Nesting

For me, if there's anything good that comes from an awful stomach bug, it's the nesting sensation I get afterwards.  After laying around for a week, I am ready to clean up and clear out!  So far, I've re-organized and weeded out cabinets and closets, and even removed cabinet doors to try another look in the kitchen.


 Before (with cabinet doors - minus one because I started removing them and then took photo)

 After

 

See those yellow boxes in the cubbies?  

I've been trying to find some kind of storage basket to fill those cubbies as long as we've lived in this house.  They're a "catch-all" for clutter (you can see that in the 1st photo), so I need something to keep the clutter hidden neatly.  

As I was getting groceries at Target, I started paying attention to various box sizes to fit in the cubbies.  I had some criteria - the box contents had to be something our family would eat and  something cheap since I needed 5 of them.  Lucky for my kids, these are ice cream cones!  

More to come on this project later.

 

Re-organizing the new open kitchen cabinets involved shuffling dishes from another 

closet of dishes/entertaining items, seen here and newly organized.

Hanging over the door is a shoe holder that has worked great for my napkin addiction 

collection, toothpicks, skewers, candles, and lots of other entertaining necessities.

And, last but not least, I have some extra storage in the laundry room 

cabinets that got involved in the organization "shuffle".  

These are all my vases/glassware storage.

I'm beginning to think another name for this post might be "hoarding".....yikes! 

Believe it or not, all of this stuff gets used at one time or another.

Petie

Dollar Store Clipboards

Another office organization project ~

No matter how hard I try to corral the paper in our house, there's always some flyer, application, schedule, etc that needs to be visible or it will be forgotten!

This is my latest solution ~ dollar store clipboards and scrapbook paper.  Cut the paper to size with an exact-o knife and attach with spray adhesive.

I had this extra large bulletin board in the attic.  

The clipboards are attached with thumbtacks.

Now, I should be able to see everything from the desk where I'm typing this post.

I'm linking to the following parties:

Show and Share at Southern Lovely

Link Party at Somewhat Simple

100 Ideas Under 100 at Beyond the Picket Fence
Saturday Style Linky Party at Scandi Coast Home 

Hope you're having a great week and looking 

forward to a great Thanksgiving with

family & friends! 

Petie

Office Organization

 My latest attempt at office organization.

  Do you have anything that looks like this in your house?

Cables, cords, manuals and chargers for every computer, camera, ipod and phone in the house.

I decided to hide it all away in pretty baskets and boxes.  The only problem with doing that is I need to remember what is where, and be able to direct my husband and kids to a charger and manual  without having to get up and find it myself. 

I downloaded pictures of a camera, ipod and computer and copied them into Word. 

These mail tags were some I tea-dyed last year to give them an aged look.

I taped the tags over the image on the paper and ran it through the printer.

This is how they come out.

Carefully remove the tape and voila'! 

I'm happy to report I tested them out on my daughter and she was able to find everything she needed.

Have you been doing any organizing lately?

I'm linking to the following parties:

Blog Link Party at Somewhat Simple

Under $100 Linky Party at Beyond The Picket Fence

Frugalicious Friday at Finding Fabulous 

Inspiration Friday At The Picket Fence

Overflowing with Creativity at It's Overflowing

Petie

Receipt Organization

I'm a bit of a receipt junky! I've been known to buy things for the home, live with them

for several weeks, and then decide they're not working.  The search for the receipt begins,

so I can return the item.  This is what my old receipt stash looked like.

Needless to say, I've lost some receipts.  I needed a better system.

I got out the love of my life my label maker and found some old filing cards.

This box was the perfect size.

 I'm keeping the receipt box on the kitchen desk for quick access.

 How do you keep up with your receipts?

Another attempt at organization

Do you have a kitchen counter or tabletop that looks like this? 

(this actually looks pretty good)

 In our house, the kitchen counter is the place where all the mail 

and 'stuff' winds up.  Drives me crazy!

I recently purchased this wall hanging file system from Storables, 

and labeled 'mail slots' for my husband and kids.

I printed their names on scrapbook paper and attached the labels to the baskets.

The labels attached easily to the basket with these.

(can't think of the name of these?)

Now the baskets look like this.  They're right by the back door that we use all

the time to come and go, so they should be reminded frequently to check their 'mail'

I'm linking to the following parties:
100 ideas under $100 at Beyond the Picket Fence
Show Off Your Stuff Party at Fireflies and Jellybeans


Thanks for hosting such fun parties, ladies!

Closet Re-vamp

~Hope you'll stop by here and enter my 

Home Goods Gift Card Giveaway.  The

  winner will be announced Tuesday, July 19th.~ 

Closet Re-vamp

Does anybody else feel like they're organizing closets every 6 months? 

This is my downstairs entertainment dishes-party goods-accessory storage closet! There's a little bit of everything, and things get shifted around with weekly tweaking around my house.
(It's a guilty pleasure!)

This is how it looked before being organized.

 Some of these pieces were wedding presents...15 years old!

 Candle holders galore!  (I have to figure out a way to reuse these.)

There are so many other cool ways to display candles these days, that these seem outdated?! 

 And, colored candles....I think I'm done.  

I'm pretty sure Nate Berkus suggests only white or ivory!

 These 'over the door hangers' have been great storage for everything 

from toothpicks and napkins to kids craft supplies.  They were originally used 

10 yrs ago in the playroom for my kids VCR tapes, remember those?

The primary colors make me cringe every time I have the closet open.

This is the re-vamped closet.

All the white wire organizational pieces were purchased at Storables or The Container Store.

I kept a few of the colored candles.

I moved the other 'over the door hanger' to an upstairs closet.  This clear one was originally for shoes, but I'm using it for my "napkin habit" :) and other party goods.

Much nicer to look at than the primary colors.

And, this is where the primary color door hanger ended up...

An upstairs closet with, again, a little bit of everything.

 I'm beginning to look feel like a hoarder!

Do you have this much stuff in your closets?  

How do you keep it all organized?

2011 To Do List

Project List:

* paint downstairs hallway/entry/upstairs hallway

* make gallery wall in entry

* replace baseboards in bathrooms

* paint master bathroom/new window treatment

* set up home office to use more efficiently

* paint kids bathroom/new shower curtain

* make pillows for sofa in family room

 * paint kitchen island

* organize closets

...but for today, just watch football.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!