When we were planning the new laundry room, I designated one of the cabinets as a pantry. We have a small pantry in the kitchen, but I needed additional room downstairs to store the boxes of cereal, juices and other necessities that we always seem to need more of. The only problem was that I would forget what I had in the downstairs pantry and would end up buying more of the same and I would end up filling that pantry too! It was a never-ending cycle people. So then I did this:


That's a Martha Stewart dry erase decal. I affixed it to the inside door of our upstairs pantry. Now if I'm looking for something and its not in the kitchen, I can easily check if its in the basement. It helps with grocery planning too as I know exactly what I have on hand.

I know I'm late to this bandwagon but I've only recently discovered chalk markers. How did I not know about these before?? Not only are they dust free, but they make my penmanship look so much better :) A good trick is to use chalk markers in conjunction with regular chalk. On our kitchen chalkboard, I've started to do some meal planning. All the days of the week are written in chalk marker. All the menu items are written in chalk. I use just a regular chalkboard eraser brush to wipe off the menu items as they change and since the chalk marker needs a damp cloth to be erased, the days of the week don't get erased and stay there "permanently" (or until I decide to wipe the whole thing down).

I've had junk drawers but having a tool drawer is something new in my house. Yes, I know, we've been renovating for five years and we've been walking back and forth to the garage every time we need a screwdriver. And that's just crazy. These are the tools we use all the time. Hardly a day goes by that we're not reaching in this drawer for something. The paint whisk is my favourite. I use it instead of a paint stir stick.

These are all just simple little things but they add up and make my life feel less like the chaos that it is. Do you have any favourite small organizing tricks?