Organize it!

Blackbird Mountain Designs was previously known as YarnyBird. Blog posts may contain references to YarnyBird.

As a mom of a toddler and a 2nd baby on the way, working 3 home-based businesses, organization is KEY to keeping things running smoothly in our house. Or at least keeping the appearance of things running smoothly.

I’ve gathered up some of my favorite organization hacks for you to keep your life organized…or appearing so.

*This post may contain affiliate links. If you click on them and buy the product through that link, they’ll send me a little check as a thank you, and I’ll get to keep buying yarn, making the things, and sharing them with you.*

1. Family Yearbooks – photo organization. With the rise of digital cameras and phone cameras, we all find ourselves taking a TON of photos all the time. What do we do with them, though? Post them on social media and blogs, yes. But sometimes it’s nice to have a physical reminder of what happened over the last year, too. This is a great way to keep your yearly pictures organized and available to look back at. You can easily upload your photos to Shutterfly each month and at the end of the year, take advantage of one of the MANY offers they run throughout the year to create your book.
   
2. 9 Daily Habits for a Clean House. Cleaning is literally my LEAST favorite thing on the planet. I avoid it at all costs. I can’t wait until my kids are old enough to clean. Have you ever walked into someone’s house, maybe on an unexpected visit, and their house is immaculately clean and you wonder how they do it? Here are some things that people with clean houses do every day to keep that clean appearance. One of my favorite tips on here is the use of baskets to keep things organized. We like to use these foldable storage cubes in different colors for the shelves and pretty wooden baskets for floor organization.
   
3. Planner Organization – write it down! Every phone comes with a great calendar, and there are tons of apps out there you can download to keep your schedule organized. I personally prefer a good old-fashioned handwritten planner. I’m more apt to remember appointments and to-do’s if I’ve physically written them down. With everything going on, I keep it all in one planner, and I color code it so I can easily see at a glance what’s going on in all areas of my life. My personal favorite so far is the Passion Planner
   
4. Toy Room Tips. If your kids are anything like my daughter, they have a MILLION toys. Toys from birthdays, toys from Christmas, toys you bought them as a reward/bribe, toys from WHO KNOWS WHERE…TOYS EVERYWHERE! At first, a simple toy box is enough to keep the chaos contained. But sooner than you think, it gets out of control and you’re desperately seeking answers to rein it all back in. Here are some tricks to help keep everything organized. I’m definitely going to give some of these a try – puzzles in zipper pouches, hanging baskets for toys, and hanging spice racks for books.
   
5. Kitchen Tips. It seems like the kitchen should be the easiest room to organize. Everything there has a clear cut purpose and place in the kitchen…but somehow things get just as out of control there as all the other rooms in the house. Here are some tips to keep your kitchen running smoothly. The biggest pet peeve in our kitchen is definitely organizing storage containers. My parents have these Rubbermaid containers with easy find lids and I am definitely putting these on my Christmas list this year!
   
6. Craft Room Clean Up. If you’re a crafty type, like me, you no doubt have a room or space in your house dedicated to your craft. And almost as quickly as your kids accumulate those pesky toys, you find your craft space having accumulated STUFF and becoming a mess. Here are some tips to clean up your craft space over the course of a month, so it doesn’t seem so overwhelming. I love using a notions case for my needles and stitch markers and this knitting needle tube for my loose needles.
   
7. Pegboards! One great way to organize is to get things off the floor. Pegboards are a fun and useful way to do that. Here are some fun ways to use pegboards to organize all kinds of spaces in your home.
   
8. TIME to get organized. One area many of us forget to organize is our TIME. The key to getting the stuff in your life organized is to get your time organized. Here are some key tips everyone should know to get their time organized.