organizing products

Roundup: Stylish Planners, Diaries and Agendas

Do you use a paper planner?  While I use a digital task manager to organize my master list of to-do's, I like to use a paper planner to jot down weekly business notes, and another as a health and wellness diary. There are so many beautiful ones out there that I kinda wish I could find uses for more of them. Below are my favorites:

Roundup: Chic Baskets

Like the trays I featured in my last post, baskets are another one of those products that are very versatile and multifunctional. Use them in all rooms in your home as stylish storage for a number of things that uncontained, would otherwise make a space look cluttered. Use them in the living room to hold magazines, newspapers, extra throws, and firewood. In the family room, use them to hide pet and kids toys. In the entry, use them for shoes, slippers, and things that need to go out the door. In the bathroom, baskets work great for holding extra toilet paper and towels (roll them for that luxurious hotel look). In the bedroom, use them to hold books and extra pillows. In the linen closet, use baskets to hold items that are difficult to fold neatly like wash cloths and fitted sheets.

Below are my finds of baskets which are not only practical, but also stylish enough to integrate into your decor:

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1- water hyacinth woven basket, 2- seagrass wicker basket, 3- navy basket, 4- brass basket, 5- white morrocan wedding basket, 6- black lace basket, 7- round belly basket, 8- grey wool basket, 9- blue striped basket, 10- patterned blue basket, 11- whitewash woven storage bin, 12- woven seagrass basket with leather

Roundup: Chic Trays

Trays are a personal favorite of mine because they are so multifunctional and versatile. They work well in just about every room in the house, for both styling and organizing purposes, including in the entryway, living room, office, bathroom and bedroom. You can use them to corral and display a number of small items such as: keys and sunglasses on your entry table, jewelry on your nightstand, beauty products on your bathroom counter, perfume on your vanity, candles and flowers on your coffee table, and office supplies on your desk. Things just tend to look so much neater and like a purposeful vignette when they're within the boundaries of a tray, than when they're spread out randomly.

Below is my roundup of some the most stylish trays out there:

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1- tangle lacquered tray, 2- silver lacquered tray, 3- acrylic leopard printed tray,  4- nude lacquered tray, 5- bone inlay tray, 6- oro de nero tray, 7- gold mirrored round tray, 8- mirrored tray, 9- acrylic zebra printed tray, 10- python tray, 11- orange tray, 12- clear acrylic tray

Stylish, Grown-up School Supplies

Though my school going years are behind me, during this time of year, when "back to school" starts popping up everywhere, I get in the mood to shop for fresh notebooks and new tools. Anyone else?? Below is my round-up of some of the most stylish "school supplies" for grown-ups: Stylish Office Supplies via Arianna Belle Blog

1 - single subject notebook, 2 - white pencils, 3- 17-month black and white striped agenda, 4- zippered gold pencil case, 5- gold scissors, 6- white binder, 7- black and white folder, 8- white calculator

Magazine Storage

You may have heard some organizing experts say that you should only keep the most current issue of each magazine and toss out the rest.  While I think this is a good idea to do with informational magazines that can quickly go out of date, with interior design, fashion, and lifestyle magazines, since issues from a few years ago can be just as inspiring as current ones, my thoughts are, it's okay to keep them as long as (1) you will revisit them and (2) you have the space to keep them organized and accessible so that when you do want to refer back to them, you can do so easily. Its nice to be able to grab a bunch of magazines whenever I need a good dose of creative inspiration.  Sure there's plenty of content and inspiration online, but sometimes you just need a break from all the digital. Some magazines also, like old issues of Whole Living, are great for when I want to unwind and relax.

I store my favorite magazines that I keep in their entirety (meaning I don't rip out pages from them), in these white magazine holders from the See Jane Work Office Depot line. This makes them accessible when I want to refer back to them.  In the past I had stored some away in a box and put them in a closet. Since they weren't accessible, I forgot I had them and they never saw the light of day. It was only until we moved that I rediscovered them.

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Having them organized like this, with the issues of the same magazine together, allows me to see what I have. I love that all lined up they create a neat streamlined look.

For magazines that have select pages I want to save, I tear those out, throw out the rest of the issue, and organize the pages into magazine binders.  The benefit of doing this is not only that it takes up less space, but it also makes what I save searchable.  Since the binder is categorized with tabs, it is easier to refer back to something when I go to look for it.

Of course organizing pages into a binder can be a little time consuming, so when I don't have the time to do it right away after pulling them out, I put the loose pages into these labeled boxes:

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They're easy to flip open and are the perfect size.  I limited myself to just two so that it would force me to get the clippings into the binders instead of just letting them pile up endlessly.

Do you collect magazines? How do you organize and store them? Do you have a system for making sure your collection doesn't get out of control?

Hope this inspired some ideas!

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This post is brought to you by Office Depot.  All content and opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting Arianna Belle Blog sponsors that allow me to create new content like this!

In My Office: A New Year Refresh

Most of you probably know and love See Jane Work- a favorite go-to place for stylish office supplies.  What you might not know, is that they recently added several new products to their collection for Office Depot.  As soon as I got a preview of the goodies, I knew I needed to add some of them to my workspace, and was excited when Office Depot offered to send over my picks, just in time for a little new year refresh.  Here's a look:

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 list pad, white pencil cup, colored pens, gold washi tape

white pencil cup that coordinates with my desk, to hold pens and highlighters, and a pretty lilac edged sticky pad for writing checklists, shopping lists, and to-do lists.

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turquoise binders, white tissue box cover

Matching turquoise binders for keeping various business papers neat and orderly. They fit nicely lined up in the cubes of my Expedit unit.

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Clear white dot project envelopes to easily carry fabric samples, etc. with me to meetings with my team.

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white staplerwhite tape dispensertan pencil cupgold scissorswhite scissorsgreek key tray, green striped notebook

A white stapler to replace my old one that wasn't working properly anymore. I paired it with the matching white tape dispenser to make a stylish little duo. The tan cup I already had, but is also from the line. Love that it's sturdy enough to hold my heavy gold tailor scissors.

Small updates that are helping create the setting for an organized and productive start to 2014. Are you freshening up your workspace for the new year?

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This post is brought to you by Office Depot.  All content and opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting Arianna Belle Blog sponsors that allow me to create new content like this!

Round-up: Stylish 2014 Planners, Diaries and Agendas

Do you use a paper planner?  While I use an electronic organizer to manage my daily to-do's (more on that later!), I like to use a paper planner to jot down workroom weekly notes for my biz, and another one as a health and wellness diary. If you haven't gotten your 2014 planner yet, check out my round-up below of the most stylish ones out there:

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1- Black Stripe Day Designer, 2- White Gold Metallic Leather Desk Diary, 3- Parisian Chic Weekly Planner, 4- Luggage Robinson Agenda, 5- Classic Kraft Planner, 6- Leopard Desktop momAgenda, 7- Blush Buffalo Diary, 8- Pink Postman's Lock Pocket Book, 9- Black Perfect Bound Planning Calendar, 10- Gold Mini Three-Ring Binder for use with -> 11- Weekly Planner Sheets, 12- Dove Grey 2014 Fashion Diary, 13- Peach Leather Diary, 14- Red 12M Planner Daily, 15- Silver Gunmetal Tab Jacket for use with -> 2014 Planning Diary

My Stylishly Organized Drawer

I recently gave one of my drawers a little makeover with a clear organizer and a roll of duct tape. I used the organizer, which I picked up from Ikea, to separate all my items. It has lots of little compartments that make it easy to designate a spot for each thing. When everything is in it's place, I can quickly find what I need.

As for the duct tape, I used it to create a stylish drawer liner.  3M has a great snake print tape from their new Expressions line that can be used in a lot of creative ways.  Kelly of Fabulous K recently used it to cover a photo frame and Megan of Honey We're Home used it to cover a mousepad and a tray.  To make my drawer liner, I simply measured the bottom of my drawer, cut a piece of poster board to size, covered it with strips of the duct tape and then fit it inside the drawer. Super easy. Looks great and as a bonus, it helps protect my drawer.  If anything spills, I can easily wipe it off. This is what I see when I open my drawer now:

What do you think? Not too shabby huh?

If you're thinking of using snake print tape for a little project of your own, use this coupon for $1 off.

This post was brought to you by Office Depot.  All thoughts, ideas, and opinions expressed here are my own. Thank you for supporting Arianna Belle sponsors!  

Washi Tape Calendar

Do like Jensie Jean of Take Two They're Small and use washi tape in different colors and patterns to beautifully mark multi-day events and projects in your planner. A nice alternative to using highlighters, doing this lets you see at a glance what you have coming up and when you'll be busiest. Great idea, wouldn't you agree?

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BTW, Russell + Hazel binders, like the ones you see above, are currently on sale on One Kings Lane through Saturday! They're beautiful and can be customized with their SmartDate system.

image credits: 1-russell + hazel, 2-pretty tape, 3- take 2 they're small

Muji Acrylic Storage

I love finding pieces that can be mixed and matched to accommodate various space and storage needs. My most recent finds are these Muji acrylic drawers and stands. The configuration below shows the 2 Drawer Acrylic Case with the Large Acrylic Stand on top of it, used for organizing makeup brushes, tools, and cosmetics.

For additional storage compartments I could swap out the 2 Drawer Case for the 3 or 5 Drawer Case...or maybe add the Small Acrylic Stand... or this case placed horizontally on top of the drawers... So many possible combos! 

image credit: top photograph by Emily Weiss

Beautifully Organized: Lists

I'm one who loves lists (and have a feeling many of you do as well!) so today I want to share with you my round-up of 10 stylish list pads. Whether it's a to-do list, shopping list, or simply a list of things to remember, it's nice to organize and mind dump everything onto paper, especially onto pretty paper like this:

1-the long list, 2- to-do adhesive notes, 3- 'get it done' notepad, 4- orange zig zag photo pad, 5- striped notepad, 6- oxford pad, 7- peacock pad, 8- happy notes, 9- recycled paper market list , 10-market shopping pad

Tell me, do you love lists? Do you have a favorite list pad for jotting them all down?

Jewelry Box as Office Supplies Organizer

I love when people think creatively and use things for something other than their intended purpose.  In an article for Traditional Home, Chris Plantan suggested using a jewelry box to organize small office items like paper clips, pushpins, pens, tape, notepads, etc.  Looks pretty enough to have out on a desktop for easy access. Great idea! -wouldn't you agree?

In case you're wondering, the box shown is the McKenna from Pottery Barn(unfortunately looks like they no longer offer it in pink).

image credits: 1-5 via this video, 6-photography by werner straube for traditional home

Martha Stewart for Staples

As soon as I heard about this from my friend Maggie, I got so excited (yes I'm an organizing geek!).  I went this weekend to Staples to check it out in person and I loved what I saw - beautiful boxes, binders, notebooks, desktop accessories, dividers, labels, files: