let's get organized!

It's January and I've been in a "got to get organized" mood lately. Next to filling bags with outgrown clothing and toys that the kids have "out grown" to donate to the second hand stores ... I've been trying to re-organize the house so that everything has a place again.

One of the things I did yesterday was go through all of the winter hats, mittens and scarves and get rid of the items that we don't wear anymore. I separated everyone's things into baskets that would be kept in either the front hall closet or the laundry/mud room. I love baskets - the ultimate organizing tool that can also be used as part of your decor. I used simple black chalkboard tags to label each of the baskets.

Here's a picture of the cabinets I designed for our laundry/mudroom last year. The cabinets were made by one of our friends, Chris, who owns the area California Closets. I designed the cabinets so that they would  fit the baskets I already owned ... it's so much easier to design the cabinets around the baskets than to try to find baskets to fit shelving! The larger baskets hold footwear and smaller baskets hold accessories.

 I bought my black chalkboard tags at Michaels about a year ago - they were in a clearance bin and really inexpensive. They are made of wood and have a chalkboard finish to them. I could have used chalk to write on the labels but I didn't because these baskets are used often and being the perfectionist that I am I knew that I would not be happy if the words were getting rubbed off all of the time ... so I used a white sharpie peel-off china marker (pencil) to write on the tags and get the same look as the chalk. I can easy repaint the tags with black chalkboard paint if I ever want to change a name. 

After I bought these tags I realized how easy they would be to make them from wood or chipboard shapes! You can buy thin premade wood shapes at most craft stores and just paint them with black chalkboard paint ... if they don't have holes to tie them onto the baskets with ribbon, you can easily make holes with a crop-a-dile or a drill. Or if you have a cuttlebug (or similar diecutting tool) you can make tags from black chipboard ... again add holes with your crop-a-dile, add a ribbon and you are ready to start labelling those baskets! 

I'm going to try to share some more of my organizing projects over the next week ... so if you are in the organizing mood too check back for more ideas. If you have been posting some crafty organization ideas on your blog lately and have some ideas to share please let me know!

I'm at The Answer is Chocolate's Open House!