Let's Talk Organization!

I don't know about you, but as the regular school year and our studio year winds down for the summer, organization tends to be more like disorganization!  You know what I mean!  Lots of areas of our studios tend to get a bit messy.  Let's face it.  We have our own form of Spring fever and tend to get a bit lazy and too busy to keep up with things.

I've previously posted about game organization and big changes I had made.  I can honestly tell you that after two years, it still remains a great system and stays very organized.  I can always find what I need quickly.  Obviously the key is putting things back, but with the zippered pouches I've been using it's a breeze!

You can read the post I did and see more details by clicking HERE.  There's even a quick video.

Since that system has worked so well for me I decided to try to come up with a system for my music lending library.    I had been using a large cupboard that was very deep and had doors on the front.  It can hold ALOT of music.  The problem was I would "shove" everything in there and close the doors to hide the mess and would rarely take the time to put everything back in it's place.
If I couldn't see it, it wasn't really there, right?

Since it was also so deep, I would put things in front of the music and pretty soon I couldn't get to any of it!  So every summer I would clean it out and try to work on my "behavior".  Well, I guess I'm too old to change because that "behavior" remained the same!  It really was the system I was using that wasn't working so I knew I had to do something different.

So I marched myself down to IKEA and bought some more Kallax units, put them on end and organized all the music by levels...AGAIN!

This time however, I purchased plastic magazine files to sort them.  I looked everywhere for wider ones and found the cheapest option at Webstaurant Store.  HERE is a direct link.  I added some labels to the front and have found these are PERFECT for keeping me organized!

The Kallax units are open in the back so these boxes also keep music from slipping back or falling behind the unit.  Two of the magazine files fit perfectly on each shelf.

Here's a closer look at the magazine file.  LOVE these.  They are well-made, sturdy and hold loads of music in each one.  Since they're plastic, the labels are also easy to remove should I need to re-organize later on.

I made these changes last summer and I'm happy to say the music library stayed organized ALL year.  Occasionally I had a little pile to put away at the end of a week, but this set-up made it easy to take care of it quickly.

Here's a quick look at the entire wall.  I have two Kallax units (4x2 cubes) standing up and two Kallax units (2x2 cubes) below the windows.  I use the magazine file boxes for the two units on the left for my student library and then use the other two units on the right to store resource books.  I was even able to fit a file cabinet (also IKEA) between them.

I really love this system.  It also gives me a flat service between them to use as needed.  Now that part can get a little messy sometimes, but I'm working on that!

What about you?  Any good organizational tips you can share as well?