This weeks ‘What I’m Nesting’ post is pretty simple.  I have spent most of my free time the past week finishing up Shutterfly books with our family photos.

If I had to say there is one thing that I am proud of sticking to as a mom, it is photo and memory organization.  I am a huge believer in making sure that the ease of taking photos in todays age doesn’t actually turn out to be a negative when our children have no pictures to look back on.  As you add children and time starts to pass faster it’s harder to remember each little memory, so I have found if I stay on top of organizing the pictures in small time frames it works better.

As of now I do a Shutterfly book every 3 months (jan-march, april – june, and so on for each year).  Some years I have done one or two 6 month books because of less pictures, but especially while the kids have been under 1 year old every 3 months works better.

The first page of each book I write about major things that happened during that time period.  For example: baby milestones, trips, concerts, or birthdays.

I also do individual books for major life events like birthday parties, family photo sessions, newborn photos, and situations like that so that I get them ALL in print.

For us this has worked well as a way to keep our family memories from being stuck in a photo real on our phones, and I love that if heaven forbid something were to happen to our albums I could reorder all of those books and have them right back.

Other ways I organize memories and photos for our family:

Each of my kids have a baby book with monthly weights and all the other little milestones and photos.

I write in a notebook to the kiddos every 6 months (or so) with what life has looked like.  I figure someday they will love to get those letters from me!!

Last would be videos – which I have been trying to figure out.  I would love to know what you all have done to organize your videos of your kids or family. I think I will look for someone who can just compile all the videos I have taken over the past 4 years and do that every few years to put on DVD so they have home movies!

This is a really simple, but time consuming task to do, but it’s something I challenge all you other mamas to start – you will LOVE to look back on them.  Hopefully I’ll be back later this week with a couple of DIY and home decor posts.  I have been working non stop on our master bedroom and nursery – but the nursery won’t be revealed until baby bear is here!

XO ARIN

So,  I don’t know about any of you other mama’s that are reading this, but the ‘nesting’ is a real thing here at my house.  I am naturally a fairly clean/organized/busy person, but when I’m pregnant it is NEXT LEVEL. This time I feel like its a combination of “finishing” the house, because the baby is arriving just over a year after move in, as well as trying to get things organized in a way that the kids and Sam can maintain while I’m trapped under a nursing baby.

I decided that I would post a weekly snap shot into “What I’m Nesting” incase anyone else needs inexpensive quick ways to organize and clean up their home!

WHAT I’M NESTING – week 1

Pantry Overhaul

Moving into our new home gave us so much more space, and there have only been one or two spaces that I felt we ‘downgraded’.  The pantry was one of those unfortunate areas.  It is an average size, however has sliding doors, which for me aren’t ideal due to hiding half the pantry.  Due to the pantry’s location the only other doors possible are accordion style doors – and those make me so nervous with little fingers, so until I decide if a Butlers Pantry is for us, organization, and making the best of the space we have was really our only option.

I decided that if similar items were housed in bins together it would keep things a bit less cluttered and would allow for the kids to easily access snacks as well as Sam to put things away without my direction (Im a bit of a control freak- ha).

Something else I always do is keep the kids snacks on the bottom shelf where they are accessible to them, and out of boxes.  They can see all that’s offered and I don’t end up with empty boxes laying around.  (as a side note – I also do this because if we have sitters I can tell them that the bottom shelf of our pantry is “Jack safe”.  Jack has a serious egg allergy and although not everything in the house is egg free, everything for snacking within his reach is then safe for him to eat!)

The bins I used are both inexpensive, and great for use on wire shelving where wicker baskets would start to get shredded.

I labeled each bin using my Silhouette, however you could label it with a label maker or by buying chalk label stickers at your craft store.

I store my baking supplies in Oxo containers and again used my Silhouette to cut out labels.  This time I used some fun dry erase vinyl I had for the labels.  I love that I can easily change out what the label on these say.  I am always changing what I have on hand (like I’m on a serious homemade granola kick this pregnancy!)

I store my spices both on a 3 tier shelf (partially because getting them to stand on wire shelves was awful!) and to make it easier to see.  I also have a small 3 tier drawer for spices.  On the front of that I added the same dry erase vinyl to the front of those drawers in order to easily change what spices are in them instead of using the included labels (that are also a great option).

I use a Keurig drawer for our “odd” K-cups.  I store our daily K-cups in a glass vase next to the coffee pot, but love the drawer as a way to keep decaf, hot cocoa, and flavored options on hand and organized.

At the top of my pantry I keep a few things in rubbermaid containers that are also labeled, and I keep a large milk crate on the floor of my pantry for onions and potatoes.  There is also space on the floor for cases of water or things of that sort when needed.

Overall I have had our pantry organized for about a month while I’ve slowly added the labels and it has been amazing! For the first time I haven’t felt like my pantry was on a constant rotation of ‘newly cleaned’ to ‘needed cleaned again’.  I’m hoping this takes one frequent chore off my to-do list once our sweet baby arrives.

I would LOVE to hear your organization or “nesting” ideas for me to fill the next 12-15 weeks with.  Follow along and add your ideas in the comments or by using the hashtag #whatimnesting on Instagram!

XO ARIN