How to organise your jewellery

How do you store your jewellery?

I thought I had the perfect system. I took all of my gorgeous jewellery boxes and had them placed prettily on a turntable in my wardrobe, so I could turn the display around and select my jewellery without having to reach into the back of my wardrobe:

It looked great! But I couldn't maintain it easily. Every time I wanted to take out a piece of jewellery, the lovely tidy display became more like this:

Most often, I didn't have time (or couldn't be bothered) to tidy it up again immediately, so it looked like that pretty much all the time.

 I needed a new idea.

I took a trip to Howards Storage World, armed with a gift voucher I got for my birthday (thank you Husband!), and scoped out their jewellery storage ideas. This was my favourite: The Stackable Jewellery organiser You buy each tray separately and customise it to suit your jewellery collection. Here are the trays I picked and how I sorted my jewellery into them:

And here is the finished project: All stacked together neatly! Simple, beautiful and functional.

I made sure to keep the rest of the shelf clutter free, so now when I need to open the stacker, I have enough room to place the trays next to each other and take out what I need for the day.

 What do you think? You can buy the jewellery stacker in store at Howards, or online here. Prices for the range start at around $9 for the lid, and from memory went to around $35 for the larger trays.

You can also find a version of the stacker at Aldi sometimes - it's a bit cheaper because you buy it all in one go. Just be careful, because you can't customise it, so you need to make sure you won't be wasting space by not using some of the trays (that's why I went with Howards.. that and my gift card).

I have a few other jewellery storage ideas on Pinterest if you need more inspiration. This weekend, I dare you to organise your jewellery too, or, if you already have, post a comment below and tell me how you organise your collection :)

Credits:

• This post is not sponsored, and all products were bought with my own money (and my birthday gift card). But if Howards ever offers, yep - I'd work with them in a second because I LOVE that shop :)

4 Quick Planning Tips for Easy Travel

I love to travel... as long as it's organised :)

What I mean is, I like to plan ahead a little when I go away so I can avoid those little headaches that people generally mention when they come home from their trip.

You know the ones: "Our flight got delayed / we couldn't find a taxi / my wallet went missing..."

I know sometimes you can't avoid these things, but I do have a couple of tricks up my sleeve ready just in case they happen to me. So why not share them with you and make your travel nice and easy too :)

Here are my 4 Quick Planning Tips for Easy Travel:

Book a driver before you depart rather than look for a taxi for when you arrive: 

A driver doesn't actually cost much more than a taxi and you can get all of these extra benefits:

• You'll know when you book how much it will cost
• Your driver will know the correct route to your destination (and won't ask you!)
• Your driver will meet you in the airport terminal (with a cool name card) so you don't have to wander around the airport trying to find your ride
• It's safer when travelling alone as you can let someone know back home who is picking you up at the airport

Keep your travel documents in one place as you receive them: 

You can staple all of your papers together, or put them in a binder, or - my personal favourite - pop them into a travel wallet. If all of your travel documents (airline tickets, hotel booking confirmation, itinerary, etc) are in one place you can just grab them and go when you leave for your trip. Handy Hint: Put your documents in the order you will use them while travelling to save you searching through them all on the spot when you need one.

Have a back up for money while you are away: 

The last time I travelled, my credit card snapped in two on the morning of my trip. I had no time to get a replacement! Luckily I had an eftpos card and mobile banking on my iPhone so I could transfer my savings on the go whenever I needed money. It also helps to have an overdraft set up on one of your accounts if you'll be relying on credit anyway for your trip - but this can be dangerous budget wise, so if you can save some money before your trip, it's worth it. I was also able to pay people via PayPal while I was away - straight from my iPhone. It was extremely useful :)

Plan to enjoy your down time: 

Flight delayed? No problem if you have a book / ebook you have been waiting to read but haven't had time for. Or load up a movie on your ipad / iphone before you go. Bring chargers for your technology as battery will run out fast if you're using it for entertainment. I have a friend who saves catch up phone calls and emails for the airport and does it all on her phone (what did we ever do without them?!?)

Small tricks like these can really make a difference to your holiday - no more "It would have been perfect if not for...." stories, just great memories!

What are your tips for easy travel?





Credits:

Image: digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

My top 3 organising tips: Interview at Better Business Better Life

Better Business, Better Life (BBBL) is the place I go to for advice on how to run Beautifully Organised as a blog and a business. I've picked up so many great tips on blogging, social media, and being an entrepreneur. Most of my organising business is run online, so the things I have learnt through BBBL about working via the internet have been invaluable :)

I was so pleased to meet founder Caylie Price in person at the Digital Parents Conference in March, and was thrilled when Caylie asked me to do an interview with her about my Top 3 Organising Tips!

Caylie and I together at the Digital Parents Conference

Want to see the tips for yourself? Click here to visit Better Business, Better Life and watch the video :)

Let me know what you think!

Credits:

• Big Thanks to Caylie for the interview opportunity! We've become good friends after our weekend away and I look forward to catching up again in person in the future - in the meantime, I'll see you on Twitter :)

How to Organise Toys

How do you organise your kids' toys?

I like to have everything sorted so the kids can find each toy themselves when they want them, it's a great way of promoting independence - which frees me up a bit to do my own thing ;)

I also like storage solutions that make it easy for my 2 yr old Sophie to help put away her toys neatly.

Here are the storage solutions that work best in our house at the moment:

Sophie's bedroom - white bookcase with foldable coloured boxes  (both from Go Lo). 

So quick to throw the the toys into when packing up and they look so bright, cheery  and tidy!

Pencil cases used to store small toys - great for holding flash cards, dominos and paper dolls.

Using the same coloured box idea on the bookshelf in the playroom.

Small box shelves for toy dishes, little people, letter blocks etc.

We use coloured tile mats to define the play area and store toys around the mats.

That's how we do it at our house :)

Here are some other cute ideas I found on Pinterest that I'll be trying in the future!

Barbie Storage from Pinterest

Art Tray from the Just a Girl Blog

Lego Storage from I Heart Organizing - sorted into colours!

Check out my Pinterest Board on Toy Organising for more great ideas, including a beautiful solution for storing board games :)

For more Pinterest Love, check out Tina Gray's Piquing my Pinterest by clicking on the button below:

How To Organise Your Planner / Diary

Even though technology is so accessible, so handy and so simple to use these days, I know a lot of us still love the idea of using a paper based planner or diary.

One thing that frustrates me about them is how messy mine can look when my plans change and I have to cross out and rewrite my appointments and To Do's.

When I'm busy , I like to keep things simple and effective and these 2 tricks with post-its work wonders :)

Watch the video below to see my simple post it technique for planning:

Here are a few of my favourite planners if you're looking for one for yourself:

Erin Condren Customisable Life Planner

Adore Home Magazine Daily Planner

Kikki K Leather Time Planner

..and I'd love to know - how do YOU organise your planner?

              Credits: This post is not sponsored and contains 1 affiliate link.