Day #8 ~ Getting Organized Challenge (The Coat Closet)

Day 8.... I'm getting caught up with the Getting Organized Challenge hosted by A Bowl Full of Lemons. I'm late joining up which you can read more about here.

My mom came over to help me paint the laundry room which meant I needed to empty everything out of the laundry room and its closet. We had been using that one for our coats and shoes while the regular coat closet was being painted. Make sense? :)
Painting the laundry room turned out to be a good thing because I like having our coats/everyday shoes/outdoor gear closer to the front door.
Before the coat closet looked like this:

To get to the "after", we painted the closet, bought new sturdier, matching hangers (on clearance with an extra 20% off coupon), and bought the shoe shelf. Now it looks like this:

I had 4 matching, canvas bins in my stash that didn't find a home yet. I made labels for each family member and now they have a home and hold each person's scarves, mittens, hats, etc. We can each keep 2 pairs of shoes in here, and the kids backpacks fit too.

See more great organizing ideas or join the challenge yourself!

Day #7 ~ Getting Organized Challenge (The Pantry)

I'm really liking the Getting Organized Challenge hosted by A Bowl Full of Lemons. I'm late joining up which you can read more about here. I haven't been able to do the challenge every day because some of our spaces just aren't ready for organizing with all our home renovations.

I did finally get all our food put away so I'm jumping in for Day 7 which is to organize the pantry.
This house doesn't have a pantry closet or even a tall cupboard. Our regular cabinets are original to the house and only a few have adjustable shelves so getting modern-day food to fit was a challenge. So most of our boxed food sat in boxes for 1 1/2 months. (See the bottom left corner of this pic:)

Down the road, we'd like to redo the whole kitchen but in the meantime, we found cabinets for an empty wall at our local Habitat Re-Store. So the new cabinets became our pantry of sorts.

 

The first cabinet is for our "breakfast" foods. Fruit cups, cereal, toaster pastries, fig newtons, and instant oatmeal.

The 2nd cabinet has our snacks and boxed baking mixes. I was a little short on Tupperware but in looking to get some more online, I found out that Tupperware was having a huge sale on their modular mates. As soon as my order arrived, I washed 'em, filled 'em, and of course, labeled 'em.

Cabinet 3 has my cookbooks and some taller spices and baking needs. 

Over by the stove, I have 2 cabinets. This one has almost all baking supplies.

 And this one has ingredients to make dinner. :)

I think the Modular Mates are ideal for pantry storage because they stack so well and keep everything fresh!

See more great organizing ideas or join the challenge yourself!

Day #5 ~ Getting Organized Challenge (Under the Kitchen Sink)

It's time for Day 5 of the Getting Organized Challenge hosted by A Bowl Full of Lemons. I'm late joining up which you can read more about here. Day 5 is to organize under the kitchen sink. No before pics so just imagine a totally full cupboard with glass jars, assorted half used cleaning supplies, and other gross things left under there by the previous owner. It was 1 of 2 cabinets not cleaned out... fortunately, everything else was emptied by the owner's family. Along with the yucky stuff, the previous owner also left very corroded, leaky plumbing. A friend came one day and ran all new plumbing (new supply lines, new drain, new dishwasher hose, and new faucet) and hooked up my dishwasher. So after cleaning it all out, scrubbing it with multiple cleaners and sanitizers, replumbing, and adding paper, it looks like this:

My cute little tin from Ikea to hold dishwasher tabs.

A small tub, which I think I'd like to replace with something that has taller sides, holds our wrap and baggies, plus the Jet Dry and stove-top cleaner. My dishwasher tab bucket and dish soap sit on the other side.

See more great organizing ideas or join the challenge yourself!

Day #4 ~ Getting Organized Challenge (The Linen Closet)

Now I'm up to Day 4 of the Getting Organized Challenge hosted by A Bowl Full of Lemons. I'm late joining up which you can read more about here.

Day 4 is all about getting the Linen Closet organized. Well.... in the course of bathroom renovations, we ripped out the linen closet. We kind of ripped out, um, everything. Generally, the bathroom looked like this:

So after a lot of work, we now have a ceiling, walls, tub, vanity, lights, and a tiny little space for a closet. Except that the light switches would interfere with a full, built-in closet.
Ikea to the rescue! We purchased the Pax wardrobe and got it installed this past weekend. We also scored an additional shelf in their 'as is' room. It was only $0.49!!!

The 'after' looks something like this:

The door is currently off for painting which is why we have that gorgeous sheet hanging and hinge parts on the vanity. :)

I wiped it down and put in shelf paper. So the top half of the new "closet" looks like this:

The bottom half:

*The top shelf holds extra bath towels.
*Shelf #2 holds 6 drawers, which pull out for easy access. In those drawers, we keep (1) extra shaving supplies and deodorant; (2) toothpaste, toothbrushes, floss, mouthwash; (3) extra make-up, lotion, and travel size items; (4) first aid supplies; (5) pain meds; and (6) cold meds. All labeled with my handy-dandy Dymo.

*The next shelf has a clear bin with washcloths and houses our hand towels. (No bins on this shelf because of the door hinges.)

*The shelf under the hand towels has 2 more drawer bins. One has nail polish, polish remover, and nail tools. The other has medicine for the kids. Complete with boring but useful Dymo labels. 

*The next shelf (our as-is bargain!) holds bath rugs and throw rugs that I use in the kitchen and laundry rooms.

*The very bottom holds another white bin from Walmart with all of our larger, extra items like shampoos, body wash, shave gel as well as sunscreen and bug spray. I think I need to make a super cute tag for this basket at some point!

It's not huge but we fit a whole lot in that cabinet. Things that didn't fit are sheet sets (stored in each bedroom's closet) and beach towels (now housed in the laundry room.) I have one other storage tub with extra linens that we don't use on a regular basis in our basement storage closet. Lovin' the new storage!!

See more great organizing ideas or join the challenge yourself!

Day #3 ~ Getting Organized Challenge (The Messy Tupperware Cabinets)

So, I'm totally late to the Getting Organized Challenge hosted by A Bowl Full of Lemons. We got moved in over Thanksgiving weekend but the house was so yucky that we didn't even live in the main level for several weeks while we were cleaning, painting, and renovating. Now that the project list is getting shorter, I'm ready to jump in to organizing our new space.

The great part about organizing in a new home is that it's... new. Things that didn't fit or ended up in less-than-ideal places in the last house have the potential to be more organized in this one. Moving out of a 3-level home into a ranch also has great possibilities for keeping things organized.
A possible downside is that I did have 'homes' for all our stuff in the last house so it takes a bit longer to rethink where things go in this one, and some of our containers don't fit the same way. But that just creates an opportunity for shopping... ahem... I mean creatively using what I already have on hand.

So on to the Day 3 of the challenge... the Messy Tupperware Cabinets. I don't really have a 'before' picture so just imagine an empty cabinet.
The kitchen got a major scrub down and then new paper in the drawers and on the shelves.
Here are the 'afters':

I got this white bin ages ago at Walmart. It fits perfectly in this low, deep cabinet and holds my Tupperware Flat-Out containers and other containers nested in each other.

To the side are some smaller pieces and less often used, larger ones are in the back. (Oops... I see a major wrinkle in my contact paper!)

 

In one of the drawers above the cabinet, I keep all of my non-Flat Out lids. Sorted by size.

There you have it... my not-messy-stuck-in-boxes Tupperware cabinet and drawer.

See more great organizing ideas or join the challenge yourself!

The 12 Pains of Renovation

 

With the moving and renovation process, the aches and pains have been numerous. So in honor of the season, here's my parody of that popular holiday favorite!

On the 12th day of home renovation, my new house gave to me:
12 random bruises
11 aching joints
10 ouchy hangnails
9 broken fingernails
8 sore toes
7 split fingers
6 displaced vertebrae
5 knotted back muscles
4 migraine headaches
3 throbbing limbs
2 wrists with carpal tunnel and
1 shoulder with bursitis!

Fortunately, the hard stuff seems to be getting finished (although the to-do list is still long), and a friend lent me an assortment of wrist braces. Christmas is coming so we'll take a short break. Pass the Advil and eggnog!

This Old House

The day has finally come that we're leaving our little home and moving to a new one. It's a somewhat bittersweet experience. We're excited for a new place (with more space, a bigger yard, and an extra 1/2 bath) and yet leaving this home is hard because of all the memories we made here.

We bought this house 1 1/2 months before we got married. After my dad helped Bass fix the tub and shower, he moved in until our wedding. After we got back from our honeymoon, I moved in (and brought the furniture!) :)
This is the house where Tenor and Soprano came home to as newborns, where they learned to crawl, walk, talk, read, and ride their bikes. It's the house where they each accepted the Lord. It's where we've prayed, memorized Scripture, had pizza party movie nights, played games, made messes with Play-doh and paint, and spent hours having fun or driving each other crazy. We've worked on this house from day 1 and put blood (don't worry--Bass got a tetanus booster after the sidewalk incident), sweat, and tears into making it not just a great house but our home.

After 10 years, we had finally gotten most of the house decorated and set-up the way we like it so I will miss:
*the gorgeous deep red color of our dining room (Behr Cinnamon Cherry---yummy!)
*central air
*my newish stove (my Christmas present in 2009)
*our redone kitchen
*the family room
*the pantry space
*that I know exactly where all our Christmas decorations go
*the hardwood floors upstairs
*central air
*my dishwasher (*sniff, sniff*) :'(
*the tilt-in windows
*the hydrangea bushes
*all my daffodils
*the big covered patio
and
*central air (Nope, not a fan of summer humidity. Sorry!)

With all of the memories and improvements we've made, it's hard to imagine leaving but we're ready and excited to make our new house another home filled with wonderful memories.
And there's quite a few things that I won't miss like:
*the bathroom vanity door that we could never get to close properly after I broke it when I fainted during a terrible bout with the flu
*only having on-street parking
*being attached to our neighbor
*the itty-bitty backyard
*only having 1 bathroom
*the 1 kitchen cabinet that doesn't match the rest because we got it as a great deal from the Re-Store and it was 'close enough'
*lugging laundry up or down 2 flights of stairs
*lugging the heavy vacuum up or down 2 flights of stairs
*only having 1 bathroom
*the spot on the bathroom sink that I just can't get clean
*the allergy-inducing, mega-leaf and twig dropping, sycamore tree
*the green monster (aka the living room carpet)
*only having 1 bathroom
*the 4 drafty windows that we hadn't gotten around to replacing
and
*only having 1 bathroom :)

We've got quite the to-do list for the new house! I'm looking forward to:
*redoing the bathrooms
*using the fireplaces
*painting with some new colors and trying new decorating ideas with our current stuff
*organizing the garage
and
*doing some landscaping


It's going to be fun (or at least an adventure!)