OO: Tips & Tricks For Organizing The Linen Closet

It has been a while since Organization Overhaul came to town. I know you have missed it so it is back. It's time to clean out the linen closet and get some good tips!

Tip Time:

• Everyone knows the old pillowcase-sheet storage trick.

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• I'm a big fan of making use of all potential storage spaces. So, I think the the towel bar on the back of the door idea for blankets and towels is a keeper!

• Baskets and bins help to keep things looking tidy.

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• You could always jazz things up with some pretty shelf paper or add some paint or paper to the back wall.

This one is a bit sassy for my taste, but you get the idea.

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• If you are keeping bottles and things in it, a lazy susan makes a big difference.

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Here is my linen closet makeover:

As you can tell, tidying up the towels and blankets made a big difference. I could have spent a little more time and made it look perfect. 

I turned my not-so-pretty cardboard boxes into fancy(ish) little bins. All it took was some scrapbook paper that I already had on hand, scissors, a pen, and some tape.

The Before:

Just lay the box on the paper and trace the front. Then cut it, tape it, and...

Ta-Da!!! The After:

OO: Desk Organization. Tips & Tricks, Part 1

It is time to clean your desk. Put your organizing clothes on, pump up the volume and let's get to work.

Why don't we take a look at some desk-spiration (anyone following me here? desk + inspiration = desk-spiration). I bet that term is about to catch on like fruit flies!

I have read a lot of organizational books and organizing principles run wild in me. I just have not implemented them all very well. I will take the best tips and tricks I have for you about desk organizing and intersperse them with awesome photos! I tend to go a bit overboard with these things so I have broken this down into two posts so it doesn't take you 2 weeks to read it!

This desk set-up is fantastic. It has personality, plenty of things at arm's reach, and great organization. You could even DIY a desk like that with a couple of file cabinets and a big piece of wood. The only thing I don't like about it is that there isn't much workable space. 

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Tip #1: Create zones in your desk space. This will save you time when you are trying to find things or are putting things away. 

Check out the cool magnetic spice containers! You could hold your staples, paper clips, etc in there!

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Tip#2: Have something near your desk that makes your happy! For me, a nice organized desk would do it. A couple photos of some lovely smiley faces of my peeps would work too; even a photocopy of an illustration from my favorite kid's book or a swatch of my favorite fabric would do the trick. I like to keep happy reminders all over my house- especially where I spend a lot of time.

Here is the cover of a kid's book that I love. Looking at it gives me a case of the warm and fuzzy smiles. Even if I just taped this to the wall near my office it would make me happier.

These people know how to make an office cheery!

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Tip #3: Keep your cords under control! Check my post from last week for some suggestions on how to do it.

Tip #4: Do you think you don't have room for an office? Look around your room and locate an unused corner. You don't need much space to turn it into your own personal desk paradise! Check out how efficient the space below is and follow their lead!

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If you are still trying to think of a way to bring happy things into your space why not do it with your desk organizers. 

You can buy a cool pen city like this one:

Or get some of these super awesome animal organizers:

If you aren't looking for quite that much personality, you could go with the old tiered-tin-can approach:

 If you want to keep it organized while being a bit innovative, put your old spice rack to work!

You know how I like to divide things up into a couple sections for you! So, you can look forward to another edition of OO: Desk Organization. Tips & Tricks coming soon! Until then, why don't you answer this lovely WYR and then tell me about what you have been organizing (or not organizing) these days.

Wednesday's Weekly Would You Rather Question:

WYR: 

swim in a cage surrounded by sharks for 30 minutes

or 

go skydiving?

This one is my pal, Sandra Dee's question and it is WAYYYYY better than anything I was thinking of.

OO: 6 Ways To Control Your Cord Clutter!

The desks around my household tend to get pile-filed. We do not have the best desk systems in the world working here. The next three Organization Overhaul posts are going to be dedicated to decluttering and organizing your desk! Let's start with that crazy crazy mess you have hiding behind your desk.

It is time to CLEAN YOUR CORDS!

Let's get this party started. It is time to break it down!

Hook a little caddy under your desk to corral your cords.

You can buy this grassy fella on Amazon for $21 buckaroos. He's the classiest charging station I've ever seen. 

What a great idea for all of those USBs that are always floating around! 

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Reuse those bread clips so you can tell which cord is which.

Here's a sneaky one... get yourself a pretty book; chop that book up and remove the insides. And thennnnnnnnnnnnn you get to hide whatever kind of cord mayhem you have going on! In the photo below, a wireless router is hiding its ugly face under the lovely book.

The double whammy! This one has labeled cords and a fancy little cord caddy! What more could you possibly want out of uncluttered cords and cables? 

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One more cord holder for you

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Before and Afters are the best!

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Did I hear you say you wanted another before and after?

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Uh oh... it is Wednesday! And, you know what that means, it is time for:

Wednesday's Weekly Rather Question:

WYR...

eat two watermelons

or

three quarts of ice cream of your choice?

This was a Scott WYR, but I had to pull it out of him.

It is time for a one day early birthday shout out to Mrs. "Yup, it's a bag" herself!

The Bonus Room Chronicles: Step 6: Change Out The Bi-Fold Doors

Welcome to a new week! I am writing this on Sunday night and I already have a case of the Monday Blues. Aside from busting up my internet, I was pretty productive this weekend. I have figured out that what I really need in order to light a fire under me is visitors. I don't like people knowing about my huge piles of junk in various spots around the house. So, I work hard to get things tidied up before they get here. We just had a couple of quick pop-in visitors, but it was enough to get me to workin' hard!

I remember when I was living in an apartment with some friends I used to have the messiest room on the planet, but it would only take me about 20 minutes to get it looking spotless. The key was that I had a bunch of boxes hidden behind my bed that I would throw everything in. Clearly that was a better solution than dealing with the clutter. 

Once my dad was visiting, and as always, I had waited until the last minute to clean up. So, I put everything on top of my bed and threw the comforter over it. I spent a few minutes patting things down so it didn't look like I had magazines and lunch boxes and whatever other random thing was floating around my room hiding under the covers.

Now, it is time to move onto the fascinating reason you are all here today: BI-FOLD DOORS!

This is probably the most boring step in any of the chronicle series. I am sorry about that!

The house came with louvered bi-fold doors and they just weren't my style. I think in the right environment they can look fantastic, but in this room they really dated it, especially with the "funky retro vibe" we had going on. Scott changed them out himself and the whole process was pretty easy. I didn't take any photos. Just follow the directions that come with your door. They know what they're talking about!

So, we went from this:

To this:

To this:

WHHHHAAAAATTT! Is that what I hear you screaming at your computer? Where did the funky retro vibe go? Well, we are in the process of de-funkying and de-retroing our house right now because....

THIS
LOVELY
ABODE
WILL
BE
GOING
ON
THE
MARKET
SOON!

Sorry, the one word per line thing may have been a bit much, but I think you liked the dramatic effect of it just a little bit. The cat is out of the bag. If you live in Charlotte or are looking to move to Charlotte, this tropical paradise of loveliness could be yours! I will tell you more about everything in another post soon to come. 

Back to the land of chronicles! Here are the steps that the Bonus Room Chronicles have passed through, along with the very last step. Yay! There is just one more step to go before we can cross this chronicle off our list.

The Bonus Room Chronicles Introduction Post

Step 1: Move in. Paint the walls. Put up curtains. Put up art. Paint orange design. Paint polka dots.

Step 2: Put up wire display.

Step 3: Put up wall of frames.

Step 4: Move furniture around. Get rid of TV. Add bed.

Step 5: Part 1. Part 2. Part 3: Build window seat and built in bookcases.

Step 6: Change out the bifold doors

Step 7: Part 1.  Part 2. Part 3. Finishing touches

Here are a few more photos of the bonus room where we left it last time.

OO: Tips & Tricks: The Garage, Part 3

This post isn't so much "tips & tricks" as it is "wahooooooooooo, we finally got the garage totally organized."

Cora spent the night at Scott's parents' house last weekend so we could get some stuff done around the house. We started early and worked hard, but it turns out that we were a bit over-ambitious.

We started clearing out the garage in the late morning and by the time Scott's parents came to drop off her a few hours later our house looked like this:

I am fairly sure they were scared to leave our little babytoddler in the hands of such maniacs. It seriously looked like a tornado had hit our house. My in-laws are generous people. Scott's dad threw on some painting clothes and painted the whole garage in an hour. Scott's mom watched Cora while I ran around trying to make the house a fairly safe place for a babytoddler.

The first step was clearing it out and getting rid of things. While I continued this process, Scott spackled some spots that needed it. He listened to basketball on the TV while he worked.

Scott washed the floors. We had epoxied them a few years ago so it was pretty easy to wash them. And then it was painting time. Garage cleaning tip: mix all of your unwanted leftover paint together to get enough paint to paint your garage. We ended up with more than enough paint in a pretty grey-ish beige color. I tried to stick to light neutral colors, but I did throw in a couple of blue paint cans.

Next came my favorite part... putting things back!

I am going to leave you with only one after photo because Scott stole my camera today and I didn't download the photos yet. SUSPENSE! Next time I will give you all the fascinating details of how I organized everything so it will be totally worth the wait!


Now, it's time for a little question session, one in particular. It is Wednesday's Weekly Would You Rather Question time!

WYR...
the only songs you could ever listen to for the rest of your life were Day-O and Who Let The Dogs Out (Even when other people played music around you it was those songs)
or
never be able to listen to music again?

OO: Organization In Kid's Books

You should know how much I love the book, The Berenstain Bears and the Messy Room! It is what inspired the start of my Organization Overhaul (OO).

We are going to start off with a book called The Big Tidy-Up by Norah Smaridge.

First, I should just make it very very clea that this is no Berenstain Bears and the Messy Room. NOT.EVEN.CLOSE! If I had read this as a child, my house would probably always look like the before picture in the photo below.

What this book does have going for it is the illustrations and font. For that, you can thank Les Gray. He's got a whole Marlo Thomass, That Girl vibe.

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Check out that font, that dress, that hair-do- is anyone else feeling Marlo on this?

pic of those 3 together

Onto the book!

There is a little girl named Jennifer who is quite possibly the messiest kid on the planet. On top of that she torments her cat by dressing it up in her own clothes. Jen's mom is not a happy camper. She vows not to clean Jen's room anymore and puts a big KEEP OUT! sign on Jen's door.

Jen didn't care. She was livin' large in her disaster zone. She even kept pie under her pillow to snack on. But one day, it all hit her!

This is the scene that pushed her over the edge. Ooooohhhh weeee oooohhhh... this is the type of illustration that needs a fabulous after picture!

Jen started feeling bad for herself. She even considered running away. So, she gave in and got to cleaning.

This part is a bit disappointing to me for the following reasons:

1. I'm going to let the cat out of the bag here and tell you that this is basically the After shot. Bogus! I would like to see some sort of organizing. At least show me what you have turned your closet into.

2. Come on, Jen! Get your recycling on! I see those bottles in your trash can. I think you could spray paint them and make them pretty awesome. But, if you aren't going to do that the least you could do is throw them your snazzy recycling bin! And, look at all that paper. I may have to send the recycling police over.

3. I see you have a dust pan, but it looks like you don't actually need it because your broom magically sends dust and apple cores into your trash box. How is this possible? Maybe the book should be called A Girl Named Jen/ Jennifer/ Jenny Throws Her Junk In A Box With A Magic Broom.

There you go... those were my main problems with that picture. 

Finally, Jenny change the sign on her door from KEEP OUT! to COME IN! And this is the best After photo shot we get.

The end.

If I had never read the Berenstain Bears And The Messy Room and I didn't have a major love for messy before photos and organized after photos I would have really liked this book. I loved the illustrations and it was a fun book to read to Cora. I could see this book being a good starting point for a messy child. But, save the best for last... do not present this after The Berenstain Bears or your child will toss this book out the window.

Are you inspired to bust out your magic broom and get to sorting? I am! Maybe the book is better than I thought. Or maybe that broom cast a spell on me.

OO: Tips & Tricks: The Garage, Part 2

Organization Overhaul (OO) Garage Edition, Part 2 is in the hizzie. Last time we checked it out it had gone from this before photo to this slightly less terrible after photo.

Oh my goodness I cannot believe I am sharing that insanely insanely disorganized mess on the world wide web. President Obama, overt your eyes.

This garage was not going to get organized in one big clean. It will take at least 2 more big chunks of time to tame this fella. Every self respecting organizer knows that things have to get a little messier before they get clean. 

Since you last saw the garage it took a turn for the worst. I started pulling everything out and it stayed this way for a couple of weeks. A deck cleaner jar leaked all over the place and someone (most likely me) stomped it all over the house and there was quite a bit of mopping to get that situation under control. But don't you worry folks, I now have a handle on the situation.

Here's Messy Bessy (I just named my garage Bessy, stay with me) after I started yet another sorting process. And a photo of her lookin' a little better.

ehhhhh is anyone impressed? Anyone?
I know I didn't work any magic on Messy Bessy, but I gave it a decent shot. And, it was raining... hard! No one wants to be in a humid garage with freshly washed and straightened hair!

Check out that rain!

Pretty!

The main thing that I accomplished was moving large chunks of the murphy bed (yes, this one) out of the garage and under my bed. 

It used to exist here, below the painting of an old-timey cat in a suit and in the back of the garage.

It now lives here. Ohh hello... is that a murphy bed sticking out the end of your bed? Darn! Yes, it is! I measured the doors and they fit perfectly under the bed. But, the darn sides are taller and I forgot to take that into consideration.

To make sure you all stay tuned through this fascinated tiny step by tiny step garage clean out process I am also going to include some cool organization ideas for the garage.


garage- screw the lid of plastic containers to the bottom of a shelf

Let's get this party started with a little Tool Organization:

This idea is basically the epitome of garage awesomeness. I like to think that this idea is the reason I have saved every single jar that has ever come into my possession. In case you were wondering, jars come into my possession on a very regular basis. I clean them and hoard them. Then, one day, Scott will open a closet door and 5,321 jars will explode out and knock him down (kind of like the Dick Van Dyke walnut episode- photo below). Scott then tells me that I really need to get a grip on my jar collection. So, I say goodbye to about 6 of my least impressive jars and then we start the whole process over. I have big plans for those jars... BIG BIG PLANS!

Back to the photo... the idea of tracing the tools at the spot where the belong is also pretty awesome.

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Now, a photo of the Dick Van Dyke walnut episode mentioned above.

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A magnetic bar for your tools- clever!!

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You don't have magnets, but you do have a little extra PVC pipe floating around? Well, screw that sucka into a piece of plywood and keep your tall boys in it.

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One more photo of the glass jar action. And, just in case you were hoping I would talk a bit more about my jar collection I would like to reiterate that I have been saving both glass and plastic jars. I am not convinced that it is a good idea to literally have glass jars just floating all over the place especially when you are a big spaz like me.

Are you telling me that you really weren't into the magnet idea I showed you above? OK I present to you the idea of hooking your tools onto nails. That is probably the whole reason that all tools have that hole, but I am just putting this together.

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I am a big lover of chalkboard paint. You don't need to waste your time opening the drawer to check what's in there. Just write it on and never question it again.

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I cannot be the only one in the world who is always on the look-out for a good spot for my lose lumber? It is wood scrap galore in my garage and I never know the best way to store them. This one does a pretty good job.

I know how this works... I've got to leave you wanting more. So, don't you think for a second that I am going to give away anymore garage organization idea. You will just have to wait until I get the courage to tackle part 3 of my own garage. Until then, Happy Thursday! Who is ready for the weekend?!?