Family Time

I know it's been a few days since I've blogged, but I have taken a vacation to the beach with my amazing husband and didn't plan to blog until I got back.   However, in the quiet of this morning it hit me that I needed to blog today.  Not about organizing a pantry, or a closet, or an office, but simply, life.

When I was a young girl my mother and father instilled in me how important order was in our home and life.  He was military, need I say more.  However, he had a loving way, along with Mom, of teaching us order.  Yes, our beds had to be made every morning, and yes we had our dish night and so on and so on.  But more importantly, we had things like, Game Night and Sunday mass together (all 9 of us).  They made sure we spent time together, as a family.  We have so many memories that my family still finds endearing today.   It wasn't until I was much older and on my own that I came to really appreciate those values.

I have gone through a few ups and downs in my life, but I always tried to keep things in my life in order.  I kinda look at life this way:  if I  took a pie and cut it into slices and then gave a slice to each part of my life that was important to me, what and/or who would get each slice and how big,  or small,  would each slice be?  What order would I give out the slices?  Would it always stay the same, or would the order and/or size change?

Sometime I give bigger slices to things then I should.  Sometimes people and/or things want to take bigger pieces than they deserve and even sometimes they want the whole pie.  I have to constantly remind myself that too much of a good thing can be a bad thing! 

So, what does your pie look like today? Who or what gets the bigger pieces?

Office/Craft Room Command Central

When I decided to make one of my spare bedrooms into my Office/Craft room awhile back, I had some blank space on one of the walls and knew I wanted some type of command center to fill it. After looking around at local stores and online,  I could not find exactly what I wanted, so I decided to make it myself.

I started with measuring the space to get the most out of the blank wall.  Then I took off to Lowe's to hunt for the materials I needed to complete my task.   I wanted a white pegboard, and was pretty excited to find they actually carried it (which eliminated the painting steps).  However, I did notice that Lowe's carries pegboards in brown, so if you want it in a different color you could certainly prime and paint it.

Once I found my pegboard, I picked up several hooks of different shapes and sizes to hang my items on the board.  I already thought about what I wanted to go on the board, so I knew before I left home what hooks I was looking for.

My next stop was the wood trim area because I wanted to frame the pegboard to give it a finished look.  There are lots of different types of trim to choose from and this was the one that caught my eye  (it didn't come in black, but I had a satin finish black spray paint for wood at the house already).

In order to hang the pegboard on the wall I needed four screws and rubber washers to create a gap between the wall and board for the hooks to be able to be placed into the pegboard properly.

After locating a nice salesperson to custom cut the pegboard and trim it to the measurements I needed, I was on my way home to begin my project.

The assembly of my Command Central Pegboard took very little time.  I used a wood glue and attached my painted trim, and after the proper drying time of the the glue, I screwed it into the wall. (It's definitely helpful to have an extra pair of hands to help guide you with the rubber washers.)

The only thing left was placing my hooks where I wanted them and then attaching my things!!

What do you think?

I purchased the round containers from The Container Store online (oh how I wish we would get this store in my city). The containers have a magnet on the back of them and attach to the magnetic strip.

The file organizer and canisters were purchased at Office Depot and the file folders are from Vera Bradley.  I took some leftover ribbon I already had and hot glued it around the canisters.

I love to put inspirational items throughout my home and the gold leaf that you see was a gift brought back to me from New York.  The leaf was molded from an actual Sweet Gum leaf that was within a 500 mile radius of the site of the World Trade Center.  It's their plan to plant hundreds of Sweet Gum trees at the memorial site as a hopeful symbol of bringing new life to the rebuild area.

Do you have a Command Center that you would like to share? Would love to hear from you!!

Happy Organizing!

Pantry Reveal!

My most favorite organizing projects are those spent with my family. This past weekend I spent with my oldest daughter, Kelly, making over her kitchen pantry. I would be remiss if I didn't mention that my son-in-law, Brad, was in on the "fun" also.  (Thanks again Brad for all of your help and support!)

Kelly and I had many conversations about what she wanted her pantry to look like, and more importantly, how she wanted it to function.  She and Brad both work full time and have full plates outside of work, so she really wanted the pantry to be efficient to their lifestyle.

So, after a few purchases and a little bit of planning, I give you the reveal:

Now, I'll take you through how our time was spent.

The first step of the project was removing everything from the pantry, and purging the items that were either expired or could be donated to a food bank.  Following that, we did a run through of our layout just to make sure we figured right on where things were going to go.

Next, we cleaned the shelves and walls to remove any debris. And then the biggest challenge of the project began....the wallpaper!  Ohhhh, the wallpaper!  I'm just going to say, it was a challenge!  Considering the fact that neither I, nor she, had ever used wallpaper before, and we weren't working with a full blank wall, and the selected paper had a design in it...well, like I said, it was a challenge!

  

Once the biggest task of getting the wallpaper up was done, then we really got to the fun stuff.  Baskets were labeled with the letters "M", "T", and "W" for dinner meals.  They usually have three cooked meals and one leftover night during the work week, so she wanted to be able to grab a basket that had everything she needed for that night's preparation.  It's also a big help with putting away the groceries.  She wanted smaller baskets for pantry items that they purchase weekly for lunches and snacks.

We found these spice jars for $.99 each at World Market and the color on the lids matches nicely with the Martha Stewart containers.  Additional jars were purchased so she can always add to them as needed.

 She also wanted a place to show many of her beautiful serving plates that they received as wedding gifts just a short year ago.  We picked these racks up at Lowe's.  They are actually for pots and pans but work great for displaying the trays.

The bottom of the pantry holds four baskets that we broke into categories for "plastics and paper",  "grilling", " bar",  and "recycle and thermal bags".  Now everything is in a central location, which cuts down on time of searching for things.

For a final result of:

I'm pretty sure there was a much faster way, and no doubt a less stressful way, of this makeover (at least for the wallpaper),  but I would do it all over again if I knew I was going to have as many laughs and enjoyable  moments with Kelly and Brad as I did this past weekend.  Sometimes we get so caught up in the end result of things in life that we forget to enjoy the journey that got us there. 

I'm thankful for many people in my life but none more greater than my family.

Stay Tuned!

I always get excited when I have an organizing project on the horizon (which happens to be just about everyday)!  Today is no exception.  Actually, I should probably say "this weekend is no exception".

So, here's a little hint about what will take place....

And when we are done I can't wait to see her face!

Come back Monday for the big REVEAL!

A Simple Solution to Storing Jewelry

With all the fun costume jewelry that has become so popular I've found my jewelry inventory has increased as of late. And, while I love love love it all, I have struggled with the best way to store  it.  I love all of the different ways I've seen on Pinterest and in magazines that are like bulletin boards, and I've searched my home for the ideal spot to make one work, but can't seem to find it.

I have tried several different options, but think (hope) I have found one that will work well.  First, I tried using Command hooks which actually held my necklaces well, but I hung them on the back of my office door, which made a noise that frightened anyone in its path when opening or closing it. Not to mention, I still had the dilemma of how to store earrings, pendants,  and bracelets.

Next, I decided to purchase actual jewelry storage containers. Those worked for a little while, but they only fit in my closet on an inconvenient shelf.  The containers were a little pricey, and I probably needed to purchase more, but I wanted to see if I could find something less expensive that would fit in my bathroom drawers.

So, I was pretty excited last week when I found these craft containers for $2.99 at Hobby Lobby.  They fit in my drawers perfectly and I can stack them 2 and 3 deep.  I love that they are see through and I stored the jewelry by category.

I had some sock drawer dividers that a family member was throwing out and placed them in my  dresser drawer to store bracelets only.

I know it's not the prettiest way to store my jewelry, but sometimes simple is the better solution.

I would love for you to share your jewelry storage system. Oh, and feel free to include pictures.

Happy Organizing!

She's home!!

My daughter, Katie, went to Atlanta for a summer vacation, which included amongst other things, an Aerosmith concert and an Atlanta Braves game with her cousins, Uncle Ray, and Aunt Shay Shay.  She always enjoys being with family in Atlanta, even if they give her a hard time because she is a huge Saints and LSU fan! 

I was happy to see her safely home yesterday and enjoyed hearing about all of her fun.  She came home with lots of goodies and memorabilia.   She was so sweet to bring me a gift back and it is very special and thoughtful.   She knows that any time I  see a Cardinal it reminds me of my mother and she found this carved female for me.  I placed it on a table near the window that I look out of to watch the birds on the feeder.  It will always be special to me.

Katie and her sister, Kelly, are always on the lookout for storage and organizing ideas to tell me about, and today was no exception.  We were hardly out of the airport parking lot when she showed me a picture of a Tuesday Morning ad that had these amazing storage containers featured. Of course, I had to go check them out immediately.  We went right over and found this great display of them.

They range in sizes and prices from about $6  - $18. They remind me of Missoni, but for a fraction of the cost.  I also found these others that I really liked as well. 

Has anyone else found and purchased any of these at Tuesday Morning?  Please let me hear from you and share your pictures of how you are using them!

 I just want to say thank you to all of my followers nationally and internationally. I am really enjoying my new hobby of blogging and I get so excited to see that I have followers from all over. 

Happy Organizing!