Most Organized Home in America (Part 2) by Professional Organizer & Expert Alejandra Costello

Hello everyone, I am Alejandra Costello, creative organization

expert

at

alejandra

.tv and in this video I am going to give you a tour of my super

organized

house and I will show you all the organization systems that I have implemented and that by following them daily you are more efficient , more productive, things are less stressful and life is simply more enjoyable. Come on. Welcome to my house. I'm so excited you're here. In just a few moments I will show you some of the main organization systems that I have inside my house that keep us really efficient and productive on a daily basis.

Let's start with the kitchen. Okay, before we get started, if you're just starting to declutter and organize your

home

, there's a link below to help you get started for free. The kitchen is one of those common areas that everyone in the family uses and it is important to have organization systems in place so that things are easy to find but also easy to put away. Let's start with the trash drawer. Okay, here's our junk drawer. It has everything we need and use in this area inside the house. I used aqua

organizer

s to make this drawer a little more fun because when the organization system is more fun, it can inspire you to keep up and keep up with the organization.

Now that I've shown you the junk drawer, let me show you what's in this cabinet here. This cabinet here has everything we use as a family. Everything that is community. Well, on the cabinet door here we mounted sheet metal because the front of our refrigerator is not magnetic and this is very easy to do. Cut the sheet metal, mount it with double-sided mounting tape and now we have all our important reminders, cards and checklists, right here, nice, accessible and easy to find. I have a really nice checklist right here. It's called In Case of Emergency and it has all of our important phone numbers for neighbors, utilities, doctors, etc., and when we need a phone number, we come here, we find exactly what we need, it's fast, it's easy, and it keeps us productive .

On this shelf here we have all of our medications, vitamins, first aid kit and I use a Lazy Susan for all the round bottles because you organize round things in a round

organizer

to maximize space. We have a small recycling bin right here. This is for all of our expired medications. Every time we see or notice something that's expired, we throw it in this little recycling bin and then when it's full, we dispose of our medications responsibly. Here we have these two tackle boxes that have all the first aid supplies and medications that are not in bottles.

I use a tackle box because it's nice and easy to access. Whenever you need some kind of band-aid or something, just come here. You find exactly what you need. It's nice and fast and you take it right away. You don't have to look for things. There is no need to waste time. It's nice and easy. On this shelf here I have my battery organizer and all the batteries are

organized

by category, such as size, which makes it very easy to find the right battery when you need it. No frustration. I again used a tackle box and simply labeled all the sections with some bright yellow label tape from my label maker to make everything stand out.

You come here, you take exactly what you're looking for and you put it back. When your battery is dead, on this shelf I have this little recycling bin. He is so cute. It says batteries and you just put the dead battery in and then when it gets full you just recycle the batteries properly. Up here I have all my essential oils inside this wooden box that is away from the sunlight because you have to keep the essential oils away from the sunlight and my husband and I did this together. All we did was grab a wooden box that cost two dollars and then we grabbed a gardening knee pad from the dollar store.

We made holes and now all of our essential oils don't touch each other, they don't fall out, and they're nice and organized in this cute box that's less than five dollars. The top two shelves are empty because we have nothing to store there. It's okay to have empty space. Now that I've shown you this cabinet, let me show you one of my favorite drawers in the kitchen. The tea drawer. This is my tea drawer and I love this drawer because I open it and there's a rainbow variety of tea bags and you feel really calm. It's fun to watch and easy to find exactly what type of tea you want to drink.

Now that I've shown you the tea drawer, let me show you the spice cabinet right next to the stove where you want to keep your spices nice and accessible, easy to access. All the spices are organized in a lazy tray because again, you organize round items in a round organizer to maximize space. You just come here, spin this, find exactly what you need and put it back. It's really easy and when your cabinets are organized and everything in the kitchen has a

home

made look, cooking in the evening is much easier, faster and much more enjoyable. Ok, now that I've shown you how to organize this cabinet, let me share with you how I organized a deep kitchen drawer.

Alright, so in this drawer here I have all my food storage containers and this is a big, deep drawer. What you want to do when you have a space like this is divide it into smaller sections using drawer dividers so things don't float everywhere. I organized all the bottoms together and all the lids together and everything is stacked on top of each other, so when I need something I come here, grab exactly the size container I need, close the drawer and it's very easy and frustration-free. Now let me show you one of my entertaining drawers. This drawer here is all about entertaining and entertaining is fun, so I used fun hot pink organizers to make the drawer feel more fun.

Now that I've shared this drawer with you, let me share with you what I've made in the pantry. Okay, this is the pantry and I've set up a bunch of organization systems to make everything nice and easy so when you walk in here you'll find exactly what you're looking for. There is no frustration and you stay focused. We have a tiered shelf right here that we use for all of our canned goods. You enter here. You see all the labels, take what you need and that's it. The nice thing about this tiered shelf is that my husband made it.

He took wood, stained it, assembled it and we didn't use plastic. He feels homey and the theme of this pantry is that he wanted it to feel really homey and he didn't want bright colors and stuff, and it just goes with the theme of the pantry. Up here we use glass jars to organize all the dry goods and things come in a package and in a jar. My grandmother hand wrote all of her labels to give it a nice and special homey touch. Now I love grabbing them. They are very nice and accessible. They are airtight so they last a long time.

What you can do when you have dry goods in a container is cut out any information that you need, like cooking instructions or nutritional information, whatever, and put it here on the back. This is a business pocket adhesive sticker. She put it in the jar and then cut out the important information, stick it inside and you'll never lose it. On this side, I used two Lazy Susan's for all the round condiments and any other round bottles in the pantry. This was actually my mom's lazy Susan from the '70s, which again makes her feel homey, warm, and still approachable and easy to grab.

Down here I have these separate drawers for all the things that come in a package. Just take them and throw them in here. Right here there are snacks, there are sweets and there are chips. When you want a snack, you simply open this drawer, reach in and grab exactly what you're looking for. When you have boxes like this, you take out the snacks and just throw them into the container just like that and reuse or recycle your box. This drawer here has all the candy. The same thing, if something comes in a package, you take it out of the package and throw it in the trash just like that.

Down here is the crisper drawer and when you have fries they are voluminous. They need a lot of space, so I use the largest drawer possible to organize all the big, bulky things. When you're setting up your pantry organization systems, determine what you buy frequently and then set up your systems around the things that often come into the space. In the side drawers there are just a bunch of refills for all the glass jars I showed you above. On this wall here we had a lot of dead space, so what I did was find this organizer.

Actually, it's to organize file folders and I put all our products. There are onions. Product that does not go in the refrigerator. There are onions, there are potatoes and this is an overflow, which I doubt you will ever get used to. We simply lined the bottom with burlap so that nothing that falls off the onions or potatoes falls on the floor and makes a mess. Here I just have one bag organizer for all of our plastic bags that we reuse around the house. If ever you can't find the pantry inside the house we have a label that says pantry.

Now that I've shared with you how to organize the pantry, let me show you my office where I spend a lot of my time. This is my office where I spend a lot of my time running my business and teaching people how to organize, so it's important to have the right organizational systems in place to remain productive, efficient, and focused on whatever I do. I'm working on. Let me show you the desktop area first. I spend a lot of time here working and what I wanted to do was have a minimum of things on my desk to distract me to keep me focused.

All I have here are some pens and markers and stuff and then right here I have all my bills to pay, things that are like a task and they're done. Anything that is more than one task, like five tasks or ten tasks, and becomes a project, up here I have all my projects, so anything that is more than one task gets a folder, becomes a project, and all I do here is put all the papers inside here and label the outside with the name of the project so I know exactly what's what. When I look here there is no confusion, out of place, out of mind.

I just look here and know exactly what everything is. Once a project is done, I take out all the papers. I will recycle them if I don't need them. Shred them if they have sensitive information or archive them if I need to save them. I have thank you cards and notes up here from members of our community just expressing their gratitude and every time I'm having a bad day or experiencing some kind of challenge, I come here and read the cards and it reminds me to keep going. Keep sharing and keep taking steps forward, even if they are baby steps.

Down here in these drawers I have everything I need to be productive at my desk. This top drawer has all the office supplies I need to stay productive at my desk. Instead of using plastic organizers, I found these cardboard gift boxes at the dollar store, they fit perfectly and are hot pink inside which makes them a little more fun and you know what? This drawer is so fun that it inspires me to keep it. that way. The next drawer is my shipping drawer, which has everything I need to mail something, pay a bill, and I use drawer dividers to divide the space and create small com

part

ments for each type of item.

This bottom drawer is more like receipts, tech stuff and the cool thing about this drawer is that I used tension bars as drawer dividers. It's less expensive, it's easier to find tension bars than drawer organizers, and it works perfectly. The following system is one of my favorite office organization systems. It's my shredding bin, my wastebasket, and my recycle bin. Every time I check the mail, which is every day, I come here, take the mail and sort it accordingly so it doesn't build up in piles. If there are remains, I throw them in the shredded container. If there is recycling I put it in the recycling container and if there is trash, I throw it in the trash container.

I do a little bit every day. It takes no more than two or three minutes and at the end of the week there are no piles of mail. This here is my organization workshop. I have all the organizational supplies I need to set up a system as well as office supplies, craft supplies, and anything else I might need around the office to stay productive. On this side of the closet, all I did was store seven containers of ice cream that we had been collecting for a while and then I sorted all my markers, pens, and pencils by category.

It's really easy to get this look. All you have to do is eat seven liters of ice cream, put away the containers, and then organize all your writing instruments by category. Place them here and they will be easy to find, pleasant and accessible. BelowI have more containers of it, so these are small cans that have hooks inside. Instead of using a label from your label maker or writing a label by hand, you can simply stick something on the outside and it will tell you what's inside. On this side of the shelf I have these four recycling bins to properly recycle pens, pencils, markers, ink cartridges, label cartridges as well as this one that when you're done you can recycle it, gift cards.

When these containers are full, we responsibly release them instead of throwing them in the trash. It's about responsibly organizing your home. If you're going to take the time to accept things, you need to take the time to let them go. This is

part

of my new program on simplicity. There is a link below to check it out. On this shelf here I have all my paints and I made my own lazy Susan using two baking pans and a package of marbles from the dollar store and this is what it looks like. There are two baking pans, a pack of marbles, then when you put it together, which takes two seconds, you turn it around and you have a homemade Lazy Susan for three dollars.

I have a binder here that has all my greeting cards organized by occasion. NextEvery time I have an event I come here and find the exact card I'm looking for. You don't have to run to the store. Come here. Looking for a greeting card. Take a card. Remove it. Then put it back. I have a letter hook right here that we put on the wall and now all of our gift bags hang by size and every time I need a gift bag I come here and quickly find the right one, grab it and done. I have all the gift wrapping and wrapping paper out of the way right here.

It's off the floor so it won't get damaged and all I did here was take a pipe cleaner and wrapped it around the open wrapping paper and now the ends won't unravel, rip or tear and you. You will be able to give a gift that is in good condition. I have all my sticky notes right here and everything is organized by color so you can find the color you want, nice and easy. Here I have all my books, my folders, my printer and my scanner. Everything is very accessible, easy to grab and easy to use. Down here I have all my folders for my work, my business, and stuff, and every item within each of these folders is super organized, which makes it even easier to find exactly what you're looking for.

This is our home folder and inside this folder there is a nice cover, which all the folders have, and then in here there are dividers and all the dividers are labeled according to the categories, which keeps you focused on what you are looking for, no . distractions. There is no search for lost documents. Everything is accounted for. Another thing I wanted to show you is this little cable organizer that just pops up on the back of furniture and keeps cables from getting left behind and getting lost. This is my filing cabinet that contains all my tax documents and then all my files.

This is my tax drawer and everything is organized by personal tax documents and business tax documents. Everything is labeled by year and whether it's personal or business, and everything is organized in these pretty folders so small papers, like receipts, don't fall out and get permanently lost. It has my tax return and any supporting documentation and everything is labeled by year and whether it is personal or business. If you have all your documents super organized, accessing them will be very easy, simple and frustration-free. Okay, now that I've shown you some of the major organization systems I've installed inside my office to keep me productive on a daily basis, let's hop on and I'll show you how I've organized my closet and bathroom so that getting ready every morning is a breeze and I leave on time. .

Now, if you're watching this video and you're thinking, wow, I'm really behind on getting organized, my house is a mess and I don't know where to start, just pick a small project that's a high priority. start it, finish it completely and move on to the next thing. If you start too many projects at once, it can become even more overwhelming on top of the overwhelming clutter you have in your home. Here I am in my closet and this is a closet that my husband and I share. Half is my stuff, the other half is your stuff, and each thing is in an organization system that makes getting dressed in the morning super easy and efficient.

All I've done here is organize all my clothes by category and then once everything is organized by category, I organize them by color. All my hanging things are here and then all my drawers are here. All of my drawers are organized by category and then I labeled each of the drawers so I know what's what. Now, if you don't like having a lot of labels around your house but want to know what's inside, you can temporarily label your systems using them as training wheels and then once you've memorized the information, simply remove the label and you'll be able to tell what it is. what and what goes where.

I don't mind having labels and that helps. In this drawer here I have all my pajamas and when I reach for the pajamas I usually just grab what's on top and that's why I have everything stacked on top of each other instead of being filed and stored vertically like each other. drawer down here. This drawer down here has all my long sleeve shirts. Again, they are filed vertically, so when I open a drawer I can find exactly what I'm looking for and find the right long sleeve shirt I'm looking for. At the top of my closet I have a donation bin for all the clothes I try on, don't fit, wear out, no longer feel comfortable.

Every time that happens, I take the item of clothing, throw it in the laundry basket, when the laundry basket is full, I take it out, detail it, and then make the appropriate donations. I use uniform hangers inside my closet because I like them to match. You don't have to do that. The important thing to keep in mind here is that all clothing has room to breathe. Nothing comes together like that. It's very easy to get something out. To return it. Before we moved into this new house, we cleared our house of hundreds of pounds of stuff and I got rid of a ton of clothes and it feels so much lighter inside this closet.

It feels so much easier to get dressed because everything here is used by me. I feel good about that. I love it and only have the things I use, need and love. Nothing else, no distractions and when the space has only the things you use and need, it is much easier to maintain and you feel lighter. On this wall here I have this jewelry organizer that my husband and I made together. I have all my necklaces hanging here. My bracelets, my rings, earrings, very easy. There are not many jewels. When there are fewer options, it's much faster to get ready in the morning.

At the top of the closet you can see that there is an empty shelf. There's nothing up there. I don't have enough stuff to fill this closet and just because I have open space doesn't mean I should go out and buy more stuff. It's okay to have empty space. In fact, it feels lighter. There's more, it seems like it's easier to breathe here when it's not crowded. On the inside of the door there is a great place to maximize space so what I did here was use hooks over the door hooks to hang all my scarves and sometimes there's one or two sweatshirts in here but what What you want to do is not hang them. too much weight on the back of the door because it will make it very heavy to open and close.

Keep it light, simple, and keep only the things you actually use, need, and love. Now that I've shown you how I've organized my entire closet, let me share with you how I've organized the bathroom to make getting ready easy in the morning and cleaning up even easier. Well, here we are in the bathroom and I'm going to show you the different organization systems that I have in place. The first is my bathroom counter. As you can see, there isn't a lot of stuff on the counter because I like to keep it to a minimum so it's easy to clean because every night I go down and wipe off excess water, dirt, and other gross stuff.

It's very fast when there aren't many things. I only have what I need and nothing more. Here is the medicine cabinet and I have everything I need and use daily nice and accessible, but also out of the way. At the door of the medicine cabinet I took out a lot of information that I wanted to memorize. I laminated it. I hung it on the door to maximize my vertical space and I've read this stuff so many times that I now have all this information memorized, which was the point of putting it all here. Here I have this magnetic stripe.

It's actually a sheet of metal that I just cut out and then I wrapped it in cloth tape from the dollar store, which is amazing tape, and then I just put magnets on the back of my clothespins, like this, and now I just stays out of the way but nice and accessible at the door. I have my scissors right here and I also have nail clippers that again hang on these hooks and are very easy to access. Okay, no, let me show you what's inside the drawers. The top drawer here has all my makeup. As you can see there isn't a lot of makeup because I got rid of a lot of stuff and now I only have the things that I use, need and then the products that I love to use.

There's basically one or two of everything and I grabbed a bunch of clear organizers, lined the drawer and sorted everything pretty much by category. Some categories are mixed, but for the

most

part brushes are together, lips are together, eyes are together, etc. Now everything is super accessible, it's easy to put back and it's also easy to clean if I take it all out and clean it, because there's not a lot of stuff. This drawer has everything, this little section here, it has all the Mojo stuff for brushing your teeth and styling your hair and stuff and then all the feminine care is back here and I sorted everything by category so it's a little bit easier to find exactly. what you are looking for when you need it.

When you have a large drawer like this, if you don't want to use drawer organizers like the ones I showed in this drawer, what you can do is get drawer dividers like this, cut them to size, and then place them exactly where you want. I love. They are a little more customizable. The last drawer down here is a deep drawer and it has all my hair stuff. All I did here was use the same dividers that I used inside this drawer. I bought taller ones and created this little section here so I can take all my hair brushes and then stand them up instead of just leaving them in this deep drawer and then they get lost and hard to access.

That way, you will maximize the height of your drawer. Back here I have my hair dryer, my iron and the good thing here is that I lined it with contact paper which is like contact paper for cushions, so when you put something in here, this is a wooden drawer and it makes a lot of noise. if you just paste what's here. When I put it back in, it doesn't make any loud noises. Now let me share with you what's inside the cabinet doors here. This is under the vanity sink. Let me share with you what's at the door.

I only have two Command hooks on the door to hang a cloth to clean the sink every night before I go to sleep. That just hangs here, nice and out of the way. Here I have another tool to remove lint from clothes and stuff. Back here I just used stackable organizers to maximize the vertical space in this cabinet because you have this pipe that's in the way, so the best way to organize a space that has this pipe, the annoying pipe, in the way, is to build it and Lo I have achieved using stackable organizers. Here I only have bulk supplies for the bathroom and down here I only have electronics that I use inside the bathroom as well.

Here on this side of the cabinet I have a household recycling bin so for a while I realized that a lot of the stuff in the bathroom could be recycled and instead of putting all the stuff away and walking to the kitchen I thought it was It's easier to just add a recycling bin in the bathroom for empty shampoo bottles, conditioner bottles, ends of toilet paper tubes - all of that can be recycled. Now I find out that ninety percent of the stuff in the bathroom is recycling and about ten percent is actual trash. This has been great.

Here I have a makeup recycling bin and then a dental recycling bin. Every time I have empty makeup containers or empty dental containers or tubes or something like that, they come in here and then when they're full, I recycle them responsibly and I responsibly declutter the bathroom cabinet. Here on this cabinet door I have an organizer over the cabinet door to maximize vertical space and then I have cleaners here to clean the house that I did all myself. All I did was grab a glass bottle from the dollar store. This is a bottle of garlic wine vinegar and then I took a plastic bottle cap, again from the dollar store, added it here and then I took a koozie from the dollar store, put it around the bottle to that the glass was more insulated and less noisy. but also because these cleansers have essential oils inside and essential oils should not be exposed to sunlight, whichkeeps them away.

I then labeled the top with what the cleaner is. This says window cleaner. Then around the bottom bottle it has the recipe for what the cleanser is, so when it runs out I know exactly how to refill it and I don't have to stop to research how to do it again. That goes there and it's the bathroom vanity. That's all. I've shown you many different organization systems that we have inside our house that keep us productive, efficient around the house, easy to find things but also easy to put away. I hope this video has inspired you to start decluttering your home and establishing organizational systems that work for you and your family.

If you are looking to start decluttering and start getting more organized there is a link below to help you get started and if this is your first time watching any of my videos you can visit my website

alejandra

.tv for more tools and training on how live. a more organized life. Also subscribe to my YouTube channel for more videos on how to get organized. Thanks for watching and see you soon. Bye bye.