Fixing up the laundry room/pantry

 Somehow, the pantry and laundry area of my house is always the messiest. Imagine that. In line with my goals to get the entire house organized during the year of 2014, I decided to tackle this space. The before pictures are, well, embarrassing. And if I'm being honest, I cleaned up quite a bit before taking these before photos. You normally can't see the floor thanks to all the dirty clothes piled up.

 

I went through all the food in the pantry and chucked everything that was expired. The worst I found was baking powder that had expired in 2007...that I had just used last weekend. VOMIT. 

I have shelves organized by type of food, and frequency of use. I got rid of small appliances we never use anymore, and organized what we wanted to keep. I think it looks a LOT better. For me, it's easier to be motivated to plan our meals when I know what foods we have on hand.

We even created a shelf especially for Nolan. All of his foods and snacks are located on the bottom shelf so he is able to pick what he'd like to have.

And this part just makes me happy. I found this sign at the beach and knew I just had to have it.

 

One part of the pantry/laundry area I knew I could spruce up a bit was the laundry sink. It was really nothing special to look at, and I had an idea for something that would be a relatively quick fix.

 

I decided to make a skirt for the sink! I went to Jo-ann Fabrics and got 1.5 yards of fabric with a fun print and 1.5 yards of liner fabric. I sewed the two together right side in and was sure to leave a little part open so I could flip it right side out. (Shown in picture 3 below.) After I finished flipping it right side out, I sewed the little hole shut and ironed on some velcro. Ironing on the velcro worked for the fabric, but I realized I couldn't exactly iron it to the sink. So I decided to try heating the glue up with my hair dryer. Fail. It just didn't stick. So I went to the grocery store and bought some velcro specifically for home applications, and swapped out that one side.

And oh was it worth it! Now, not only does it look less like crap, but we can actually store stuff under the sheet and not have it look so messy!

There are still a few things I'd like to do to this room. Painting, nicer shelving, and replacing/removing the cabinets are just a few of the things on my list. But little by little we'll get there.

Guest bathroom vanity organization

Tonight, I decided to do a quick and easy project so I could have a bit of time to relax do other, more pressing chores. At one point, this vanity didn't look too terrible. We had things somewhat organized, but then, life kinda just got in the way, and we started chucking things underneath without a second glance as to where they landed.

Mid-project, after I'd already pulled everything out from underneath the vanity, I realized how dumb this was to start this project in the bathroom attached to Nolan's room...while he slept. Dumb. Let me reiterate, DUMB. He started stirring and making noises, so I sat there for a bit staring at the mess I'd made, wondering if I should continue on. I ultimately decided that, since he needed to use the bathroom in the morning when he woke up, I should just quietly and carefully finish the project. 

Before: Oh the clutter.

 

 

And after! I have things organized by the family member that uses the items. From left to right, we have: Tater's things, My things, Nolan's things, community things, Shon's things, and surplus items that we all use. All this organization is really starting to feel good, and somewhat normal. Such an odd feeling since I've been kind of a hot mess my whole life.

 

Organizing the Hall Closet

Today's nap-time project (I have a 2 year old, since I haven't mentioned that yet on this blog) was to organize the front hall closet. It had gotten so out of control that we didn't even put the jackets we wore regularly in it; we just hung them on the back of our kitchen chairs. Sound familiar to anyone? As our son, Nolan, says, "I MAKED A MESS!" 

In the closet, we had a box we had yet to unpack from moving to this house (almost a year and a half ago now), jackets that no longer fit any of us, a bunch of old clothes to donate, and approximately 50eleventythousand hangers not being used. Here's what it looked like before:

And here's the after! We now have a place to put our shoes when we come in the house, quite a few less jackets, and even an organizational container for our winter items and for Tater's things.

Now we've just got to make the effort to hang our jackets back up when we come inside.

An organized bathroom

One of my goals for 2014 is to completely organize and declutter my house. I've never been much of a neat freak, but I always feel like life is so much easier when things are tidy and clean. This is one situation where my impatience pays off. Wait until 2014 to begin work? Psh. No. 

I got to work on my bathroom vanity today. I started off with my collection of nail polishes. Inside, I knew I had far too many, but I just couldn't let go of them because I totally might need them one day. Right? Wrong. I got rid of probably 1/3 of what I hadn't worn in forever.

After I  weeded out the loser nail polishes, I decided to organize my bathroom vanity. I can't even begin to post a before picture because it was horrifying. (But also because I forgot to take a picture. So...)

Ideally, I'd like to be able to keep our countertop this clean and clutter free, but I guarantee it'll be crapped up before too long.

Totally not paid to promote these products but this is what I use to clean our master bath. We have a septic system, so we have to be careful about what cleaning products go down the drain, and we also have travertine tile, so we can't use any products that are too harsh. These Method cleaning products are just perfect for us. The All Purpose spray (we bought lavender) works awesome in the shower and keeps that icky pink mold at bay. The Glass and Surface spray leaves no streaks and smells amazing.

Master bathroom: CLEAN AND ORGANIZED. 1 room down. 17 rooms to go.