Great Garage Clean-Out Challenge

Back in February, I participated in the 29 Day Organizational Challenge (put on by Org Junkie) and organized my Craft Room. It really kept me honest in organizing my craft room and I ended up with a craft room I am very proud of! So when Laura at Org Junkie just announced she is hosting the Great Garage Clean Out Challenge I knew I would be participating!

 So here are the before pictures of my garage. It doesn't look sooooooooo bad in the pictures, but I did try and clean it up a bit last weekend....

Right now we can only park one car in the garage and my husband would like to be able to park his in as well!!!

The nice pile of "stuff" that is making it impossible to park two cars in the garage. Notice there are 2 tan colored chairs that I bought last summer to re-upholster for our living room - since we have no furniture in the room.... This also has a couple wooden chairs, a couple side tables, shoe rack and other random things...

H

We had a nice peg board on our wall, but it's not used as it should. We also for some reason have 2 huge garbage bins which take up so much room. So I need to figure out how to give one back to the city?

We have a ton of storage space on the back wall of the garage as you can see. But the entire right side is pretty much just thrown up there - at leas the bottom shelves. This area really needs to be organized!

We have a Christmas tree... which sat in this spot all winter (AKA we didn't use it for Christmas! On the right we have our over flowing recycle bin and our second garbage bin as well as lots of stuff!

Do you see the small table with the big red W on it?  Well... that table top used to be our beer pong table.... :) from our much younger days.... or before we had kids.... Recently we had little man's second birthday party and I wanted a table for all of the kids to sit at... so the beer pong table got legs, and now we have a kids table... funny how things change!!!! We were smart and the legs just screw off... but that doesn't mean it can't sit in the middle of the garage....

Look at all of those paint cans on the bottom shelf. And the lawn and garden supplies on the second to bottom shelf (99% from the last owners...) We also have ceiling storage that currently holds a toddler bed and a toddler sled!

Seriously so much paint!!!! And so many lawn supplies! All of those bins on the top 2 shelves are my garage sale bins full of things I want to sell at a garage sale this summer!!! (Remember we just moved into our house, so lots of things to purge!!!!)

Seriously these selves are so messy!!! And they really need to be organized.

I am so excited for this challenge because I need to organize my garage!!!  And this is just the motivation I need to do it!!! If you don't believe me check out my craft room transformation!

Side note: I very recently "fixed" our broken garage door. Basically it has not worked since we moved into our house in July (yes we both parked outside for most of the winter, luckily it was a mild winter!!!!) I did try to fix it before and had other people look at it, talked to a garage door repair guy, but I finally figure out the problem last week myself!!! There was a tiny little antenna next that needed to be pointing straight up. Once I moved the antenna it worked fine!!! So that allowed me to park my car in the garage!!!

Craft Room Reveal

My craft room is done! It's been de-cluttered, organized and made pretty!

Check it out! (This is a VERY long post, just look at the pictures if you don't want to read it all!!!)
My inspiration gallery wall. Everything on this wall has some sort of meaning in our lives so I think it's the perfect start to a gallery wall! There is a picture of us and our grandparents, a frame from our rehearsal dinner, Little Man's first painting and our first house as well as other great memories!
My VERY organized closet!

I really thought out how I would use this room and how it would best work for me and my crafting. It was important to me to have all of the tools I frequently use within my reach and for them to be EASY to put away, so I could CONTINUE to be neat and organized. It was also important for me to have a place for everything and have all of those places labeled and obvious as to what they are for. I also wanted to maximize my large work space by moving my Silhouette off of my desktop so that required moving around furniture.

My craft room somehow had become a place for things we did not know what to do with and didn't really ever look at, including photo albums, wedding pictures and books. So I needed to figure out a plan for all of these things.

My craft room also needed to hold my small amount of office supplies.

How I solved my issues...

The closet - is SO organized! I have 3 plastic drawer bins in there divided up and labeled, a large drawer of paint and bins and bins and BINS of labeled organized craft supplies!! Examples of my drawers / bins are: adhesives, canvas, office supplies, wooden things, iron ons, party supplies, Silhouette Vinyl, paper, and on and on. This closet is so organized! I used wooden skirt hangers to hang some of my favorite fabric to be more visible. Neatly behind the closet door I have my large frames / canvases stacked up and on the upper shelf I have way too much pillow stuffing. I also have fabric in a bin on the floor. When I accumulate more hangers I plan to hang more fabric! To maximize space I even hung an extra shelf under the bottom closet shelf to hold more fabric.

As I was trying to figure out where to put the last few craft supply items, I had blocks and embroidery hoops and I could not figure out where to put them.... it took me 3 seconds to realize I had already made a drawer and labeled it Wooden Items.... duh, so easy to organize things when you really have a place for EVERYTHING!!! And next time I want either of those things I know exactly where they are!!
My desk! I wanted to keep the table top as clear as possible! But I also wanted to keep the tools I frequently use within my reach. A few weeks back I was at a Scrapbook store that was closing and picked up this display shelf that I spray painted black. I added ribbon "hangers" to items that I could not hang, so I could put them on my display shelf. (Don't judge my scissors collection!!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE Fiskars Scissors :) )

I moved a black heavy duty decorative shelf from the basement to right above my desk so I could also help keep things off of the table top. The shelf is nice because it is sturdy so it can hold my pen carosole and pins, buttons, etc. It is also nice because it keeps my pins and other sharp items off the table top so its one more step my little man has to go through to get to things he should not. The shelf also allows me a space to store my sewing machine!

Then brought this IKEA shelf up from our basement (where it was pretty much empty) and moved the two book shelves that were in this spot. (One to the right of my desk, the other to Little Man's closet or Craigslist) This shelf allowed me to move my Silhouette Cameo off of my desk top. This shelf holds a few office supplies, manuals for my sewing machine and Silhouette, stencils, onesies, and a few other odds and ends - all labeled of course!

One issue I had when I started the challenge was how to deal with the non-craft things that needed to be in this room like my husband's diploma's (Because I still have not figured out a place for them? Where do other people hang theirs???) But after thinking about it I like them in the craft room. My hubby took a big leap going back to school after we were established in our lives so its a nice reminder that we really can do anything we put our minds too!!

For my larger stencils I used a Command Adhesive hook to hang behind the door! Once closed you don't even see these are there!

One of my most recent questions with organizing my craft room was ribbon storage. I found this box at Joann's (though I have seen similar boxes all over). I again got out my Command Adhesive strips (love these things!!) and attached the box directly to the wall. (Did you see how important it was for me to get things off of the desktop!!! AND have everything ACCESSIBLE!!!) It also makes a nice light weight shelf! I found these cute little turquoise "dishes" from Target and used my Silhouette to cut out vinyl labels. The awesome fabric is a pin board that I made from an old frame. The wide frame is also painted in chalk board paint!
I also made simple ribbon storage from baskets and floral wire!

I kept a few craft / photography books in my craft room! One of the other final things I had to figure out was how to store my small scraps of fabric. I had this black storage box that already had the dividers the perfect size for fabric scraps. They fit perfect. I cut small pieces of cardboard for those scraps I did not already have a card for. I decided this was also the perfect way to decide if I should keep the fabric scrap! If it is too small to fit into the fabric scrap bin it is not something I will be keeping. (We don't want a repeat of the craft hoarder, do we?)

I moved this shelf from the wall behind my desk to right to the right of my desk (within arms reach) to try and make things more accessible. And easier for me to see when I am crafting! I like the new layout much better than before! From the Target dollar aisle I found the small plastic divided bin for all of my small establishments. The black box holds fabric scraps!

Another HUGE HUGE HUGE problem I have is I start a project, and it fails, I get distracted, or I need to finish something else first... so I would have projects piled up on my table, taking away valuable crafting space and adding to my clutter problem. So I was 100% realistic and created 2 small "Current Projects" tins and one large "Current Project" tote. These are not places to throw crap but places to store projects I am working on. So in my two current project tins I have a St. Patrick's day shirt for little man and a project for his birthday. In my large plastic tote I have lots of supplies for his birthday party. To stop hoarding and procrastination, if a project has been in the "current project" bin for more than a month it needs to go!! It either needs to be finished, called a craft fail and trashed or "taken apart" and moved back into it's proper supply location! I am very happy I created these bins and know they will help to keep me organized, motivated and hopefully prevent me from doing too many projects at one time!!

Going back to keeping the supplies I need close, I moved all of my paper trimmers to the shelf below my desk, as well as my Silhouette mats and cutting mats and my printer paper! I moved these here in the middle of the month and it is SO helpful having them so close! I can use them and put them back right away!! I also used my Silhouette to cut out some vinyl labels for the items to directly label my desk!! I am loving the red on the black!!
For now this side holds my paper and my printer!! (I won a new printer so I am waiting to see how big it is!!) The red tote to the left of the desk is my large "Current Project" tote!!!!

I did not keep a tally of how much I spent, but A LOT of this I already had. All of the frames on the wall I re-purposed except for the red mirror which was $3 from Good Will. I did hit up Target for a lot of storage items, but several were from the Dollar Aisle (some were in the $2.50 part, but still) So I would estimate my total cost right around $100.

Can you believe what this room started like? It looks like I am one step away from being on hoarders!

Here is my progress over the 29 days!

The Start - the Challenge

Week One - what to do with all of those wedding pictures??

Week Two - I am a craft hoarder!

Week Three - we have carpet!

It's spreading!

It was a lot of work and time, but I really had too much stuff in that room and once I went through and took out three huge boxes for charity it really was a good starting off point!! Once that was done it took time of organizing the things that did not belong in the room and finding a new ORGANIZED home for it!

Ribbon Solution

As part of the 29 Day Organizational Challenge, I searched for a solution for my ribbon storage. This is what I came up with! The first thing I did was organize all of my ribbon. I taped all of the rolls shut so they would be a bit neater!

Such an easy storage idea for ribbon.

I used floral wire I found a while back at the dollar store. I wrapped it around one end of my basket, cut enough wire to reach across the entire basket and started loading ribbon on the wire! SO EASY and such an easy way to see all of my ribbon!

For the odds and ends ribbon that were no longer on a roll, I found this ribbon holder at Joann's and used Command Adhesive strips to attach it to the wall!

On an organizing roll...

Since we have only lived in our house for about 7 months I never really went through and ORGANIZED everything. Everything was decorated and put together, but closets were not really organized. A month ago I stumbled on the 29 Day Organizing Challenge were I decided to organize my craft room. In the process I have organized my entry closet, under my kitchen sink, my linen closet, Little Man's bathroom cabinet and have started on Little Man's closet (29 days is not a lot of time...)

My trusty label maker has been my friend through this whole process!! Thank you label maker! I could not have done half of my organizing with out you!

Linen Closet

I do not have a before on our linen closet, but it looks so much nicer! And I have SO much more space for more organization!!
I picked up the small clear plastic containers with green covers from Target for 85cents a piece. This closet is not very deep so they are the perfect size. I picked up 2 packs of 5!! On the upper level (out of little man's reach) I have our medicine cabinet and gifts.
The best part of organizing this closet is that I was able to clear out some of my "junk drawer" by putting them into containers in this half empty closet!

Look at how much more space I have for organizing!
I have too many spare sets of curtains!! One of these days I will post them on Craigslist (after I am sure I will not need them)!

The Entry Wall Closet

I can't believe how insanely messy this entry closet was! So much crap on the floor, random stuff on the shelf...

Random crap on the top shelf!
Way too many coats in the closet that have not been worn in years...
This is all of the stuff that was on the shelf and on the floor...... can you say HOARDERS!!!!!
I bought the extra shelf things a while back at Target which allowed me to put in a few baskets! The large basket still holds our hats, mittens and scarves.
I donated about 5 coats from the closet, which is not bad for 2 people!
Removed some shoes, organized the ones that stayed! I also moved our re-usable bags that were in the big white tote and put them on a hook by the door in the garage, so I REMEMBER to use them next time!!! So the white tote is now my donate, return, or catch-all bin!
Look a clean floor!
My donation bag! Which about 3 minutes after I took this picture, my hubby took the bag thinking it was a garbage bag and used it to remove some diapers from little man's room....
Organizing everything and under the kitchen sink

Here is the nice before of my kitchen sink... again a mess!

The after. The best think I did was to put up a hook on the door and use one of my fabulous Target Dollar Isle plastic tote for a kitchen laundry basket!
Thanks 29 Day Organizational Challenge for inspiring me to tackle other areas of the house!!