My Spark JOY Journey (Organizing Around The House)

Several weekends ago I stumbled across the show Tidying Up on Netflix. Tidying Up is the popular home organization show based on Marie Kondo’s best-selling novel, The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying Up. I’ve never read the book but heard a lot about it and knew it had to do with organizing your home. I assumed the show was based on the same premise.

One Saturday morning I sat down to watch one episode of the show and found myself hooked. The approach that Marie takes to decluttering and organizing is simple but so impactful. Her method of folding clothes and organizing drawers is life-changing.

I binge-watched the series that day and had the urge to organize every inch of my house. I started in the kitchen and plan to tackle one room at a time over the next few months. And just like Marie directs people to do on the show, I’m using her ‘spark joy’ method as I go through each space. If an item sparks joy and is something we use, it stays. Items that are no longer useful or that have no value to us go in the trash or donation pile.

Today I thought I’d share a couple of areas that I’ve organized and a few tips that helped we whip these spaces into shape. And because good organization requires tools, I’m sharing some of my to-go organizing products from The Container Store. (this is not a sponsored post, just sharing products I love)

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THE PROBLEM AREAS & THE SOLUTIONS

The first area I organized was our kitchen. Cooking may not be my thing but I love kitchen gadgets and had more than my fair share. I opened every drawer and sorted through all of the items and then organized like items together. I used these bamboo drawer organizer trays to hold our silverware and cooking utensils.

tip: keeping like items together is key to keeping drawers organized and tidy. Group items by function (baking, knifes, entertaining pieces so you always know what you have and where things go.

Another area in the kitchen I organized was the pantry. Our pantry is not large so I wanted to maximize the space. I used a bamboo expanding spice shelf to hold my spice jars and save space on the shelf. I also hung a white Elfa utility wire door & wall rack on the pantry door to hold canned goods. The door rack at The Container Store are one of my absolute favorite products and I’ve used them in other areas of my house as well.

I keep my cloth dinner napkins in the kitchen, inside a lower kitchen cabinet. Before I found the perfect solution, they were stacked in a wicker basket. It was hard to pull out set of napkins without messing up the entire stack. What I really needed was a container where I could stand the napkins up, see everything at a glance and easily access the napkins I wanted. This large multi-purpose bin was the perfect solution. My dinner napkins fit like a glove and the handles make it easy to pull the bins out and carry them around. I have three bins that sit side-by-side and they fit perfectly under my kitchen cabinet.

tip: containers that allow cloth napkins to stand or lay flat will keep them from getting wrinkled

GOOD ORGANIZATION SHOULD BE EFFICIENT & LOOK NICE

Another problem area was how I stored my ever-growing collection of dinner plates. The buffet in our dining room holds my parent’s wedding china, our wedding china and an assorted mix of serving and entertaining pieces. Dinner plates were stacked on top of charger plates and tea cups and saucers wedged on a shelf. I wasn’t maximizing the vertical space and knew I needed a stackable shelf to solve the problem. These white medium grid stackable shelf fit the bill and I am so happy with how they work in my buffet. The shelves lock together and are sturdy enough to hold the weight of the plate stacks. I used three shelves in each of the side cabinets.

tip: use felt china separators between your plates to protect the surface and prevent scratches.

The middle cabinet holds all of my charger plates (this is after I purged 4 sets), serving platters and candle holders. I use quilted china storage cases to hold serving platters and tea cups.

tip: I bought 8″ x 10″ sheets of felt from the craft store to place between the charger plates to protect the surface.

WHEN YOU CAN SEE WHAT YOU HAVE, YOU’RE MORE LIKELY TO USE IT AND ENJOY IT

With the china buffet done, I set out to organize all of my overflow of vintage dinnerware. I’ve collected about 12 different sets of plates and don’t have room to store them in the kitchen or buffet. I decided to store and display them on a tiered table that sits on one wall of the kitchen. I used water hyacinth storage bins to hold smaller plates on the lower shelf and then stacked larger plates and bowls on the middle shelf. These baskets are sturdy and I can easily pull them off the shelf using the handles. The medium basket fits appetizer and dessert plates perfectly. And the large basket is the right size for salad plates.

tip: hang a tag from the handle of each basket with a list of the patterns inside so you know at a glance what each basket holds.

I only have a couple of spaces checked off my organizing list but I’m thrilled with all the changes so far. I’ll be sure to share more of my ‘spark joy’ journey as I work on other areas of my house. Until then, here’s a round-up of some of the organizing products I’m using and loving from The Container Store.