Hi, I'm Paige Killian and I'm passionate about helping busy moms of littles organize and style their life in three simple steps. Living this mom life is incredible and sometimes completely overwhelming. Is stressing about overstuffed drawers, never ending male piles a mountain of Legos and our kids artwork, really what God intended, no way.
Getting organized has been a game changer for me and also my clients, but it has to be simple or it just won't get done. So let's simplify the process and clear the clutter to see the blessings God has for us. I know your time is. So thanks for joining me each week for a healthy dose of organization and a whole lot of motivation.
Hey there, how are you today? I am feeling. Really good. And I have to tell you, , that I am cracking up looking at myself on this Zoom recording that I'm doing right now. Obviously, it's the podcast and you're just listening to me. But I typically will try to slap on like a little bit of makeup or something to brighten up my face and open up my windows for some natural light before I hit record so that a little clip can be pulled from it and put on social media, uh, as a teaser of what the episode's gonna be about.
Possibly even eventually go on my YouTube channel. And so, uh, I have just come back not that long ago from Tennessee, and my mom turned me on to this awesome lip gloss that I love, called City Lips, C I T Y. I almost said s what? No, there's been a lot of spelling going on in the second grade. At our house right now, so I'm getting my C's and my S's clear and you know, the C's and the K's and all the things.
Anyway, so Citi, c i t y, lips. L i p s and I was very excited because when I saw her again, she said, Hey, I have another one of those, uh, lip glosses for you that you like. And I was like, Oh, thanks mom. It's just a clear lip gloss. And so I hadn't used my other one in so long because I had it in another purse.
And so right before I hopped on, I was like, Oh gosh, I'm, I needed like a little splash of. Something, but it's a clear gloss and so I put it on. Well, you may have listened to the last couple of episodes where I've been feeling a little under the weather. I've about recorded these all within a few days of each other, and so I'm kind of at the tail end of that.
And so I was like, All right. Again, in an effort just to look a little nicer, I'm gonna put this on thinking, I'm putting on a clear gloss. My lips have been a little chat, like I'm still just kind of getting over, not feeling super great, and I've been like, you know, coat on the Vaseline or the Chapstick or whatever at night on my lips.
So I, without thinking. Just popped this clear gloss on. It goes on. I go about setting up for the podcast and I'm noticing that my lips are really tingling and I'm thinking, What is going on with my lips right now, but I wasn't, you know, I was just in go mode and I just opened this up and turned it on to take a look at myself as I'm getting ready to talk to you guys about organizing miscellaneous drawers and cabinets and my lips.
So hot pink. I mean, they are like fusia and there's no color in this gloss. What I forgot is that it's a lip plumper, and so they are like full and pink. And tingly and it's just like holy lips Batman. It is a little bit Craig Craig, but I love it. I totally love it. Thanks mom. Uh, mom, while you're listening to this episode, cuz I know you are, are you wearing city lips this morning on the way to work?
I think you might be. Okay. So. Here's the deal. I was thinking, what could I hop on quickly and talk about before I go pick up my kiddos from carpool and head to a volleyball game? And I thought I have several little random cabinets. Cupboards drawers that are in different places in my home that I have kind of turned into things that aren't necessarily what you would normally think might belong in there.
And I've done this in other homes as well, and I've done this for clients as well. And I thought, Oh, I should just do a quick episode talking about some of those drawers and cabinets. So let's say in your kitchen you have tons of drawers and cabinets, but there might be. That's off to the side. I've done episodes on the podcast and also YouTube videos on the UN Junkie junk drawer, and it's kind of in that vein.
So, uh, I'll pop any episodes that I ever talk about on these episodes and show notes. So if everyone go back and listen to some of these other ones. They'll be easily grabbable, uh, clickable if you want to do that. So check out the show notes below. Any, uh, links ever that you're, wherever you're finding your videos or your podcasts.
The Un Junkie junk drawer was something that I started doing many years ago and I joke that it sort of is like my. Mary Poppins carpet bag. It's that bag that has a little bit of everything. Some things make total sense. Some things are complete nonsense, but for whatever reason, I find myself needing those often and grabbing for those often.
So if you have a drawer in or a cabinet, perhaps in your kitchen that isn't necessarily being used for kitchen things like utensils or whatever you might use in a kitchen. I highly recommend a good old junk drawer, but of course it should be un junkie. So go back and listen to that episode or check out the video for some visual examples of things that I've done in mind now in my laundry room.
I have another one random. Drawer and a small cabinet below it, and I wanted to let you know what I've done with that in case this might be something that you've been trying to figure out what to do with or what to put in there. You know, here we go. In my laundry room. I have upper cabinets, and those upper cabinets are where I keep things like laundry, items that I need, detergent, you know, the bounce sheets or the wool balls or whatever, however environmentally friendly I'm feeling that day.
And then cleaning products, and then some odds and ins like light bulbs and stuff like that. But in this one drawer and the lower cabinet, I thought, What am I gonna put here? I don't wanna put cleaning products down low, you know, just keeping 'em out of reach of kids, even though my kids are pretty grown up now, you know, it's one less thing that you have to think about when they're up high and out of the way.
And so I turned that. Miscellaneous cabinet into a little gift wrapping station. So if you open my cabinet and you look inside, you're going to see some of the white bins that I have that are also up in my above cabinets in the laundry room. But I have dry erase marker labels on these particular ones that.
Gift bags and some are small gift bags, some are large gift bags, some hold ribbons, and some hold tissue paper. So I decided to do that because that is an area that I am often walking in and out of. And that cabinet is right next to the door in my laundry room. So it's out of the way. I also use my, the top of my washer dryer.
Small countertop there to wrap, present. So I have another basket area. This would definitely be be a miscellaneous basket. Uh, but you know, the title is getting too long of the episode, so include this whenever you're thinking about miscellaneous. Areas in your home, if you've got any baskets or any bins.
We have a miscellaneous bin in the kids' rooms and also in the living room for like toys or in their kids' rooms where we might wanna put in books or toys or maybe even we wanna have, uh, sweaters or we wanna have hats or shoes or something like. You might have one in there that is miscellaneous because it might be a little catchall for different things.
My Duke's bench is kind of like that. It's got some of his Halloween costumes that he occasionally still likes to dress up in whenever he's playing. They've got some of the Nerf gun bullets and the vests when he and his sister decide to play with the toy that Uncle Parker. Thanks Uncle Parker. So , so whenever you are trying to figure out what am I gonna put in these random areas, just decide what is it that makes a lot of sense in that area.
And then find the proper bins that you could use to organize that. So another episode that I've done to. Start off this podcast in the very beginning, and also, anytime I do any speaking engagements anywhere, I'm always talking about my three E's philosophy where I break down getting organized in three simple steps.
So if you're following that, for example, and that was episode one, so I'll pop out in show notes too, figure out what is your essential here with this miscellaneous. Area. So whether it's drawers or cabinets or a basket or a bin in your home, figure out what it is that you've got there to begin with. And I love to start with the essential being my purge of stuff that maybe lives there now that I just really am not using anymore.
So if you've got something in these areas before you go to organize them, do a quick once over, do a good approach, make sure you're. Keeping anything in that area that you just really aren't using anymore, or certainly is like broken or outdated, or you're just not loving, if it doesn't bring you joy, you know, like Marie Cono says, you gotta get rid of it if it's not something that you're using on the regular.
And it's really just taking up space and taking on that clutter title. Get it out of there.
A friendly reminder that my book is now available on Kindle and Paper bat over on Amazon. So if you haven't gotten it yet or you have and you'd like to get more, head over to Amazon and search for, I've Got You Girlfriend. Why? Getting organized and living this mom life is not a solo. You can also find a direct link over on my [email protected].
Thanks so much for making it a best seller. And back to the show.
So the essential I really like to start with always is the purge and then my enhancement that second. Step. I really like to donate or sell those items to get them in the hands of people who could be using them. And then final step is that extra. And this is really that finishing touch where we style that space.
So it is working best for us. And that's where you're gonna take this miscellaneous area and you're gonna say, What? Container can I put in place here? So it's going to serve me easily. So for example, in my junk drawer, in that one junk drawer that I have in my laundry room, I got these really awesome white, bendable, kind of malleable, white, clean containers from Target.
Yet you heard me Target not the Container store. I know it's always the container store. Uh, the bins that I have below in my little gift wrapping station. Those are certainly from container store, so the drawer though it has things like batteries in it, it has like a school directory. If I need to run in there and grab that to look and see somebody, I, I need to find a location.
To go drop something off or to pick a kid up or to, If I'm dropping them off as a favor to their parents, I need to make sure I have their current address if I don't have it in my phone, or maybe for writing thank you cards or birthday cards or something. We wanna make sure we have everybody's information or make a phone call, blah, blah, blah.
You get what I'm saying? So that little direct directory I'm not using all the time, it doesn't need to be in. A prominent area at all times, but it's super convenient to have it in that area, in the laundry room for multiple reasons. It is still easy to go grab it, and I know where it's gonna be and it's gonna be out of the way, but it's still gonna be easily accessible.
And also because I mentioned I do a lot of gift wrapping in my laundry room. So like let's say I've been out shopping and I bring home something from my bags, or maybe I've like ordered something online and it's been delivered to my door. I will often go ahead and just go in there. I've got a pair of scissors and they're actually not in that drawer.
They're sitting on a shelf in a little basket. Also from the container store. Shocking on my laundry room shelf. So there's scissors in there. There's tape in there, there's ribbon in there. I use that for wrapping, but I also have those scissors to cut. Open any boxes to cut any tags off. So if you are looking for a wrapping station, organization's, Spot.
You might consider putting this in your laundry room or an area like that. So it's out of your way, but it's also an area that you're gonna be going back to pretty often, and it's convenient for you. So those are some of the things that I use in that drawer. In that cabinet below and it's super helpful.
I did wanna mention, come to think of it, that in my laundry room back behind my bins that have the wrapping and the tissue paper and stuff like that, I actually have a little gift bin that is small gifts that could go for anyone. So like if my husband wants to grab something before he goes out with one of his buddies, cuz he's gonna see them for a birthday.
Or there's, you know, something's happened at work and he just wants to like, take something in to a friend as a congratulations. Here's a little something I'm thinking of you. Or maybe it's around the holiday time again, a birthday, something, uh, like that. It can be something for him. There are also some kids.
Small toys in there. There are also some little things that I call mystery surprises, that if my kids have amazing behavior and we have these rock stars and they wanna trade in their rock stars, when I feel like their behavior has just been so awesome and say, You know what? I am really loving the way you're acting lately.
If you would like to taste some of your rock stars that you've earned for different days that you've had great behavior and trade it in for a mystery surprise, you can get something out of the mystery surprise bin that I have. So that's in there too. So that's just another bin that I've got kind of tucked back behind.
Those gift bins. Those gift bag bins. So that way if, you know, I don't have time to run out and get something, I can pull from that really quickly if I need to. Um, so something to consider if you're thinking, Oh, I've got this extra space, or have a need for these things to belong somewhere, but I don't know where to put 'em.
That's something that just always time and time again, I'm going back to, and that's super convenient. Another thing that I have in my laundry room, in a separate lower cabinet is an area for my kids activities. This really came in handy during those quarantining days when we were doing a lot of homeschooling stuff.
Uh, but after that, it became not only. An area where I organized some of their work, some of their notebooks, activity books, construction paper lined paper, graph paper. Not only did I have that stuff, but I also decided to put in games puzzles. My kids are both into games. My Duke is really into puzzles, and so I have an area down below in this little activity cabinet.
Miscellaneous, but it totally works really well in that area. It doesn't have to be in a super prominent area in the house, but it's still really easily accessible and it's something that I don't have to worry about my kids having access to because they're lower cabinets. So other areas you might have in your.
Home are like the under the stairs closet. I've talked on another episode about that area. That can be really tricky if it's one of those kind of triangular shaped odd, you know, really low ceiling, really odd shaped. Closets. So if that is something that is sort of an area that you're like, I got all kinds of miscellaneous stuff, You know, maybe you've got holiday decorations or maybe you've got, uh, kids activities or toys or suitcases or old memorabilia, any kind of storage you might have.
We actually just pulled out a blowup mattress recently from there because my daughter. Sleepover and we just needed some extra room for the girls to sleep. And so that's somewhere that I keep that you might wanna go back and check out that episode as well. Super miscellaneous, all kinds of stuff can find its way in that under the stairs awkward shape closet.
But I talk about how you can really organize that space so it's working best for you. Despite if it is one of those weird shaped spaces. So these are just some ideas I wanted to suggest to you today because I think we all have the need for some of that storage of randoms. And these are some of the ways that I've done that in my home.
I've certainly done this in other clients' homes, and we've put things like toys and kids costumes. And clothing that maybe is seasonal, so maybe you're not wearing some of this stuff all the time and you don't have the space for it in your closet near your bedroom, and so you decide to rotate out some of those things.
That's another sort of miscellaneous item that you might wanna keep in some of these random places. Maybe you have a cabinet. In a hallway that's for linens, but you've just found that you prefer to have some medicine bins in there or some sunscreens in there, or maybe you are choosing to use that space for rotating out seasonal items in all of your closets.
So hopefully some of these items helped you today. Don't forget, if you're trying to organize those spaces, stick with the three E's so you don't feel overwhelmed, and you can do it in three simple steps. Do that essential. Purge, do that enhancement of donating or selling those items that you're not using anymore, and then do that extra of putting in the proper organization and styling that space so that it is truly serving you and your family and any roommates you may have using that space in the best way possible.
Hope you guys are having a great day, and I will talk to you next week for some more organization motivation. Thanks for listening to another episode of the Mom's Organization Motivation Podcast. For more resources to organize and style your busy life, head over to everything with style.com and connect with me on Instagram at Everything with Style.
Mom, if this episode was helpful for you, please share it with your friends. Write and review it on it. That's Apple Podcast now and let me know what you'd like to hear about next. Thanks again for listening and happy organizing.