Digging out of Disorganization

I might have a little Obsessive / Compulsive Disorder (OCD) when it comes to organization and cleaning. Before kids came along and we didn't have many things (because we were dirt poor and only had what came from our dorm rooms from college), the house always felt organized and clean and not cluttered. I loved it. Even in college my roommate and I would take turns vacuuming, not because we didn't like it, but because we loved vacuuming and cleaning our room. We were crazy... we also went to bed at 10:30 most every night like dorks. But we needed our sleep!

Now, inside, I have this constant feeling of chaos because nothing in my house is organized, nothing stays clean for very long, toys and papers and everything that doesn't have a place clutters in cabinets and corners, and closets. It makes me feel disorganized in my brain. ha! I'm telling you, I have the OCD mental disorder. hahaha!

If Justin had not married me, he would be a paper hoarder. He never throws anything away, and it will just pile up. It drives. me. bonkers! And not to mention, the house we live in has no attic, no adequate storage in cabinets, closets, bathrooms, ect, and we don't own furniture that useful to organize things in. And when we moved here we just threw everything into the closets and cabinets and didn't really do any organizing because it was just a rent house. Now that it is our house, we have work to do!

So, one day at a time I am trying to work on one or two cabinets/rooms. Going through them, figuring out what needs to be bought to make the space function better, purging things, and only keeping what is necessary and useful.

My friend and I decided to swap kids once a week for a few hours so that we could each have some dedicated alone time do work on getting our houses clean and organized. This has been fun and the kids LOVE getting to play with each other.

Here has what's been done so far:

Laundry room (Justin lovingly put up several shelves on the wall for me, yay!)

Coat closet/Entry area

Spice cabinet

I am super excited about my spice cabinet. It was my nemesis. I despised trying to find anything! I had to pull out half of the spices to get the one I needed. This particular cabinet is narrow and I have a lot of different spices and dried herbs that I use so it was all a jumbled mess. Then I saw this Spice Stack online at an organizing website and bought it. It is PERFECT! It holds 18 spices and the outside you label so you know what's in each shelf.

And when you pull out the shelf it leans down so you can easily get what you need! How cool is that?!

I very much love my newly organized spice cabinet. A small part of the disorganized chaos in my brain is at peace. This week I have also been working on purging my kitchen cabinets of duplicate pots/pans/baking pans/ect, and just other things I don't use or need.

The biggest thing I need to tackle is our paperwork system. We have double the amount of paper things that come into our house because of church things. It is out of control, and I can't seem to get a handle on the stacks of papers that just continue to grow. I have even wanted to put the stacks under my bed and hide them so I won't have to deal with them. Sad. Very sad. Anyone want to come help me figure out the best sorting system for my upstairs paper mess? I will find $400 to fly you up here. Pronto!