Organized House, Organized Mind

I don't know about you; but, I like organization. I've mentioned that before; particularly at work I am very organized.

Since Lucy came along our house has been absolutely less than organized. I have become accustomed to just throwing things in a cabinet or closet and just closing the door. It's hidden from visitors right? I'm totally using the "clean your room" method that we all used as child. Just throw it all in the closet!

Alright - it isn't that bad. However, it does stress me out. I literally can't relax knowing that I have projects that I should be doing - like organizing my bathroom cabinets or the spice cabinet.

I have always said that if my area is unorganized that my mind is unorganized too. Knowing everything has a place and it is in it's home makes me happy!

"A place for everything and everything in it's place."

I preach it; but, I get tired of not living it. When I talk about not having enough hours in my day, this is one of those things that bother me. I never feel like I have the time or energy. So, one night, I sucked it up. I finally just asked Heath, "Can you watch Lucy while I do something real quick?"

"Real quick" turned into about an hour.

I decided to clean up our bathroom cabinets.

This is the spare bathroom mirror-cabinet. Notice how the left side was once a medicine/first aid area? Who knew that we had so much stuff? Would you believe that we barely ever open this for any other reason than to get Lucy's toothbrush?

This is our master bathroom cabinet. Notice again, the top, middle shelf. More medicine! I never took this much until I had Lucy. Now, I have all types of old prescriptions around.

Here is our 'spice cabinet'. You can also see that we have medicine in there! Pepto and off-brand tums are barely peeking over my pepper.

And this cabinet was not being used to it's full potential, in the spare bathroom. So, I decided the medicine needed to be put all into one place - here!

I started cleaning one at a time and categorizing. This is what I came up with (click on the pictures to make them bigger):

It looks like a lot, right? It is! I probably need to go through again and double-check expiration dates. (The red tin is holding medicines that are in a tube, like Orajel and my Eczema hand-cream.)

I have decided that we have too many cosmetics. These are just extras that we leave in the spare for guest use. That's just crazy. I, again, added a little red dish to hold dental floss and Lucy's little Orajel Toothpaste.

It doesn't seem like a big change in the Master. For the most part that is because I didn't touch Heath's stuff on the left side. But, already I have felt like it is easier to find things.

I did notice one thing though; I think I have a deodorant issue...

I have another one in my travel bag! Wow! Note to self: don't buy any more deodorant until at least 2012! I'm becoming a hoarder/extreme couponer.

I even made some changes to the spice cabinet. My greatest accomplishment was deciding to use my recipe card holder for packets, like below (sorry it's so blurry):

1) Yes, we buy Our Family taco seasoning.
2) Yes, I did have some recipe cards in here; but, I had a lot more that were too big and didn't fit. I decided to take the small ones out and put them with the larger cards. Win/Win.

What do you think? It is amazing how better it made me feel. Just a little organization helps me keep my sanity. Plus, I was putting the medicine all in one place; so we can lock that cabinet for Lucy-proofing.

Sorry to get off track a little on the blog; but, I felt compelled to show off my hard work! :)

Have a great, organized day! :)