Quick Tips: How to Style a Bookshelf

Organising and decorating your bookshelf (minimal, elegant, beautiful)

Sorry for being away so long. I haven't been taking this blog seriously and treating it more as a photo dump during the school year. As you can see, I revamped my blog slightly with a theme adjustment. I am also learning how to use Photoshop, so I can hopefully put out better content. I plan on putting more work into this blog in the future so please keep reading.

Makeup organization inspiration

Here's a quick collage on what's on my mind. So busy with exams right now but will still post quick updates like this!
Beautiful, simple, artistic ways to arrange and organize your makeup collection

Matted fur solution

How to fix a matted fur hood on your coat

The fur on my coat hood gets matted all the time. For some reason, I never figured out how to fix this. I finally did a quick search and found that brushing the fur out really helps solve the issue since matted fur is just fur stuck together.

Buy a wire brush here: PLAY X STORE Professional Slicker Brush for Dogs & Cats Self-Cleaning for Long and Short Hair Pets

In the process of a major room makeover

I will keep you guys updated. I will follow this 6 step process:

I PURGE
recycle, trash, donate, sell, gift

II CLEAN
vacuum, mop, dust, windex
I want bare floors and clear shelves

III SORT
gather like items

IV PLAN
draft a room map and plan new furniture

V IMPLEMENT
implement your plan

VI MAINTAIN
keep that room clean!

Tried on clothes bin

I don't do this anymore but I used to try on a lot of clothes in the morning and run out the door leaving piles of clothes all over my room. I never had the time in the morning to put away my clothes and I was too lazy to clean up my mess when I got home. Then I started throwing my clothes on a chair to clean it up a bit. After that I started to throw the clothes in my laundry bin but that got kind of gross because I'd be mixing clean and dirty clothes.

The best solution I have for this would be to have a pair of laundry bins in your room. One would be for dirty laundry and the other would be for clothes that you tried on but are still clean. At the end of the week or whenever you have time, you can just take those clothes and put them away. This will keep your room looking much more tidy than before.

Emergency desk system

I would love if my table were clutter free all the time but it's just not practical. I always seem to have stationary or beauty products strewn across my desk at any time. To help my desk look cleaner, I've come up with a system for my stuff so everything has a "home".

I keep a small metal pencil case/tin for my stationary so I can just throw everything in there when cleaning. I have a spot where I stack all my notebooks in the top left corner of my desk. All my beauty products sort of congregate to the bottom left corner of my desk (I will get a bin later on or something) and my laptop stays in the middle of my desk.

Although this system is pretty scattered and can be messy, it's an easy way for me to get my desk in order if I need to do an emergency quick clean.

Posted up to-do lists

I've always been a big fan of the idea of to-do lists but they never seemed to work for me. I never seemed to finish anything important on the list and I was always too lazy to get my list to check things off (or even to read it).

One easy solution would be to put your to-do list on a sticky note and stick it to your computer (or on the thing that you use the most). That way the list will always be in your face. Personally, I thumb-tacked my to-do list on the wall in front of my desk. Now, I can always see what I have to do without even lifting my head. I'm surprised that I've never thought of this earlier since it's such an obvious solution.

Preparing things the night before

This might seem like an obvious organization tip. I somehow stopped doing this this year and I really noticed the effects. I was always scrambling in the morning and I often forgot stuff to bring. I recommend just spending 10 minutes every night prepping your bag and your clothes (even food) for the next day so you can just grab and go.

Sticky notes in agendas

Personally, I have way too many post it notes lying around the house that I never use. Using them in your agenda is a great way to use up any sticky notes lying around as well as maximizing the amount of things you can write in your agenda.

I used to write lists in the section for each day but now they don't fit in my new agenda. I'm also putting due dates and events in each day which seems to take up the whole box (my agenda this year is smaller). Now, I just grab a sticky note and write a small list for the day or week and stick it on the decorative section of my agenda (the whole week is only on one page with the other side being a pattern).

Sticky notes for organisation and to do lists for your planner

I know this is more of a school organization post rather than a home organization/cleaning post. I'm running out of ideas of things to write! If any of you are reading this, I'd be great if you could comment on what kinds of posts you would like to see or if like school/work organization posts.

Keep those pretty boxes

Hello, just wanted to give you guys a budget friendly tip for easy organization: keep your old containers! These are great drawer organizers and can look really pretty depending on the box. I love this clear one shown below from the Apple earpods; so minimalistic!

Organisation with old boxes and containers

Uses for two-sided used paper

I have tons of paper left over from my classes last semester consisting of lecture slides and course outlines. I have at least a binder full of this paper which I think would be really wasteful to throw out. I was able to pick out some papers that were blank on one side that I could use as scrap paper, but the majority of my paper had text fully covering both sides of the sheet. I tried looking online for things to do with used paper but could only find uses for scrap paper (one blank side) or garbage crafts for used paper.

Here's a list of things that I've compiled for my uses of this paper:

1. Table/floor covering for messy activities (painting nails, dyeing hair, art)

This would be a great in the place of a new paper towel when painting your nails or when you are short newspapers to line your floor.

2. Makeup

This could  be a substitute for the index cards that you use to do eyeliner or to apply mess free mascara

3. Travel/fragiles

I move a lot of items to and from my school city and my hometown. These papers are great to wrap fragile items such as dishware or decorative ceramics.

4. Origami

This might be considered a useless craft but sometimes I like the calming effect of folding paper.

5. Bookmarks

Quick alternative when you don't have one on hand.


Note: I tried to use these papers to clean (people suggest newspapers work for windows) but that did not work at all for me and it got really messy. The papers retain water to a certain extent but mostly fall into shreds when soaked. 


Plastic bag storage

I wanted to share with you guys how I like to store my plastic bags. When I have way too many bags, I like to fold the bags into little compact triangles like this. Obviously this isn't practical when I need to find bags of specific size, so I only fold bags that I have no room for.

To make your own little compact triangle, simply flatten your plastic bag and fold it into a ruler shape (going lengthwise). Then fold triangles up from the bottom towards the bag handles at the top. Once you get near the top, tuck the bag handles into the slit made while folding triangles.

Plastic bag storage and folding oragami

Loose paper

Sorry for the long break. I recently just got back from vacation.

I've always had a problem with loose papers that I get from school. I'm usually too lazy to immediately hole punch them and file them away. That's how I usually end up with tons of loose papers cluttering my desk.

I have been wanting to purchase a paper tray for the longest time but could never seem to find one in stores. At last, I found this paper tray for 99 cent at the thrift store. The best thing about this tray is that it is stackable ( I bought 2 trays). I also like how these trays are black and blend aren't too eye-catching.
Paper file trays

Paper file trays