keep them all together. By simply putting all of the cards in a basket or a box will instantly make them look organized and neat.

Board Games

Since we have a lot of games I stacked them on the bottom half of the book shelf. Below you can see the images of Before and After. 

Before

 We had so many board games that I was stacking them on the floor. Talk about eye sore!

After

No more board games on the floor and everything fits neatly! Each board game has a designated spot so the board games won't get cluttered again. 

Do you have any good tips for organizing board games?

♥ Hannah

Extreme Organizing - Mistake No.1

As I have been organizing my entire apartment I hit some bumps along the way. I thought it would be helpful to share some of my mistakes because these same mistakes could be one of the many reasons someone may quit organizing. 

After I finished cleaning through my papers, I moved on to organize my papers that had sentimental value such as letters. I was going through a box of cards I had that belonged specifically to me (I am only organizing things that belong to me so far). I saved letters and cards that I still really liked and threw the rest in a box to throw away later. When my husband came home from work I told him I was going through some of the cards as the next step to my organizing process. He started looking through some of the cards I was going to throw away and started making comments such as "Why are you throwing this away? This is from such and such!" or "Aw, This is from so and so." I was a little caught off guard because he had been really impressed with all of the organizing I had done so far. I thought he would be supportive and keep on encouraging me. Let's just say it got to the point that I had to put them away and promise him that I would not throw any of the cards away. My husband is a very sentimental guy and cards are something that are very meaningful to him. 

So what was the mistake exactly? The mistake was that I was organizing and clearing through sentimental things before finishing other categories first. Sentimental things should be saved for the very last. I put all of my cards back in a box and put them back where they were.

Thoughts about this? Feel free to comment below!
Next Up! Organizing board games!

♥ Hannah

Extreme Organizing - Papers

I always had the fear of throwing away papers. My mind would always say "What if I need those later?" Does that sound familiar at all? This is what my section of the filing cabinet looked like before organizing. I kept stuffing papers in the drawer thinking I might need this later or I will sort through this later.

File Drawer Before (Just mine)

Well I decided to tackle all those papers because I got a paper shredder for Christmas! Now for this post I am talking about papers that are pay stubs, bills, insurance forms, and receipts. I am saving cards, letters, and other meaningful papers for my next post and another time. As I was separating my papers I organized them by categories as listed below.

• Pay stubs
• Bank statements
• Insurance forms/cards
• Manuals
• Receipts
• Credit card statements or info 
• Bills
• Student Loan Statements
• Lease information
• Important documents (Marriage license, Social Security, Diplomas, etc)
• Papers belonging to our dog (vaccination papers, shot records, etc)
• Papers belonging to our child (Doctor bills, etc)

Pay Stubs

I kept all of my pay stubs for the current year as well as last years just in case. Some people may prefer to keep pay stubs from 7 years ago for tax purposes, but I just kept the year end ones from the W-2's for the past 7 years instead of each pay stub. I put all the pay stubs I was getting rid of through the paper shredder. 

Bank Statements

You know the receipt that whenever you would deposit money in or withdrawal money from your bank account? I would keep those receipts because I was terrified of throwing them away (besides it had my bank account number on there!). As I put all of the bank receipts together, I still had bank receipts from when I was a high school student! For these kind of receipts, you should just keep them until you receive your monthly bank statement or see the correct amount on your online banking. I put all of these receipts through the shredder.

For bank statements, I recommend that you get them electronically instead of the paper statements. It really depends on which bank you have because one of the banks that I use does not have anything set up online, so I get the paper statements through the mail. I had kept all of my bank statements from them since I opened my account several years ago. I shredded all of them except for the past years. For my other bank account, I check my account online at least once a month and keep the yearly statements in a folder and shredded the rest. 

Insurance Forms/Cards (Health, Dental, Vision, Rental, etc)

Does your insurance keep sending you what seems to be the exact same insurance cards every few months? I feel like my family gets the same cards in the mail what seems to be like all the time. I switch my old ones out with the new ones and I shred the old cards right away. There is no point in keeping all of the previous cards (especially if you keep getting them in the mail). For the statement forms, I only keep the past years statements and that is it! I shredded the rest. I also shredded any insurance papers that we no longer have too. 

Manuals

Did you know you could get most of the manuals online now? Amazing right?

I kept a few manuals for the baby gear my family uses now so I know how to collapse or unfold something for travel, but other than that do you really need the manuals for the little appliances or electrical gadget like a sound machine? I think most of us just asks Google how to fix something so there is probably no reason to keep those manuals. If you have a warranty on something, I make sure I keep the manual along with the warranty papers. As you go through your manuals, you will most likely discover manuals for things that you no longer have anymore. Discard manuals for things you no longer have right away. 

Receipts

I usually just keep receipts for the past month to make sure my credit card statement are correct then throw it away. For Christmas time I usually save the receipts a bit longer in case I need to return anything, but when January comes I throw them all away. I also save receipts if I buy something expensive and keep the receipt until it expires or attach it with the warranty so I won't lose it. 

Credit Card Information

I switched all of my credit card statements to get them electronically. Besides depending on your credit card company they keep all of the statements on your online profile so you can easily access them anytime!

Bills

Just like many other papers, I would switch to getting your bills electronically. In my email I have folders for each kind of bill such as electric, gas, phone, and others. Just put your bill in the designated folder and keep the receipt for that bill there too! 

Student Loans Statements

I switched my loan statements from receiving paper ones to getting them by email. I shredded all of the paper statements because I had saved the recipts on my computer by PDF files.

Lease Information

If you are currently renting a home or an apartment you should keep your lease papers in a folder where you can access it pretty easily. If you were living at another rental place not too long ago, I would hold on to the papers just in case issues arise. If you have gotten your security deposit back and got the final papers to close on everything than it is likely you will not need the previous lease forms anymore. My first apartment as a college student had all kinds of problems and I needed to keep my lease forms for almost two years after moving out. As long as there is unfinished business it would be wise to keep your lease papers. 

Important Documents

For important documents such as your social security card, marriage license and such should be kept forever and kept in a safe place. It would be a good idea to invest in a safe that is life proof! 

Papers for Family Pet

I made a binder for our dog and kept the important paper work. 

Here are some examples of the papers you should keep!

• Adoption papers
• Microchip number and papers regarding it

Papers for Child

Just like for the family pet, I made a binder for our child as well. I put in each bi-monthly visit papers (our baby is only 5 months) and doctor bills/receipts from the past year.

After Organizing All of  the Papers

After organizing my papers I put them all in a folder like the picture above. Each section in the folder has its own category like the list above. The filing cabinet looks so much neater and I know where everything is! I filled up my paper shredder 4 times and filled about 3 or 4 trash bags full of non shredded paper. Paper can easily accumulate and I think it is best to sort through at least once a year.

Tabs inside the folder 

I would say the biggest tip to have less paper clutter is to switch your papers to receiving them electronically or online as much as you can! You can nicely store those online receipts in folders on your email or desktop on your computer. I find it much easier to find something on my computer than to dig through papers.

Next Up! Organizing meaningful papers like birthday cards and letters.

♥ Hannah

Extreme Organizing - Books

I think most people have a hard time getting rid of books unless they are selling them. I know I had a hard time getting rid of some books, but maybe this post will help! My husband and I have two book shelves. One tall book shelf in the living room and one in the bedroom. The one in the bed room only has my husbands books so I won't organize that one unless my husband wants to. The shelf in the living room I am using three shelves out of the five to put my books on them. 

I took all of my books off of the shelf and made a pile in the middle of the living room. While the shelves were empty I dusted them (It needed to be dusted like really bad...). I put my books into categories like the list below! You can customize your categories depending on what kind of books you have. 

• Fiction
• Non-Fiction
• Magazines
• Cook Books
• Resources
• Textbooks
• Bibles & Devotionals
• Coloring books

Before

First Shelf

I started organizing my fictional books first. I kept the classics because I want my kids to read them when they are older and I know I would want to read them again. Some of the classics I kept included the Chronicles of Narnia and the Lord of the Rings. I know some people organize their books by the author, alphabetical, or even color, but I organized them by category, size of the book, and the author. I put the big books in the back and put the smaller ones in the front of the big books so you can see both. By doing so you can create more space on your book shelves as well! 

For the non-fiction, I realized I didn't have too many and they were all books that I have not read yet. I don't even know if this was a good idea or not, but I organized them by the order I wanted to read them in. After I read them I will most likely organize them like I did with the fictional books. Since I had space on the right side of the shelf I decided to put my magazines there. The magazines are tall and big so it looked much better on the end of the shelf than in the middle. I used to keep all of my magazines that I had like Seventeen, Glamour, and Vogue. I tossed them all out because was I really going to read them again? Probably not... Besides I feel like most of the magazines were just ad pages with hardly any content! The magazines I did decide to keep were my fashion magazines I got in Japan that I still really enjoy looking over once in awhile and a few wedding magazines I had gotten while I was engaged. The magazines I kept still bring back happy memories for me :) 

Second Shelf

For my second shelf I decided to put the books that I use as resources. The resource books included cook books, marriage books, books about babies, kids, teens, and textbooks. I also put my Bibles and devotionals on this shelf as well.

Since my cookbooks are pretty tall I placed them all the way to the left (plus easier access for when I meal plan) and then organized my resource books in order by life events. For example, marriage related books, baby related books, children related books, teen related books, and college textbooks. My husband and I were both Psychology majors in college so we took a lot of the same classes. We were dating in college so we got the advantage of only getting one copy of the textbook instead of each getting our own copy (one way to save money haha!). All out of all of the textbooks we kept from our college days, I decided to only keep one of them and it was our abnormal psychology textbook. This was one class I truly enjoyed and I still have a lot of interest in. I want to eventually get my Masters in counseling so I thought it would be best to hold on to it anyways. As far as the rest of the textbooks I handed them all to my husband to see if he wanted to keep any in case my husband still wanted them for some reason.

Growing up in a Christian home I had a lot of Bibles. From Baby's first Bible, Children's Bible, Teen Bible, to the "regular" Bible. I also had many different translations of the Bible too. The only Bibles I decided to keep were my one study Bible that my husband gave me that I really enjoy studying, one small Bible that I can take with me on trips, and my one and only Japanese Bible. My little Bible and Japanese Bible are both pretty small so I placed them in front of the taller books. Both the tall books and the Bibles are both visible and still look neat. For my study Bible, I kept it on my coffee table along with my journal notebook.

Finally, for my coloring books or other books that did not fit into categories listed above I placed them next to my magazines. Also, like the picture above if you have anything on the shelf that is not a book move it to where it belongs. I think placing a candle or picture would be fine (keep it simple with only one or two items) as long as it does not block any books.

After organizing, I had some space in between my books so I moved the books I had originally put in front to the empty space to fill the shelf. Before I organized my books I had taken up three shelves, but I got it down to two! All of the books I did not want or never saw myself reading, I donated them to Goodwill or gave them away to someone who would enjoy them!

After!

Next Up! Organizing your papers!

♥ Hannah

Extreme Organizing - Bags

Ever since I was a little girl I was called the bag lady. I had so much stuff that when my mom would tell me to clean my room I would put my stuff in bags. When you would open my closet there were rows and rows of bags full of junk. The bad thing about this habit is that I still did this in my early twenties! Also, as a teen, I would keep bags that I would get from stores (especially the big Victoria Secret bags). It got to the point that I would stuff bags into bags (just the plastic shopping bags like Walmart bags...).

So you can only imagine I had to do a lot of throwing away. I kept a few plastic bags that I would put into my trash cans and threw all the other ones away. I have a small box that I keep them in and if it gets close to being full I stop saving any more plastic bags until the box starts to empty again.

For regular bags and purses I usually just carry the diaper bag around ever since I had my baby. Since my diaper bag is my number 1 bag at the moment I kept one black purse that I still really love, and one white, clutch purse for those fancy parties or date night. I kind of like that I only have three regular bags in total because it really simplifies my options for purses. Plus, it is such a time saver!  

I kept my Best Bridesmaid Ever bag for carrying books for a trip ;) 

Now that I went through all of my clothing I will be going through and organizing my books! I got the idea for the organizing steps from KonMari.com. I will soon do a blog post about the book on tidying, and on the author, Marie Kondo. You just might become obsessed with tidying too ;) Stay tuned! 

♥ Hannah

Extreme Organizing - Accessories

I feel like jewelry is something that accumulates over time (and I hardly ever get rid of). We have necklaces, earrings, bracelets, anklets, and so on! I had a hanging earring organizer with both sides filled, two boxes full of bracelets, a small drawer with rings, and necklaces hanging off of the wall. I took everything out of the boxes and took them off the wall and laid them all in a pile. I held each item and asked myself the same questions I would ask myself for my clothing. 

1. Do I Love it?
2. Would I buy this if I saw it in the store right now?
3. Does it fit me? 
4. Have I worn this in the past year? 
5. Do I have more than one of these?
6. Is the item damaged in any way? 

Before organizing (Just my bracelets & rings)

I wear necklaces and earrings the most, and occasionally wear bracelets. It was a bit ridiculous that I had a box full of bracelets when I hardly ever wear them! I ended up keeping 4 bracelets that I loved, and one wrist watch with pearls. I also placed my anklets where my bracelets were so I can see them.

After organizing! (Necklaces, Bracelets, Earrings, Anklets, & Rings)

When going through my earrings I noticed that I had earrings from when I first got my ears pierced (I was 16 at the time)! I hadn't worn most of them in years! A lot of them I still kind of liked, or thought they were cute, but I didn't love them, and probably would never wear them again. After going through each set, I got rid of so many of my earrings that I no longer needed my hanging jewelry organizer. I kept the ones that I adored the most, and either gave the unwanted jewelry away to family and friends, or donated them. I kept longer earrings in a box next to my hanging jewelry.

Earrings Organized!

Now my jewelry is all in one place and I can see everything I have except the longer earrings. I wear my longer earrings quite often so I am not worried about forgetting about them even though they are out of plain sight. Jewelry pieces are often small so they usually do not take up too much room, but narrowing down to only keeping what you really love is much more satisfying, and looks less cluttered.

Was this post helpful, or have any tips to share with me about organizing? Feel free to post in the comments! 

Next Up! Organizing your bags!

♥ Hannah

Extreme Organizing - Shoes

The 2nd to final step for organizing your clothing is your shoes!
I have too many shoes. I had 6 pairs of boots (all tall), 10 plus pairs of flats (some with their tags on them) a bunch of heels I hardly ever wear, and a pile of flip flops.

Flip Flops

In High School I would only wear flip flops except for in the winter. I had every color you could imagine, and Old Navy's sale didn't help this for me :P It was time to let go of having every color flip flops. I kept a black pair and a pink pair, and donated all of the other ones. I wear a lot of black so keeping the black ones made sense, and the pink ones I wear when I need to quick take my dog out during the warmer weather months. 

Flats

Just like my dresses, I got a ton of shoes when I was working for J. Crew. I loved my shoes from them so much that I wore most of them out! I had to let go of the worn shoes, and keep the shoes that I knew I would wear when warmer weather came around. One thing I did while organizing my shoes was to take all of my shoes out of their boxes, and make a pile. After going through my shoes, I had several empty shoe boxes, so I figured I would put them to good use. Shoe boxes are a great way to organize things, and you can see here how I used them to organize my socks. Some of my boot boxes were wider and bigger, so I put my flats in them, like the image below. I won't be needing them during the winter, so I put them under my bed. 

My flats in a shoe box

Heels

I only have a small place to put my shoes in the closet, so I decided to keep my heels under the bed. I don't really wear heels except for church or special occasions, so I decided to just store them under the bed where I could still access them pretty easily. 

Under the bed shoe storage

Boots

I took out all of my boots I wanted to keep out from their boxes, and put them on the floor in the closet. I kept two pairs of black boots, one pair of brown boots, and one pair of ankle boots. Since I wear my boots all the time during the winter I kept them right in the closet under my hanging clothes. Once the weather gets warmer I will be storing my boots under my bed, and taking out my flats to be placed where my boots are currently. 

Husband's clothing and shoes

As far as my husband's clothing and shoes, I did not organize them at all because I think he needs to do it on his own (or at least have him be present). I think as I was cleaning out my clothes he got inspired and did a little bit of organizing, but I believe we still have a long ways to go ;)  He has a bunch of shoes for a man, but he keeps them all on an over the door shoe rack so you don't see them. Once I finish organizing everything in the apartment I think I will get started on my husband's belongings with my husband's help.

Next up! Organizing your jewelry!

♥ Hannah

Extreme Organizing - Clothing (season specifics)

For step 5 I decided to organize season specific clothing. For example, bathing suits or heavy coats and scarves that you would only wear during certain seasons.

I started out with my coats. I didn't have to do too much organizing because I didn't have a bunch of coats. I kept one black coat that I could wear with anything and two coats that are dressy and long. I kept one white fluffy scarf that is cozy, and one red blanket scarf that I love. I kept one pair of mittens and threw away the other gloves because they were old, and had some holes in the finger tips.

Then I moved on to my bathing suits. I only have one bikini and one one-piece so there wasn't much organizing I needed to do. I also included tights and hose in the same drawer because I only wear tights during winter. Hose I hardly ever wear, but I kept a pair for those just-in-case moments.

Before

After (My dog in the background haha)

The left side has my bathing suits and the bathing suit cover. On the right side I placed my tights and hose. Again, the tip to placing your clothing in the drawer is to place them so that you can see each item. When you stack your clothing, the clothing on the bottom tends to be forgotten about.

Next up? Shoes!

Until next time!  

♥ Hannah

Extreme Organizing - Clothing (socks, underwear, & PJ's)

Step 4 is organizing your socks, underwear, & pajamas!


Socks )) 

Here is what my sock drawer looked before I organized it.
I pulled out my entire drawer and dumped all of my socks out. Not only did I dump them out, but I unfolded them too.

Before

Then, I sorted them by kind of socks, like fuzzy socks, long socks, and such. I realized I had socks that I never even took the price tags off of! 

Categorizing

The ones that were stretched out, old, or had holes in, I got rid of. Then, I folded them in a way that would save space. Instead of folding them into a ball, I folded them three times or rolled the long socks. 

After! I also used shoe boxes to organize my socks

Underwear & Pajamas)) 

Before organizing

I would get the get 1 free pair of underwear with no purchase necessary from Victoria's Secret whenever I would get a coupon. It is nice that you don't have to pay for underwear, but I accumulated so much it was getting ridiculous. Again, I pulled out all of my underwear and checked each piece. I categorized them by the type of underwear, and used a shoe box to sort them. If they were uncomfortable, or I did not like the style, I threw them away. See the after picture down below!

For PJ's.... I found pajamas that I wore in elementary school... Again I don't think I organized my pajamas in years. I kept one pair of pajamas that I wear around Christmas time, winter, and summer pajamas. Anything else that I hardly wore, or would not miss, I got rid of. 

After!

So far I got rid of 6 bags of clothes! Next up! Organizing your season specific clothing!

♥ Hannah

Extreme Organizing - Clothing (Dresses)

Step 3 to organizing your clothing is dresses!

Oh to be a girl ♥ A few years ago I used to work at J. Crew so I would get to go to their warehouse sales and use my employee discount. I would get trash bags full of clothes. Now there is no way I would do that ha ha! But I did get some really nice dresses from the sales. The only problem with this is I would have the exact same dress but in different colors. I felt like I always had to have a black dress and an additional color. Well it was time to stop that and get rid of dresses that I did not love. Once again I went through my dresses by color and asked the same questions I did with my tops & bottoms. I saved the black dresses for last because I had sooo many black dresses....


Summer dresses ))
As I have gotten older I realized I don't particularly like wearing dresses with spaghetti straps anymore. I think they are cute and fine to wear, but I just am not a fan of them for me. I got rid of all of them except for one that I wear over my bathing suit in the summer. I also paid attention to the length of my dresses. I know for work we had a dress code where the dresses must come down to the knee. I realized I hardly ever wore short dresses anyways so I also got rid of my short dresses.

Winter Dresses ))
I had quite a bit of winter dresses but thinking of last winter I don't think I wore a single dress. I kept about 3 dresses with long sleeves that I still loved because I will be wearing it to an upcoming wedding. It is also a good idea to keep a black dress for a funeral or basically for any occasion ;)

Prom Dresses ))
Lets be honest. Are we ever going to wear our prom dresses again? Most likely the answer will be no. I still had a really hard time letting go of them but I decided to take them to a consignment shop where they take prom dresses. 

Bridesmaid Dresses ))

Those lovely bridesmaid dresses. I loved being a bridesmaid but most of the dresses I will never wear again. I donated mine to girls that needed a fancy dress for prom or I took them to a consignment shop. 

Wedding Dress ))My wedding dress I absolutely adore and love! I cannot get rid of my dress because it is just full of memories. I know some trash the dress after their wedding and some keep them for their daughters, but I am keeping mine for me. If my daughter wants to wear it for her wedding then I would be happy to give my dress to her, but even if she gets her own wedding dress I am going to keep mine until it no longer brings me happiness and a spark. 

Do you have any additional tips for organizing? Feel free to comment!
I would love to hear what you do! 

Next on my blog is organizing your socks & underwear (Step 4)!

♥ Hannah

Extreme Organizing - Clothing (Bottoms)

Extreme Cleaning - Clothing (Bottoms)

Step 2 of organizing clothing are all of your bottoms! This includes pants, skirts, & shorts.

I had a harder time organizing bottoms compared to tops. It made it even more difficult because I just had a baby and I am hoping to fit back into my before pregnancy pants. I started with off season stuff first because it just makes things a little easier.

Now don't forget to ask these questions as you go through each item.

1. Do I Love it?
2. Would I buy this if I saw it in the store right now?
3. Does it fit me? 
4. Have I worn this in the past year? 
5. Do I have more than one of this? (Like having multiple black t-shirts) 

Shorts)) I had a ton of athletic shorts from high school and college. I kept two of my favorite and got rid of the other ones. Here is how I categorized my shorts. Athletic shorts, reg. shorts, and maternity shorts. Any of my maternity clothing I kept in a box and put it away (Goodbye until next pregnancy!).

Pants)) I pulled out all of my pants and separated them by yoga pants/work out leggings, jeans, regular pants, work pants, capri pants, and so on. I worked on each type of pants at a time and followed my list that I had for the tops. (Listed above)

Skirts)) In high school we had a dress code where all the girls were required to wear skirts every. single. day. Including winter! Now if it was too cold they would let us wear pants(they weren't that heartless ha ha), but I felt like that was hardly ever. So if you had read my other post about tops you would know that I have been keeping clothing since like Middle school so guess what else I had a ton of from high school? Yep! Skirts. I don't even like to wear skirts unless I feel like dressing up extra to work or to church or something. Since most of my skirts still fit me I definitely had to ask the question of "Do I LOVE it?" For almost all of them the answer was no, so I put them in my donation box.

So far I got rid of 5 bags full of clothing! 

If you missed my post on organizing tops here is the link! http://strivingformissperfect.blogspot.com/2017/01/extreme-cleaning-clothing-tops.html

Next up! Organizing your dresses!

♥ Hannah

Extreme Organizing - Clothing (Tops)

Extreme Cleaning (Tops)

I have always enjoyed organizing and cleaning ever since I was a little girl. Being the only child I was constantly given stuff and it seemed as if I could never get rid of it. Organizing really helps me to relieve stress and I really started to enjoy cleaning once I got my own apartment. Over the years I realized that while cleaning room by room works, organizing room by room does not work. When I would get a pile of stuff that I needed to sort through and organize I would sort them by category.

♥ Side Story ♥  My little family of three lives in a one bedroom apartment (and let me tell you there is no room for extra stuff). Especially after the baby came in August, 2016. Being raised in Japan, I have always been amazed with Japanese people and how they could live in such tiny apartments and make it work! My one cousin in Japan had two little kids and they had one room, kitchen, and a bathroom. It was such a tiny house and if they could make it work how can I not make mine work? I understood Japanese people used Futon (their floor mattresses and blankets they would bring out at night and put them away in the morning) which clears up a lot of room, but it still seemed like it was impossible. So even though it seemed like the solution is to just get a bigger place I decided to organize and have as little as possible.

First I went through my clothes. Again I would organize by category within clothes, so start with tops.

TOPS.... I still had clothes from middle school... Yes, Middle school! How crazy is that?
I had gym clothes and pants that amazingly enough still fit me until I had my baby.
I don't know why I held on to them for so long since they are out of style now. It was time to let them go.

I have always organized my clothes by color. Red, Green, Blue, Purple, Black, Grey, and White. (I am a winter so I don't own any clothing that are Fall colors like yellow and orange). Which I think is a good idea and it makes it easier when I am picking out my outfit. I separated all of my clothes into categories (For example: tops, pants, skirts, dresses, & etc..) and separated within the categories again (For tops: Sweaters, long sleeves, short sleeves, and etc...).

I pulled out all of my red tops out. This included sweaters, jackets, T-shirts, blouses, and camisoles. I would look at each item of clothing and went by this check list to see if I should keep the item or not.

1. Do I Love it?
2. Would I buy this if I saw it in the store right now?
3. Does it fit me? 
4. Have I worn this in the past year? 
5. Do I have more than one of these? (Like having multiple black t-shirts) 
6. Is this item damaged in any way?

After going by the above check list, I went through each item and separated them by KEEP, SELL, DONATE, and TRASH.

• KEEP)) Jackets, blouses, and nice tops were put on hangers and t-shirts were folded into the drawer. 
• SELL)) If they were name brand clothing, looked brand new, or never worn I would take them to consignment shop. (Plato's Closet or yard sales are options too!)
• DONATE)) I know a family that does not have much. The family has several teen girls so if I come across clothes that they might like I would give the items to them. 
• TRASH)) If the clothing had stains or holes on them I would throw them away. 

After doing this I got rid of four bags full of just tops! Plus when you organize you feel like a load had been taken off of you! I feel happier and refreshed! Although I cleared out a bunch of tops I still feel like I have too many tops, but since I want to go through everything in the apartment I put the hanging clothing (tops) on backwards so next year I know if I wore the item or not. If it stays backwards then I am going to toss it.

This is my tops after I went through each item. I color organized and sorted them in category!

P.S. This is all my summer and winter clothing. Try not to store clothing in storage or in bins because you forget what you have and could end up buying more similar clothing.

This is the result! I either donated or gave away the tops that were on these hangers!

Do you have any organizing tips that really works?
Next on my blog I will be going through bottoms!

♥ Hannah