{Blog Swap}: Organizing Tips for a Fresh Start

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Hello Dish of Daily Life-ers!  My name is Shannon, and I am the genius behind Baby Shmizz.  I am a full-time mommy to my son Jack, (oh yeah, and I have another job too, I’m a Physician Assistant specializing in Emergency Medicine) and MILF to my pastry chef husband Mike.  We live in our overpriced little home sweet shack just north of Boston with our quirky rescue dog, Tessie.  We’re a little bit crazy and a whole lotta fun, but fair warning, we don’t have a filter!

Since Michelle’s blog has a lot of great info about getting organized when it comes to photos, I thought I’d share some tips on getting organized in the New Year.  Things that you can do to de-clutter your house and make a fresh start in 2013 🙂

First place to start, which is also the easiest area to clean out (its the gateway drug to organizing, trust me!): clean out your medicine cabinet!

• Throw out anything that is expired, or will expire in the next 30 days.  Expired meds are not effective as current meds, and can also be dangerous.  You should also throw out any leftover antibiotics, if you have any.  While it is best practice to always finish a course of antibiotics unless directed by your health care provider to do otherwise, if you have leftover pills, get rid of them (contact your local pharmacy to inquire about proper disposal of prescription and OTC meds)
• Put any small containers used to hold items (like what is holding my q-tips and toothbrushes) in the dishwasher to give them a thorough cleaning.
• Throw out all those hair elastics and bobby pins that are now stuck to the bottom of the cabinet because you were too lazy to put them where they belong.  Oh wait, that’s just me?!?
• Remove all the items, spray all shelves with your favorite multipurpose cleaner and wipe dry.  I highly recommend installing a removable and washable shelf liner, like the clear plastic one that you seen the picture.
• Go through those items, toss what you don’t need or don’t like.  Makeup that is older than 6 months?  Toss it.  Half used tube of face cream that you don’t like anymore?  Trash.

So now that you’re addicted to organizing (see, I told you the med cabinet was a gateway drug!  Pun intended…), one place that I’m sure could use some organizing is your closet. It’s a big undertaking, I know. But remember all those really cute cardigans and sweet new jeans you got? Well, they need a home and you’re probably going to need to toss that button down from 7 years ago that you’ve been hanging on to. Truth.

Tips for cleaning out your closet:

• #1 rule: whatever you get rid of, don’t just throw it out, DONATE it!  There are plenty of people in this world that can use your clothes that you don’t want.
• If you haven’t worn it in a year, donate it.  Exception: new mommies.  If you were carrying a babe in utero for the past 9 months, you can hang onto those skinny jeans for another year while you try to fit back in them.
• If its been 6 months since you’ve worn something, try it on and make sure it still fits.  If it doesn’t, donate.
• Go through your shoes and *gasp* donate the ones you don’t like anymore.
• If you are like me and put the dry cleaning away into the closet without taking off the plastic…go through and do that now.  Remove any empty hangers from the closet, put the metal ones in a pile to bring back to the dry cleaner for recycling.
• When your closet is empty, vacuum the entire thing and dust all the corners for cobwebs.  And then make sure you put everything back nice and pretty 🙂

It was fun swapping posts today – thanks Shannon, for sharing some great organizing tips! Also thank you to Stephanie from A Grande Life for hosting this! If you’d like to read my contribution to Shannon’s blog, head on over to Baby Shmizz!