My personal news on organizing

Hi everyone,

Nothing much has happended KonMari-wise since the last post. And there is a reason for that. The whole idea of starting the KonMari project this spring was to be able to attend the KonMari seminar this fall.

Well, as far as I know, there will be no seminar this fall. This piece of information really took down my inspiration to go through our stuff again. Given that I have already done two rounds and am quite happy with the everyday functionality of our house. What's more, our family has been through so many colds and flus this spring that I haven't had the time and energy for my dear hobbies, like organizing.

This summer I won't be updating the blog very often. I will be busy from mid-June to the beginning of September so it might well be I'm back posting not earlier than in September. Hopefully KonMari will announce the dates and locations of the spring 2019 seminars sometime around there and I can get back to the process with new enthusiasm.

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Anyways, I have a few organizing projects that I have done in the meanwhile. Last week I sorted out and compiled all of the kids' puzzles. I had them nicely bagged after organizing them in Munich but then some of the kids decided it is great fun to empty out all the bags and make a mess. And so they have been since we still lived in Nokia, Finland. I haven't had the time and energy to look into them and the kids haven't done any puzzles in ages.

Last week I was sick and I didn't have energy to do much of anything but later in the week I managed to sit down on the floor by the puzzle drawer and I organized all of them! At the same time I taught my youngest one how to do puzzles and she got interested in that. Yay! And my oldest one started to compile her own puzzles the very day I got them organized. A total win-win!

A big thing for me was when I finally finished our pantry organization this spring. Here's the blog post on it.

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In my life a wind of change is blowing. After many years of not having any kind of administrative activities in my life I got invited to run for co-precidency for our church's women's society as well as to join the board of Christian education. I'm very excited!

As a student I used to be the chairperson of our church's student organization as well as of the ticket sales team of a huge youth gospel festival in Turku. After having my first kid I decided not to volunteer in anything unless I'm asked.

That has worked well as I have been able to concentrate on my family and understand my identity as the mother of my children and the wife of my husband, as well as my role in my other relationships. I was in the PTSA of our kindergarten while we lived in Germany but I didn't have time to really dive into it because we moved back to Finland.

However, I have a very strong drive to organize things that I see are not working - in communities or in indivuals' lives. I think that is one of my vocations. I'm really happy to be invited to use my gifts within the church! I see this also as a great opportunity to grow as a human being. I theoretically know that my way is not always the best way and I think I will now have a chance to learn it in practice.

Pantry

I organized my pantry a couple of months ago.

It is amazing! My friend Pauliina inspired me to do that. I saw their pantry when we were visiting them - it is so beautiful and organized I just wanted to look at it in admiration. Pauliina showed me what kind of containers she uses for the pantry. I knew immediately that those containers are just what I have been looking for!

I have been keeping an eye on reasonably prized but quality pantry containers for many years - ever since we lived in Germany. It seems to me that it is really hard to find a brand that would fulfill both of the criteria. Having used our newly organized pantry now for some time, I think I hit the jackpot. The brand is Oxo Pop (This is not a paid add in any way!). I'm well pleased with how the pantry looks like and how easy the containers are to use.

The cost of the whole project was about 300 dollars, maybe less. The most work was to figure out which items need which size of container. Also washing and drying all the containers once they arrived was a lot of work because we don't have a drying cupboard in our house. I could only was a few containers at a time and then let them air dry. I tried wiping them dry and I wasn't pleased because the paper or fabric towel both left visible dust on the containers.

Here are some pictures for you. The first one is what I started with and the second one is the end result.

My categories for organizing these items are from top to bottom, left to right:

• Baking needs and side dishes that need cooking
• Baking needs, breakfast and side dishes that need cooking
• Breakfast and snack items, breakfast and side dishes that need cooking, miscellaneous
• Canned food, pantry items I'm not going to replace once they are finished
• Unopened bags of ingredients stored in containers (and chips, because they fit there)

The benefits of an organized pantry are numerous. I don't have to worry about bugs invading my opened bags of ingredients and no items are hidden behind or under another. Not having to deal with opening and closing paper bags and sprinkling flour all over makes baking a breeze. It is also so much easier to notice when I'm running out of something - a quick glance before grocery shopping will do the trick. Last but not least: organized pantry is very pleasing to my eye!