Thanks to Tervis for sponsoring my writing. Visit their website to learn more about the world’s first smart cup.

If you were to peek inside our cupboards right now, you’d think the most anal organized people ever lived here. And they do! (But there is a bunch of stuff in boxes at my parents’ house.)

I’ve told you about how we’re moving, right? And how we’ve done a ton of work around our house in preparation?

One of the big things we’ve done is get rid of stuff. Not that we belonged on an episode of Hoarders or anything; we do a fairly good job of getting rid of superfluous crap every few years, mostly recently right before Connor was born. But after this most recent spree I’ve found the formula for a clutter-free life: baskets (or containers) + trash bags = HALLELUJAH.

We already had some sweet systems in place, but by getting rid of the extra stuff we had hanging around, it really feels like we have more space. We don’t, really. We just have less clutter.

We’ve done a few things over the last few years to beat back the insanity that is a normal family’s house.

A year or so ago my husband tackled the kitchen. Our pantry basically consists of two cupboards in our island, and we had a tendency to just chuck stuff in there. (Please tell me we’re not the only ones.) So he went through and purged all the unidentifiable bulk-aisle bags, the boxes of crackers with only crumbs inside, and about 243 escaped raisins. He sorted, put everything in its own container and labelled them all. And see? Totally anal organized!

Then you have the hall closet. It’s been more or less like this for a while, but we got rid of a few extra coats and did the whole thing up in spanky wooden hangers and voilà!

I told you – baskets = brilliant.

Want to see the drawer formerly known as “junk?”

Little baskets! That clip on to each other! I feel more sane just looking at this. (And this, incidentally, was my system. My husband made it better by ditching some stuff… Hey! Where’s my iPod…?)

And last, but certainly not least, I give you this:

Why yes, I did just show you a picture of the cupboard in my bathroom. With baskets, thankyouverymuch. Everything I need in the morning is in that basket in the front, which means it’s not cluttering up my bathroom counter.

Baskets, I tell you. It’s as simple as that.

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I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective. To learn more about Tervis, visit their website: http://www.tervis.com.