~The Linen Closet~

When I think of linen closet, I usually think of a closet in the hall with sheets and towels. We don't have that. We have a cabinet on the wall of the bathroom. All or our sheets are neatly folded in under-the-bed boxes in our room (under the bed, of course).

The problem I have always had with our linen cabinet is that it's not quite deep enough for our fluffy bath towels. So, as you can see from the picture, they usually end up just shoved in at all cost. Another challenge was all that "stuff" in there that is not towels. Before, I had our bigger bath towels on a cart in the corner of the bathroom, but that has been driving me crazy lately. So, I decided to do a set of plastic drawers there, instead, to hold all the "stuff" and put the towels back in the cabinet.

Tip of the Day: Experiment with folding your towels until you find a way to fit them perfectly onto your shelves. Mine was kind of a fold/roll combo.

Here is the before picture:

Here is the after picture (minus our current bath towels):

Re-purposed Wall Hooks

My most recent craft project has been re-purposing a wall hanger with hooks for Annabelle's room. Below is a "Before" picture. It used to hang in our apartment by the door to house keys. Moving was not good for it however, since you can see the paper is peeling off in the corners. I have always loved this piece for its functionality. So, I decided to make it into something "cutesy" to hang in Annabelle's room.

First, I peeled all the paper off of it. This step probably takes the longest and the most patience. Then, I sanded it with sand paper. This removes some of the chipped paint, smooths it out, and even gets off some of the last bits of paper.

Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of these middle steps, so I'll just describe them to you. First, I used a screwdriver to remove the hooks. Then, I painted the whole thing white (it took 2 coats to cover the cream color and bare wood). Once the white paint was thoroughly dry (about an hour), I taped off 1 3/4 in strips with blue painter's tape. I then added the purple stripes (again, it took 2 coats). Once those were dry, I peeled off the tape and replaced the hooks.

For this step, I used decoupage (found at any craft store) and scrapbook paper. I used paper from the same "scrap pack" as the paper I used to make the letters for Annabelle's name (I'll post those later). I used my paper cutter to make the green square, then very carefully cut out the butterfly and polka dots from some of the patterned pages. The "a" is typed into a Word Document (Times New Roman, bold, lower case) and sized to fit. I went to Format>Font>then clicked Outline and printed it on white paper and cut it out. I used the decoupage to glue it all down. After it had dried (about 20 minutes), I used a paintbrush and brushed two coats of decoupage over the entire surface (being careful to avoid the hooks).

And, here is the finished product! It can now be used to hang jackets, headbands, paci clips, or anything else a little princess might need!

Tupperware Cabinet

Who doesn't have a love-hate relationship with their Tupperware cabinet? Actually, mine shouldn't even be called a Tupperware cabinet; instead, I should call it a Rubbermaid cabinet. Because that's the brand of most of my "leftover containers." At least they don't all say Cool Whip on the side! I think I have 2 actual Tupperware dishes. And, they were probably borrowed and never returned : )

Anyway, here is my before shot: Such a jumbled mess!

And, here is the after:

Tip of the Day: Keep the items you don't use as often on the top or back. That way, you don't have to ask your husband to reach things for you as often :)

Computer Desk

I joined the challenge late, and I've been doing some other projects around the house, so I'm a little behind! I actually did this yesterday, but didn't get a chance to post until now.

The computer desk! The challenge said to do the top only, but I cheated and did a couple drawers, too, mostly because you can see into 2 of them when the desk part is fully pulled out. We have a massive computer desk with a bookshelf built into it, so it took me quite awhile to finish this one!

Before: I'm glad I got the motivation to tackle this because it was driving me nuts! And, this is one of the first things you see when you enter our house. I typically clean it off when we know we are having company, but it sure is embarrassing when people drop by unexpected. I have been longing for a way to keep it organized, not just cleared off occasionally. 

After: Much, much better!

Tip of the Day:  Keep cute, fun, or stylish containers on desktops for extra storage. That way, you can put less attractive things (like stapler, tape dispenser, calculators, bills) in them and it still looks nice!
Here are the drawers before: It was hard to even open them because they were so full. Part of my clean-up plan for company-shove everything in drawers. I'm sure you have NO idea what I'm talking about :)

And here they are after: Post It notes, a pencil case with extra writing instruments, highlighters and erasers

 

USB drives, scissors, White Out, tape, glue, ruler, and notice the paper clips sorted by size in breast milk storage bottles (they came free with a diaper bag I got at the hospital). Gotta get creative if you don't want to spend a lot of money to get organized!

Because I like it so much, I will post another "After" picture.

Stay tuned, because this bad boy still has 2 more drawers!

The Junk Drawer

The junk drawer! Everyone has one. Ours is in the kitchen. Where is yours?

Before:

After:

Have you ever seen the show Clean Sweep on HGTV? I don't think it's even on anymore. Anyway, this is much like that. You empty all the contents out of the drawer, then sort them into Keep, Donate/Garage Sale, and Trash. Keep only what you actually use. Then, use various containers to separate like items. 

Tip of the day:  Keep the things you use most often out of containers for easier access.