Cleaning Out for a New Apartment

June 10, 2016June 9, 20162 Comments

opening

Hello everyone! I am excited to announce that I will be moving in July! Okay, maybe not super excited because that means that I have to move all of my stuff. But, I will be moving to a new apartment when my lease is up and I am excited.

So, of course, I have to go through all of my stuff to see what I need and what I don’t need.

I started small with these bags that were under my bed.

Edit Under The Bed

They had a bunch of fabric and shoes that I used for a small project that I don’t do anymore in them. So, of course, I don’t need those anymore and pulled them out to sell at our family’s yard sale this summer. I now have my yarn under the bed instead of at the foot of the bed like I had been doing.

Next, I went through my shoes.

Edit Shoes

Here’s the deal. I have a lot of shoes. So to get rid of 7 pairs is a miracle. I had two boxes full of shoes in my closet along with random shoes in my closet and a rack hanging on my closet door. So, I went through all of my shoes and got rid of some of them. Some will be sold on Poshmark and others will be sold at the yard sale.

Then I went through purses. Here’s the before.

Edit Purses Before

And here’s the after!

Edit Purses After

I got rid of 3 purses. This is like shoes, I love purses. So getting rid of purses is hard to do. So getting rid of 3 is a big deal.

And then I went through my hall closet again and found some things to get rid of like a mesh hamper and some hats that I don’t wear anymore. I also got rid of all of my CD’s because they are all on my iTunes account. And of course some more clothes.

And here’s the end result!

Edit Getting Rid

Yeah…so I got rid of a lot of stuff. And of course I need to get rid of more stuff before I move. But, I think that it’s a good start and of course I will show you my new apartment when I move!

sparkle

Another Closet, Another Organization

May 6, 2016May 5, 201614 Comments

Everyone has a closet that is stuffed full of stuff where you can’t see what’s in there. You know, things like wrapping paper, clothes, suitcases, sheets, and other stuff.

No…just me. Okay.

Anyway. So in my apartment, I have a closet in my bedroom and a hall closet to put all of my stuff in. Now, this may seem like I have a lot of room to put stuff in and store everything. Unfortunately, I have so much stuff that this doesn’t really work out. Because this, is what my hall closet looks like.

There is so much stuff in this closet that I never want to open it because it isn’t clean. I don’t actually know what’s all in the closet, but it is a mess. I had everything from kitchen stuff I wasn’t using to a tool box to jeans because they didn’t fit in my closet or my dresser.

Step 1: Clear out everything in the closet. I literally pulled out everything that was in the closet and set it on the floor and the stairs so that I could see what I all had.

Look! It’s Empty!

Step 2: Find little things that can be stored in other things. So, I had extra sheets for my bed that I kept in the closet. I had my printer box that was still in the closet, so I was able to fit all of the sheets in the printer box to make more room for other items. I also put all of my gift and Christmas stuff (so gift bag, wrapping paper, a small Christmas tree, a tree topper, you get the point) into my big suitcase. It worked out perfectly!

Step 3: Fit everything on shelves about the same size. I put a few of the bigger items on the shelves that they were originally on. I kept the top shelf pretty much the same, printer box, movies, and a bag of craft stuff. I also kept the suitcases on the bottom shelf because they didn’t fit on other shelves. I did move some things, like me jeans, to the floor where there was more room.

Step 4: Put everything back in the closet. Now, it’s time to fit everything else on the shelves. Surprise! You may now be able to fit more stuff in the closet!

Step 5: Step back and admire how nice and neat your closet looks!

I am so happy that I took this apart and back together. It looks much cleaner and organized. I was actually able to place more things in the closet to make my bedroom a little cleaner. Now, if it can actually stay that way, that would be fantastic!

Old Drawer Recycled to a Purse Organizer

April 25, 2016April 23, 201619 Comments

We live on an alley. Needless to say, we find a lot of junk! One day, Haley found these 2 drawers sitting out there, just calling to her that they needed a new home. So they came home with us! Now just to figure out what to do with them!

I was talking with Lauren one day and mentioned that I didn’t know a good way to store my purses. They always seemed to be getting lost in my closet. Voila! An idea was born!

We actually have 2 of these, but I will start out with just one today. I have a couple of ideas for the other one, but I have to pick which one! As you can see, they are pretty big drawers. They were 18 inches across, 23 inches tall and 9 inches deep.

Steve took apart the old cupboards in the laundry room to make space for the lockers, so we had a bunch of wood left from that. Since this would be going in the closet and wouldn’t be a show piece, we just used particle board for the shelves and dividers.

Steve even made the braces for the shelves to sit on. This was a completely free project!!

I measured out some of my purses and then comparing that to the size of the drawer, I came up with the measurements for the cubbies. I wanted 3 large spaces on the bottom for large totes and bags, 4 small spaces for wallets and small handbags, and 2 on top for the medium size purses (sounds like the 3 bears!-sorry! Preschool teacher here!)

Yep! I pulled all this out of my closet and this was just one corner! I found purses in every nook and cranny. I was putting them wherever I could find space. I pulled boots out too because the new organizer would be occupying that corner.

After a couple of coats of white paint, it was ready to bring in the house and organize!! I love how well it fit everything!

I should be able to find what I am looking for now!

These are the cubbies for the smaller purses and wallets.

Here are the larger ones.

I always love finding ways to get more organized and a way to recycle old stuff!

Now I just have to figure out which idea to use for the other one! I will keep you updated! Have a wonderful week!

Vintage Armoire

February 13, 2016February 17, 2016Leave a comment

Vintage Armoire by homeonthecorner featuring jewelry organizers

Hey everyone! I am so excited about this post today! A few weeks ago, we were invited by the online company Chairish and asked to pick one of the armoires and create a style board making it into a storage piece for whatever we wanted-toys, crafts, ect. Chairish is an exclusive curator approved, online marketplace for vintage furniture. If you have time, please go and take a look at some of their pieces. They are gorgeous!”

Lauren and I had fun looking at all the different designs they had. What a selection! But we finally narrowed it down to this American Drew White Wood Ornate Armoire. We thought this could be used in any room. We decided to use it as a vanity and storage for make-up, jewelry, scarves and other accessories.

Wouldn’t this look amazing!

Since we are using this for a makeup vanity, we wanted to put a mirror in the back to cover up the hole. I gave Lauren a few choices from Joss and Main, and this is the one she picked. Isn’t it a beauty?

We also added a chair because you have to sit down when you are doing your make up right? We found this really pretty white and cherry chair from Joss and Main. Isn’t it cute!

Now on to the jewelry. We wanted to be able to see what we had, but be able to have it organized and pretty. We choose a few different things. We picked an over the door organizer for the longer items and a drawer organizer for earrings.

We loved this metal tiered organizer for all the nail polish and lipsticks. It even holds emery boards.

We also spotted these baskets at Bed, Bath and Beyond and thought they could be used for all sorts of organizing, plus they look pretty.

This organizer from Joss and Main would be perfect for storing all those pretty scarves you have in your collection. It could also be used for socks, belts or other small items.

We also found some different beauty items to round out the collection. These all come from Ulta.

Only at ULTA! Lorac Nude Necessities Eye Shadow Palette is a limited edition sleek & sexy, metallized eye shadow palette that contains 12 silky, nude-toned eye shadows. A $100 Value!:

LoracNude Necessities Eye Shadow Palette

So what do you think? What would you use an armoire for? I would love to have one someday, but I am not sure I could decide how to use it!

Nail polish
ulta.com

LORAC eyeshadow
ulta.com

American Drew wood furniture
chairish.com

Jewelry organizer
bedbathandbeyond.com

LaMont bath accessory
bedbathandbeyond.com

.ORG Stackable Medium Earring Tray
bedbathandbeyond.com

It Cosmetics Brow Power Super Skinny
ulta.com

Beauty product
jossandmain.com

Home decor
jossandmain.com

Cherry furniture
jossandmain.com

Drawer Organizer
jossandmain.com

ONE WAY TO ORGANIZE YOUR SPICES

February 1, 2016February 2, 20169 Comments

Okay, I know it’s the first day of February and we are not in January anymore, but I am still doing some organizing around the house.

My spices have been driving me crazy! I had them all on a lazy susan, but I still could only find the spices that were on the outside. Then I tried lining them up, but since I couldn’t see them all, it ended up being a jumbled mess.

I had seen different ideas all over the internet, but they didn’t work out with my kitchen. I only have about 5 feet of counter on one side and 4 feet on the other, plus a microwave and a dish drainer take up some of that space. I only have 5 drawers in my kitchen, so I couldn’t use up one of them for the spices. I finally found these on Amazon. I am not affiliated with Amazon, but I love these. Here is the link if you want to order some. I ordered 2 sets to make sure I would have enough for all the jars.

Each rack holds 4 jars. There is sticky tape on the back plus a tiny screw to hold it on the door. I started out by figuring out where to line them up so the jars wouldn’t hit the shelf inside the cupboard when the door closed. I placed small jars in one row and then larger ones in the other row. This way there could be 2 rows and they would fit between the shelves.

Once I figured out how far apart they needed to be I stuck them on using the tape. I did end up putting the tiny screws on the end, especially for the racks holding the larger bottles.

My summer goal is to paint these cupboards, so I will have to take these down and hopefully they will stick again. The directions say to use heat to loosen the glue. I will probably try a blow dryer and see if that works.

So far, I love these! It’s so much easier to find the spice I need plus it cleared up space in my cupboard. A win/win! Have you been doing your January/February organizing and clean-up? I love to hear what you have been doing!