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!!

Week One 29 Day Organizational Challenge

I am very excited about the Org Junkie 29 Day Organizational Challenge where I am organizing my craft room. Technically this started out as an office, but we don't really need an office and I do need a craft room!

So it will still have to hold those things that would have gone into an office - which is not all that much but includes printer, office supplies, lots of books, and my husband's law diploma.

The printer and office supplies are not a big deal and work with a craft room. The books we will talk about later! The law school diploma works great in an office but maybe not so much in a craft room, but we really don't have any other place for it... unless we put it up in the basement family room part.... We could put it some place were everyone coming into our house would see, because I am so proud of my husband for going back to law school after being away from school so long! But he would never go for that! And it might seem a bit bragy to have it in your living room! So for now it will have to go in the craft room...

I started asking myself a few questions about how to organize the room. The first one was should I take things I don't know what to do with and move them to another spot, or should I really figure out what to do with them... meaning all of those photo albums including the wedding photos. What do I do with them?

I already bought the negatives from the photographer for our professional pictures, paid to have them scanned and made my own 12x12 photobook which I love. But I still have the large proof book and the 8x10 formal picture book in this room, and a photo album from our honeymoon, our shower, my bachlorette party, my graduation, and a few more...

I am thinking I will make photobooks for our honeymoon and maybe our rehearsal dinner / showers.... but we will see. I have already started a honeymoon photobook. (YEAH ME!!!) Photobooks take up a lot less space than big photo albums - as you can see in this picture!!

Question: Can I throw away the original proof book from my photographer, even though I have the negatives in a fire proof safe, I have the digital files backed up and I have the nice 12x12 photobook I created?? Opinions, pretty PLEASE!

My progress so far

I started a garage sale box...So far it mostly includes books. I cleared 2 book shelves of books we have not touched in 4 years... Ok we touched then.. They were packed and unpacked at least 2 times in those 4 years! I did keep some books I do eventually want to read and moved those into our guest bedroom, but I still need to figure out what I will do with the books I want to keep that don't work in the guest bedroom. But I did put more than half of my books in my garage sale pile (and I know books never sell at garages sales, so maybe I should just donate them now!!!)

I started a plastic tote for "Memories" that I will store in the basement. So far this includes scrapbooks I made in my teens.It also includes planners from the year I was married and the year I had my son. I can't get rid of these 2 planners. Sometimes I think I hold on to too many things, other times I don't think I keep enough things. I am not sure if keeping planners makes me a hoarder or a normal person :)


I have made progress on clearing the floor of clutter by moving some of it out of the room... so you can see the floor again!!! I moved a pile of photobooks I already made (AND LOVE) to our living room so we can ENJOY them and anyone coming over can look at them! (Isn't my little man so cute!! He was only 4 months old!!)




I threw away most of my Honeymoon pictures. I did keep a stack that went into the Memories tote in a picture box. Pulling pictures from photo albums is a lot of work... but worth it to remove the clutter!!!

Now just to decide what to do with those wedding pictures... and the broken album!!!


I am excited with my progress!! Can't wait to see the rest and be organized!!!

My Current TO-DO list

To try and keep myself honest and ACTUALLY get things DONE, I thought I would post my TO-DO LIST to be completed by April 1. And cross them off as I do them!!! Why April 1, well we have a big birthday in April so I figure that's a nice time frame. It also gives me time before my sister's wedding in May and then doesn't put the pressure on to have a million projects to do over the summer!

1. Finish Little Man's room - DONE - just need to blog it someday

This was done before, but I made some changes, so its no longer "done" I don't have too much left in this project. Just some new art work and things for the wall. Super EASY! I should be able to cross this off of my list in a week.... right??

2. Re-Do Wall of Guest Bedroom - DONE - sort of.... its a fix for now....  again need to blog it

I love my guest bedroom, but I don't love this wall of the room. It just doesn't quite cut it. So I have plans to re-do it. Not 100% sure yet what it will look like, but it will include the Red Envelope "You make me happy when skies are Grey" artwork.

3. Organize Craft Room - DONE

OMG this room is a disaster!! Trust me it's a mess and is in desperate need of organization! Some days it looks better than others... but most of the time its a stressful place to work on projects. I have started a gallery wall in this room, which I love, but need a few additions.

Update: This room is done!!! Check it out!

4. Add Some Style to the Master Bedroom - Working on it

I love our end tables, headboard, the lamps, the sconces above the bed... BUT this room just needs MORE. Besides what you can see in this picture, there is one photo on the wall, which is directly opposite of the bed. To the left is a big blank wall, to the right is a nice big wall of windows with white curtains. I love the start of this room, but it just needs MORE! Like another gallery wall, and maybe a stenciled wall behind the bed. We will see! Check out my Master Bedroom Pinterest Board...

5. The Living Room - Still a hot mess!!

We have lived in this house for six months and I still have not gotten around to this room. And of course it's the first room you see as you enter the house! When we moved in I put those black shelves up but I don't like them. The empty room has been a 4th playroom for my son... and worked out well for our Christmas tree... and currently holds Little Man's train table... but it's time for this room to at least have a place to sit! A while back I bought 2 chairs on Craig's List that need to be refinished, so I have to tackle that project! A while back I started pulling staples... I didn't get very far because it was hard work! ... and I have upholstered easy chairs before like these and this... but never a big chair... Then of course I want to paint and curtains, artwork... oh the possibilities.... check out my Pinterest living room board...

6. Paint Guest Bathroom Vanity - NOTHING.....

Just because I have the paint and I want too... and I think it would look fabulous with the Dr. Seuss decor of the bathroom!

7. Paint the Main Floor Bathroom - NOTHING

It's a pale green, and its fine, but I don't like fine in my house! I am thinking white and turquoise!

8. Finish Little Man's Photobooks - ONE DOWN.....

When Little Man was born I had the brilliant... crazy... something... idea that I should make one photobook PER month for him... Little man was born in April and I think I did the first month pretty quickly... and then things slowed down. As of 2 weeks ago I had only finished the first 6 months (which is PRETTY good considering my insane idea) then 2 weeks ago I completed 2 more books. So I am ONLY a year behind and need to complete January of 2011 until April 2011. THEN I need to figure out how I am going to do year 1... Obviously I should NOT keep doing this insane idea of one photobook per month for the rest of his life... too insane, plus any additional kids we have. I am debating either one for the entire year or maybe 2 for the year... we will deal with that when it happens... hopefully before his second birthday!!

9. Lose like 40 pounds - NOPE DIDN'T DO

I ordered my bridesmaid dress 2 sizes too small so I need to make sure it fits!! Even though my son is almost 2 years old, I still have not lost the baby weight... but that's a whole other story... so it's time to lose it and get on with my life!!!

So there we have 9 super easy projects that I can easily get done in 2 months... right?? Time to get off the computer and get doing... something...

Update: So as of April 1, I had 3 things done. I picked April 1 because I knew we were going to be on vacation for a week and it was Little Man's birthday.... and my sister's wedding... so yeah not all that great.... oh well, on to the next goal list...