Day 19: Master Closet

Since our bedroom is a loft, the closet is really limited on space and head room.

I took out every article of clothing and tried on over half my clothes to filter out what I really wouldn't wear.  2 bins of yard sale items later...

BEFORE AND AFTERS SIDE BY SIDE:

Entrance of the closet.  The shoe shelves were under the racks of clothes.  I moved them out to form a "wall" around the outer corners of the closet and there's ton more floor space now.

 

 Top corner of 2 of the clothes rack.  Still like my boots up there and bed sheets on the lower rack.  Just the clothes are reorganized.

Here's the corner that was open to the unfinished "attic" crevices of our loft.  This is what 51 pairs of shoes looks like organized (63 if you count the boots on the top shelves!)

My 3rd lower rack of clothes.  Just color coordinated now and cleaned up on the top.





Day 18: Keepsakes

What's a keepsake?  A selection of those "goodies" your kid brings home from school.  Whether it's a report card, test or something they made in art.

This little box looks pretty on the shelf (it has a lid) and will store all the "keep worthy" keepsakes that Alan may bring home in the next 14 years...

Each tab says daycare, pre-k, kinder, 1, 2, etc etc.  All the way to 12th grade.

This will be fun to go through every once in awhile when he's older.

In each file is also a "coversheet" like this that has his teacher's name, the year, the school and a school portrait space.  This is the coversheet for Alan's 1-Year Toddler class at his daycare.

The labels and coversheets I found online, the files I already had and the box I spent $10 on at Office Depot.  Not bad to store years and years of memories!



Day 17: Mail

I always thought my old way of organizing bills was great:

Don't be fooled, this thing gets pretty full!  I also don't like how messy it can look, so it's in my desk cabinet taking up a lot of space.  Another flaw: it's only for bills or papers that have a due date.

After seeing the Bowl Full of Lemons' "Mail Command Center", I was sold.

So here's what I made:

I'll just call it our "Mail Center".  No "command" involved. :)  Our calendar is clipped to the front and soon I'll have a different highlighter color for Me, Erik, Alan and Whole Family to color code calendar events.

Tabs on the files are:

• Incoming (unsorted mail)
• Outgoing (for the mailbox)
• To Pay (bills)
• To File (paid, done with)
• Sign & Return (like those school forms)
• Erik (his stuff I don't know what to do with)
• Renyel
• Alan
• Dex (I'm thinking vet stuff)
• Grocery List & Coupons (I use this for current grocery ads too!)

So pretty much the purpose of this was to have a fast way to get ANY stack of paper off the desk or counter.  There is a file here for ANYTHING!  It's also more attractive and now I can take that bill box out of my cabinet and make room to organize the space (later)!



Day 16: Fridge

I was so eager I guess I fogot to snap a "before" shot.  But our fridge was PACKED.  So much that it was a balancing act everytime you put something in or took something out.

When I realized I hadn't taken a pic yet, stuff was all over the kitchen:

There was still more we had already thrown away too.

I took out all the drawers and the door units.  Erik helped by washing all of those while I scrubbed the inside down with my new citrus/vinegar cleaner.

AFTER:

Everything has a space now and nothing balancing on top of anything else.  No more toes dodging pickle jars!

I also got the garden squash, broccoli and cauliflower all chopped and bagged so it's ready to cook!

Now I really should finish that bottle of wine in there and help clean it out a little bit more...



Day 15: Medicine Storage

I store all our meds in the closet I already cleaned out on Day 8 of this challenge so this was already done!

BEFORE:

Here's the pic of the closet but you can see our meds in that bottom slide-out drawer.  Everything was thrown into the one drawer and the bigger bottles were just placed around it, wherever they would fit.

We could never find anything in here without a sever amound of digging.

AFTER:

Drawers are labeled Sinus & Flu, Other Med, and 1st Aid (also includes children meds).

Big bottles fit on the top. 

Inside of the 1st Aid/Childrens drawer.  Bandaids have a special basket now so no more half-full boxes in the way!



Day 14: Under Bathroom Sink

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Now that I have my citrus enzyme, I don't need the toilet cleaner or Draino.  I never used the Tilex, so I took it out of there too.  I left just the scrubbing bubbles because I'll use what I have left of that.

With that little shelf added, I was able to fit 2 pull-out baskets.  One has Erik's extra deodarant, etc (from the linen cabinet) and the other has bath stuff for Alan and the dog.  I also like the little basket for cleaning toothbrushes, scrubber and my homemade soft scrub. 



Day 13: Medicine Cabinet

Not sure why they call the shelves above your sink a medicine cabinet anymore.  Beside a few "need to grab now" bottles of headache meds and tums, households usually have more meds than what would fit in this little space.

Anyways,

BEFORE:

AFTER:

 Love the little baskets from dollar store.  I can pull down the whole thing to dig out my makeup instead of little bottles falling into the sink all the time.

Day 12: Spices

This was long overdue at my house.  Erik is a spice-whore.  Anything for wild game, fish, grilling, and steaks he will try.

We are also fans of bulk-sized seasonings as you can see.

BEFORE:

We had 5 cabinets mostly dedicated to spices and baking.

ALL the spices out on the counter:

AFTER:

Condensed to the right and the left cabinets and baking stuff on the top now since I don't use that stuff as much as the spices.

I love the cabinet holders (on the right) for all my small spices that never stacked in the cupboard!

I also labeled the tops of the bulk bottles and layed them on their side for easier access.



Day 11: Freezer

I took out EVERYTHING and wiped down the entire inside with 50/50 vinegar and water.  I washed the door shelves in the sink and put them back.  The whole process took me 20 minutes and was muchly needed!

BEFORE:

Lots of half-full veggies because we couldn't tell what we already had opened. 

Everything piled in.  One of those freezers you need 2 hands to take anything out so stuff doesn't come toppling down on your toes.

AFTER:

A space just for the freezer mugs:

 All the meats are in the bottom pull-out basket.  I bought those blue baskets with handles at the dollar store and they hold the open veggie bags and ice shot glasses.  Yes, I said ice shot glasses. :)



Day 10: Laundry Room

First I must explain that we have an severly old, unfinished, concrete basement that was built in 1929.  A corner of this space is my laundry space. 

Let's just say I'm surprised no mice or droppings were found during this project.  Only 1 dead cricket :)

To give you the full effect, I'm going to show you before and after's of each section:

SPACE BEFORE:

Cupboards pretty bare and unused.  You have to manuever around that drying rack, which is always in the way (and behind me is my never used iron board).  The pile there is Erik's coats and camo from last hunting season.  Washed or unwashed, I don't know, but I threw them on the pool table for him to pick through later!

SPACE AFTER:

Rack is out of the way, iron board is on top of the cupboards, pile is gone and a cute 3-Drawer unit was added for storage.

****

DOUBLE CUPBOARDS BEFORE:

Why I have steering fluid and motor oil down here is beyond me.

DOUBLE CUPBOARDS AFTER:

My homemade laundry soap all on the top shelf and less used stuff like water, iron and hunting soaps on the bottom of the right cupboard.  I still have 2 almost empty jugs of Clorox and found 2 brand new HUGE jugs in this process that I stored in the left cupboard.

Also in the left cupbard now, I freed up a whole shelf of pantry space by moving PT, TP, paper plates, napkins and plastic-ware here!

****

PILE BEFORE:

WHAT PILE?

Hid that old, ugly trunk behind the laundry separater.

3-Drawer unit hold light bulbs, sponges/shammies, and ziplocks.

****

EXTRAS CUPBOARD BEFORE:

Top is all by Coupon-steals I've accumulated.

Bottom is extra cleaners.

EXTRAS CUPBOARD AFTER:

Deodarant found a basket home, re-sorted all the beauty products and meds.

Bottom: I hated seeing all those chemicals again.  I forgot they were down there.  WHAT am I going to do with 4 bottles of Pledge and 6 bottles of Scrubbing Bubbles?  I'll keep them for now, but I'm really into this healthy environment thing.  I don't like the idea of speading toxins all over my counters and floors anymore.  Whole new way of thinking for me!

****

ONE MORE TIME-FINAL RESULT!



Day 9: Toys

Since Alan turned 3 a few weeks ago, I had already gone through his toys as I always do before birthdays and Christmas.  BUT, his closet has been needing some TLC.

You remember when you have a newborn and you can still hang some of your stuff in his closet?  Well I decided once 3 year hit, he needed the closet space.

BEFORE:

Lots of stuff piled above and below.  Coats and Too Big Clothing items hanging with no real order.  Hidden in the right corner is an organizer full of MY old craft stuff and hidden to the left, crib accessories we won't use anymore.

AFTER:

I love the hanging shoe holder I found.  Now Alan can reach his jammies and on the upper half, I stored pants that are too big still.  I bought the shelf unit and it holds little tubs from the dollar store for action figures, little people, instruments, sports stuff, etc.

I also put all his "tool" in a tub on the floor (not shown), and his train set and misc firetruck/bus/barn large toys fit on the floor now too.  Easy to grab and easy to put away!



I also got a wild hair and made him an art/book corner.  Another shoe holder holds all his coloring and painting stuff, and small books and stickers.  Note that only the Color Wonder markers and paints are REACHABLE at this point. :)



Day 8: "Coat" Closet

No coat closet at this house, but I knew what closet I would need to tackle today.

It's the hall closet...drum roll please...

BEFORE:

Top half and bottom half pictures.

We have beach towels, boxes to electronics, cleaners, medicine drawer, games, scrapbooking stuff and gift bags/tissue.  It's a grab-bag of sorts.

I just had to snap a pic of all the crap I pulled out of that little space too:

(can you spot Dex?  No, he didn't come out of the closet)

AFTER:

• Resorted the boxes at the very top (got rid of some)
• Got rid of one shelf so I could fit the 3-drawer unit for medicines/1st aid and stack the 2 bigger drawers for candles and sunblock/aloe
• Re-sorted cleaning stuff with Sewing kit.  Mostly just my swiffer stuff here (for now).

On the lower half:

• Got rid of 5 games we haven't played in years and re-sorted the current ones (added a basket for cards and farkle!)
• On floor, I shoved my scrapbooking kit in the back because who am I kidding? also in the back is a black holder with all my reusable shopping bags.  I have  a lot of those.
• Rolled up beach towels now in a storage bin and a little easier to get to for the summer months.  Can put this in the basement during the winter.

The gift bags/tissue is all gone but I went through it and it now looks like this in the spare room:

Much better I think!



Day 7: Pantry

Holy crackers and noodles, this was a mess!

This is the pantry unit we have in the kitchen that gets used everyday.

Top space is just my nutrisystem lunches and dinners.

The middle and bottom sections was a lot of "I don't want to take it downstairs so I'm going to throw it in here" kind of a mess.

BEFORE:

AFTER!

I made room for our paper plate caddy and alan's snacks have a special basket now.

I also really like that basket that hangs from the shelf.  It has opened bags of noodles and rice in it.

PANTRY SPACE #2:

aka: Coupon Central

So I sort of "stock up" when I see a good deal and this is where it goes.

It got so out of control this winter that stuff was just getting left in the bags on the floor because I didn't think I had space.

AFTER!

Turns out with a few baskets added, I had plenty of space.