What Gives You Zen?

I've been a little stressed lately (story of my life) waiting to hear about jobs and such. Yesterday was a little bit of a breaking point, so I did what I always do when I get too freaked about something.

I organized.

I'm pretty sure Sam and my mom think this is a little strange, but at least it's not some sort of destructive vice, right? If you have to be addicted to something, I think being addicted to cleaning/organizing is a good thing.

First up, the game closet in the basement.

We don't play games as much as we used to (clearly, look how many games we have), but this little alcove gets unorganized SO quickly. Drives me nuts. 

If you look closely, you'll notice we have 4 monopoly games, and several Harry Potter games.

 And here's the after! Whew. Doesn't that make you feel better instantly?

It makes me breath easier. I'm serious.

 Next up? My desk.

Yikes. Look closely (through the blurred iPhone lens) and among the normal things you'll find on a desk, you'll see various magazines, textbooks, 2 sweaters, a scrub top, contact solution...and a lot of other junk.

 And now it's better! (I'm starting to really feel like a loser as I continue to write this.)

 And lastly, our hall linen closet.

I have to reorganize this every few months because it gets demolished so quickly. Apparently I'm the only one that cares about how it looks.

That has to make you breathe a little easier, right? There's even more room for the 3 loads of towels we have waiting to go in the laundry.

I even found a little room on the bottom shelf for some of our beach towels, and then sorted out all of the towels I found less than desirable to stack at the bottom to use for the dogs baths (Bella gets more baths than any dog I know).

And now I can calm down about the job situation for a few more days! It's a win-win situation for all involved.

an organized closet

Tired of seeing holiday posts on every blog you frequent? Here's a little change of scenery.

I have to start back up to school tomorrow, and my room had fallen into some serious disrepair over the previous semester. Before Sam got in town for my birthday/NYE, I took the opportunity to do a major closet overhaul. Now I can actually find things in it, and I have one less distraction from my test on Friday :). You heard that right people...starting school tomorrow, test on Friday.

Also, I was too lazy to go down and get my DSLR camera when I was taking these pictures, so I used my iPhone (using my DSLR is one of my new year's resolutions...one I'll actually keep).

First, I took everything out of my closet and dumped it on my bed (and forgot to take real "before" pictures)...

...and on the floor.

I seriously took EVERYTHING out...

And then I put everything back in. I like to separate long/short sleeved things and then arrange them by color. Sweaters and extra bags are in the pink Sterilite container. On top of that pink container is a tote (from J!) with all of my knitting things and my clinical bag for nursing school for easy access.

I folded all of my comfy v-necks and long sleeved shirts in this white hanging thing.

Along with all of my camis and cardigans for easy access.

The crate next to my AMAZING NEW RAIN BOOTS holds shoes I don't wear as often.

On the opposite wall my dad hung some fun knobs from Anthropologie up for me to hang on all of my necklaces on.

Seriously, how cute is this knob? I love it.

I learned some valuable lessons similar to the No Spend November lessons while cleaning out my closet.

First, I had 9 pairs of slippers. 9. Do you know how many pairs of slippers you can wear at one time? 1 pair. I got rid of 4 of them, so I still have 5 pairs, but still.

I had 6 thermals and 20 cotton long-sleeved t-shirts from various clothing stores. 20! I got rid of all but 9 of the cotton long-sleeved shirts. I know that 15 shirts that are basically the same might seem excessive, but I wear them all the time under sweaters, sweatshirts, and more importantly, I'll wear them under scrubs because I get cold all of the time in the hospital.

I made myself get rid of a few other things that I had in my closet, but I'm going to try something that my friend Lauren found on Pinterest: once you wear something, turn your hangar the opposite way of everything else in your closet {it's recommended you turn everything the "wrong way" and then turn it back once you wear it}. Then, 6 months later, if you haven't worn it, throw it out, donate it, or resell it. If I haven't worn something in 6 months, chances are, I'm never going to!


Hope you're all having a great first day of 2012!