Master bedroom closet: A state of disaster

Our closet is a disaster. I mean literally. It basically makes me nauseous to pick out my clothes and get dressed in the morning--it's that bad. In the last few years I have gone from my oh so wonderful walk in closet in an apartment, to my parents where I had double closets, and when I was at my sister's, I still maintained a closet at my parents. So I was not lacking in closet space in the slightest. Until now. I have to share my closet (ew, I know) and I don't get to take over anyone else's closet or any kind of space. It is a sub-par situation. Okay, closet space does not rate that high in the grand scheme of things but it does rate high enough to get its very own blog post and cause me great irritation everyday.
I knew that our situation needed to be re-evaluated when after both of us got dressed for the day we ended up with this---clothes in baskets and clothes on the floor that were in baskets before becoming overturned in a frantic search to find--something.

This is embarrassment people, seriously, I wouldn't even want my sister to see this! But its all for a good cause right?

Seriously. Its a lot to take in, right? Your poor eyes probably can't even focus. Let me break down the mess for you.

 

Does it make you a little nauseous? Because it sure made me want to run away screaming! Which leads us to our first step.

1. Admit you have a problem.

I have no problem admitting we have a serious problem here people! We had a problem long before we reached this point. But its not like I am the kind of person who is okay with this kind of situation, I am very much not okay with it. And I sort of have a system in place….its just not working for our space, lives, and needs. So that is about as useful as no system at all. I have a lot of clothes, I mean a lot. so I have hanging clothes which are color coordinated and hung within their color by sleeve length. If not for the quantity this part of the system would be working fine. That aspect of the system will stay throughout the closet makeover, I think. That pink laundry basket holds the majority of my sweaters. The totes next to the pink basket hold long sleeve colored t-shirts, then neutral long sleeve shirts, then regular t-shirts, followed by jeans, and on the bottom are the less worn heavy and fur lined sweatshirts and hoodies. So it is a system, just not an effective one.  So I need to start from square one.

Be sure to check out the top of the closet too…..

Oh, and this stack of clothes over here too!

Now that we have established that we have a serious issue we can get started. Or at least try to get started. The first step in my mission organization-- damage control. Get things back into a livable situation. That means everything refolded and sorted into their proper genre.

Yep, unmade bed. Add that to the list. It happens when one of us get up early and the other works nights and sleeps til nearly noon. Also, clearly cheez-its are a normal midnight snack??

Remember those new tubs in the first picture? I had actually snagged them at Target prior to the disaster. I knew I needed to expand and re-evaluate prior to the huge explosion. Here's one of those new totes now. Filled with folded dress pants. Dress pants should be hung! You're screaming at your computer screens right now, I can tell. I know this and its in the plans, just not today. And the totes will get used, so its not like I wasted money on the nice totes for a transitional period.

See that stack of dress pants on the far left side of the dresser? Those are some of the pants that made it into the new totes. I don't want to talk about the disastrous state of the rest of the dresser. And yes that is a random pink craft supply organizer. Don't ask why, I have no idea.

So for awhile, I continued on with the damage control. And stared into the depths of my closet, searching my brain for a new and brilliant system. With nothing brilliant coming to mind, I spent a while just moving stuff around, back and forth.

Look! Neat and tidy folded towels. I think that was the only neat and organized thing in the room at the time. ugh. 

I used to have a little "antique" dresser in the closet, that was my grandmothers. It was jam packed full of craft type supplies and a few school things. I emptied it out and moved it out into the living room. Leaving me with glorious empty space in my closet.

So I picked up the random things and vacuumed the space. The bags went into a big tub and the flip flops got stuck in a pile to get stashed away with other summer things. 

 Sigh, look at the glorious {small} empty space! I thought that this would be a good place to stash some more of those totes. For right now anyway.

To make way for a recycled shelving unit from my mom, I moved our laundry hamper into the closet. My scrapbook bag is actually tucked away behind it. Not sure if it will stay there or not.
By this time, I had more laundry to fold. So to escape the disaster area, I took my laundry to the living room to fold and watched an episode of Rizzoli and Isles (I heart that show)

I really think the amount of laundry we have is seriously expanding. I know at one point, when we moved in, all of our clothes were put away. At least I think they all fit?  But maybe that was before my mommy sent me all the clothes from my closet at home. Isn't she helpful?

And a basket of socks from the the many loads of laundry that are just waiting to find their mate.

In the mean time, I also got this little shelving unit from my mom. And I had these itso bins from Target for ages just sitting around. So I popped them into the shelves and filled them up with tank tops and sweaters. Moving the sweaters freed up some space on the top shelf of my closet and I popped the tub with my bags into its space. The relocation of my tank tops left an open drawer under the bed. Side note: My daddy made my bed frame and it has these nice little drawers underneath and a nice tall headboard with a shelf and two more drawers. It's so nice!
Here's a quick progression of that small space:

my recycled shelves and already owned bins

just pop them into place--perfect fit!

fill a few bins with sweaters

nicely color coordinated tank tops

pop some pretty tanks into two bins

and then think for a minute and change your mind….

move fleece jackets into those bins

switch pretty tanks over to two smaller bins

After the move in of my new totes and the shelves from my mom, I was spent. I seriously had no idea what else to do. I knew that the space was still not functional. I also knew that I wasn't going to think of anything brilliant on my own. So what did I do? What anyone does who needs some brilliant collaboration! Call your sister!

It didn't even take that much bribery. And she even agreed to come the next day. Wah-hoo! I said she could bring the kidlets and I would provide some form of supper. I can handle that. So the night before the sister closet makeover project, I popped over to Walmart after work. I would have preferred Target, but since Walmart is literally across the parking lot from my after school job, I settled for that.

I headed straight for the closet organization isle….

It's kind of intimidating to stare at all the options….no idea which ones to choose for my space. I came home with an arsenal of closet organizing supplies. I got a few things since I didn't know what our plan of attack was going to be. I wanted to have all the accoutrements available to us. (I love it when I can throw that word in, it is one of my favorite words).

Let's hope my brilliant sister can come up with something brilliant to do with these!! Sometimes you just need two minds instead of one. My brain could only think of my current system and nothing new, poor sad brain, it needed help.

So we set to work and while it was a slow beginning, we finally got to a workable situation. At least it is the best we could come up with at the time and maintain our budget of well basically nothing.


The sorting process got serious:

  The sorting continues….this time I got a bit more serious. Pulling some things out for my niece and some for Goodwill. I also sorted things out out to go into totes to make room for my new sweater hanger and dress pant hangers.

We ended up with a few extra hangers.

we popped in the new sweater hanger...

started putting in dress pants...

We were getting close to a "completed project". Only a few more things left.

My sweater hanger ended up being a bit fuller than I had anticipated. But I swear my school is actually in Antarctica, so I wear a sweater pretty much every day. I pick out an outfit, thinking its going to be all cute. And then I have to adjust it because otherwise I will literally shiver all day long! Last step we just popped the other totes in, in the place of the laundry hamper.

We gave up and called it quits after that.
Here's what we ended up with:

I know it's still not perfect, but its a whole lot better than where we started!! 

So here's the bf's side:

On his top shelf on the left are sweats, slicks and jerseys. In the middle are his two tubs with shorts and a few jeans then hats on top. Next to his tub are the hoodies he wears a lot and his new jeans.

Here's his tiny side of the hanging space.

Separating our hanging sections is a sweater organizer. I actually returned the original one that I bought at WalMart and got this one at Menards. It had a prettier pattern and seemed a little tougher and I knew it was going to be jam packed full. Each shelf is categorized by color, with the last shelf containing all the random colored sweaters.

Now we head over to my side, which in reality is most of the closet.  My top shelf holds the red tub with bags that used to be on the floor of the closet, then my scrapbook bag, followed by my bin of workout clothes. All are still within easy access. I decided to move the totes that used to live here because climbing a step ladder to get my everyday clothes was not really as convenient as I thought it might be.

The totes from the top, plus a few more, moved down here to the bottom of the closet. Essentially they make up another dresser in the closet--just not quite in the standard dresser form.

Next to my sweater sorter are all of my dress pants. They are on those pants hangers that I snagged at WalMart. They would work much better if they weren't jammed full. Yep, more than 20 pairs of dress pants. I probably need to go through them again and be a bit more brutal. I just like to have a lot of options :)

And here's my side of the hanging clothes…a much smaller section than what it used to be.

So it took a long time, and its still not perfect, but it is soooo much better than it was and I know that it will greatly improve our morning routines. I am super excited to see how it works out in practice. I ended up giving a few bags of clothes to my niece and a some after that went on to be donated to Goodwill.

And just for impact, a before and after:

That makes the end result seem so much better and I am so happy with it :)

chemo brain

If you have been following our little blog for a while now, you already know that my sister-Niki (I'm Shannon) was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma on December 21, 2011. ((a little over a year ago!)) We then had the craziest year! Niki started {and finished} radiation and chemo therapy- yep, both in under a year. wow. She currently has good blood work and scans, but has not been given the "cancer free" all clear yet, but we are thankful for her current good health and keep our fingers crossed everyday.
 Anyway the moral of the post....one of the things that a lot of people talked about was "chemo brain". We are now serious believers. And I think I caught it too...maybe it rubbed off from her or the cancer center? Basically they say that you are just super forgetful and well for lack of a more intelligent word, spaztastic. okay, maybe that was a made up word. Either way, chemo brain is totally a real thing.

And so because of our collective chemo brain, we require a lot of to do lists and notes, and more lists, and checklists, and planners, and reminders....you get the idea. We're quite the situation. Presently I am carrying two planners around with me, and have been for a few weeks now. I know, real cool.

To demonstrate the severity of the situation, please enjoy these photos:

It is totally okay to obsessively plan your menu based on what is in the sale ads :) And then come home only to realize that you need an advanced degree to be crafty enough to fit everything into your tiny apartment freezer.

I have a weekly cleaning checklist- (like this one)

 And an overall cleaning checklist like this:

They are both stored in the home maintenance section of my home management binder but are referenced daily to keep me on track!

I also have a full page running to do list that I don't actually use that often now that I made these little cuties to keep with my planner.

It matches the theme of our new home management binder documents, but the bright theme works well with my bright yellow planner. I am in to lots of bright colors lately.

We have also been known to keep an arsenal of different sizes, shapes, and colors of post it notes.

Since Niki has little kidlets, she also gets to have special kid to do lists- I made these little cuties for her. They are just stuck to her fridge with magnets. easy peasy.

You may also notice that they match the new home management binder theme. That was not an accident. I planned that beauty. They will match the home management binder that Niki WILL be making. She is forced, but I know she will love it, so it's okay.

And since it also happens to be the beginning of the month, that means it's time to fill out all your calendars, planners, lists, etc. It makes me almost giddy. And because of the new year, it means a new wall calendar! woo-hoo! I made wall calendars for myself, my sister, and our mom this year. I think I did okay for my first time.

 A new calendar for my desk at school--

A brand new 2013 planner- I made a few changes from the one I made part way through last year, but it is essentially the same.  I have already found wonderful inspiration for next years- almost kicking myself for being so prompt and having mine done before I saw some of these other wonderful planners.

Jot down a few goals for the week--

Make plans and notes for the week---

In other completely unrelated news...this little cutie got added to my desk at school after Christmas (a gift from my mommy) I have never had a desk at work to display photos on, so why not go digital and have a ton of photos in one small space :)

And for you, in celebration of Niki's 1 year cancer anniversary: a bright shiny new to do list :)

  Just click the image to download your FREE copy from Dropbox. This download will be available for a limited time only, so grab yours today!

Have a great weekend everyone!

organize our…..office space

In the spirit of New Years resolutions we are participating in a link challenge put on by several bloggers. We found it via cleanmama. This week's challenge is organize your office. I don't really have an office. Since we have 3 people in a two bedroom apartment, that clearly leaves no room for an office.  So I have a desk in the corner of the living room, classy I know. But it works okay for our situation. But add in the Christmas Tree and there's not much space. I have my printers stacked underneath the desk and printer paper is stashed in a wire basket.

 Here's the space….

 Yeah, my tree is still up. I wasted my holiday break from school being sick. In fact I'm still not back to 100% and I go back tomorrow.

 Here's what my desk looked like when I started. vomit.

Here's what it looked like after my first round of cleaning. Its not bad, but still not as good as it needed to be.

  I didn't have that much to do in reality. I needed to get rid of things that didn't belong there, throw away unneeded papers, and get bill and loan paperwork in order.

 I already had these student loan folders, they just werent' being used to their full potential being shoved at the bottom of the basket, so they needed a new home.

All of my bills, receipts, etc, that needed to be filed got stashed in this nice heavy duty bag. I think I got it at Target. I'm waiting on a nice square leather file box with a lid from my mommy to put everything in. So this is just temporary, but I think I will use it to store each month's paperwork until it gets filed. That way things can be somewhat organized and I can file things once a month without having a disaster in the meantime. The new file box will probably live on the floor next to the desk, about where the Christmas tree is now.

And here's the last pile of unneeded papers that needed to be thrown away. Disclosure: this was after round 2, there was much more thrown away the first time.


And here's my clean desk. I know its still got a lot of junk on top that needs to be re-evaluated and dealt with, but I don't have any nice office storage…so that's where it all stays for now.

I do store some of my things in this little dresser that used to be in my closet and got kicked out during my first round closet clean out. ( apparently all my cleaning projects go in stages??)

  Here's a peek at what's inside:

The top drawer- a dollar spot tray from Target, holding checks, camera, and coupons. Also my Dove white chocolate stash :) and a spare dog leash.

 The second drawer holds the student loan folders I mentioned earlier, the bag holding all my papers, page protectors, and laminating sheets.

On the right side of the bottom are a few binders- one for our etsy shop, one for coupons, and one from prom last year. 

And this basket lives on the left side of the bottom….yay for finally joining the washi tape bandwagon!

So just to recap here's a before and after. I know its not the best transformation but I don't have a lot to work with in my current living situation. But it does look much better now than it did before :)

organizing our new year

The holidays are a wonderful time of year. We can all agree on that right? But the after the holidays part is well not so great. I can't imagine that we are the only ones who came home with an overwhelming amount of new and wonderful things to find a home for. Our tiny apartment living room was already stuffed full with out Christmas tree then we added all of our new Christmas things and you could hardly walk through!
So to make room for all the new things I needed to do some serious purging, cleaning, and rearranging. And then in my email I found this little delight:

A wonderful way to get myself motivated to get things done right away!!  So we, (or maybe just me?), are going to get our game faces on and get some serious new years cleaning done! hooray!


There are also some other new years projects going on our there in blogland. I'm sure we haven't found them all, but we are going to do our best to follow along with any that we find :)

Stay tuned to see what we can manage to accomplish! Have your own blog? Play along with us, or use pinterest to link up too!

And don't forget to check out our organize your new year sale in our etsy shop-- all of our home management binder documents are on sale plus a few other organizing documents. Our sale ends January 31st, so there's still time to get your order in!