Organize the Whole Shebang

The Organizer's House... featuring Marcie Lovett

A Sneak Peek into the home of Professional Organizer & Productivity Consultant, Marcie Lovett, of Olney, Maryland and owner of Organized by Marcie.

I don't know Marcie yet... but after getting this full view of what she eats.. because you are what you eat right?! I think I know her... I know that we both use similar organizing techniques and that we both prefer square containers to round :) I also know she went to Pepperdine for Grad school and that my parent's wouldn't send me there for undergrad :( but I know this from her book bio and you can check that out here: The Clutter Book: When You Can't Let Go [maybe I shouldlet go of that whole 'I didn't get to go to Pepperdine' thing, you think?!]

HER ORGANIZED SPACE: Refrigerator
No one will mistake my house for Martha Stewart’s because it isn’t spotless.  Still, I want to find what I need without thinking about it.  I can identify everything in the refrigerator by its location, which keeps food from getting “lost” and turning into a science project.  I also know how much there is of any given item, so it’s easy to maintain inventory.

 
 

ORGANIZING TIPS:
1) Keep like items together.  Jams and spreads are on the top the top door shelf, condiments are in the center, drinks are on the bottom. The basket on the bottom shelf contains fruit and there’s more in the right crisper drawer, which also holds juice boxes. The left crisper drawer holds vegetables.  Sliced meats and cheeses go in the small drawer for sandwich and salad making.  Leftovers are pushed to the front so they get noticed and eaten. Yogurt and pudding are on the top, easy to grab and eat or pop in a lunch bag. Coffee is located conveniently beside the soda so I don’t have to open my eyes to find it in the morning.
  

2) Use clear containers for leftovers so you can see what’s inside.  I recommend squares over round shapes because they maximize space.  Stick with one brand so they stack well and don’t fall over. 

 

3) Have a plan for surplus food.  Take advantage of sales on items you buy often, but don’t overbuy and waste money by throwing out food you didn’t eat.  Make sure you have room to store the food until you are ready to use it.  I have 6 packages of cheese in the freezer because it was insanely cheap and I use it in so many different recipes. 

 
HER ORGANIZING STYLE:  As much as I like things to be attractive, I like function even more.  I recently dumped my old, stained food containers and replaced them with new ones that use the same-size lid on different-size containers.  That, in itself, is a huge time and space saver.

*If you're a professional organizer + you'd like to be featured on "The Organizer's House"... drop me an email and let me know! I've got room for you~

Want more? Take a Peeky into more Professional Organizer's Homes by clicking here.

Organize a Kitchen Cupboard or two...

I've been putting off this project for a long while. It's not like I could ignore it... I use this space EVERY dang day. But I wasn't up for it. I could blame it on the cancer induced fatigue but that's been gone for 6 months now.

Truth be told, it seemed daunting. How could such a small space have that control over me? Surely this wasn't as big of a project as my mind had made it out to be. I decided to listen to my own advice.... I got out my Flip camera [because if I video it then I have to finish it right?!] then I set my oven timer for 5 minutes to see if it would even take me that long. Here's what I found out...

ORGANIZING TIPS:

1. Remove items shelf by shelf... sort + categorize as you go: drink mixes, peanut butter + honey, sugars, cooking fixin's, etc.  If items are questionable place them in a 'need to decide' pile to look at later.

2. Clean Shelves [this took me the longest... #oooohyuckystickygrossstuff

3. Toss expired items, Bag up Donations- place in trunk

4. Organize [place less used items on the highest shelf, most often on lowest]

5. Label [i needed to trim the edges of my labels that were coming off]

ps i get bonus points for tackling this with the kids underfoot... you get bonus points if you can name what song one kidlet was bustin' out on Glee wii sing?!

The Organizer's House.... featuring Debra Ostrus

Some Organizer's really walk the walk! I'm feeling the need to give my pantry a serious perk-me-up! Here's an opportunity to take a look at my fellow Washingtonian's organized pantry... It almost makes me want to cook ;)

A Sneak Peek into the home of Professional Organizer Debra Ostrus of Gig Harbor, Wa and owner of Spaces Streamlined Home Staging, Organization & Redesign .

 

HER ORGANIZED SPACE:  Under-the-Stairs Pantry

 

HER ORGANIZING TIPS:

1) If possible, Keep your all of your pantry food items together in one place. A couple of large cabinets, a kitchen closet fitted with shelving or a cabinet specially designed to house food supplies will make it easy to know what you have and where to find it.

You can also create a pantry in what could be an awkward and wasted space as in my home. Here, under the stairway, deep shelves were installed and large baskets serve as drawers to turn this otherwise hard to access space into easy to use storage for bulky items. One basket is used to hold bags of snack foods like chips, granola bars and crackers, another bags and boxes of pasta and rice, a third contains paper products such as napkins, paper plates and plastic cups and the last extra baking supplies like bags of sugar, etc. These baskets serve to group loose and irregularly shaped items together and keep them from being piled in a mess on the shelves.

 

 

2) I love to keep all of my various oils and vinegars stored on turntables on the pantry shelf where I can easily spin the one I want to the front.

 

3) Because I bake quite a bit and don’t have room to store baking supplies in my prep area, I store everything I need for baking on this rollout cart. When it’s time to make cookies or bread I just roll the cart over to my work space, measure out what I need and roll it all back at once. This is a huge timesaver for me and makes the whole process easier.

 

4) I keep foods organized by storing like items together, for example canned fruit, canned vegetables, soups, boxes of cereal, etc. so that I’m able to see at a glance what I’m running low on. This way I don’t buy more of things I already have but can’t find.

HER ORGANIZING STYLE:  Keep it simple, make it easy! I set my systems up to work with the way I habitually do things so that it becomes a routine and something I don’t have to think too hard about- I just do it!