Repurposed Toy Packaging

I LOVE Melissa & Doug toys. They are simple, well made, and classic. My daughters received two fabulous toys for Christmas this year: a magnetic doll (you can see in action here) and pet lacing boards. Each toy was packaged in a sturdy wooden divided tray covered in clear plastic. I ran into a problem after my girls started playing with the toys. Everything fit nicely in the trays, but it would all fall out so easily...especially in my (clears throat here) "storage" area. One day I got tired of picking up the pieces that kept falling out, so I decided to throw each of the toys into a plastic Ziploc bag.  I looked at the empty trays and thought, "What a waste!" And then I realized the trays would be perfect for my bathroom drawers. Cleaning up my bathroom drawers is one of my organizing goals for the year. I've never used divided trays in the drawers, but I know they can be a great way to keep drawers neat and tidy over time. I'm looking forward to using these as a way to give them a try as a storage solution! I will be sure to post an update when the drawers are finished.

Organizing Goals 2012 - #8 Create a Storage Solution for Kitchen Entry/Island

8. Create a Storage Solution for Kitchen Entry/Island: Sometimes I feel that if I solved this one problem area in my home, all my troubles would go away. I'm realistic enough to know that probably isn't true, but I'm really hoping to give it my best shot.  Our kitchen entry becomes a dumping ground for coats, shoes, hats, mittens, gloves, backpacks, purses, and miscellaneous stuff--a LOT of miscellaneous stuff. There are several factors contributing to this mess.

1. This is the door my family uses 99 percent of the time.
2. There is no closet near this door,
3. There is a huge unused counter right next to the door.
4. We have no storage here other than four overused coat hooks and lots of flat surfaces.

I definitely know I want to get a lower set of hooks so my daughters can start hanging up their own coats, snow pants, and backpacks. Not only will that keep them off the floor, I won't have to do it anymore (win-win!). I'm thinking some sort of storage cubbies where the little table is now (it doesn't have to stay) or even under the ledge of the counter would be great. I hope to get to IKEA soon to take a look at a shoe storage unit, beautifully used here. If the divider can be removed from the top shoe drawer, even better. I'd use that one to store backpacks. I also need a better storage for hats and mittens. And finally, I would love a rug by this door, but I haven't had any luck finding one thin enough to be able to open the door.  Even the super thin officey ones don't work. For now I have one leading from the door toward the kitchen, although it's not visible in the photos.

This is definitely one of my biggest challenges for the year. I look forward to getting started!

Ignore the dirty wall. It's leftover from two pictures I tried for years to keep hung. Every time we'd shut the door the pictures would tilt. I tried blue sticky stuff (as you can see), but it only helped a little. Finally I just took them down.

I'm always amazed that little coat rack doesn't fall off the wall.

Organizing Goals 2012 - #6 Reorganize Bathroom Storage

Each day for the next week or so, I am introducing my storage/organization/cleaning goals, plans, and progress for 2012. The first post in the series can be found here.

6. Reorganize Bathroom Storage: It's been almost two years since I organized my bathroom storage. You can see how that went here and here. Based on these current before photos below, I'd say it's time I get to work.

Organizing Goals 2012 - #4 Reorganize Linen Closet

Each day for the next week or so, I am introducing my storage/organization/cleaning goals, plans, and progress for 2012. The first post in the series can be found here.

4. Reorganize Linen Closet: You may remember this before-and-after of my linen closet.  Lately it's been looking more before than after. This closet is also where I store gift wrap supplies, cards and envelops, games, light bulbs, my shoes, and several other odds and ends. It's time to revisit this space and clear out some clutter. My girls' art supplies (Play-Doh, crayons, markers, colored pencils, glue, coloring books, etc.) have been growing exponentially, and I need to find a good storage solution. If you have any great ideas for storing art supplies, pass them along.  I'm considering something like this, which would make them easily portable. And I think a magazine file might be a good way to store the coloring books.

I've got my work cut out for me

Notice my shoes are noticeably absent from the shoe rack.
Apparently they were scared off by the dinosaur. ROAR! 

Organizing Goals 2012 - #3 Organize Spices

Each day for the next week or so, I am introducing my storage/organization/cleaning goals, plans, and progress for 2012. The first post in the series can be found here.

3. Organize Spices: I store my spices and baking supplies in a tall storage cupboard next to my refrigerator. Like most of my cupboards, I'm not using the bottom shelves. My youngest would empty it out for me daily if I did.  So everything has been stuffed onto the top five shelves.  Considering I can't actually reach the top shelf, that leaves me with four working shelves. My spices are out of control. I've been slowly stocking up on them over the last year, and unfortunately because they are a jumbled mess, I've bought several duplicates, compounding the storage problem.  I ordered these spice clips (found via Pinterest) a couple of weeks ago.  Like the good online shopper I am, I scoured the Internet and found the best deal after figuring in tax and shipping.  Unfortunately the company I ordered from has them on back order.  I'm hoping they will finally arrive by the end of the month.  I love the idea behind this product. I've found most cupboard door storage solutions are often so deep they take of half of your actual shelf space. These are versatile and appear to use minimal shelf space. I can't wait to get started on this project! Here is what my baking cupboard looks like today.

Here are the "top" two shelves from a distance. Anyone want a year's worth of Food Network Magazines?
(Why yes, we did paint the outside of our cabinets white and got lazy and did not paint the insides.)

Let's take a closer look at that second shelf. This is what I see when I'm trying to find something.

And here are the "bottom" two shelves from a distance. Don't laugh at the five jars of peanut butter, laugh at my husband. He read an article about rising peanut prices and made a point to stock up. Yes, the rising cost of peanuts would be a big deal in our house.

Need some cumin, you say? Hmm...

Organizing Goals 2012 - #2 Create/Childproof Playroom

Each day for the next week or so, I am introducing my storage/organization/cleaning goals, plans, and progress for 2012. The first post in the series can be found here.

2. Create/Childproof Playroom: I'm looking forward to a time when I won't have to keep my eye on my youngest every second of the day. In anticipation of that day, I'll be working this year to create and childproof a designated playroom.  I want to transform our basement family room, which is currently where my husband occasionally plays Xbox and my daughter plays with her trains, into a space where my girls can play, while purging our living room of it's current daycare-esque decor.  (I literally have a giant castle in my living room and a plastic princess pink vanity in my dining room.) We already have a huge storage unit in the basement that we bought at IKEA several years ago.  With some bins, it will be a great place to stash toys.  We had a coffee table and an end table in the room that we weren't using, and I hauled them off to the donation center on Sunday (along with a weight bench and weights from the storage room and other odds and ends), so the space is opening up.  Eventually I'd like to get rid of our excess furniture and add some kid-friendly seating, book storage, a rug, and an activity table and chairs.

Sorry for the glare in this photo. The sun was reflecting off our white wood work.

Organizing Goals 2012 - #1 Organize Storage Room

We are well into January already.  And yes, I'm still writing "2011" on everything.  I've made some organization-specific resolutions/goals for the coming year.  Last year I found I was pretty successful in keeping my resolutions when I introduced them gradually.  This year, I'm hoping to continually move toward each of my goals, and I'm already making some progress.  

Each day for the next week or so, I will introduce my storage/organization/cleaning goals, plans, and progress for 2012. And I will revisit these goals throughout the year as progress is made.

1. Organize Storage Room: 

This is actually one I can almost check off the list.  The new year started with my husband expanding the shelving in our storage/laundry room. He also added shelving for his hunting and fishing stuff and a bench and chairs to create a workspace.  I am relieved to finally have a home for all of those fishing poles and duck calls that inevitably end up on our kitchen counter. Just after we had everything put away in the storage room, my sister sent me several boxes of baby clothes via a visit from my parents.  We are planning on having more children, so we'll hang on to the clothes for now.  I was happy to see there was actually still room for the clothes on the storage shelves. The final to-do in the storage room is to find a place for our pantry overflow.  We stock up at Aldi a few times a year, and whatever doesn't fit in the pantry goes in the storage room.  Previously the food was stored on our shelves (when the floors were covered in stuff). I have my eye on the shelves above our washer and dryer, but they are inconvenient for a shorty like me.  For now, I'm holding off on figuring it out until our next trip to Aldi, which I plan on making in the next couple of weeks. If I were going for perfection, we would have matching plastic storage bins on these shelves.  I'm not going for perfection. I happily used what we had on hand.  Diaper boxes make great boxes for kids' clothes. Down the road I may replace some of the cardboard boxes and bags, but for now it works.

I wish I had a before photo to show you the dramatic transformation, but you'll have to take my word for it.  This is about twelve thousand times better. I can now do laundry without passing through an obstacle course (yay?). On the right side of the room (not pictured) is more shelving, a work table, and the washer and dryer.

On a slightly unrelated note, I've been watching old episodes of Hoarders on Netflix. Have you seen this? It's fills me with anxiety. The episode where the woman hoards perishable food? The one where they remove 8,000 pounds of GARBAGE from one woman's home.  Or when they find 13 dead cats in another home. I've decided, though, that it's not so much the amount of junk, clutter, and garbage that these people are living in that makes this show so heart wrenching. It's the strained relationships. The hopelessness of the loved ones who so desperately want the fog to clear from their father/mother/sister/brother's eyes. It kills me.

Bathroom Drawer Revisited

In a previous post, I added a before photo of the last holdout in my bathroom purge: a bathroom drawer.

And here it is now.

I have no idea why we have such an abundance of oral hygiene products, but we do.  We also have a disturbing number of lighters (11) considering neither my husband nor I smoke.  Actually, a couple times a year he picks up the bad habit for a few weeks.  Apparently he's not good at keeping track of lighters. Anyone have any good ideas for getting rid of them?  Do I just toss most of them in the garbage?  Is that even safe?

Since the bathroom is pretty well in shape now, I'm going to be moving on to my daughter's bedroom.  The biggest obstacles there are a drawer of sentimental stuff (ALL of the cards from my first daughter's birth and a bunch of manuals for baby gear) and her closet (a catchall for all kinds of random family stuff).  Now I'm very practical when it comes to the sentimental stuff.  I have no problem throwing out those cards.  My husband, on the other hand, thinks it's imperative that we keep it all.  I know from experience (thanks, Mom!) that someday we will need to get rid of this stuff; we'll be downsizing to a smaller place or just needing to use our space more efficiently.  And we'll have to pass along this stuff to our daughters.  And then they'll have to find a place to store it.  I've got the proof, handed down by both sets of parents, in our basement storage room (the last room in the project, for good reason).

So, any suggestions on how to handle the sentimental overload and convince my husband it's a good idea to pare down?  Or will I regret it someday?

I Am Not Alone

So just when I think I must be the messiest, most cluttered person I know, my sister steps up and lets me know I'm actually not.  Case in point, she sent me these pics after my recent bathroom decluttering post:

By the way, this doesn't include her makeup drawer.  I'm still waiting for that photo.  So sister, my loyal blog readers (all 10!) will be looking forward to some "after" photos.  Get to work! 

And in the spirit of total disclosure, I still have one more bathroom drawer to get through.  Take a look:

I'll let you know how it goes.

I Waited 15 Years for This?

A couple days ago, as part of my ongoing bathroom purge project, I got rid of a TON of makeup (most of it never worn out of the house).  It was a sad reminder of all of the dollars I've wasted over the years trying to find the perfect (or at least acceptable) lipstick/eyeshadow/eyeliner.  I wish I had a before photo or even one of all of the crap I threw out, but I don't.  You'll have to take my word for it.  I've talked about this over the last week or so with my best friend, my mom, and my sister.  Apparently I'm not alone here.  We've all got a stash of unused cosmetics.  Why are we keeping them?  We don't use them.  And not only does this extra makeup mean more clutter, my friend reminded me that, for health reasons, we are supposed to get rid of makeup regularly.  I guarantee I won't miss anything I threw out.

I'm pretty sure I've had my old makeup bag since I started wearing enough makeup to warrant a makeup bag (about 15 years).  The problem is that there is nothing wrong with the old one.  Granted, it isn't very cute, but it worked just fine.Tonight, as a reward for clearing out all that old unused makeup, I bought myself a new makeup bag.  I'm not sure it's worthy of having waited 15 years (that's half my life!), but it's cute enough and much better than the old one.   

Before:

After:

The "makeup" drawer I cleaned out looks great.  Other than my "everyday" makeup, I kept only a handful of additional products. They're stashed in a small bag way in back.

P.S. I swear the big banana clip is only for hold back my hair while I straighten it!

P.P.S. Now if I would only get rid of some of the 9 lipsticks stashed in my purse.  One thing at a time.  One thing at a time.

Everything but the Skeletons

Lest you think I am naturally an organized person, I bring you this.

This morning my daughter discovered the linen closet.  Don't get me wrong, she's known it's there.  But this morning it occurred to her that she could find all kinds of interesting things in there.  Her bathroom stool has given her the new-found ability to reach new heights...and she's taking full advantage.  I put a kibosh on that, but I'm afraid it will be a matter of only hours before she digs in.  Since it's a sliding door, and I don't know of any way to childproof a sliding door, something must be done.  The project in the bedroom is almost complete, so the linen closet will be my next area of focus.  Technically it's the linen/light bulb/gift-wrapping/art supplies/stationery/rag/iron/game/shoe closet.  And it's out of control.  Don't believe it's as bad as I say?  Take a look.

Yep, that's bad.  At least if it's cleaned out and organized I can attempt to keep the toddler damage to a minimum.  I'm going in.  And if you don't hear from me in the next couple of days, you know where to find me.

On a completely unrelated note, I started Jillian Michaels' 30-Day Shred yesterday.  I'll give you an update in about 29 days.

I'm Going to Read Them, Eventually

Image Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/indi/ / CC BY 2.0

There is a towering stack of books currently sitting on our dresser.  It grows every time my mother visits or my husband steps into a bookstore.  His stack is composed mostly of big, thick, hardcover history books like The House of Morgan, The King of Vodka, and Supreme Power *yawn*. My stack is made up of literary fiction and memoirs *yes!*.  What my books lack in girth, they make up for in quantity.  I currently have 8 books in my to-read pile.  Throw in a couple Bibles and we've got ourselves some impressively tall stacks. Eight books will sound like a lot to some of you.  But I know plenty of people who could get through my pile in just a few weeks (Mom, Grandma, Traci, I'm talking to you).  That's part of my problem.  My main supplier (my mother) has a lot more reading time on her hands.  I can't keep up. (If you're curious what sort of books are in my pile, click on over to my Goodreads profile.)

So why must they sit on our dresser?  Good question.  I like my stack.  I like seeing it every day.  It give me something to look forward to, something to plan.  What am I going to read next?  I don't necessarily want these books out of easy reach.  I've decided a new nightstand will be my next purchase in the name of decluttering.

Our current "nightstand" is pathetic. It's one of those $10 three-legged plywood round tables a college kid might pick up for a dorm room.  That's our nightstand.  We don't even bother to throw a cheesy round tablecloth on it (hence the water spots).  Nope, it's just a very unstable, ugly plywood table, steady enough only to hold a lamp (don't get me started on the lamp) and our cell phones.  When our dogs are particularly playful they have a tendency to knock this table and the lamp and the phones onto the floor.  Often the legs come apart at that point.  It happens every couple of months.  Eventually I'd love to get a new bedroom set.  But our bedroom is small--large enough only for our bed, one nightstand, and a dresser.  So a new bedroom set will wait until we move, some day far in the future. Our current dresser, by the way, is from the bedroom set my parents got when they married in 1969.  It's showing it's age, but it's got modern clean lines and I like it. 

Other than our two bathrooms, our bedroom is the only room in the house that has not gone through some serious decorating since we moved in 5 1/2 years ago.  It will happen.  Maybe once the project is complete and we've been living in a clean house for a while we'll finally see the potential in this room and get the job done.  Until then, a new nightstand will have to suffice. 

PS I will be looking for a new lamp as well.  Isn't this one just lovely?

PSS If anyone knows a high school senior, I've got a fantastic dorm room table available!  And a lamp!