If I can do it, so can you..

I am a naturally unorganized person. I've never been good at putting my things away and I've never really felt the need to have a place for things because I felt that I always knew where they were.

Well as you guys know, my New Years Resolution (#3) was to get organized and STAY organized. I've definitely started and I wanted to show you guys how I've managed to get in the semi-groove of things.

First things first. The layout of your room is SO important. The feng shui of your room is what will make or break you. Seem dramatic? It's not. It's true. When my room was in shambles, the thing I hated the most was that I had no flow to my room. Literally none. I had a big dresser greeting me everytime I walked into my room and my bed was tucked away in a little claustropobic corner right next to a bunch of plastic organizing storage that never looked nice. And then my desk took up an entire wall and my vanity was just randomly plopped in a corner.

So naturally, things got a little out of hand. When your room doesn't have flow, it's hard to keep things organized. It's like trying to remain calm, cool and collected while at a Taylor Swift concert. It just doesn't happen.

WARNING: EXTREMELY ORGANIZED PEOPLE SHOULD PROCEED WITH CAUTION

So here I have for you the dreaded proof of what I was dealing with. A messy room at its finest. On the left of the picture is my dresser and bed and the right is my closet and vanity table. So yea. You can see I was in need of a feng shui makeover.

Even when it was clean it still just did not feel right. It felt like I had bulky furniture stuffed wherever it would fit with no real hm's or ha's about it. And it felt that way because that's exactly what it was. So I decided to do something about it (because I wanted to enjoy being in my room. It's supposed to be a haven!)

First thing I did was got rid of my bed. It was one of those beds that is super solid and has the drawers at the bottom. It was just too much for my small room. Plus, three small drawers DID not provide me with enough storage space. So I swapped for a bed with a small, simple frame and put lots of under the bed storage in the place of the god-awful drawers.

Then I changed my feng shui. 

Miscellaneous plastic under the bed storage ($10-15)

It's not super duper tidy but it just flows sooo much nicer and it made my room feel a TRILLION times larger and brighter! Who'da thunk?

After I got my room positioned nicely I started to organize things into places. First thing I bought was under the bed storage. This is where I keep stuff that I use everyday but they don't need special care. I have workout clothes/gear, riding/barn clothing, and my lounge wear in these three boxes.

The next biggest butt-ache was my vanity. SO MANY THINGS AND SO LITTLE SPACE.

I decided I needed to organize my makeup, first and foremost. So I bought myself one of these handy dandy things:

Canadian Tire $12

This has been one of MVP's of my organization binge. It holds my makeup like a newborn child. I have organized it into foundations/concealers in the top drawer, blushes/bronzers/powders in the second, and lip products in the bottom. Another cool feature is that the top of unit is divided so I can have the top semi-organized too. I have some eyeshadow palets, a face mask, and my daily vitamins up there.

The second major factor for my vanity was my brushes. I was pushing them all together in a tiny box and I could never find the ones I needed. So I bought things to hold them. I know, genius.

Michaels Craft Store $14.99

HomeSense $7.99

I bought the owl because I love owls (duh) and it had cool faux-diamond eyes. I filled it with decorative sand and stuck all my eye shadow brushes in it.

Then I bought a clear, wavy glass contained at HomeSense and filled it with the same sand and put all my face makeup brushes in it. And it just makes everything look sleek and nice, not to mention tidy.

Next, on the list for the vanity were my lotions. If you know me, you know that lotions are my ADDICTION. I can't help it. I don't know whats wrong with me. I need an intervention and some serious rehab time. But anyways, I bought these:

Storage Solutions $5.99

Storage Solutions $6.99

They have made a huge difference in the clutter on my vanity. The pink fabric-wicker one is the one I have on top of my vanity and it holds all my everyday lotions and hair stuff. The floral-viney looking one is longer and sturdy and I put that inside my vanity so I could reach for things that I don't use everyday without knocking lotions and perfumes all over the place. In it I store my self-tanners, mini's from BBW, a few scrubs, and some special occasion lotions and body butters from BBW and Victoria's Secret.

Lastly, was my eye makeup and nail polish. I just had no where to put it. I tried putting it on the top of my plastic makeup storage but it looked out of place and was hard to get at. Also, the fact that I had nothing to put it in maybe the whole endeavour much harder. But, I prevailed and here it is now:

The organizer I used actually didn't cost me anything because I took it from one of my hard-cased organizers. And it fit perfectly into my top drawer. It was meant to be. A match made in heaven. So on and so forth.

I put my nail polish just along the side because I don't have that many and to be totally honest I was getting lazy and I just wanted my vanity to be finished and they fit. So...





Overall my vanity has gone from a place I used to dread sitting down and having to battle inanimate objects just to get my face on in the morning, to a place of tranquility and peace (lol, no, just a place I can do my makeup much, much easier!).

THE NEXT STEP: To organize each of the drawers with separators so that everything stays in place and doesn't slide around. It will make it much easier to see what I have and to get at it!

Then came...

...

THE CLOSET!

 It is tiny and it was cramped with clothes, purses, scarves, you-name-it  and it looked like a hot-mess. So the first thing I did was got the little items that need not be there...out.

I had a few over the door hangers lying around, so I decided to actually use them...
I hung up my purses on my closet, and put all my scarves over my door. It's not perfect but hey, it works and it's a hell of a lot better than having them strangling each other in my closet amid a crowd of cardigans.

Boxes from Winners. Guesstimate $12.99 and $14.99

The rest of any miscellaneous items went into some boxes I had lying around at the top of my closet and they reside there happily. I was originally using them for schoolwork/hair products but then I got rid of a LOT of junk (and poorly written thesis arguments) so they were single and ready to mingle. So they mungled and here they are.

Walmart Debbie Travis 6 Shelf Sweater Organizer $23 (way to expensive, should have went to Homesense or Winners first...but they are sturdy. C'est la vie)

So once the loose odds and ends were out, I had to deal with the clothing. First thing I did was remove the bulky stuff (aka the sweaters) and I replaced it with a hanging organizer so that I could use up the height I had to offer rather than the width that I didn't. And I have to say, it worked even better than I had hoped. It freed up an absolute ton of space and they are so much easier to see and decide which to wear (because I live and breath sweaters).

It was great but there was still too much clutter going so I bought this:

               Walmart $39.99  // pink boxes $5.99ea                              @ Canadian Tire

A 6-drawer shelf organizer. And it has been the handiest little fucker ever (pardon my dutch). It has been the final piece of the puzzle. It is masterful. It is magical. It makes yah wanna dance about. Anyways, I also got the matching fabric foldable storage boxes and it's just been phenomenal. I have socks, towels, everyday tops (once that I could fold and toss in there without fear of creasing them), pj's and snacks (bottom left..oh honey). They're great. It's great.

So now my closet is actually something I can stand to look at when I forget to close the door (which is often) and something I'm quite proud of.

  THE NEXT STEP: Nothing!! I'm very pleased with it.

LASTLY, my desk. My desk is the hardest. It's actually a work in progress because for some reason I just can't get it to look good. Though, atleast it is tidy now. It may not be uber "organized" but it's not a chaotic mess of books and papers and pens and the odd coupon.

Winners $4.99

 My most obvious problem was my books and papers. I'm an English major so I have more than too many books and they were getting out of hand. I retired a few of them to the drawers and kept out the ones that I was reading recently for school. I purchased a magazine holder and thus far, it's working nicely.

Basically the most important part for my desk is minimalism. I have to have as little as possible on top of it or else my brain malfunctions. So in regards to that aspect, I've managed to do okay.

THE NEXT STEP: Ugh. The drawers. They are a hotmess still. I need to go through them and see if there is anything I can get rid of, and then I need to see if I can get some dividers and separate all my junk. It's going to be a mission...but, challenge accepted biotch.








Hope this has helped some of you; inspired you to get your ass grooving and organize your shiznit. Seriously though, if I can do it, ANYONE can. And on that note, too-da-loo!

xoxo