Home Organization 101 : Purse Organization

OK, my purse aka handbag has been this way for a few months already, so when I saw Toni's challenge from A Bowl Full of Lemons, its a natural thing to do.

I actually bought those handbag organiser pouch in one of my trip. I usually ended up buying something I thought I needed 50,000ft in the air, in a12 hrs flight and this was what I needed that time.

Although I paid a hefty price esp. for something I didn't use cause it didn't work for me.

Tintamar HB organization

What I have instead is the system that Toni and many others have used, it simply works. This in a way was not an organizing challenge cause it is already this way :-) for the past few months. Here goes.

All cards in one place, got this early this year at Elle. This is the only one I bought to organize, the other pouches you see are free or something I already have.

Make-up cum hygiene pouch. By the way I love the Hand Maid smell I found at Sephora and the Clinique Chubby Stick, my kids called "Crayons".

IT warrior essentials, sorry a bit blurry. The battery bank has been a saviour in a few occasions. Pardon the Pic -not as clear. 

All in all, the butterfly pouch is for sunglasses and the blue one is my iPad mini.  I also have my iPhone that I throw in last minute before heading out the door.

How it looks like.....

Ready to go.......

If you see, the system works for me despite the size of bags I have. The handbag organizer I shown above didn't cut it as it assume I have the same size handbag. I am a petite lady so my handbags are also small in size, my preference actually. So when I decide to go for a short trip to the mall, I may not bring my IT warrior pouch, so I leave it behind esp. when I use my casual Celine Trio bag, or my latest small Coach, forgot the model, hafta look it up.

So, what do you have in your handbags ladies??

Spring Cleaning

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Although I live in Malaysia and everyday throughout the rest of the year are either sunny or rainy, we do spring cleaning nonetheless.

In fact spring cleaning for us could be anytime of the year, no change of season to mark the changes, but more often than not, I do mine in April. Old habit dies hard and the likes of Zara and Mango doesn't help as well with their Spring collection display replacing the winter wear.

So I did some spruce up in the storeroom where things can pile up really fast. Next up was my home office; where homework; office work and bills can take over the surface in a jiffy. That was tackled in one weekend. I did the wardrobe for myself and the kids and am soooo happy with what I learned. And few weeks afterwards the fact that it is still in the same condition showed that its a good sign; the system somewhat works.

I will have to put up some pictures but note to self take more before and after pictures ya....

The entryway catch all, now in matching polka dots boxes, 1 for mails, tissue and keys.

 

Home Organizing in Malaysia

Did I tell you that I have been trying to find home organizing blog in Malaysia or this region and couldn't find one.

All my favourites have been in the US, not even in Europe. Maybe its a movement there.

There are a lot of ideas already on these blogs and Pinterest, why then start a new one?

First, the things they use for organizing is not available here. The dollar store and also container store.
We do have the 100Yen, Daiso and Kaison and of course IKEA. At least we have these, although as I have moved to KK recently, while I have my IKEA visit, bulky items are for my eyes only...not until I move back to KL in a few years.

Second, there are unique things that are Malaysian and Asian things that needs to be organized a certain way. We for once don't have a garage and store room (if you have any) are rather small and under the stairs kind. We don't have a pantry and we don't have laundry area. Most people don't have a walk-in closet.

Enough reason yet? So the blog is born...

This is my findings at Kaison and Daiso, drooling at the boxes and containers...

This is Kaison and I always have a warm and fuzzy feeling going here. 

What you can find in Daiso...drool

Of labelling and tagging

I have this label maker.

If you follow organising blogs, Pinterest and also random organising sites (some of my fav. are listed in my blog list), you know that you will need a label maker. In Malaysia where I come from, the common one that I have come across are Brothers and DYMO brands. Mine is the latter and have been a saviour in more than one occasions.

I have this kind, the DYMO LetraTag and I love that it is a QWERTY keyboard and that you can find the label re-fill from anywhere from Giant to stationeries shop. Although I do feel that the label re-fill are kinda expensive.

These are the things that I have labelled. If you can see I have labelled everything from inside the fridge, the switches in our new house (it does get confusing at the very beginning), and to the items hanging in my store room.

Repurpose/Reusing boxes and knowing exactly whats in it. Since it is tax filing time, am sharing the box we use. I find it better this way instead of in a file, cause its rather handy to put the books and also sports receipt here first.

In the store.. my store is the under stairs kind.

In the home office drawers

On the home office table - love this, I have this small drawers forever BUT until I have them labelled, I  usually have to open all 4 drawers to find a pen....

In the fridge, I thought it wouldn't last, but 6 mths after, still there...

p/s: If you see I am also labelling all my blogpost for the same reason as well :-), to find it later.

The move

Ok here goes, I am finally taking the plunge. Welcome to the blog. I love organizing and would like to spreaaaadddd the love. I wasn't born this way but I have to admit it was something that was waiting to happen. Some people call it obsession some people call it OCD. While I don't believe I am the latter, I have a bit of those tendecies. But if you see some of the pic I post later in the series, you know I was not aiming for perfection; but I like it if certain things are done certain ways ;-), guilty as charged.

Kota Kinabalu city I now call home. I know, breathtaking isn't it, we are lucky and blessed....

I actually moved to a new city late last year and that has somewhat changed my outlook on how I see material things. I am NO longer attached to these things the moment I had boxed them (a gruesome experience that I don't wish for anyone and mind you we had movers ) and whisked away by the movers in a jiffy. We had to wait 10 days living out of suitcase - us the family of 6. When the container arrived I was happy cause there were things that we should have brought with us which was in the container.. OK I was NOT organised AT ALL at that time thus the suffering. I also didn't researched enough about moving 1000 km across the ocean and the do's and don'ts. I suffered. While I was happy when we moved into the empty house and the container arriving, I suffered. Let me share the extend of this suffering, we had to open a few boxes marked kitchen utensils in search for the kitchen knives and there were boxes i didn't open until 6 mths later. Thats how I know I needed to change. We will have to move in the next few years and I might research and share on "the move". I for once don't want to go through such an unorganised chaotic move.

And I have digress......which will happen a lot on this blog :-). You see the move change me, and spark something up there and change the way I am wired. You don't need the move to change but that is my story from chaotic to some structure, to finding the beauty of organising.....