I use a lot of canned tomato products and I use a lot of canned coconut milk as well.  I also use canned chicken or tuna if I need a quick meal and I like keeping canned beans on hand to throw together a meal in a pinch, or add some protein to a meal.

And I like having a decent supply of food on hand so I won’t have to run to the store if someone is sick, or if something were to happen like a big storm.  It’s a little security feature for me to have a full cupboard

So what I’d really love is to have a great way to organize my canned goods.  Preferably something that will keep my Brennan happy too… and amazingly, I’m not alone.  I’ve found something that would be 100% perfect.  On Friday I have a chance to win one – and so do you.  I thought I’d share the wonder that is the Shelf Reliance Harvest unit.

You know those marble toys you played with as a kid (or jealously watched your brother play with as you got yet another pair of plastic high heels)? You dropped the marble in at the top and watched it roll down the levels.  Well the Shelf Reliance shelves do that for your cans – keeping them neat, and automatically rotating them so you’re using them in a “first in, first out” order.  It’s very nice!

Go to the Shelf Reliance Blog and enter to win this wonder of human ingenuity for yourself.

And in the meantime, you can see what the kids and I have been rigging up for a summer project – homemade can rotating racks   Scott got inspired and built us a wooden one too, which will probably last long after our cardboard ones.  But it’s fun and the kids are loving it.  If only they were front-loading like the Shelf Reliance System :p

I found that most of my rooms were pretty straightforward when I actually started to work on them. Even my upstairs landing – where I kept tossing everything that didn’t go in rooms I organized before it – went pretty quickly under a few days of intense work.

Then I got to our office. And I realized what a tough room really is. We have so much “stuff” that goes in the office. And I do so much work in here. Not only work on my website, but I also keep track of all of our family paperwork, our accounting, and many, many books in different categories.

There’s a lot of computer equipment in the office that either needs to be kept or won’t be parted with. Computer CDs, music CDs, and did I mention books? Office supplies were everywhere and never where I needed them.

I was overwhelmed.

Finding a Starting Point

The first thing I did was figure out what worked in the office and what didn’t work. The places our computers are at work well. I get a very good view of both the front and side yards from my desk, and I’m next to Scott’s desk. I like that in the evenings. I had an inbox system started next to my desk that works well for me.

But other than that pretty much everything was a mess! The files were horrible and they were far away from me. That was not convinient at all because I use the files frequently while I take care of our family’s paperworks and business. There was computer paraphernalia *everywhere*, huge totes in the closet which were mostly empty, and our audio CDs were in the closet which annoyed Scott.

After I figured out just what worked and what didn’t, I was able to pick out a starting point – try and get the files closer to me.

Working out Solutions

Our office space is not terribly big and my desk is really quite small. We’re planning to get me a slightly larger one when our budget allows, but for now it’s not the highest priority. Since I have a small working space I’d been using the closet as part of my work area. Those huge totes that were half-empty served as a surface for me to keep my inbox system on.

Upon looking at our filing cabinet – which is two drawers high with each drawer holding two rows of files – I realized it could fit neatly into the small closet space. We went ahead and moved that. I took the few things out of the big totes and took them outside. Later Scott put them into the shed so we can take them to his mom, who can use them.

Getting this first step done helped me feel a lot better. The next obvious thing was figuring out what to do with all the computer equipment I’d just put on the floor. We already had a drawer unit with some things it. I went through that, cleaning it out, and was able to get most of the computer equipment neatly inside. I liked that because it was all together and all out of sight! Some of the bigger cables and old floppy disk cases (which Scott needs to keep) went to the top of the closet.

Realizing we Needed More

This was the first room I encountered where I realized we would have to make some bigger purchases. I’d purchased a couple of small containers for the kitchen and one for the bathroom after getting done with those – but they were small and a few dollars each (a few dollars made a big difference!)

But the office needed bigger solutions. One will be a slightly larger desk for me (one that actually has a keyboard shelf!!!). But that one can wait. We did need something to go where we’d moved the file cabinet from – because the printer now had no place to go! We decided upon a heavy-duty utility shelf. It’s not the prettiest thing in the world, but it’s very functional and sturdy.

Scott set that up and fit it between the wall and the kids’ “office desk” where they can “work” while I do my work. We were able to fit the printer and scanner onto a shelf with enough room to open the scanner fully. The next shelf comfortably holds all those CDs Scott wanted out of the closet. The top shelf has some tapes and assorted things that just needed storage room.

I was able to get all the computer software CDs gathered up and put into an empty file folder box, which fit well on the bottom shelf along with some paper products. The shelf directly under the printer holds another file box which contains extra, empty files, and has room for some of the children’s supplies as well.

This shelf was a big purchase for us but helped a lot.

All of my cleaning inspired Scott to somewhat clean his desk (I’m not touching it!) He had a wire “in-basket” that I put on top of the file cabinet next to my desk. Then we purchased a small metal shelf (meant to go on an existing shelf or surface). I put that on the file cabinet too.

I found a small, pretty wicker basket at Goodwill to hold cables and small electronic things I use frequently (digital camera and cables, a calculator, webcam, my iPod, etc.) I put that on the little shelf along with a medium sized container to hold my office supplies – tape, stapler, scissors, super glue, etc. I also had a little room on there to put a container for holding pencils and pens.

I put magazines and products I’m currently reviewing in the space under the shelf.

After these few purchases (and finds) I suddenly had an office that was working much better!

The last thing I did was organize our files and books. The files took a long time and a lot of work – I may make another post about working on files! Books I moved and shifted around some and ended up with more room for books than I’d started with.

End Result

The office was the absolute toughest room I encountered. The only room that has come close is the laundry room because it holds such an assortment of stuff (and Scott has things in there that I have no clue what they are and don’t want to mess with them without his help :p).

It was a room where I realized we truly did need to make some purchases, and I had to go to absolute “square 1″ and figure out where to start. Hopefully sharing just how I did that will help you figure out that even if a room looks really tough, it can probably be organized to work effectively.

When I sit down to take care of business or family matters all that I need is within arms reach of me (unless for some reason I actually need all the computer paraphernalia we have in those drawers across the room). I’m able to get my work done much more quickly and efficiently, even with a small space for my office.

This entire experience of organizing the house has been very nice for me because I’ve been able to figure out how make our relatively small home work well for us. There’s some things I still can’t figure out (where are we going to put that china cabinet……) but for the most part I’ve been really pleased with how I’ve been able to make space – and make space that works for our family

I talked before about how important it is to outline your goals completely and concretely so they’re actually achievable – review that article. I also gave an example of organizing my house.

Small Steps Go Quickly

I went through and elaborated on that goal in my own personal files. I took each room in the house and broke down each area of the room to clean out. I did this in a way that is logical to me. For example, in the kitchen I broke my list down by cabinet and drawer.

I have again found that by breaking my organizing down into small steps that I’m able to quickly work through tasks that otherwise seem insurmountable. I was literally dreading cleaning my kitchen, and now I’m just about done. The only things left on my list are to re-stock with eco-friendly (and kid-friendly) cleaners and to buy a couple of organizing caddies I found would be helpful. I’ve been rewarded by finding a lot of space I didn’t realize I had, and a kitchen that works more efficiently for me. That’s a lot to get out of my rather tiny kitchen

Working in Pictures

Another thing that has helped me is picturing what I need to work on next. I’m an extremely visual thinker and this trick will help you if you’re also visual. I found that by picturing the cabinet or area I needed to work on next (or had just worked on and wasn’t happy with) I could mentally do work to it. I could try out different things in my “mind’s eye.” Then when I walked into the kitchen it was just a matter of quickly moving things around to where I’d already pictured them.

This mental imagery also helped me get rid of some things – I pictured how much they had actually been used and then pictured the clear space from letting them go. This helped me feel confident in placing them in the “giveaway” pile.

Small tasks – Fit where You can get them

Organizing in “bite sizes” like this has worked really well for me. I’ve been working so hard on the site redesign that I haven’t had any time to dedicate solely to organizing the house. Since I’ve been working in these bite-sized chunks I’ve been able to fit the organizing in here and there – just as I finished getting a meal cooking, just after Scott leaves for work in the morning, while the kids are cleaning their toys up, etc.

It’s a great technique for actually getting one of your goals accomplished – especially ones that you can break down into very small chunks of time. This week I’m moving on to my bathroom. I’m now eager to get the whole house done so I can go back and scrub it down squeaky clean to get ready for the baby (yes, part of my motivation is nesting ;p)

So I suppose I am officially nesting because I have been working hard on our house.  I’ll admit the baby is a major motivation – indirectly and directly.  I of course want a nice, clean, well-prepared home when the baby arrives.  But I also want the house to be somewhat presentable for the midwife and anyone else who may come to assist after the birth of the baby :p

I’ve also been working on it just because I want a neat and clean home.  To my credit I got most of the moving boxes gone within a couple of weeks of moving in.  We still have a few around in out-of-the-way spots.  But I dislike boxes unless they’re being used for storage. Even with the boxes gone, though, our house was (and is) cluttered.

I do not like clutter.  Even if we had a bigger house I still wouldn’t like clutter.  And if you move to a bigger place and you have clutter, your clutter just gets bigger too.  So I’ve been focusing on some really bad spots and it has really helped.  The kids’ room was the first place I got straightened up.  Since then I’ve been working mostly on our upstairs landing and some in the bedroom and office.

The house has improved a lot of the past few weeks and I’m really pleased.  I still have a lot to do (I haven’t touched the kitchen!)  But it’s a lot neater, more open, and functional.   If we’re going to have these things, we should be able to use them.

I’ve done all this by working about 30 minutes a day.  On the weekends when Scott is here to help me with bigger things we spend a bit more time on it.  But I usually work about 30 minutes each weekday and I’ve been surprised at how much gets done and how satisfied I feel with it.  There’s still a bunch to do and the never-ending mountain of paperwork to take care of.  But every week the house is looking better, and I’m able to take care of household paperwork faster and more efficiently (I mostly work through papers and budget issues on Fridays, and each Friday it has been a little easier as I’ve tackled the backlog).

So if you’re “nesting” and want to organize your house give short increments a go.  It’s good for the first and third trimesters when your energy may be lower.  And it’s great because you see definite progress towards your goal but you don’t get so overwhelmed that you quit altogether!