Becoming An Organized Mom In A Slightly Manic Flurry

With the Holidays behind us, I have found myself moving through life in a manic frenzy all in the name of organization.  Truth be told I am a fairly organized mom but January brings out this unrestrained mania.  I am not certain if it is because it is too cold to play outside,  because I am looking to fill the void left by no longer having piles of Christmas gifts to create or perhaps that marathon of Hoarders that keeps replaying in my head.  Whatever it is, closets are being cleaned, garage sales are being prepped and the garbage men on our route are about to ask for a raise.

Yesterday I had to stop myself and laugh.  As I cleaned out the refrigerator (really ketchup from 2008?) I found myself washing the jars and coffee creamer containers and setting them out to dry on the counter.  I had come across a great idea for reusing these containers on Pinterest( my other obsession)

One thing led to another and suddenly all the containers needed a home and would be reused, I mean I did promise myself to make more of an effort at green parenting.

Now this goes against ALL that I have been trying to accomplish.  I am trying to get rid of clutter, I am trying to minimize.  Where the heck and I going to go with plastic and glass jars that are hardly big enough to hold the horseradish and mustard they came into the house with?  Sometimes I really am my worst enemy.    

Either way, as I soaked the bottles in soapy water to remove the labels, I thought I was on to something.  I saw my cabinets filled with containers all having matching chalkboard labels and I was giddy.

You see, I dream of matching bins and containers the way an alcoholic, dreams of a buy one get one free sale at the wine store.  Ok, actually, I dream about that sale as well.  Anyway, I have been slightly obsessed with these bins from the Container Store and REALLY want them in the playroom.

They are only $10 each but I need 8 and every time I think of them, my mind wanders to what else I could buy with $80.  Those new shoes I am lusting over (be still my heart),  a new light for the bedroom that is so dark I take things out of the closet and into the guestroom to make certain they match,  a new crappy vacuum to replace the crappy vacuum that died two weeks ago!! Yea, $80 on bins just doesn’t seem right.  I thought about wrapping diaper bags with paper or fabric but I am almost certain Bean will quickly destroy them and I am not convinced that project will be any cheaper than buying the bins,  especially when you factor in the bottles of wine that will be required to wrap 8 diaper boxes in fabric!

So back to the refrigerator, do I really think reusing these containers will turn my cabinets from 

this 

to this? 

No, but if my goldfish stay fresh longer (like they last long enough to go stale) maybe I am onto something.  More likely,  these containers will probably end up in a “free” box at a spring garage sale but for today I am giving myself an A+ in my efforts towards green parenting and my quest to be a more organized mom