Basket Tags

At this time of year, I totally get overwhelmed with all the Christmas clutter in my house. The tree, the presents, the village.....the wrapping paper area........giant, opened Christmas decoration tubs......snow suits, gloves,mittens and boots.......I know you're right there with me. Today, I just had to take a break and get an early start on my organizing goal for the new year. I started cleaning and purging and it felt good!!

One of the best things I think you can do when organizing is to label stuff. I find that if I have label on baskets, etc that I tend to put only those items in that particular basket. I started out with my computer desk area and made a label for a wire basket that holds note pads. I seemed to have had this little problem a few years back that involved purchasing dozens and dozens of note pads. It all falls back to the love of office supply items and I know many of you can relate. I stuffed as many notepads into my basket that I could and neatly gathered up the rest for refills and stored them away. You only need so many note pads, right.

Then I found an empty Longaberger basket and decided to fill it with lip gloss. Jordan has this little fettish that she cannot go without lip gloss/balms. If she gets dry lips, she licks them and gets this red ring around her mouth. She's obsessive about it and even freaks a little if she can't find a lip gloss. At the moment, she has this gihugic tube of lip gloss that is on a string. She wears it around her neck constantly.

So I thought I would surprise her with a basket full of lip glosses that will be full at all times. Hopefully she will just use some and return it to the basket. I might have to make one of these for my nightstand that has my lip balm and hand lotions.

Little by little, I'm going to get organized next year. Baby steps...baby steps...baby steps. I will conquer!

Okay, here's what I did for the little tags. I stamped my words with Just Rite Stampers' Brayton Font, using a small wooden stamper. I love this font, it will go great with all my labels I intend to make. I cut out my circles and embossed them with a small Spellbinder's circle die template. I then used pop dots to adhere the circles to a circle cut out with a Spellbinder's Pinking Die. They remind me of little vintage tags and the polka dot ribbon from Papertrey is the perfect finishing touch.

Do you have big plans for organizing in the upcoming year? I have visions of a more organized house and am really excited about it. It feels soooooo good to be clutter free. I've got a long way to go but I will get there. Gotta get Christmas out of the way first! Have a great day everyone!

Note: The cookie trays I made in yesterday's post are simply paper plates that I had in my stash from years ago. They are about 6" square. And I bake my cookies then freeze them in all kinds of Tupperware, Cool Whip containers, tins, etc. When I'm ready to give out my cookie trays, I bring out all the frozen cookies and start assembling the plates. Then I wrap them with plastic wrap.....some I give out right then and some I put back into the freezer so they will be ready at a moment's notice. Hope that helps!