New Series! Beautybabbling at Home

Disclaimer: The product mentioned in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.

I'm hoping to start a series of posts on my blog about getting organized, in part to actually help me get more organized. I'm not going to make any promises about how often I'm going to do these kinds of posts because I will inevitably break that promise.

I'm no expert at being organized. I try, but things always end up going a little bit crazy around my house. Over the past few months though, I've made some discoveries that have really seemed to help.

Tip #1: Declutter before you buy organizing items. If your house is full of stuff, organizing that stuff isn't going to help all that much.

Tip #2: Don't rush into buying a bunch of items to help you get organized. Use cardboard boxes or other items that you already have lying around the house to see if your new organizing system is going to work. Also give yourself time to find the right item for the job. Settling for an item that will work for the time being can just be a waste of money and can just add more stuff to your house that you have to deal with.

That leads me to my example.

This bar area in my kitchen had been driving me nuts for months! It had become too much of a catch-all for cereal and snacks. My kitchen doesn't have a lot of counter space, so I like using that area for food prep, and all the stuff was starting to make that impossible.

I wanted to find a shelving unit to go on the wall to the right of this counter, but I wasn't finding anything I really liked and wanted to buy. I almost bought one of those cheap particleboard units like this:

Picture from closetmaid.com

The thing that made me hesitate was that this would have been a temporary solution, and at somewhere around $30-$40, it wasn't a cheap one either.

Instead, I kept my eye out for something I really liked. I scoured the internet. Then one day, while out shopping with a friend, the heavens opened up when I saw this:

We were walking through Hobby Lobby when I saw this baker's rack. It is an antique bronze finish (even though it looks black in the picture), and it was around $100. It can fold up (the shelves fold up and the sides fold in), which made it possible for me to get it home in my 2-door Cavalier. The only thing I would change is making the shelves a bit thicker because they have a little bit of bend in them when I push down on them. I stashed a few of my cookbooks elsewhere because I was worried about the shelf permanently bending from the weight. Other than that, this has solved my cluttered counter problem, and gave me the added bonus of being able to store my cookbooks closer to where I actually use them (they were previously in a different room).

Now, if I had caved and gotten the particle board shelving unit, I would have had to deal with finding a new place for it in my home or get rid of it. The first option isn't ideal since I have no idea where I would have put it, and the second is just plain wasteful.

What is your best home organizing tip? Is there a solution that you've come up with that is working really well for you? I'd love to know!

Disclaimer: The product mentioned in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.

Blog Sale and Thirty-One Gifts!

Disclaimer: I include links to my direct selling site for Thirty-One Gifts, for which I am an Independent Consultant. I do not get any compensation unless someone actually makes a purchase through my direct site.

I've got multiple post ideas floating around in my head, but I haven't actually gotten any written up yet. I promise I'll get some up soon.

In the meantime, I finally got around to updating my blog sale. I added a bunch of new items and dropped some prices. I've got several brand new Tarte items listed. I added some L'Oreal Infallible eye shadows (several were LE). I've also got a bunch of mineral eye shadows and blushes up for sale. It's a broad range of products to choose from. I think there's around 40 pictures total.

Teaser pictures:

I also wanted to mention a couple of other things. The first one is that I recently became a consultant for Thirty-One Gifts, which is a direct selling company that sells bags, totes, and other organizing items (most of which can be personalized with embroidery). I personally signed up because I wanted the bags myself! I plan to do posts on some of their products. That being said, I promise to you that I will not do any posts talking up products that I don't like, and I will not let it take over my blog. This is still primarily a makeup blog. It's just something that I am genuinely excited about. For example, I LOVE my new purse:

Retro Metro Bag in Spirit Black with Small Rosette Clip in Pink

It's a great size. I carry way too many things around with me on a regular basis, and this bag holds it easily. If you look at the left side pocket, that's a water bottle sticking out of the top. I have the rosette (a separate item) pinned on because it's cute AND it lets me know which outside pocket has my keys, phone, and sunglasses.

• If you haven't heard of Thirty-One Gifts before, you can check out their products here.
• If you decide that there's something that you HAVE to have (Note: the monthly special for August is if you spend $35, you can get any purse for half price), I would appreciate you shopping through my Online Kick-Off Party (ends on August 30) using this link.
• Otherwise, you can buy it through me using this link.
• If you want a lot of stuff, I can set up an online and/or catalog party and make you the hostess, which means you could earn some Hostess Rewards! 

If you have any questions or would like more information, you are welcome to email me at beautybabbling@yahoo.com.

Enough of that...

The other thing that I wanted to mention what that I'm on a kick again of wanting to get organized with my life, and I think I'm going to start a series of posts about it. They won't be on a schedule yet because the ideas are still forming, and I actually have to make some organizing progress to show all of you (I do want to show all of you my shower solution, but you'll have to excuse the fact that my bathroom/shower are not magazine ready. It needs to be remodeled, but my fiance and I don't have the money for that yet).

To wrap up this post, I'm going to state the obvious. Summer is coming to an end. School has started back up here, which means work will be starting back up for me. It's a good and bad thing. Life will get busier again, but I'll also have more reason to play with my makeup stash since I'll be doing more than going to the grocery store.

Since this was a bit of a rambling update post, what's new with all of you ladies? Anything fun or exciting going on?

Disclaimer: I included links to my direct selling site for Thirty-One Gifts, for which I am an Independent Consultant. I do not get any compensation unless someone actually makes a purchase through my direct site.