Woohoo! It's time to share with you all another great Lazy Mom Tip that I have instituted around my house!
*Lazy moms everywhere go wild!*
Thank you, thank you. I thought that might excited you.
If you're like me you have GOBS of pens, pencils, crayons, and the like scattered all over your house. I know this because when we listed our house for sale and started going through every nook and cranny of our home, I FOUND THEM ALL.
In the past I had tried corralling them in various small tubs and such and keeping them in a central place in our house, but they would inevitably get scattered back around. So when I cleaned my house out for our listing, I knew it was time to take control. To truly keep everything in ONE accessible place where everyone can find it!
Behold. Lazy Mom Tip #60....
These tall tower of drawers are great! I bought one several years ago when we homeschooled to keep paper, workbooks and the like organized, but it had fallen into disarray when we decided to put our kids in school and stopped using it regularly.
When I cleaned out our basement after we listed our house for sale, I dusted these bad boys off and decided they would be the perfect place to house all our pens, pencils, colored pencils and markers.
And speaking of pens, did I ever find some PENS when I cleaned our house out! I told Lazy Dad, and I quote, "We should never ever have to buy pens again in our lifetime. We have enough pens to get our children's children's children through college!"
The bigger drawers on the bottom were perfect for holding our (multitude of) crayons, folders and scratch paper for coloring.
But as I continued cleaning out our house I discovered I needed a home for additional items of this general nature. So I ran to Wal-Mart to buy another tower of drawers, but alas, they don't sell them anymore! NOOOOOOO!
So on my way to another store I passed Big Lots and on a whim decided to stop and see if they had them. AND THEY DID. AND THEY WERE CHEAPER! I did a happy dance right there in the store, drug them home and propped them up next to the other set of drawers.
Then I promptly filled them up with stuff so they'd feel all useful and loved and stuff.
The top drawer holds general office supplies: permanent markers, sharpies, tape, staples, etc. The other drawers house scissors/hole punches, rulers/compasses/protractors, and a whole drawer of note pads.
The bottom two house workbooks I didn't want to part with and spiral notebooks.
Now everything is nice and neat and has a home to belong in! Woot!
I love this tip because it makes you feel super organized. B, b, b, b, BUT! I'd be remiss people, just REMISS, if'n I didn't give a shout out to my sweet, gorgeous, fabulous sister who originally came up with this tip for her home many years ago.
She rocks.
And she's gorgeous.
Proof:
She has two of these drawers that fit perfectly in her kitchen pantry area. She keeps stuff in them like lightbulbs, owners manuals, batteries, cameras, wax bars for her candle warmer, etc.
But she takes the organization one step further than I do, she discovered that you can write on these types of plastic bins with a sharpie or permanent marker and when you're ready to use the drawer for something else, you can erase the permanent marker off with fingernail polish remover to relable them! (Did I mention she was smart, too?)
So. That's our fabulous Lazy Mom Tip! What's yours? Find out how to send it in to me!
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I've been using these since my daughter was 2 to organize all her art stuff. It's been a life saver. I also use the tiny 3 drawer ones in my kitchen cabinets to hold all those little spice packets, birthday candles, and other odds and ends. And I use one of the little ones in the cabinet next to the desk hold paperclips, extra push pins for the bulletin board, staples, etc. It really helps keep your cabinets organized!
ReplyDeleteI love those drawers! I keep one in the nursery to hold burp rags, changing pads, extra crib sheets, wash cloths, and hair bows/headbands!
ReplyDeleteI use them in my classroom too for pens and markers :-)
omg! this is the answer to my problems. thank you for posting this and it's very doable and affordable. Yeah!!
ReplyDeleteI use one of these to hold my craft supplies! Yarn, pattern books, ribbon, buttons, fabric markers, and glue guns! I absolutely couldn't keep track if anything without it. I never thought of using one for the mess of crayons, color books and workbooks we have laying everywhere.
ReplyDeleteI had one of those in college, but had forgotten all about them! Woohoo!! That is a much-needed item around here:) Guess I'll be making a trip to Big Lots soon. Last time I was there, I bought a really cheap and cute rug for our playroom (not a space I want to put much money into).
ReplyDeleteWe use ours for the tons (and TONS) of cords we have for various *things* in the house: power strips, game systems, computers...and who knows what else. I also have a smaller black one that I use for the school supplies (also bought when I was homeschooling the kiddos!) Organization feels so nice...I wonder why I don't remember the feeling and STAY ORGANIZED?!?!
ReplyDeletei use these for Legos..sorted by color. the larger bins on the bottom hold the large/odd pieces. i also bought smaller, clear acrylic drawar organizers to go into the top bins that hold the very tiny pieces.
ReplyDeletei use these to keep Legos organized by color. the larger bins/bottom hold the larger/odd pieces, and i bought acrylic drawer organizers to hold the very tiny pieces, like lights for the vehicles, or tools the various Legos characters 'use'.
ReplyDeletethere are even large enough to house the instruction booklets..because you never know when your kid may need to reacquaint himself (or herself!) with the instructions.
Brilliant. And I need some of these for LEGOS just like Lisa! :)
ReplyDelete