You're Not Just Moving Their Cheese

Change is difficult for many, even when it is for the better.  You may find that those that live with you resist your attempt to reorganize things in your home.  Old habits are hard to break and the usual way that things have been done brings comfort.  My reorganizing journey didn't come without a few bumps from my husband.  After all, I literally moved his cheese to a drawer in the fridge.  

To make things easier for those that live with you, here's a few words of wisdom to make the transition easier:

•  Let those that live with you know that you will be reorganizing to improve your home and your lives.  I told my husband that I would be donating things, throwing some things away, and possibly finding new places for old things. 
• Don't throw or donate others' belongings without their permission.  If you think that it should be gotten rid of, explain why.  For example, they don't use it, they have multiples, etc.  Listen to their rationale for keeping it.  Comprising is important. 
• My husband started to trust my decisions and stopped going through everything.
• For multiples of things, give them a concrete amount of space to use for those items or negotiate the number to keep.
• If it is important to them, find a place for it.  After all, it is their home too.
• After moving things, give the people you live with a "tour" of where you moved the various things.  You'll be excited to show off your hard work, and they will appreciate knowing where things belong in the house.  
• Share your rationale for why you put things where you did.  Helping others understand the "why" works wonders.
• Label things to give them reminders of where things go.  I even labeled the drawers in the refrigerator.  The labels don't need to be permanent. 
• Be patient.  The new locations or ways of doing things will become old habits eventually.  

I knew my husband was proud of my hard work when I heard him bragging to his buddy about it.  He loves the improvements that were made.  I hope that your loved ones will appreciate your hard work too.  

Don't Have a Mud Room?

I don't remember exactly how old I was when I heard of a mud room, but I do remember thinking that having a room for your mud was crazy.  Obviously I was quite young and have since learned the purpose for a mud room.  

My house is quite old and doesn't have a mud room.  We do have quite a bit of closet space, but no one in the household wanted to use a hanger when putting his/her coat away.  The first couple of years that we lived in our home everyone threw his/her coats on chairs when coming into the house.  Then it dawned on me at an elementary school...hooks!  It is easy for people, including children, to hang their coats on hooks.  

Now that I knew that I wanted to use hooks, I needed to figure out where to put them.  When entering and leaving the house, we use the back side door.  To exit, we must first walk through a hallway.  Which lead to my next epiphany...hang the hooks on the wall in the hallway.    

Mud "Room"

Once the coats were back there, the shoes and boots followed, so I added a shoe rack.  With the boots came the mud and melted snow.  To solve this problem I made a boot tray.  I found a white plastic serving tray on clearance at Target and filled it with rocks from the home decor aisle.  

Boot Tray

Setting the boots on the rocks makes it so the boots don't sit in the mud and water when the snow melts.  For under $20, I don't have to see a mud puddle in my mud "room" from November-March, which is worth every penny.

I probably should place a shelf above the hooks, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.  For right now I store the extra hats, gloves, scarves, etc. in labeled baskets on shelves in the "coat" closet.  I use clothes pins to keep gloves and mittens together in pairs. 

Storage for Winter Miscellaneous Items

While the mud "room" works well for members of the family, it doesn't work well for guests since they enter through our front door.  After opening our front door, you are in my living room.  The layout of the room makes it difficult to arrange furniture.  Putting hooks on the wall didn't work as well here.  So, I searched for a coat tree.  I couldn't believe how expensive these can be or how wide their bases can be.  I wanted to place it behind a chair, so I wanted a small one.  I found one that met my needs at Gordman's for $30.  

Coat Tree for Guests

Since, it is the first day of spring, I am looking forward to storing all of the coats for the warm weather months, as I am sure that you are too.  Until then, I hope that you can use at least one idea from today's post.

Putting Lazy Susans to Work

I am not sure how the Lazy Susan got its name.  I googled it and found different stories about its origin.  If it was invented by a woman named Susan that didn't want to ask others to pass things to her from across the table, I wouldn't call Susan lazy, I'd call her a genius.  We all know that it can be awkward butting into a conversation to ask for more food or a condiment.  I guess "Genius Susan" doesn't have the same ring to it.  

Lazy Susans come in various sizes and are most commonly found on dinner tables.  When I traveled throughout China, a big glass Lazy Susan was commonly found on the table to help accommodate our family style meals.  The ones that I have seen in the U.S. on dinner tables tend to be much smaller and hold ketchup, mustard, salt, pepper, and maybe some napkins.  The Lazy Susans in Auer home aren't on the top of any table.  I use them in on shelves in closets and cupboards.  

In the Bathroom Closet

In the Kitchen Cupboard

I am far from being the first person to come up with this idea.  When I first saw it, I didn't like the idea because of all of the empty space left on the shelf.  Therefore, I started with two in the bathroom, since I thought that the idea might have merit.  I used one for personal hygiene stuff and the other for hair styling products.  What I loved about using them was that I didn't knock things over as I had when I reached for stuff at the back of the shelf.  It was also easier to see what I had.  They made it easier for kids to see and reach for what they need, so I added two more: one for mouthwashes and another for toothbrushes and toothpaste.  I liked them so much, I added some in the kitchen.  They work great on hard to reach shelves.  I am now a Lazy Susan convert. 

Lazy Susans come in various sizes and vary in price.  I have found that Bed, Bath, and Beyond has the most sizes to choose from and are reasonably priced.  Target has better quality ones, but I only found them in one size, and they were more expensive.

While on the topic of things that spin, I must give a shout out for Pampered Chef's Tool Turn-About.  

 
I grew up in a house that had all the large utensils in a drawer.  It made the drawer difficult to open and close, and it was even more difficult to find the utensil you where looking for.  I am big on keeping the counters clear to avoid clutter, but I definitely think that this is worth the space that it is taking up on my counter.  It makes it easy to find a wooden spoon or a spatela. 

Simple Ideas to Make Meal Planning and Grocery Shopping Easier

Meal planning and grocery shopping are chores that not many of us relish.  Hopefully, these tips will help simplify your life.

My husband loves it when I make a menu for the week.  Problem was, it was constantly changing, and I didn't like to view a scribbled document on my refrigerator.  Then one night, I thought about how to solve this issue with materials that I had around the house.  Using fishing line, tacks, clothes pins, and some paper, I made this:

The clothes pins have the days of the week on them and are clipped to the fishing line that is tacked to the wall.  It is easy to rearrange meals if needed.  We find that we basically eat the same 10-14 meals, so we reuse the slips of the paper.

My husband is also infamous for asking if I need anything from the grocery store as he is walking out the door.  Put on the spot, I seem to always forget what I want.  Don't get me wrong, I am very thankful that is the primary grocery shopper, but often we don't get all that we wanted to make the meals that we planned.  Therefore, I made a list of items that we buy on a regular basis in a spreadsheet.  I categorized it based on the layout of the grocery store and alphabetically in each category.  I am able to update it as needed.

 
 

The Room That Got it All Started

Before

Before

Before

Before

Before

Before

Above are the before photos of our home office/craft room.  You will notice how it is in major disarray.  The furniture overtakes the space, clutter is everywhere, and the room seems gloomy and dark.  When people came to visit, I shut the door.

Now for the after photos:

After

After

After

After

 Now the room appears bright and cheery with minimal clutter.  I am now able to keep the door open when I have visitors.  

The white desks and shelves were purchased from IKEA and assembled by my dad.  I bought the fabric drawers from Home Depot, since I wanted to be able to put labels on them.  My niece arranged the drawers so that each color appears only once vertically in each column and only once hortizontally in each row.  

The floor is Allure Ultra, also from Home Depot.  I eventually want to do my entire first floor with this, since it is water proof and scratch resistant.  It is easy to clean, and with dogs and kids visiting that is a must.  

For the walls, I wanted chalkboards, so I bought cheap door mirrors and painted them with magnetic primer and pink chalkboard paint.  To organize things like paper clips, rubber bands, erasers, tacks, etc, I bought magnetic spice holders and a pizza pan.  The French memo boards were made with framed canvases, material, ribbon, and the clear tacks that twist in.  Finally, I switched out the dark green curtains with the cream color ones that I found on clearance at Target.

Introduction

Welcome to my new blog "Auer Organized Home".  I am Aimee Auer (pronounced like "our" or "hour"), and I must confess that I love to organize.  Hopefully, you will take away a few valuable tips from the information and photos that I share.

During the summer of 2012, I cleaned out every closet, drawer, and cupboard in my house.  It was amazing how much stuff my husband and I collected during the 8 years that we have lived here.  I found multiples of things that a home only needs one of, expired medications and dry foods, and things that I even forgot that I even owned.  Most of the unneeded items were donated and a few things were thrown out in the trash.  Everything that stayed found a place.  While reorganizing, I realized that I loved doing it.  I would spring out of bed and look forward to the results of my efforts.  Which for those of you that know me, know that I am not a morning person.  

I still love viewing organization tips online, and I thought that I would pay it forward.  If I have accidentally taken one of your ideas, please let me know so that I may give you credit.  Many of the ideas that I got online, I found on more than one site, so I didn't know to whom to give credit.
 
Please be kind about any typos or imperfections on my blog.  :)  I do my best, but we all make mistakes.