Not so Extreme (but FREE!) Home Makeovers

When I got back home from all of the holiday traveling this year, I was so grateful to be back HOME, a home that felt like home. (Sadly, being in my parent’s house just feels strange at this point in my life.) And maybe I am subconsciously investing in my nest now that we’re in a recession, as the pundits claim, but I’d like to think I was just getting the ‘spring cleaning’ bug early this year.

Anyway, I made a couple of changes to how things are organized around here, and I have to say… it’s actually making me happier. So, I’ll list them here as idea-starters in case you get the bug too! I filed this post under time for money, because really, for a little bit of time spent organizing, you can ease yourself quite a bit of frustration and discontent, and save whatever money you would have spent self-soothing. If you have any other not-so-extreme-home-makeover-tips, please post them in the comments and I'll add them on later!

BATHROOM
1. Empty your mouthwash in a glass decanter instead of leaving it in the bottle. It’s pretty enough to set out by the sink and it reminds you to use it more often, in addition to the everyday glamour.
2. Remove everything from the bathroom counter that you don’t use daily – decluttering does wonders for my everyday happiness.

KITCHEN
3. Reorganize the pantry by meal occasion – a shelf for breakfast, a shelf for lunch/dinner, a shelf for baking, a shelf for spices. It makes the whole operation more efficient and saves you time when you’re looking for the oatmeal at 6 AM.
4. Create a healthy snack bowl (in and outside the fridge) with low-calorie/low-fat snacks in little sandwich bags. They’re perfectly portionable and a time-saver when you need to grab something on the go and don’t want it to be a candy bar and a Red Bull.
5. Take on the junk drawer (or mail tray) and dispose of all the junk. Better yet, create a cleaner “to-file” system for the day that it inevitably clutters itself up again.
6. Pile “stuff” in a bowl or tall clear vase for an everyday centerpiece. “Stuff” suggestions: wine corks, matchbooks, plain ball Christmas ornaments, pasta shapes, fruit, extra buttons, etc. etc.
7. Take the orange juice out of the Tropicana carton and place in a pretty glass pitcher. Ditto on the everyday glamour thing.

BEDROOM/LIVING ROOM
8. Post a poem (something that makes you smile) on a vanity/inside a drawer you see every day
9. Find little baskets to put inside drawers for organizations for things like scarves, socks, etc. (These are really cheap at Walgreens!)
10. Create a template for planning out the week ahead’s outfits to prevent the morning-of-closet-whine. Post on a French memo board in the closet or in an accessible drawer.
11. Give your spare-change coin bank more prominence. I moved ours from a back shelf to our desk and changed it to a clear container, hoping it will attract more loose coins this way.