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  • I am Alejandra Costello, creative organizing expert from Color-Coded Organizing, and we

  • are here in Arlington, Virginia and today I am going to give you a sneak peek inside

  • my house and show you that organizing can be easy and can be fun. Lets go. I am so excited

  • youre here. I am going to show you some of the coolest spaces in my house, all of

  • which are very easy to do and very fun. I love this pantry. There is so much you can

  • do inside of a pantry. What I have done up here is I have used these Lazy Susans to store

  • all the oils, vinegars, and condiments, which makes it really easy to access and find exactly

  • what you are looking for. Down here I did the same concept. I used a Lazy Susan for

  • vitamins, spices, then some of the bigger spices. It works perfect. And then down here

  • is where I keep all of my canned goods. The perfect way to store canned goods is on a

  • tiered shelf because you can see all of the labels from standing outside of the pantry.

  • It is perfect and it makes it so easy to grab. Down here is where I keep all of the dry goods.

  • Dry goods should be stored in air-tight containers. They last a lot longer when they are stored

  • properly. And let me show you something cool we did. I put these chalkboard adhesive labels

  • on the very front and I used a chalkboard marker to label the contents. When the contents

  • change you can easily wipe this off and then write the new label. And then on the very

  • back I cut out the nutritional facts or the recipe and I stuck it inside this clear pocket

  • adhesive sticker. Down here is where I keep all the snack foods, dinner foods, and beverages.

  • Basically you want to keep all the stuff that is difficult to contain in drawers, which

  • makes it a lot easier. So like all the snack foods, they just get dumped inside this bin.

  • Same thing with the dinner foods like the pastas, the grains, the seasoning packets.

  • And then over here is where I keep all of the beverages, like the juice packets, the

  • coffees, the teas. This is one of my favorite products. It is this tea bag organizer. It

  • has six different sections and you can organize the teas by type. And then the last part of

  • organizing the pantry is labeling all the shelves so when you get back from the grocery

  • store you know exactly where to put everything back. And so I made these cute little labels

  • for the drawers and the shelves out of a red and white picnic print since it is the kitchen.

  • There is so much you can do in the pantry and these are just some of the ways I like

  • to organize my pantry. Now lets go over to the cabinets. Something I always see in the

  • kitchens is when you open a drawer and the silverware organizer slides back. Let me show

  • you. I put this drawer divider next to the silverware organizer and it does not move.

  • It stays in place even as hard as you open the drawer or close it. Now let me show you

  • the upper cabinets. As you can see here the kitchen is not very big, but if you maximize

  • space you can fit so much inside your cabinets. Up here I used a double shelf to store big

  • plates on the bottom and small plates above. And I did the same thing with the bowls. The

  • small bowls on the bottom and then the big bowls on the top. I hung sheet metal inside

  • of my kitchen cabinets to take all the fridge clutter off the fridge and into the cabinets.

  • So I still see the pictures and I still see the magnets, they are just not cluttering

  • up the fridge. If you have a narrow corner cabinet in your kitchen, you can install a

  • 21 inch Lazy Susan to make everything in the back corner that is hard to access very easy

  • to reach. Flat baking pans should never be stacked. Instead you should store them vertical

  • with vertical shelf dividers kind of like this. It makes it really easy to grab what

  • you want and then put it away when you are done. You have seen the kitchen and pantry.

  • Lets go to the home office. This is my home office, which also serves as my craft space.

  • Lots of offices have paper floating around the whole office, but I am going to show you

  • that if everything has a home you can be more productive. This is most of my craft supplies

  • up here and then I keep more of it on this pegboard. I love organizing with pegboards

  • because they are so cost efficient. You can paint them, you can design them. You can add

  • so many different hooks and store all kinds of different tools. My favorite thing to store

  • on pegboards are ribbon. It pulls so nicely and then you can just cut it. Over here is

  • where I have my mail center. I have a section for incoming, outgoing, processing, stuff

  • to file, work stuff, and then coupons. I am a very out of sight, out of mind person, so

  • when I designed this mail center, it was so important that I could see everything. Over

  • here is where I keep my filing cabinet. I used colored file folders to store all the

  • different types of documents. When it comes to wrapping presents, I love storing gift

  • wrap on a vertical organizer like this. A lot of times I see gift wrap in the corner

  • of a closet and all the ends are torn or the paper is wrinkled, which defeats the purpose

  • of wrapping a pretty gift. This area was designed to hold a lot of my work binders and my reading

  • books. I also store half of my office supplies over here, like my file folders, my note pads.

  • There’s filing kits for when I work with clients. I love using stickers when I write

  • cute cards or letters to friends or family. I sort all my stickers by type and I keep

  • them in Poly envelopes so they don’t get wrinkled or torn. I use these binder rings

  • to hold them in place and then I just hook them on this hook. Time management is so important

  • when it comes to organization. I love to track my daily chores and my exercise goals. So

  • I use two different types of checklists here and every time I do, every time I complete

  • a chore, I get a sticker and it sounds so silly, but it works for me. You just have

  • to find what works for you. I keep the other half of my office supplies in these drawers.

  • I have lots of pens and lots of markers because I love using different colors, but everything

  • has its own compartment here so it is really easy to find. I keep some of my bulky office

  • supplies on this side like the notepads, the rubber bands, the staplers, the flags for

  • the binders. If you can organize your office and find a home for everything you are storing,

  • you can really be more productive. At any given time I only keep twelve magazines in

  • the house. I do not have any subscriptions and I only buy magazines if I see them in

  • the store and I know I am going to go home and read it that day. And if I read it that

  • day, I will put a flag on the page for anything I want to save and then I will put it on this

  • rack if I want to go back and reference it in the future. I use the one in, one out rule,

  • so if a magazine is going to go in this rack, one is going to come out. We are done in the

  • home office and now I am going to show you another problem areathe closet. We are

  • here in my closet and there is so much stuff that I want to show you. Lets start with the

  • jewelry. I keep all of my jewelry in this pull out organizer that is built into the

  • closet. I have my bracelets on this side, and then I have some of my smaller jewelry

  • like my rings and earrings on this side. The second half of my jewelry is over here. I

  • keep some of the longer necklaces on hooks and then some of the bulky bracelets get thrown

  • in the basket up here. I organize all of my clothes by type. So I keep all the dresses

  • in one section, all the long sleeves in a separate section. And then I use these closet

  • dividers to mark each section. So like long sleeve will go in front of the long sleeve

  • section. I love to use color-coded hanger snaps for all my clothes. For example, for

  • all my long sleeve shirts, I use purple snaps on the hangers, and then all my dresses get

  • yellow hanger snaps. It makes it really easy to put your clothes back on the right hanger.

  • I reused a towel rack from the bathroom to hang all of the scarves in the closet. It

  • can be so easy to go green. Bathroom cabinets can often be black holes for clutter, but

  • if you get creative, there is often other places to store you bathroom products. For

  • example, if you use door pockets on the back of the door, you could store your small makeup

  • or your small hair accessories. A lot of times people have a lot of stuff in their medicine

  • cabinet. Luckily there is an easy way to organize it. The door of the medicine cabinet can sometimes

  • be magnetic, and if it is not, that can easily be solved by mounting sheet metal to the interior

  • door. For example, everything that you see here is magnetic. And all the stuff you see

  • here is stuff that I use every day. So like tweezers, scissors, nail clippers, Q-tips.

  • It makes it really accessible. Since I live in a condo, I do not have a laundry room.

  • Instead I have a laundry closet, which makes it kind of difficult to air dry some of my

  • clothes. If you do not have a laundry room, you can hang these clothes valets on a small

  • wall in your home. So I like to create a double hang with these valets, or you can just have

  • one long hang, for longer garments. This next product is one of my favorite bathroom products.

  • It is a shower curtain liner with storage. It has five different pockets where you can

  • store all kinds of stuff like soap, or brushes, or conditioner for your hair. It works perfect

  • for the extra bathroom clutter that you have floating around. A lot of people have a lot

  • of bathroom clutter, but if you organize it the right way, you can really maximize your

  • space. This is the linen closet, which is one of my favorite spots in the house. Typical

  • linen closets usually have the sheets and the towels. However, I keep that stuff in

  • the bathroom. In this closet I keep lots of medications, and cleaning supplies, and then

  • I keep the sheets at the very bottom. I love this space for two reasons. The first one

  • is, I love these photo labels. It makes it really fun and really easy to find exactly

  • what youre looking for. The second reason why I love this closet is, we put wallpaper

  • on the back of the closet, and then we created matching shelf labels with the same wallpaper.

  • So not only can the space be functional, but it can also look pretty. Now that we have

  • seen most of the areas in my house, lets go to the balcony. We used our sunroom to create

  • a garage to house all of our sports gear, tools, and hardware. Let me show you around.

  • Over here is where we have all of our small hardware, like our nails and our screws. And

  • down here is where I have my battery kit. I love this thing. We keep all of our batteries

  • sorted by size and they have yellow labels. All of the nails and screws get contained

  • in a tackle box, just like this. Each type of screw and each anchor gets a different

  • section. These are my favorite labels in the house. I used paint swatches from the hardware

  • store, and then I used painters tape to attach the label to the box. Over here I used bungee

  • cord to create a cage to house all the sports gear so nothing will fall out, and it makes

  • it so easy to grab exactly what you are looking for and then put it back. These shelf labels

  • go with this shelving, and you can dress them up by adding cool colored paper or cool textured

  • paper on the background and then creating a label with your label maker. You have seen

  • how I organize my kitchen, home office, closet, bathroom, and garage. And these are just some

  • of the ways you can organize your home. For more creative ideas to do in your house, visit

  • us at Color-Coded.net. I am Alejandra Costello, organizing...I messed

  • up. All the nails and screws.

  • Was that bad? I think that was bad? No, it was good.

  • And then also my office some... whoops. Sound test number two. I am Alejandra Costello

  • with org... Over here is where I have my filing cabinet,

  • I use color-coded file f...folders... I use color-coded... I cannot say that. It is my

  • own business name. Over here is my filing cabinet. I use color-coded file folders...

  • I do not know why I cannot say that. I will just say colored.

  • Since I live in a condo, I do not have a laundry...oh. Since I live in a condo, space can sometimes

  • be limited. I messed up again. Since I live in a condo, I do not have a laundry room.

  • Instead, I have a laundry closet, which makes it kind of difficult to air dry some of the...

  • which makes it kind of difficult to air dry some of my clothes. But if you hang...Do that

  • one more time. It is difficult. Um. We created matching shelf labels so you could

  • see exactly where to find everything. Does that make sense? Do the, do the back, do the

  • wall paper again. OK. And also if you pillow... These are just some of the ways you can organize

  • your home. If you need help... Does that sound cheesy? Like, if...if you need help? So we

  • will come back and we will figure out if anything did not work, and we Will tweak that, and

  • then figure out... um. Let me do that again. And then we come up with the perfect organize...

  • And then we come up with the perfect. And then we come up with the perfect solution

  • for you.

I am Alejandra Costello, creative organizing expert from Color-Coded Organizing, and we

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