3 tips to organize, simplify, and light up this winter

It's so exciting to see all the wonderful organizing blog posts surfacing for the annual new year's resolution push!!

Here are some ideas I will be giving serious thought about implementing:

(1) Pack up Christmas ornaments the safe way

Unpacking Christmas is always the first task at the start of the new year. I've managed to get my seasonal stuff pretty well organized. But this would certainly help simplify the ornament packing process.

Plastic cups, hot glue, and leftover cardboard are all that are needed to make this DIY ornament storage insert with individual compartments for each ornament.

Safe ornament storage from Martha Stewart

(2) Minimize paper clutter, starting with Christmas cards

Home organizing and productivity guru Aby Garvey at Simplify 101 is offering everyone a FREE command central reference binder to help everyone find their own best way to organize the paper stream!!!

Freebie from Simplify 101

I adore her tagline: More fun, more done!  Makes me want to jump right in and get to it.

Plus, she has weekly organizing tips via an email newsletter.  Here is her fabulous tip for what to do with Christmas cards as part of her January newsletter checklist.

Simplify 101 January checklist

I love it that she didn't tell me to throw them away.  I'm going to do this with all our cards from now on.  The kids still have all their birthday cards stashed in various places in their rooms. Now I know what to do with these keepsakes.


(3) Bring in the light with white cabinets


Darkness zaps my energy.  We have so little natural light in the house and not near enough artificial light to compensate.

Geek light

Needless to say, living in a cave does not help me keep up with the tasks of daily living, let alone try to tackle the big organizing projects. I'm aiming to bring in the light this year.

Bring in the light!

Color expert Maria Killam at the Color Me Happy and designer Kristie Barnett aka The Decorologist both advocate for painting dark kitchen cabinets white.

White kitchen via Color Me Happy

They both say white kitchens are a timeless look that will never go out of style and it brings so much light into the home.  (And Maria has great advice on finding the right white!)

White kitchen via the decorologist

Fortunately, the hip homeowners at Young house love show you just how to make that transition with the right paint, tools, and techniques to make it simple...er. They made the complete transformation with $60!

Young House Love paints cabinets

When the painting is done I would like to add pull-out shelves to the cabinets that are so hard to reach into.  Luckily, the folks at This Old House have an easy tutorial.

Norm saves the day with the pull out shelves