People might think, on meeting me, that I have a super tidy and organised home because I probably appear better organised than I actually am. I tend to live in a state of controlled chaos, certainly when it comes to my office, however I would secretly love to be an organisational guru to rival Monica in Friends or Bree from Desperate Housewives. A perfectly stocked pantry, categorised closet and everything sporting neat labels is my idea of heaven. I slipped into American-isms there for good reason, the American housewife seems to have these things nailed, not least due to the vast amounts of storage space houses seem to have there (outside of the cities of course) but also the organisational items you can pick up to actually complete the task.

When I was on holiday recently I picked up a copy of Real Simple magazine and fell in love instantly with its content and style, with so many solutions for home organisation. I was inspired to look through the magazine’s Pinterest boards and to write this post, focusing on a couple of areas of my home that I think most people can sympathise with. Glory holes of organisational chaos, the kitchen junk drawer, bedside table drawer and under the sink… here are some inspirational images that might spur you into getting organised like me.

Kitchen cupboards
Aside from the junk drawer, there seems to be so much potential for kitchen cupboards to get messy. Stacks of pots with nowhere to house the pan lids; plastic containers and foodsavers for freezing and storing left overs end up in disarray with no lids that match so I love this stationery holder re-purposed as storage for upright items like chopping boards and trays, even baking trays could go here.

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Drawers
For me, drawers are a temptation to shove things out of sight but never actually put them where they belong. I’d like to say we have only the standard issue kitchen junk drawer to contend with but we also have a drawer in the living room with things like batteries, remotes, keys, marbles, coins and pens, a whole servery unit full of disorganised dinner-ware accessories (think placemats, coasters and candles,) and the office stationery drawer that once organised soon descends into a paperclip explosion. In fact there’s one in virtually every room.

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My bedside drawer is a whole other story with all the must-have essentials that you need next to the bed (face wipes and hand cream,) alongside a whole heap of things I don’t, (matches, old valentines cards and receipts.) I can barely shut it. It would be my idea of heaven to have each of them categorised and divided with everything neatly in its place like in the smart bedside drawer above.

Under the Sink
One place I try to keep tidy is under the sink with its mountain of cleaning products, dishwasher tablets, washing powder and piles of cleaning cloths, sponges and wipes. Despite me re-arranging them into groups and piles they always fall over and I think these little stacking systems might just do the trick for holding cloths and sorting products.

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If you’re lucky enough to have bathroom storage under the sink, you could transfer this idea there too for cosmetics.

So tell me, where is the most disorganised area of your home and are there any areas you would like to see solutions for? I can see this becoming a minor obsession of mine…

Love,
Rebecca
xo