Toy Management

I love our basement! When were looking for a home, a usable basement was a must have! We've put the TV and all the kids toys down there. It makes the rest of the house much easier to keep clean.

Until two weeks ago, the toys were all over the place. I've been dreaming of these toy organizers from IKEA for years. This summer, the dream became reality. YEAH!!!! I love them! The kids are actually playing with the toys and then they clean them up every night before going to bed. It's amazing! My 20-month-old will clean up his own toys and knows that the bin needs to be put away before the job is finished. I'm in Mommy Heaven!
I've been thinking about how I could make the bins even cuter than they are, and here's what I've done -- I designed labels for each of them. There's both pictures and words so that kids of varying ages will know what's available and how to clean it up when they're finished using something.

I have a few bins left to finish, but I've run out of steam for a bit. I'll come back to it in a couple of weeks and finish the rest.

Food storage organization

I've been working for the past couple of months to organize my pantry and food storage. If finally feels under control. Here is my beautiful on the door spice rack:

I have two small spice racks on order to finish it off. They should arrive next week. I'm so glad I bought this rack -- it's made finding things so much easier.

Next is my new and improved pantry storage boxes. These are made from Lock & Lock, and are available at most Target and Walmart stores. I cut the vinyl labels myself and put them on. There are boxes for: all-purpose flour, bread flour, sugar, salt, rice, wheat, oats, pancake mix, brown sugar, powdered sugar, chocolate chips, powdered milk, crackers, and one that's still empty. They are so easy to use and each holds either a 5 lb. bag, a #10 can or a mylar pouch. So no matter where the pantry stock comes from, I can fit it into my containers.

For my over the counter cupboards, I decided to use small storage containers from Ikea for all the little snack food we eat constantly like raisins, teddy grahams, croutons, etc. I use the big ones on the top shelf for pasta. I store extra boxes behind the containers. That way we eat what's open first.

In the basement I have shelves from Costco that I use to hold all the canned goods. I also have special storage bins (not pictured) to hold extra flour and powdered milk. It's all packed in animal proof containers. Love it!
Now with this new organized approach, I can see what I have on hand for my three month supply of food. If my tax return had been larger, I honestly would have preferred to get this mammoth $400 storage rack.

(Costco is currently selling the shelf reliance system for $100 less than the shelfreliance.com website. Had I known that a few weeks ago, I might have purchased it. Oh well!)

It just didn't work out this year. I will say, I'm pretty proud of how the Costco shelves turned out. I can reach over the top of the food to put the newly purchased items at the back. That way I'm rotating the food as we use it, and nothing should ever reach an expiration date -- in theory anyway.

Next step -- three month tracking spreadsheet to share -- coming soon!