Closets, closets and..... more closets

Closets galore this last few months. Anyone that really knows me knows I LOVE closets. Yes its a crazy thing considering I just might have the smallest in my house ever. I do find that when I am at friends and clients houses the closet is the last thing people see as having potential. I, on the other had see so much potential in every closet I see. For example Reds closet is "small" but it holds wait for it ......12 feet for shelving and 4 feet of clothing storage.   

Red helped me label her closet so she would know were everything would go. Best thing we have in there is her too small bins and too big bin. Oh they have saved me so much headache. If it is to small she just tosses it up into the bin. But for a 4' closet it holds a lot. Even lately she has moved stuff around to put more books up. Spring is coming soon and the closet is so full of dresses. Also my big rule is our home is "the floor is not a shelf"
 

 

 

Next I did a friends kids closet. 2 sisters that share a closet and no dresser. oh I was in heaven with the space. It was a 6+foot closet. (daydream face here). They didn't have a lot of stuff it just was not nice to look at. Its important that when doing a kids closet that you label everything and label the way your kid reads. She had was a grade 2 reader and a kindergarten reader. We did pictures and words for the bins.   

When I figure out how to post printable, I will have the link here.

 

Back to our house we moved all the rooms in our basement around. I love it. So the new playroom has a closet in it. a whopping 3'. Its for games and dress up stuff the kids love it.

 

The next house if a good family friend who has a bigger problem. The whole house has one closet. in the spare room that is all.  For some time she would tell me she cant do anything because she dose not have a closet in her bedroom. Well... I am always up for a challenge. In a 6hr period with 3 adult women and 4 kids we got all this done. The only thing we bought was the system for her bedroom I just LOVE it. We still have a bit to do but it was a great start.    

This is her mud room. It is making big leaps into becoming the place she wants to come home to. Its very important to remember you did not collect the things in one day you cant get rid of it all in one day. 15 minutes a day makes a big difference in getting you space de-cluttered.

 

Closets, use them they have so much potential to add to your space without taking anymore square footage away from the room.   

 

  Happy organizing

Linen closet.

 Well with a family of 4 and a fur baby, Some days this area of the house is a must. This is the only place we have for bath towels and bedding. I dream of the days when I have a linen closet in the bathroom. But with that dream over for now I have this very very deep linen closet. When we moved in, it need a lot of work. well it needed better shelves. Over the last 2 years it has had a few changes to make the large space work for us.

Man Look at all that wasted space

Know that Red and MM are getting bigger I don't have to be so worried that they will get into the cleaning stuff. What I love about my linen closet is that fact it is "big".  I replaced the old shelves that did not go all the way to the one side with "new" white shelves. The kids broke a TV stand a few months before so I took the sleeves to my dad and he cut them down for me. They are not very deep shelves considering how deep the closet is. I did that for a reason I wanted clearance for my mops to go on the door.
  

 

All cleaning products go on the floor. I have a steam mop and a spray mop as well as a Swiffer. I also have a broom but that is hung on the wall beside my refrigerator.  

 

The dogs bathing stuff goes in a caring bucket for 2 reasons. one so I have every thing I need for her with out having to leave the bathroom. second reason is because we camp a lot in the summer and I like to have her bath and grooming stuff with us if we are planning to be gone more then 2 weeks.

 

All the rags are sorted between 2 baskets there is one upstairs and one down stairs for extra and ones my husband can have for yucky stuff. there is a floor basket for all the floor mop pads in one basket. Then in the dark corner is a basket with light bulbs in it.  

 

I am a tall girl so I don't have any troubles with having my sheets and covers on the top shelf , but I do not use the humidifier that much only when the kids are sick or its to dry for red and her bleeding noses. We have a stand humidifier in the living room as well. I keep the filters and demoralising stuff in the bucket up top as well.

Our bathroom is very small so anything we don't use on a everyday bases goes in the closet. My husband travels for work sometimes so the travel basket has become a life saver. He can put the little shampoos he gets from the hotels in the basket for next time or when the kids have swimming.

 

 

This is maybe my favourite item in the closet. The little drawer unit is so great for boo boo bin. I don't know about anyone else but if you have kids having all the boo boo stuff super quick to get to is so very nice. I have had a client put a unit just like this in her kitchen pantry just because of the convenience of having it were she would use the bandages the most. That's the best way to get your self organised is to not change how you live, change how you store it. I am a lazy and/or busy person so the least amount of steps it takes to put something away the better or it really will not get put away right the first time.

 

 

The vanity and medicine cabinet  is all the storage we have in the bathroom so it has to work very well. This is the only bathroom upstairs so all 4 of us use it. As always ana-belle wants to be photogenic.  

So for me clutter on the counter drives me NUTS!!!!! it is harder to clean around things. I get the dry heave when the tooth brushes are on the counter. OH the germs!!!! so in the drawer is all the kids and our teeth thing. second in the hair stuff. I haven't posted a lot of pics of red and her hair but this drawer is a must with a her.

The medicine cabinet has nothing  that we don't use daily. so many people put so much in there that is so scary when you open it.

Under the sink such a hard stop to organise. I love staking bins for hand towels and face cloths (that is all we have if you do laundry once a week you really only need 4-5 towels)and then  feminine stuff. Then in a utensil holder I have all the hair dryer and irons. In the bin in front is stuff we use every morning ie. shaving cream face cream and mouth wash.

 

Well that is the state of my linen closet witch works great for our busy family. Do you have any great ideas of to keep places that you use everyday all day ,organised?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well I have finally had a bit of time to myself,. I just dislike flu season so much. Here after a few weeks of being MIA in the blog world I am back to share my favourite place, as of right now (craft room under construction, going to LOVE it) My living room and dinning room are the hub of our house. We watch a lot of movies online like Netflix and when we had a regular computer it was hard to watch it on a  20" monitor. So we did a lot of rearranging and came up with a great idea. take the 32" TV and make it our computer. WOW it was the best thing we did for the house. Before we had so much going on in the living room it was so overwhelming to me.
Reds birthday pic shows it behind the couch.

The First dresser that came was amazing and best price EVER Free!. We took the bottom drawers off for the computer tower and the other one was the printer that you could pull out. It worked well for over a year but it was not really want I wanted I wanted something that fit everything. I wanted a bit of character and colour.     

 

Then when I was over at a fellow DIYers house in behind her garage was GOLD!!!! lol yes the mother of all dressers IT was love at first sight.

BHAHAHAHAH!!!! most people would toss this baby. Not the Dutch in me, my grandma would have been proud. I could not get it in my truck fast enough. NOT JOKING.

Got my free dresser home and started right away it was in ruff shape. After a little sanding and turning the top over we were good to start painting. Because 90% of the time I am going crazy(good Crazy)  and forget to take pictures mid-way.

 Now for my after pictures

 

PURE LOVE!!!!!

I redid the hardware as well with black chalk board spray paint, it holds up the best. The Tower needs to be vented so I was on a nothing budget and the panels that were there just came out not a problem. I had  some shelf slip grip hanging around so I just stapled it on the doors. for balance I did both sides.   

The one side has great drawers were I keep all my Tupperware sales stuff.

the tower and wifi box go here and it was made for it PERFECT!!!!!

computer stuff



office stuff

phone books and camping directory

 

I had this shelf at the front door for a bit but when I redid that I tossed it here and it works great. Wish it was a little closed off but it being open helps it stay organised.

 

So on a nothing budget no joke I had the paint and everything. I love taking trash and making it amazing!!!

PS there is a other drawer not pictured here because it hold HR stuff  for my mom and dads business and it is super off limits

 

 

What do u think of the idea of the TV/computer?

 

 

Welcome to 2014

So happy for the new year. I usually don't do new year resolutions out disappointment. I always fail at them 2 weeks in. But this year I made one big one that might solve all my problems or at least make life a little easier.

Ok I am omitting, I am a chronic procrastinator. I remember in elementary school getting in trouble because I would wait till the last minute to do anything. I see red and mm doing that same thing or them wanting to start a school project that is not due for a week and I am like "oh you don't need to do that right now". eeek I am setting my kids up for the same stress and anxiety that I have suffered from my whole life. I need this to stop.

So 2014 is my anti-procrastination year, yes this will be the hardest thing for me. My family needs this. With my husband and I will be  married 10 years this July and with me turning 30 in September, this year is a big year I am ready to change the one thing I dislike about myself.

Some of my goals to end my chronic procrastination;

1. stop putting off exercise/ walking the dog. I love walking but I have put it off because I have a 100 reasons why I am to busy and I have a lot of fear that I will fall in winter yada yada yada.
2.   stop procrastinating in saving money. yes I procrastinate in paying bills and saving money. This will help alleviate a lot of stress and save me money because I am not paying late fees.
3. follow my routines chart and follow though with my house cleaning schedule.
4. Finish the projects that mean the most to me and my family. ie finish painting kids rooms, and kitchen and not worry about perfection so much. 

In the mind of a non-procrastinator this all probably sounds so easy but for me these 4 things are the things that cause me so much stress and anxiety on a daily basis. I am ready to be a non- procrastinator.

what are you all doing for your new years resolutions? Do you suffer from perfectionist procrastination? well join me on  my journey this year to have less stress and to get things done.


I have joined other bloggers in simplifying our lives http://simplelivingmama.com/2013/12/clearing-the-clutter/

WERE DID 2 YEARS GO  part 2

So rewind 2 years ago, tomorrow we were moving in to our "new to us" house. Going from 720sq feet to just about 1000sq feet, most people would think that is not that much different but to us it was the flow of the house that we loved. It was my brothers house and he was moving to the city for a new job so why not take it off his hands. It has 3 bedrooms up and a bathroom and then a "developed" basement, with 3 bedrooms, a tv room and a bathroom. Because I just love before and afters I have to put some pictures up for guys. caution long post but lots of pictures

 

these are the pictures my brother use to list the house.

 

then my crew too over

It always gets worse before it gets better right

 

master bedroom

all the toys they want and they play with my mats



back door landing



trying to find a layout that worked



one word CHAOS!!

having a nap between unpacking boxes
we lived with one chair for 2 week  till the new couches came
 

The house is always got a project going on but the house had really made huge changes in the last year for really no money. We had more important things to get like a new furnace and hot water tank yaya home ownership.

The best place in my house. My free dresser makeover. This dresser hold lots of secrets that it closes off at the end of the day. You can see how I keep it organised here

Not in love with this red on the walls but I think when we redo the horrible tile we will change it.

 

As you can see Green is my favorite color This apple green is also in the laundry room

Mistint $5.00 for a gallon  

The dark black hole got a massive paint job. This was one of the first places to get paint.

 



I have to do laundry everyday so you might as well make it nice place to be in.

 

Finally was able to put our bed my dad made up. the old house was to small. He is so talented.

red is so happy to have her own room

 

I love this bathroom. Another $5.00 mis-tint.

No more orange wall but more green :)

 

 

 

Well that is all for a little before and after. As my husband says I have a harder time committing to a design in the house more then I did saying yes to marrying him. So the house changes with our ever growing needs.

 

I hope you liked reading my blog as much as like sharing with of you all.

 

Till later be crazy and think out side the box.  

WERE  DID 2 YEARS GO part 1

 We were blessed 10 years ago to be able to purchase our first house at the VERY young age of 19 and 20. It was such a great investment for us. That house served us very well for almost 8 years. It was a whopping 720sq feet 2 bedroom 1.5 baths. It did have a basement thankfully with another bedroom.
When red came it was great. We had my brother-in-law living with us at the time. Best part was it was a cheep mortgage so I was able to stay home with red.
Well very quickly the house started to become smaller and smaller like the wall were squeezing us in to this tiny house. It was overwhelming and crazy. Then entered the Internet oh boy I did not realise I was not the only one with this over welling problem. We were out growing our house, But financially it was not great to buy a new house so I purged and surfed the web and purged some more. In my journey from over welled to organised we got pregnant with MM. Now I had to shove 2 kids into the smallest bedroom in the world,8x10 room was not going to cut it. I really wanted to stay home with my kids so moving was not a option. So instead we made the house work for us.  Why do we, as parents need the master bed room hummm we only sleep and read books in our room . so one afternoon my hubby and I moved the rooms around. Family thought we were nuts but it was going to be way better for the kids.
So in the chaos I was able to take some pics. We lived with celery green walls for a few weeks but we loved it.

 

with 18" of room  around our bed we had to be smart about EVERYTHING that came into the room.

A old dresser came to the rescue and it was FREE!!!!

We LOVED it so much.

The kids need a kiddy room. Don't know about anyone else but my kids HATED the crib so as soon as mm was 6 months old he was in a twin bed it was great he stayed in bed he never rolled out and I could nurse him and not have to move him.

so for space we opted to invest in to 2 captains beds. BEST things we have ever bought no need for dresser in the kids room. The room also had to serve and a play room as well.

 

Sadly this is the only pic I have left after our computer crash last year. As you can see there is room to play and mm had a book shelve on the other wall behind the door.

 

We loved out house and made it work well for our family.

here is another pic I have dug out of archive's

 

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My most favorite blogs to follow are:

iheartorganizing

 

clutterbug.me

 

these ladies have helped me become the proud and confident house wife I am today thanks ladies

 

Well that is it for this post.

 

Sometime big is not always better.