Spring Cleaning in January

*Disclaimer: If you already think my house is "very organized", it may be in your best interest to skip this post. (That pertains to you Mare!)

Maybe the fact that I'm always at home. Maybe it's all the time I spend on home design blogs, drooling over all of the beautifully staged and photographed insides of cupboards and tops of dressers and things. Maybe it's that time of year again and I just want to clean out and start fresh, or maybe it's the thought of staring down the barrel of a long stretch of remodeling projects and chaos and construction and wanting to regain a little control in my home. ...Actually, it's probably a little bit of all of these things.
Basically, I've got the cleaning and organing bug... bad. Lately I have been perusing Martha's 25 Organizing Tips, or the Container Store catalog (OK, so I do this anyways), or creating multiple shopping lists of drawer organizers, bins, boxes, and all manner of organizers from IKEA. And this is how I spend my free time. I dream and day dream about "decorganizing" and the day when I can sip my afternoon tea and know that the inside each closet is full of only things that we need and use and that said things are stored and labeled appropriately. I have everything I need on hand always and I always know where to find it. I don't own anything I don't "know to be useful or believe to be beautiful".
I imagine that I am looking for something terribly important. I open the closet, admire the beauty and simplicity of my organizational handiwork, and then as a spotlight shines down from heaven on the label of the container I am looking for, I sweep it down off the shelf and find the treasure I need. I feel kind of like this quote from Liz Lemon on 30 Rock. (via apartment therapy)

I went to the new flagship Compartment Store on Fifth Avenue and bought everything I need to get my life in order.

There was a stacker thing to separate your junk mail from your humidifier catalogs, a thing you stick on your laptop that holds your keys, a round plastic deal that holds your shoes with a pocket for a photograph of what shoes are in there.

I'm going to become wonderful. It's a new beginning, like a Phoenix rising...

At this point, a bike messenger knocks her over, and the delusion of her decorganizing fantasy dawns on her, as she says, "...or maybe this is gonna be the worst day ever."

(I really wanted to find the clip for this, but can't... blast you NBC!)
Lately what happens is more like the episode of Friends with Monica's secret closet. The closet is full to the brim of all manner of junk and clutter not in use and stuffed in a hidden closet to hide her secret chaos in an otherwise perfectly beautiful and organized apartment. (Again, no clip.)
So until I can go buck wild in the "Compartment Store", here are some of my favorite organizing ideas, links, pics, etc.

I'm dying to organize our photos like this:

via realsimple

How to organize room by room via apartment therapy

A beautiful laundry room from domino (sniff)


I just decided that for all of our benefits, I am going to go room by room in my own home and organize each room and then post links and tips that helped me get there. It will give me a good excuse to actually get organized instead of just talking about it, and you get to check out all of my favorite tips and ideas and then get to see them put into practice. Sound good?