Tag: pantry

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Fun Ways to Organize

Simplicity Challenge 2025

Hello everyone! 

Happy, happy Wednesday! I don’t know about you, but it feels like February is blitzing right by us. I know I wasn’t alone by feeling that January took forever, but February is certainly moving by quickly, which I’m not complaining about.

I got away for the long weekend and the change of scene was so nice!

I am ready for spring, to get outdoors, and for blue skies and sunshine! But we still have a little bit more time until we are in the clear of the cold and snow. The light is near and end of winter is hopefully near.

Last month, I participated in the Simplified “Simplicity Challenge”. I have been doing this for the past several years and done posts every year on it.  For 2024, click here, for 2023, click here, for 2019 click here.

If you are new to me blog, here’s a bit of the rundown of the 31 Day challenge.

Simplified’s Simplicity Challenge is 31 days of little tasks to complete every day in January to simplify and organize your life. Team Simplified posts the daily challenge that typically takes less than 15 minutes to complete. These are ways to organize your life without getting overwhelmed and stressed by completing daunting projects.

An example of a task is cleaning out your fridge

I successfully completed every task and shared them on my Instagram stories, some on the day of and some in the days following if I didn’t have time or was out of town.

Here’s a look at some of the tasks that I completed.

Declutter Junk Drawers– These were my desk drawers and an easy task to get done. 

Sheets– I successfully got rid of sheets that were old and stained and only kept the best ones.

Organize Dresses– I didn’t get rid of any dresses, but I did get them sorted.

Edit Jeans and T-Shirts– I had so many jeans and tried them all on and only kept the ones that fit best. As far as t-shirts go, I refolded them and kept my favorite and most worn ones.

Only the best jeans
Favorite t-shirts

Simplify Jewelry- I got an earring organizer for Christmas and this has been a huge help when it comes to keeping my jewelry all together and organized.

Sort Bottles and Cups– I didn’t get rid of any mugs or cups, but I did sort them but type. I have SO many mugs that when I move out, my family will have a lot more space back.

Clean Out Tupperware– This was clean and organized and it has by and large stayed that way, but I don’t know how long it will last.

Pantry Clean Out– This wasn’t too hard of a task since I keep it pretty organized and sorted especially after I unload and sort things after I go grocery shopping every week.

Clean Out Car– I love a clean car, but the winter months means lots of snow and ice, so a car clean out and car refresher was necessary.

Towels Purged-We have so many towels, especially beach towels. They are folded now, but it won’t last for long, especially once summer hits and we go through towels left and right.

Med Cabinet Cleaned– A clean out and restock was necessary especially right before flu and cold season hit. 

Books Sorted– As a reader, I have lots of books, but I do make weekly library trips. I did get rid of some books that I didn’t like or wasn’t a favorite.

It felt so good to get my life in order after the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. I also liked how it gave me something to do each day. I appreciated how the tasks don’t take too long to complete; you don’t get overwhelmed by the daunting things like attacking your whole house in one day and it really has you stay focused on one area at a time. Plus, they all take only a short amount of time to get done.

Cleaning out cook and bakeware

If you didn’t participate in the January challenge, you can still start it whenever you like. 

Tell me, if you did complete the Simplicity Challenge, what did you think of it? 

If you haven’t tried it yet, are you willing to take the plunge? Let me know in the comments below! 

Happy Wednesday! See you back here on Friday for another edition of Friday Favorites!

Categories
Fun Ways to Organize

Simplicity Challenge Recap

Hi everyone! 

Happy Wednesday! 

I hope you are having a great week so far. Although Valentine’s Day is behind us, I hope you continue spreading love all month long, whether it’s with your partner, spouse, girlfriends or even yourself. 

No matter how long you have followed me, you probably know I am a Simplified girl through and through. I love their mission, the products and their community. 

Last month, I participated in their Simplicity Challenge, which was little tasks to complete every day to simplify your life. The tasks took less than 10 minutes to complete, and they were a great way to reset for the new year. I have done the 31 Day Challenge in the past and I was excited to try it again this year. 

Team Simplified changed things up this year for the month-long cleaning and organizing. They still had a daily task, but they changed what the tasks were. 

The new challenges ranged from organizing specific drawers (bathroom, kitchen, bedroom), to holiday decor, accessories, specific clothing items (dresses, socks, jeans), and reworking your systems in your life to simplify.

I did many of the challenges, but not all of them since I just did a big cleaning and organizing back in the fall.  You can read about it here. Therefore, I didn’t have to go through my dresses, jeans, socks and medicine cabinets etc., since I already knew what I had and what I needed to get rid of. 

However, there were many that I still took part in.

Here’s some of the areas that I tackled through the 2024  Simplicity Challenge:

Followers– One of the tasks was to go through and edit down who you follow on social media. This one was super helpful to me. I try to limit my time on social media, and I hope by editing down who I follow helps that. I went through and unfollowed accounts that didn’t bring me joy, I wasn’t interested in anymore or didn’t serve a purpose. I’m hoping this makes me more intentional with my time online.

Hair accessories– This was a huge help to me. In the past, I had all my hair ties, scrunchies, ribbons etc. in one pouch and I was always digging through it looking for one thing. I decided to divide accessories up in smaller pouches for easier access. It took me 10 minutes to complete and I’m already noticing a difference in getting ready every day. 

Pantry and Fridge– I try to do my best to stay on top of clearing out the pantry and fridge, especially on garbage day when I get rid of old or expired foods. We had a lot of extra people home over the holidays and that meant extra cooking and ingredients. As I was cleaning, it was good to toss expired foods and see what things I needed to restock . Plus, it felt good to reset and organize things in their proper homes.

Cups– Anyone else always have too many cups or mugs?! Yep, that’s me! They are easy gifts to give or receive but we always end up with so many cups and mugs. I did some getting rid of and organizing our cups, mugs, and water bottles. Just straightening them up made a huge difference. I’m sad to report, it didn’t stay that organized for long and I’ve had to reorganize it many times since the initial challenge.

Tupperware– Another area that gets lots of use and doesn’t always stay tidy is our storage container cabinet.  We have a lot of Tupperware and use it frequently for food storage and leftovers, so we are constantly in and out of this space. I did my best to organize the bases and lids and I got rid of broken or mix matched ones too. Pro-tip, save any heavy duty plastic containers you get when you order take out soup, they make great storage containers and are easy to give away if you are sending food home with someone and don’t need the storage containers back.

That’s just a taste of how I participated in the Simplicity Challenge 2024. I thought all the daily prompts were super helpful, but I didn’t need to do all of them due to my recent clean out. 

If you are interested in the challenge more, you can head to Simplified’s Instagram page for a look at all the prompts. I know I feel better by having some of my most cluttered spaces organized especially in the new year.

Happy Simplifying!

Categories
Fun Ways to Organize

How to Organize: Your Pantry

This summer I tackled a project that was on my to-do list for a while. My pantry. After numerous pinning and watching organizational videos I took it upon myself to clean out and reorganize my pantry. Although it may seem, like a daunting project, it’s not as bad as you think. Let’s get started.

Before

Step 1: Clean it out.
I went through my pantry and completely cleaned it out and gave it a good wash down. This gave me the opportunity to throw out old or expired food and see what I had. Cleaning out the pantry gave me the chance to consolidate any food that I had as well. It also gave me an idea of what space I had to work with. It’s a great feeling to see any empty space just waiting to be utilized.

Step 2: Get shopping
Now, after you clean everything out there are two ways you can go about organizing . You can either put everything back in your pantry in an orderly manner or you can go shopping for some organizational tools. These tools allow you to keep things tidy, neat and you can get a better idea of what food you have in your pantry. There are so many options when it comes to organizational tools. I like to start my search by doing recon work. I hit a lot of stores to see what they carry, the amount they have, and the prices. I hit the basics like Home Goods, Target, Marshalls, Bed Bath and Beyond, T.J. Maxx, At Home, and Walmart to name a few. I ended up getting a majority of my tools from Home Goods, Bed Bath and Beyond and At Home. I decided to go with the Good Gripes OXO series but there was an abundance of different brands and options at all the store I went to. As I was shopping I kept in mind what containers I wanted to use to store my food it. This helped when it came to purchasing the right amount of containers.

Step 3: Get Organized
After I purchased all my containers I washed them all, I put all the food into the containers I had purchased. For some it was easy, for others it took trial and error to figure out what containers worked best for each food. After all the food was properly stored came the fun part. I got to organize the containers and baskets in my pantry. Once again this took time to see what set-up worked best for my pantry. I got chalkboard labels for my baskets to show what’s inside. I kept a few things in their packaging but for the most part everything is in clear containers.

After

I have had this setup for a few days now and I am really loving it. It keeps things neat and organized and it allows me to see my food and how much I have left of everything. This has been the biggest saver. I found myself in the past buying food because I didn’t remember seeing it in the pantry or I couldn’t find it. With the new containers I have a better understanding of what I have and what I need.

Although this was a big project, I am happy I got it done and I’m even more happier with the results.