Dollar store solutions rock!

@yukimori now you made me want to get one of those lights as mine is dark also

I know, right? Our closet is a lot smaller than my post made it sound... it's just built so the overhead light doesn't shine into that one corner, and of course I had to choose to put my shelves there.

I love how their selection changes so quickly, too! The only downside is that you can't always find what you want when you want it.

@yukimori yes i have even moved them still packed

Those little plastic bins are the best thing ever.

Right now, I'm more proud of the fact that I mercilessly! weeded through those boxes and discarded most of the things in them. But yeah, I'm getting there on the organizing skills. I have a reputation for being an organizational freak at work, but it's taken me a lot of effort to get that home since I've been so out of it for the past few years. Feels really good to make visible progress again!

@akalinus Have you ever heard of the KonMari method? It's what I've been following recently. The basic idea is that you go through everything you own and put all like items together on the floor. So if you were going through your books, you'd lay them all out in front of you on the floor. Then you pick each one up and ask yourself whether or not it brings you joy. If it doesn't, it goes. You're supposed to go through an entire apartment or house in one sweep according to the method, but I just can't do it. I've been working through portions of rooms at a time, so I basically take a single storage box and plow through it in one sitting. I don't lay like items out on the floor--I just take them out of the box. Papers get recycled or shredded depending on what they contain. Obvious trash like a broken toy gets thrown away, then I organize the items that are being kept by putting them where they belong. Most of the keep items end up being the kids' toys and books. Those are kind of my nemesis, because none of them spark joy for me... and they belong to the kids, which makes them something that should be left alone per the KonMari method. I'm honestly tempted to do what Ruth Soukup of Living Well Spending Less did and just take all the toys away. My kids are completely overloaded by what they have now. I think it'd be a step in the right direction.

@yukimori Please come over and help me. I never know what to throw away. Garbage of course, but have no clue on everything else.

It's such a relief when it's completed, isn't it? I savor the five to ten minutes it lasts before the kids get to it.

@yukimori Luckily I only have a husband to mess things up again!

I love their bin selection! I use the small rectangular ones to organize my pantry, and I picked up a few small baskets yesterday to organize the kids' toys. I think the pen holder on my desk was originally from there, although I found it at a thrift store. I wish they sold some of the Sterilite bins with the snap handles... those are my absolute favorite for organizing closets. I've seen some pretty great dollar store alternatives on Pinterest, but we don't have the built-in shelves to manage it. We even have a bunch of them at work to organize the little odds and ends. I keep on bringing them in as find things that will fit our needs.

Our store has tons of nice little plastic pots for $1 each. I bought several today along with some packets of vegetable seeds, so later this week the kids and I will be expanding our little garden project. They have tons of adorable little containers for plants and other things, too.