New Years Resolution - Get organized! (with help from a Wal-Mart giftcard giveaway!)

Is your New Years Resolution to get organized?  I guess you could say mine is although it's not really a new year resolution - but rather, a continual state that I live in!  Always trying to get organized!

I got a Walmart gift card for Christmas so I vowed that I was going to use it to buy storage!  And that's what I did!

May I present to you exhibit A:

This is a 15qt storage container (made by Sterilite) that I found at Walmart for $3.00!

$3.00!!  Who knew getting organized would be so cheap??

See how all my son's trucks and cars fit in it?

And, the GREATEST thing I LOVE about this container, is it fits under my couch!  Yes, I am a huge fan of underbed storage boxes.  All the space under our beds are FULL of storage!  But under the couch storage was an idea that came to me when I realized that most of Bug's toys get pushed under the couch anyway.  Either by accident or because I have exactly 4 minutes to get the living room vacuumed and I need the toys out of the way fast.

I can't put the lid on it and slid it under the couch, but under the couch, who cares if it has a lid??

I bought 2 and now that I know they fit under the couch, I'm going to get at least 2 more!




Another type of storage I am a fan of is over the door storage.  I have over the door organizers in nearly every room of the house.

Bug's room has a pop-up hamper for his dirty clothes, but he got SO MANY large toys for Christmas (rocking horse, drum set, sit-n-spin) that floor space in his room is dwindling fast.  I knew I had to do something about the space his hamper was occupying.

Look at what I also found at Walmart (for $3.96!)...and over the door hamper!

SWEET!

Isn't it awesome?  LOL!






GIVEAWAY!  So, since I found such WONDERFUL storage solutions for such a GREAT PRICE at Walmart, I want to give one of my readers a $5 Walmart Giftcard so that YOU can get a jumpstart on your organization!!!

MANDATORY ENTRY:  Leave a comment below telling us one of your tips to stay organized!

Additional entries:

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3. Participate in the My Five Things weekly blog hop!  (3 entries each week you participate.  Total of 6 possible entries!  Blog Hop is open Sunday morning - noon Tuesday each week.)

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5. Subscribe to the blog via e-mail.  (2 entries - leave the e-mail address your subscription comes to so I can verify)

6. Blog about an organizational tip or method you have and include a link to this giveaway.  (3 entries.  Leave the link to the post - I'll post all the links after the giveaway is over so we can all benefit from your tips!)

Giveaway begins 10:00am cst on Sunday, January 9, 2011 and ends 10:00pm cst, Thursday, January 20, 2011.

This giveaway prize is supplied by me and is in no way affiliated with Walmart or any of the products mention/pictured in the giveaway post.

Clearance 18 gallon totes at Lowe's with FREE in store pickup!

WOW!  I'm in desperate need of some good storage totes.

These 18 gallon totes are $2.50 at Lowes.com!  And you can select FREE in-store pickup at your local store!  It doesn't get much better than that!

Oh, wait, it does!  You can shop at Lowes.com through Ebates and get 6% cash back!  (That's 15c per tote = $2.35!!!)

I just snagged three totes that I can pick up tomorrow!  (For a whopping $8.25 (tax was 75c).  I'll get 45c in my Ebates account.  So total for 3 was $7.80!

New Ebates customers get $5 in their account too!


(If you shop through an open Ebates ticket, just search for plastic 18 gal at the Lowe's homepage and it'll take you right to it!

Thanks Coupon Nano!

Stockpiling Saturday - Look at my new organized stockpile!

This used to be my stockpile shelves in the basement:

Pretty bad, huh? Well, now, thanks to my yard sale and getting rid of LOTS of stuff, THIS is what I have now:

WOW!  The amazing thing is, the bigger shelf I already had.  It was just in another part of the basement with junk piled on it!  The blue bin in the middle is where I'm keeping stockpiled gifts.

Here's a closeup of my new...well, re-purposed...shelf:

Take THAT, World's Smallest Pantry! 

You can find similar shelving units on Amazon.com


Don't forget, we want to see your stockpiles!  Link up below!

Stockpiling Saturday - Let's talk storage

I won't lie to you, stockpiling takes storage.  If you have a small space, it takes creative storage.

I've told you before that I have the world's smallest pantry.  So I have to resort to using the hall closet and a shelf in the basement for more storage.

Here are some things you can look into to see what works for your space.

Underbed boxes are great!  I don't use them for grocery stockpile storage (though I know people who do!!)  I use them for storing off season clothing.

I have these two great over the door organizers.  The blue one came from Babies R Us.  It's part of a mix and match closet organizing system for your nursery.  I ended up putting it in the bathroom next to the nursery.  We only have one under the sink cabinet in there so there was no room for baby stuff.  Washcloths are in the bottom, bath toys second, soaps, shampoos and baby washes in the third and diaper creams and medicine at the top.
I also use a shoe organizer in my son's closet.  It's a little empty now.  When he was little, it had bibs and burb cloths, shoes, socks, all kinds of things in it.  Now I still keep his socks in it.  I like how I can sort them by colors and easily see what I want.  There are some things up top that I don't want him getting in to.  But the bottom I use for toys because he can reach those pockets.

Search Amazon.com for over the door organizers

I have a few of these in the basement.  I'm hoping after the yard sale and we've cleaned out all our JUNK, I'll have better access to them and can use them for more stockpile storage.  Right now, only one is being used for that purpose.

These are great for basements an garages for paper goods, cleaning products and canned good storage.








How do you organize your stockpiles?   Let us know!  Link up below!

My Five Things - week of 6/6

How did you do this week?

What is The My Five Things Challenge?  We're getting organized one to-do list at a time!


Here is my list from last week:

1. Dining room not looking so good....
2. Kitchen  looking better...
3. Laundry  I did ALOT of laundry this week!
4. work on yard sale stuff  I did a little bit of this...and I set a date for it!  July 10th
5. clean out fridge  half finished...

Here's my list for this week:

1. Finish cleaning out the fridge
2. Prep for my coupon class
3. Finish Kitchen organization
4. Work on pricing yard sale stuff/start making a list of what I want to put in the ad
5.   

I think I'm going to leave my list at 4 things this week because I've got a lot of prep to do for the coupon class.  I just found out last week that I was doing it....

What's your list for the week?   Link up below!  (Make sure your post has a link to here in it!  Thanks!)

My Five Things - week of 5/30

How did you do this week?

What is The My Five Things Challenge?  We're getting organized one to-do list at a time!

Here was my list from last week:

1. Continue cleaning up the dining room  I worked on it a little bit but by the end of the week, I had piled as much stuff back in there as I cleaned out.
2. Price stuff for the yard sale and move to the garage  yes, and I've set a date for the yard sale so I gotta get busy!
3. Clean off kitchen countertops (they are getting cluttered)  I got half of the done.
4. Me time (still recovering from eye surgery)   Everything is great since surgery!
5. Laundry  ehhhh....

Here is my list for this week:

1. Dining room
2. Kitchen
3. Laundry
4. work on yard sale stuff
5. clean out fridge

What's your list for the week?   Link up below!  (Make sure your post has a link to here in it!  Thanks!)

Trying to get organized!!

By nature I am not a very organized person. So trying to GET organized is like trying to put a square peg in a round hole. But I'm making progress. It's the reason I started the weekly Five Things challenge, to set goals and keep myself motivated.

To me, being organized is essential to the changes I'm trying to make in my household. Yes, saving money is great. But what about saving time? It's equally important. And the best way to save time is to be organized!

Shauna over at Trying to Stay Calm is giving away set of Rubbermaid Drawer Organizers. These are great for your junk drawer or bathroom drawer that has a lot of stuff in it! So be wure to head over there and enter the giveaway!

Christmas Storage

Don't forget to get your new Christmas storage before it's time to pack it all up again!


I love these ornament storage boxes!

Christmas Storage

I JUST finished decorating my tree (forget the rest of the house...it took me a day and a half just to do the TREE).

But I was, again, being thankful for the fantastic storage I have for my ornaments. Without it, I don't even want to think about how long it would take to decorate my tree. I have enough ornaments/decorations to do THREE trees. Each year I do a different color scheme. So storage is important to me, to make it easy to pick the ornaments I want that year.

I have ornament boxes and if you don't have any, you need some!

I perused Amazon.com to see what they had and they have a pretty good value on some of the ornament storage boxes. Here were a few that caught my eye:









The top three are similar to ones that I have. The other row are ones that I thought were a nice value. One thing to consider when purchasing a christmas ornament storage box is where and how you store your ornaments. I have to store my christmas stuff under my staircase, so I need sturdy, stack-able boxes. Clearly, the canvas or cardboard boxes would not work for me. If you store yours in the top of a closet or under a bed, the canvas and cardboard boxes may work well for you. I also do wrap in tissue paper or bubble wrap some of my more fragile ornaments just as extra precaution.

Now would be a great time to get some boxes. That way, when the decorations come down this year, you can go ahead and pack them in your new boxes.

Check out all of Amazon's results for ornament storage.