Genius or CRAZY?!?

Okay, so I have to ask....am I a genius or a crazy person for organizing my kids clothing, for when I am in the hospital, into labeled ziploc bags.  Each day has a labeled bag with the day's clothes.

Genius or crazy?

Our Bathroom Closet

I told you yesterday I was going to show you the inside of my bathroom closet.  You all are probably wondering, "what the heck do I want to see that for?!?!"  And you are right, you probably don't.  But, I wanted to document how TINY our living space is right now.

Maybe you have some tips for me, or maybe you are looking for some tips yourself.  

I am always looking for new uses for things, diaper boxes.....I use those CONSTANTLY!  I recently cut the top off one and am now using it in the back of my car to keep our lawn chair/stroller upright, as well as hold a picnic blanket.

There are things that can be re-purposed all around you, just look.  :)

Without further adieu, here is our bathroom closet.

I just recently purchased this clear shoe organizer to hold all our medications and stock pilled bathroom items.  The top row is for things we do not use often: extra toothbrushes, thermometer, nasal aspirator, etc.  The second row is adult medications, third row is child medications.  Rows 4, 5, and 6 are all for stock pilled items.

See, I told ya I didn't clean it up!  :)  The top shelf is all extra stuff we are not currently using, but want to keep.  A storage shelf (not shown in the picture).  The 2nd shelf holds extra toiletries and medications.  3rd shelf is towels and potty (which I use my son would USE!).  The 4th shelf is towels, and a set of drawers which holds q-tips, nail clippers, etc.  The 5th shelf is all stock pile, primarily laundry detergent.  And finally, the floor.  I have diapers, toilet paper, baby wipes, crutches (yes, I know CRAZY, but we currently don't have a place to put them that the kids can't get into).

And finally, our closet has this small extra space, and, at first, I wasn't sure what to do with it.  So, I put dry wall hooks up and hung these baskets.  They hold our wash clothes and hand towels.  Even the top one hold a Halloween pumpkin.

Don't judge, lol.  I told you I was working with a small space.

What creative ways have you organized your small spaces before?  Any tips for me?  Did I help you?  :)

How I Orangize Coupons

I have been trying to get into couponing for the last year.  It has been fun, a struggle, and not as rewarding as I thought it might.

But, I realized that even though NONE of my area stores double coupons (I have called every store within a 100 mile ratius), I am saving money.  Just not as much as some of the "coupon goddesses" can.  :)

So, over the last year I have tried several ways of keeping my coupons organized.  I hate when things aren't organized, it just drives me nuts.

I used to have our dvds organized in alphabetical order, and I loved it!  The compulsion to organize the dvds went out the window, though, when I was doing it 3-4 times a day after Jack learned to crawl.  Not fun.

Anway, so I will share with you the methods of organization I have tried over the last year and my thoughts on its effectiveness.

First, a ziploc bag.  No good.  I spent so much time trying to find the coupon I needed that I got tired of it, real quick.

Second, a binder with baseball card pages.  Eh, not a fan.  Like I said before, I like things in order and it was SO difficult to keep this organized.  Every time I used a coupon I would have to adjust the others so I could maintain order.  Don't even get me started on adding coupons.  Talk about a nightmare.  Plus, it is such a big thing to cart around with you.  Having 2 babies, plus the binder, didn't leave much room for the items I wanted to purchase.

Third, a small blue organizer.  It was alright.  I organized the coupons by department, and that just doesn't work (at least for me).  I would still spend a lot of time searching for a coupon because I found an unadvertised sale.

And finally, my favorite (so far), a index card box!  I made my own "file" because I didn't have the insert you can buy (when I get an idea, I just run with it...and waiting for a trip to the store just didn't sit well with me.  HAHA!). 

Success!  I get my coupons alphabetized.  Failure, I still didn't know what coupons I had.  :(

At this point I realized I needed to create a spread sheet of all my coupons.  That way, when I am at the store, I can simply look at my spread sheet (on my phone....or in print.  It just depends on if my husband used all the ink, again.) and know, at a glance, whether I had  a coupon.  :)

It works like a charm.

Yes, I know what you might be thinking....that is a lot of work.  But, it only took me about 2 hours of interrupted work to organize all 175 coupons I currently have on hand.  You could even make quicker work of the spread sheet by finding a web-site that "previews" the upcoming weeks ad.  Simply copy and paste, and you have your coupons updated.  (Here is a great web-site!)

So, that's how I organized my coupons.  How do you?  Do you have any tips for me?