An Organized Linen Closet... for good.

 How often do you organize something, beaming with pride and accomplishment, only to find it's right back to the way it was only a short time later?  Here's a way to keep your linen closet organized for good!

As a military family, I'm always trying to think of ways to arrange a space that will translate to any home... unfortunately, this usually eliminates the use of closet systems such as the awesome Container Store elfa system.  Fortunately, there's an easier solution for a linen closet!  Keep everything in labeled baskets that can be packed up and transplanted anywhere, including to a different location within the same house as family needs grow and change!

All you need is a few supplies: hardware store paint samples, ribbon, scissors, hole-punch, sharpie and baskets of various sizes to suit your needs.  Michael's craft stores always have a wide variety of baskets and almost always have a sale going on; it's definitely an inexpensive way to stock up on a variety of the same style.

Cut circles from the paint samples and write your basket categories using a sharpie... Helpful hint: play with the colors to fit a house decorating scheme, color-code kids linen baskets, or just use your favorite colors!  Tie the tags onto each basket with ribbon and never again worry about whether or not Martha Stewart would scowl at your fitted sheet folding skills.  The baskets will help keep things organized without necessitating perfection!

         

What's for Dinner?

How often do you take your time making a concise, yet comprehensive grocery list only to return home from shopping and realize you've forgotten that vital ingredient for Wednesday's taco night?

It's an easy problem to solve! All you need is computer paper, Microsoft excel and a planner!  I buy blank paper from Filofax that comes with the appropriate holes already punched (it can be tricky to measure out!).  On excel, design a 2 column spreadsheet with boxes for all the common shopping aisles. My categories are: Produce, Deli, Meats, Snacks, Cooking, Baking, Cooking, Frozen, Dairy & Eggs, and Household.  I format my printer options so I can print the list directly onto the Filfofax paper to fit nicely into one of my planner tabs for Groceries & Menus!  Helpful hint: organize the categories in the same order you move through your store aisles so you instantly know if you've skipped something!  

Under the same planner tab, I also keep a monthly spreadsheet to plan our family meals.  With two small kids, I try to plan a week's worth of meals and make only one big grocery trip a week.  With my meal planner spreadsheet, I can keep track of what's for dinner a week in advance.  By keeping the meal schedule right next to my grocery list, I can see at a glance what ingredients are missing from the shopping list for each planned meal.  It's the little adjustments that make the big differences!  

Download my printable spreadsheets below!

These were designed for the Personal sized Filofax. 

     

     Printable Menu Planner

     Printable Grocery List

Where did I put that...

With this system, you'll never have to frantically search again!  When you create a family binder system, all the important documents will always be in one safe, organized space.

Who brings snack at this weekend's soccer game?  When are school pictures?  Did I remember to write down doctor information for the babysitter?  Never fear!  Keep it all in a family binder.  Simply purchase a 3-ring binder (the bigger the family, the larger the size) and create tabs to suit your needs.

• House & Home
• Daddy
• Mommy
• Kids
• Take-Out Menus
• Babysitters
• Anything!

Each section should contain a page with important personal information: name, phone, doctor information, allergies, and (for the kiddos) likes, dislikes, etc.  Keep a 3 hole punch in your desk and you can add other pages as they come in.  Get a new soccer schedule?  Punch it and add to your child's tab.  Planning a party for dad?  Keep the guest list in his binder section.  Finally found a trusted plumber or landscaper?  Add it to the House & Home category for future reference.  It's as easy as that!

Pretty soon, it will become second nature and piles of desktop/ countertop clutter will disappear!

Philo-fax

I have many loves in my life: my husband, my sons, playing the piano, even cooking!  However, I would be remiss not to mention my filofax.  Not only would I be lost without it, but it often feels like the 5th member of our family!  

For those of you who don't know, Filofax is an amazing London-based company that designs stylish yet efficient planners that suit a variety of lifestyles.  My favorite is the simple Personal Domino; when it's not running errands with me tucked safely away in my purse, it's laying open on our kitchen counter as the family reminder to add milk to the grocery list, of soccer practice next Tuesday, or that really important phone number that I had to write down and keep somewhere safe (without having to then remember where you wrote it down!).

Even though it's MY filofax, it really is the family planner.  Not only do I keep a monthly & weekly calendar, but I have a section for meal planning and corresponding grocery lists (will post on this soon!), To-Do lists regarding my son's upcoming birthday party, frequent flyer information for our numerous trips between Seattle, Pittsburgh and Boston, Christmas wish lists, and more!  It's so easy to keep everything at-a-glance.

In recent months, I've gotten more and more creative and started creating my own personalized pages from the filofax blank sheet refills purchase from their online site (Filofax online).  Watch for future posts in The Organization Aficionado on how to resize Word or Excel pages to print accordingly.  Once you know some technical basics, the possibilities are endless!