Organising your Bathroom Part One

The easiest thing you can do in the bathroom is to organise the airing cupboard if you have one. First of all take all your duvet covers and put them in the matching pillowcases. This saves time trying to find the matching bed sets and it also look so neat!

This will save you soooo much time when trying to make your bed. For the rest of your cupboard i suggest colour co-ordination (my fave) to organise towels. You can also make seperate piles for the different sizes to avoid those awkward unstable stacks that always fall over.

Other cool ideas to store towels if you do not have a cupboard in your bathroom are firstly, install high shelves above door for towels.

A slightly weirder idea is to use wine racks to store rolled up towels.

And then there are always many different hook you can attach to the back of the door.

Organising documents

I have not blogged in a few days as  i have been busy organising other peoples lives. So nothings changed there... Today i spent a good chunk of it helping my stepdad organise his life into papers. He had 4 folders full of piles of random bank statements, bits of paper with important writing and any other detail you can think of written down somewhere. My job was to make it easier to find things so i don't get woken up at 7 by a panicking man who cannot find the paper version of his driving license. I personally love organising papers as i think they are one of the easiest things to organise (plus i get to use my label maker and what can be better than that?)
First of all we got ourselves a large box filer. We decided on this one due to the large amount of paper needing to be filed and the paper filers can not hold very much and this way you can lock the box to keep files safe. This style also means you can add as many suspension files as you want in direct relevance to the amount of folders you need. Rymans are always good for this and there is one relatively close to our house. One like this one in the picture below will cost about £16.99 at rymans. Their web address is http://www.ryman.co.uk

You can also buy the suspension files seperately from Rymans for £6.99 for 10 in a variety of colours.

They also have the handy labels above so you can hand write what is in each seperate file so it can be easily found.
I know this isnt very interesting but it can take very little time to do and once all your files are in order it takes so little time to find things you need and lets be honest you are always tearing the house apart looking for that one piece of paper you desperately need. This way everything is in order and you can find things within seconds!

Clothes Folder!

If like me, you like this very neat then you will love this item. I first discovered it on the American TV show, The Big Bang Theory. The main character was using it and the instant i saw it i had to have it. I organise my drawers by, cardigans, vest tops, t shirts and long sleeves and in every drawer i love things to look extremely neat and perfect. So the way i get perfect clothing pile is to use this...

The Clothes Folder!!!

I personally have a hot pink one (obvi) which i got on ebay after searching for it online. However they sell them in many places including www.amazon.co.uk where they cost £27.69. Bit pricey if you ask me, after all they are only plastic with some hinges. I paid about £10 for mine on ebay including postage and i had a huge amount of colours to choose from. I was thrilled when it arrived and spent the whole day folding everything perfectly. Trust me, if you enjoy organisation and order then this will definately brighten up your day!

Jewellery

There are so many incredibly cool ways to store your jewellery that not only stop pieces getting tangled but also create great decorations. Here are a few of my favourite ways to store jewellery.

1. Hanging Organiser
These hanging organisers are great for bulky jewellery which are so hard to fit in jewellery boxes as they seperate them in individual pockets. I got one just like this from Primark for just £1!!!! It turned out to be the most useful thing i ever bought. Its also double sided so i can hide my slightly less sightly jewellery on the back. Ha! Also if you want to be really neat the hanger allows you to hang this in the wardrobe if you do not like cluttered walls.













2. Jewellery trees

Jewellery trees come in all different styles, as you can see some even look like trees! I don't personally use these as i have to many thin necklaces for these but they are most useful for necklaces so they don't tangle but not very delicate necklaces. You can get these in so many places, gift shops, argos, and little independent nick nack shops.












3. Wall hangers (or your own cheaper version)

I personally love these as they look so organised! Everything looks perfect and neat! I havn't managed to get my hands on of these though but i would love one!









However there is a very easy way to do this yourself!

All you need is a pin board and some strong pins!
Just mount the pinboard to your wall wherever and however you want! And then add the pins! The great thing about this is that you can design it however you want! You can put the pins wherever you like on the board and move them about when you get bored! You don't even need a pinboard, if you're feeling brave then you can put pins straight into the walls. The great thing about this is that things don't get tangled. And as you can see in the picture you can even put things in small clear bags and attach them to the board.





However if none of these work for you, you can go back to the old faithful jewellery box! It's a staple for a reason!

Accessories

Accessories such as belts, scarves, ties and bags can be annoying to organise especially if you don't have the space. The easiest way to organise is to use small thin drawers so things can be displayed neatly. Or you could use drawer seperators for the bigger drawers.

These ones are from Ikea for £8.00 but they sell all different sorts to fit any and every need.
If you do not have much drawer space and have slightly more in your wardrobe then hooks are the way for you to go! I personally have small sticky removable hooks stuck on the inside of my wardrobe and i hang scarves and belts on them.

I found these ones in a pound shop but you will be able to get them at most DIY stores such as B&Q.

But you could stick them anywhere, just do not hang too much on them or they will just fall off. For Bags you will probably need stronger hooks. Most will hang nicely on a simple nail in the wall and there are many different types to suit anyone's taste. But for bulkier items like bags i prefer to keep them in drawers so i bought a bed with sliding drawers and they are perfect for storing bags. But obviously you can't buy a new bed just to store your bags (ahem) so there are some much cheaper options. The top shelf of wardrobes are useful for this kind of storage, you could use normal boxes and store accessories in them in the top shelf as this looks very organised, or even just nice bags! For one friend i used her old selfridges bags as they fit perfectly in the top shelf and the bright yellow looked great all lined up and they were perfect for belts, scarves and even small bags.

Shoe Wheel

Just found an awesome item for organising shoes and a great website with other storage units to store both shoes and handbags.

The storage system is called a SHOE WHEEL!

The shoe wheel can has 20 pockets that can fit up to 30 pairs of shoes. They can be displayed well and save a lot of space. The shoe wheel comes in silver, white, black and pink.
It retails at $69.00, (and they do ship internationally) which is a bit pricey but you could look and see if anyone is selling one on ebay for less!

The website is called   http://www.rakkudesigns.com    They sell many other storage items as well!
Go and have a look!

Organising what to keep!

I forgot to start my blog off in the most obvious way possible! Before arranging everything you have to decide what you want and what you do not!

1. The first and easiest thing to do if you are someone with very little time is to take everything in your wardrobe and turn all the hangers backwards. Everytime you wear something turn the hanger the right way round. After a certain amount of time (say 6 months to a year) look at all your hangers and whichever ones are still facing backwards can be taken to the charity shop.

2. The other option is better but may take a few days and a few friends. Start at one end of the wardrobe and take every thing out one by one and try it on. After trying something on you can put it in one of 6 categories.
   - If it is stained or ripped beyond repair then put in the BIN!
   - If you are sure you don't want it then send to CHARITY SHOP!
      ( the other option if you do not want it is to sell on ebay but this does take a while and is not    suitable for very busy people as you need to take good pictures, list item at good time and be free to send parcels during post office hours)
   - If the item does not fit but you really like it then put it in a bag to ALTER or take to TAILORS!
   - If you do not like the item but think one of your friends might suit it then put it in bag to give to   them!  (you could also organise a clothing swap with all your friends but just make sure to only take things you really want as you may end up back where you started!)
   - If you are not sure about the item then put in a bag and leave bag under bed or in attic or somewhere safe and not damp. After 6 months get the bag back out. Sometimes you find stuff you forgot about or really missed but more often than not you did not miss the item and you can take them to the charity shop without the panic that you might be giving away something you really like!
   - And lastly if you like the item KEEP IT! it has earned a place back in your wardrobe.

Remember! If you can't see it then you won't wear it!!

Shoes!

Ok so now onto how to organise your many many pairs of shoes. If you have all the space in the world then you can have the luxury of floor to ceiling shoe shelves. This is a lovely way of displaying all of your shoes so you can always see them. If you have this luxury i would suggest storing your shoes in opposite ways to save space so you can cram as many pairs in as possible.

If you, (like me) are strapped for space there are many ideas out there that you can use. I personally put high shelves all the way around my room and display my shoes on that. If shelves are not your things then you could hang shoes by their heels on a rod or slanted surface attached to the wall. However this does cause them to get quite dusty but dirt never hurt anyone.The benefit to this is that they are always on display so you can pick shoes to match your outfit very easily. If you cannot see your shoes then you won't wear them!

The best way to keep shoes in good shape is to use the clear boxes that you can get in most places or the fabric shoe organisers you can hang in different places in your wardrobe. If you opt for the boxes you can stack them any way you want and if you really want to be organised then you could take pictures and stick them to the boxes so you can tell whats in them without rifling through all the boxes. The hanging show organisers are also great for storage. You can hang them on the back of any doors but you can normally not fit many in.

Overall there are many different ways to store your shoes whether you have little or tons of space. There are more than i can even put in this one post but i will cover them all over the course of the blog.

Basics to wardrobe organising

So... Im going to start with how to organise your wardrobe. I personally organise mine by colour. I start with black and grey and work my way down to white covering all the colours inbetween and making sure they flow nicely. You may also decide that organsing by item is better for you, e.g skirts, dresses and shorts all grouped together.

 I'm a bit strapped for space so i also use hanging separaters from ikea for £4. I try and only use hangers without clips as they take up more space so anything that should be clipped i put in the hanging compartments such as shorts and skirts and if they are folded nicely then you can see them all and they can be easily found when needed.

Also with regards to hangers i try and use the ones with the little dents (no idea what they are called) so that strappy items and loose items do not fall off the hanger when you try and squeeze them into your overstuffed wardrobe. You could also use fabric hangers (usually velvet) as the straps of clothes will not slip off them. I personally cannot use them as i have a huge thing about velvet and i cannot stand it! But this only applies if you are going to buy your hangers but i make sure that when i buy clothes they give me the hanger as these are the best and it also means i don't have to spend extra money buying hangers!

 I also put my jeans on the top shelf folded up as that saves space and they are the easiest to fold and look neatest (and i am all about my clothes looking perfect and neat).

Now you have the basics of how to organise your wardrobe and in the next posts i can move onto accessories and then onto the rest of the house!

Welcome

My name is Jessie Frost and i am here to help you organise your life. I am 20 years old and ever since i can remember i have organised everything in sight, at christmas i would organise the tins of chocolate roses that every family gets (don't deny it) into colour categories and would not let anyone touch them! I am obsessed with keeping everything in order and alphabetise and colour co-ordinate everything in my house (and in some of my friends houses). I am the go to person my friends and families come to when they're moving house to packing for university. I am here to give helpful tips for organising your home whether you are on a budget or have all the money to spend on your home. I will organise the tips by rooms in the house (paying special attention to the wardrobe as fashion is my second love) and try and update a new hint every couple of days.

Hope you enjoy!