The Tale of an Organized Pantry

Once upon a time, a girl named Liz, who loved organizing, had met her match. She had rescued many closets, shelves, and rooms from despair,

but her pantry defeated her time and time again.

before

SO EMBARRASSING!

One of her dear friends named Lauren, a professional organizer, 

offered to defeat the pantry once and for all.  

She arrived with bags and bags of organizational accessories,

from baskets to glass canisters, all of Liz's favorites!

Lauren swept in and cleared out every inch of the pantry,

wiping down all the shelves and their contents as she went.

isn't she darling?!!

who wouldn't want to spend the day with her while she organizes your life!

When Liz arrived home from running errands, 

she was in utter amazement at how her pantry had been transformed!  The shelves were beautiful and most importantly functional.

 loving my expandable shelves and baskets

 she added storage on the doors and utilized the awkward back corner space

 love these baskets that she used to organize our snack foods 

 love. love. love. opening my pantry door and seeing this

Liz, her family and their pantry lived happily ever after!

 Lauren truly is so talented in creating order amongst chaos!

 If you live in the Houston area and would like Lauren's help in organizing

ANY area of your home, you can email her:

Lauren (dot) L (dot) Sloan (at) Gmail (dot) com

Organizing Systems

Back in July I went on a serious organizing spree through the closets in our house,

which led me to discover other areas in our home that needed some serious

organizing assistance...

The primary spot being our kitchen island and coffee bar.

From the stools at the island to available counter space,

its the first place we tend to leave our

keys, letters, movie rentals, bills, broken toys, to-do-lists, shopping bags, etc.

And let's not forget the side of the refrigerator - covered in invitations, save-the-dates, and pictures...

I didn't realize, prior to the closet-clean-out,

how inefficient our " stashing system" had become.

We needed to find something that could organize mail and bills, hang keys, 

display pictures and invitations, hold to-do-lists...

(Enter "Pottery Barn Daily Organizing System")

See! All of their papers and random items look purposeful.

Where are we going to hang this, so that it will actually be useful?

On the wall entering the laundry room, right across from the kitchen.

It was just the right width to hold the necessary pieces.

Love it when that happens!

We ordered it the first week in August, and apparently 

lots of other PB shoppers have found this to be incredibly useful...

most pieces were on backorder :(

I have been SO patient.

The first shipment arrived 3 weeks ago, two more pieces are coming this week,

and the final pieces (2 cork boards) will be delivered mid-September.

But after this week's shipment, we'll have enough to actually hang and begin using,

until the last pieces arrive.

It's funny how annoyed we now are with the clutter, that didn't seem to bother us before! 

Are there areas in your home that store clutter? and drive you crazy?

Or do you have some great organizing systems you'd like to share?

project::office i moved in...but not really

so a little while ago i decided that i needed a spot for my desk,

but reluctantly chose its new home to be in hubby's office.

i reallllllly wanted his office to be his man room, 

and was so sad that i couldn't find another spot besides this wall

the other desk moved out

and this adorable desk from jess moved in...

although it fit perfectly there,

it just wasn't working with my vision for the room.

and then i saw this. my once organized closet.

and thought to myself, "hmmm, i wonder if my cute little desk could fit in there?"

as we cleaned out the clutter, my mind was racing with ideas.

i just had a feeling...

that it would fit perfectly! without an inch to spare!

the closet was transformed into my own personal "mom cave"

within hubby's "man cave"

he was prepared to remove the doors in order to make it fit.

but thankfully we didn't need to!

my mom cave/ desk nook!

and when i'm not using it, 

i can just shut the doors and hubby's man cave won't even know that i'm there!

and remember when i shared my inspiration board for hubby's office?

i had my eye on a ballard designs desk chair...

but it's price tag was around $300...

well the other day i was at my mom's house, 

and spotted a nearly identical one in the corner of a guest room!

after i squealed and said how perfectly it would look in the office,

of course she let me bring it home!

and it's perfect!

the chair-back design is soooo similar to the BD one that i'd wanted!

i am just loving my mom cave, and have added some great details to the space 

since these pictures. so, stay tuned!

more pictures soon to come!

and in case you're wondering, we moved the file cabinets to another closet...

and got rid of most of the hubby's junk stuff that was living on those shelves.

project::office these are a few of his favorite things

after we moved the bookcases around here,

 it was time to organize and create a purposeful space.

not purposeful. uck.

in this picture, the items are in disarray and the shelves look junky,

even though there are some super sentimental items amongst the junkyness.

so, we sifted through and placed some items in a box for goodwill,

while setting aside other items that were really important to hubby.

below are the items we deemed worthy of a spot on the shelves:

a calligraphy of Proverbs 3:16 to remind him to commit all of his creative, entrepreneur ideas to the Lord

an autographed football. can't quite figure out who signed it, but i'm sure he knows.

one of his best friends flew this flag over Iraq in his fighter plane on hubby's birthday. 

hubby's first captains hat. it's sailed over many oceans and seas.

our first sail boat. hopefully someday we'll buy one that we can actually sail on together!

quite purposeful.


what are some of the sentimentals that fill your shelves and bookcases?

project::office, closet clean-up

::this is the 1st post in the series project::office ::

the room in our house that has received the least attention is definitely hubby's office.

it's not that i don't want him to have an nice office, but

 i can shut the doors and don't enter if i don't want to.

but it's time to face the music and deal with it, head on.

on saturday, hubby was gone for the day,

and little one takes looong afternoon naps,

so i decided to make myself useful for those 3 hours.

::before::

 i'm embarrassed to even reveal that disaster

ahh!!!

::during::

i was making great progress, and either trashing stuff or setting it aside for donating
i just needed something great to help with my organization.
once little one woke up we headed to michael's...they always have a great selection of baskets
and sure enough they had a huge clearance area and i picked up these organizational tools for 1/2 off!

::after::

ta-da! 

check out those mad organizing skills.

i am going to make labels for our new baskets,

and i'm also thinking about spray painting the black file cabinet white,

and maybe even the shelves white, too.

but for now i'm going to love the organization and not worry about those pesky details.

beginning bits of spring cleaning

it's better to start small than to not start at all.

it's even better to start with something
that will make your hubby smile :) 

husband's pet peeve:
not finding the matching lid for the plasticware container

while he's cleaning up after dinner

i definitely don't want to discourage him from doing that!
 so, cade and i set out to organize all the many pieces

problem #1: 3 different brands = many mismatching pieces

solution #1:  organize by brand

then pick the brand with the most matches

this will make him smile :)
 

problem #2: what to do with all the leftovers?

solution #2: add them to your little helpers toy box

and that's just the beginning of what we'll organize this season!

create peace amongst the clutter

Clutter. Blah.


 When I find clutter, I am filled with the desire to
destroy. every. particle. 
However, that would be entirely impractical.
Solution? Organize it.
It will create a little peace in your home ;)

Sit back and relax, as I suggest for you some organizational tips

First up, your closet.  

{1} The right hanger makes all the difference in the world.  Trust me.  If you are using wire hangers, throw them away!  Don't even think twice about it.  Drop them in the trash can on your way to Target.
Most dry cleaners will also accept them. That would be a nice way to recycle your "unwanteds."

Personally, I like to stick with white, although random colors tend to sneak their way in from hubby's side (he's just not as picky).

wifey's side

hubby's side

My sister (in-law) - just to clarify but we drop that silly ending - uses white for shirts, black for dresses, and blue for pants.  Another great idea.
ps: she loves organizing,too
  Just make sure they're plastic!!

{2} Color coordinate. This might sound crazy, or overwhelming, but it insures that every piece of clothing fits in its appropriate scheme.
This technique also helps you resist the urge to jam the hangers in a random spot as you hurriedly hang up the clean laundry.

That should be enough to work on for one day.  Now, off with you, and rid yourself of those wire hangers!