Tag: Organization

Still Organizing the Closet

I had a few hours to work on the office closet while Eleanor was being watched yesterday afternoon, but it was not enough time to finish. I thought I could continue after putting Eleanor to bed, but no. She’s teething, getting five teeth at once (four of them molars), so she has been a wee bit cranky.

Still, the closet is looking so much better already from using the organizational odds and ends that I already had. Here’s a little inspiration though to check out while I continue working… How gorgeous are these Stockholm files? Lovely.

July 15, 2010
I’m Going In
I may not make it back out for a few hours… at least. This is item #12 on my 30 Before Thirty list: organize the catch-all closet in my office. Don’t you love how you can’t even see the floor? Wish me luck.

Notable contents:
- giant styrofoam ball
- argyle dog sweater vest
- every issue of Domino and Blueprint
- IKEA catalogs dating back to 2002
- five rolls of vintage wallpaper
- acoustic guitar
- my wedding dress
- empty boxes to be recycled
- embroidered Serge Gainsbourg pillow
- vintage 50s fur coat that was given to me over a decade ago but that I have never, ever worn and probably never will because I feel weird in it
July 14, 2010
Book Storage in the Bedroom

I am working with American Express to redo my bedroom. This week they have provided me with 150,000 Membership Rewards points.

The books in our bedroom doth overflow. We filled our library bookshelves long ago, and now the books are starting to amass into random piles throughout our home. We are planning to donate some of our books to the library, but we could still use more storage for the volumes we intend to keep.

Our bedroom is somewhat small (12’x12′) and with a queen size bed, two nightstands, and my freestanding wardrobe, there isn’t a lot of room left for other furniture. There is a small space between the door and the closet though, and I found a bookshelf console table that fits perfectly. I’ve already redeemed some of this week’s points and I can’t wait to get the bookshelf in the room so I can put our books away.

I was considering placing a mirror over the bookshelf, but I’m going to use a metal wall sculpture instead. Also, Brandon and I have decided that we are going to go ahead and paint the room in Martha Stewart’s ‘Zinc’. So we’ll have art with an antiqued zinc piece on a wall painted in ‘zinc’; I don’t know why I like that so much, but I find it charming.

May 26, 2010
CD Storage and Organization

Brandon and I have just finished transferring all of our CDs into slim CD sleeves. We kept the specially packaged discs as-is, but I wish we had switched out the generic plastic cases long ago because getting rid of them was a fantastic way to condense our collection!

I know many people keep their discs in binders or just go completely digital, but CD sleeves work best for us. Yes, we’ve imported a lot of our music into iTunes, but there is something to be said for being able to grab an obscure CD and pop it into the stereo rather than having to update a playlist and resync the iPod.

Organizing our collection this way allows for easy expansion while still keeping it all alphabetical. We also like that we can keep a handful of discs by the stereo safe in their sleeves, rather than having them sit out unprotected as they would be had we grabbed them from a binder. We ordered from JewelSleeve after Ana mentioned them when I asked for CD storage advice. Brandon and I love that the sleeves can hold the booklet and the tray card, leaving the spine with the artist and album title visible for easy browsing. If you’re looking for CD sleeves, I highly recommend them!

We’re storing all of our CDs, DVDs, and video games (we have a lot of media) in three hopen drawer units in Brandon’s office.

They look great and they’re working well for us, but I do have one complaint; the drawers don’t open fully and it’s hard to see what’s at the back. To counteract this, we placed blocks at the back to push the CDs forward. The blocks are made of 5″ wide boards of thick foam-core (available in craft stores), stacked up to make 3″ tall blocks. Then I cut single strips of thin foam-core to separate each row of CDs, keeping our rows nice and neat.

The random stacks of CDs that we didn’t have room for are gone now. All of our discs (1500 or so) fit nicely into four drawers, and it feels so good to have solved one of our biggest storage dilemmas.

April 26, 2010
Cutest Dish Rack Ever

We added a dishwasher back when we remodeled our kitchen, but I’ve been washing Eleanor’s bottles, bowls, and spoons by hand. A tea towel on the counter worked well for laying everything out to dry, but then I found the grass drying rack by Boon. It’s adorable.

I tried to make the other side of the sink cute too. The green soap dispenser is for hand soap, and the olive oil bottle is for dish soap.

The green one is great but the other isn’t working out as well. I liked the look of it much more than any actual dispensers I had seen, so I thought I was being very clever when I bought it. When I tried to use it though, I realized I’d have to dilute the soap considerably for it to pour through the spout. Oh well. At least I tried, right?

March 16, 2010
Ideas for an Organized Garage
It is totally unnecessary, but sometimes I think about making the inside of our garage cute. I would add pegboard painted in a fun, cheery color (à la Martha Stewart), and inexpensive shelving painted to match. This is pretty much what I have in mind…

Wouldn’t it be nice to come home to a lovely, colorful, organized garage? Do any of you have enviable spaces like that?
March 10, 2010