Hello Reader-Friends! I’m back again on this steamy, humid summer day with another Mom-Tested, Family-Approved BLOG HOP for ya! This month, as we’re closing out summer and  gearing up for the school year (our school year starts on August 17th!!) we’re sharing Everything Organization! And who doesn’t love a lot of fancy organization tools and techniques?

Well, actually, me for one. I’ve had to learn to embrace my inner not-Type-A personality and let go of all my Pinterest-addict tendencies and embrace simplicity in our household organizing. I have discovered that, for us anyway, there is such a thing as over-organizing. I define that as any strategy, tool, or routine that take more time for me to police the family about using then it saves me. Thus we have a shoe basket in the mudroom–not individual shoe cubbies for each family member. We have coat racks in the mudroom–not individually assigned coat hooks per child.

But with a busy family of 5, we do have to have some organization! And as a busy working momma, I’m always on the lookout for a new idea to fix a problem area around our house (anyone else have more than 1 “junk drawer?”)

So today I’m sharing a few of my favorite, simple products for organizing around the household–then I hope you’ll share some of your best home organizing posts with everyone too!

1. Pencil Boxes! 

These little cheapies are this momma’s best friend! I always buy several at the back-to-school sales to have extras around the house. The children each have one for their own craft supplies and one for their own homework supplies at the house as well as the ones they use at school. They organize buttons, stickers, and chipboard letters in my workshop, they organize our first aid kit when we go out of town, and they organize office supplies in our living room computer cabinet. (We use these, but we get them for about $1 each at back-to-school time.)

2. Clear Bins!

Our kiddos have 4 large toy bins in the playroom that fit on our Ikea bookshelves. One full bucket of that kind of toy is all that is allowed. If you want to add something, sometimes you have to get rid of something. (While we’re in painting mode, we’re also in purging mode around here right now!) I like the clear ones because it’s easy for the kiddos to see in. I also like that the bins are wide open and easy for the munchkins to toss toys in. We also group all our toys into those 4 large categories so it’s easy to sort and clean up. If you dump all 4 out at once (happens almost daily!) it still only takes about 15 minutes to pull all 4 bins out and sort everything back where it belongs. I have all the lids saved up in the top of the boys closet so that one day when they’re not used for toys we can use them for storage. (We use these 30 qts for our shelves and this larger one for the “pretend bucket” full of dress up clothes, spy gear, cowboy bandanas, etc.)

3. Weekly Closet Organizers!

Um, I LOVE these. They make a HUGE difference to our week with work and school (and they’re way cheaper at Amazon then what I paid at Lowes, but I would totally do it again anyway.) Seriously, run and get them for your household right now! My only complaint is that we don’t need two shoe slots, what we really need is a spot for Saturday and Sunday (sometimes I shove Saturday and Sunday clothes into the shoe slots!) We “fill our days” every Sunday while I’m running the kiddos through the shower and putting on pjs.

So those are my favorite, super-simple time and sanity savers. We have lots of other little organizing tricks around here, but these are the biggies that make up the backbone of wrangling our chaos around here. You can find more ideas with my co-hosts Dollie from Teachers of Good Things and Erin from A Bird and a Bean.

We’d love for you to link up and share you’re best organizing posts too! What are you’re great ideas? What tips do you have for busy mommas, or what great posts and pins have you seen lately? Feel free to add as many pertinent posts (old or new) as you’d like.

And be sure to visit the Featured Posts from last month’s Everything Food Prep {BLOG HOP}

• Saving Money on Snacks by Stretching A Buck
• Building a Whole Foods Basics Stockpile by Little House Living
• Healthy and Cheap Meals by Your Modern Family

And since it’s that time of year again, next month we’ll be sharing Everything Frugal for Back-to-School!

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