2016 Recap – Home Decor & Organizing

2016 Recap – Home Decor & Organizing

Are y’all getting settled into the new year? We’ve gotten all of our Christmas decorations taken down, and truth be told, I would’ve actually loved to keep them up longer!  The last thing to go was the Christmas cards and we always save them to look through and see how all the kids have grown and changed over the years.  I’m a new convert to holiday decorating at least some portions of our home before Thanksgiving now because I enjoyed it so much this year!  I will be ready again for the holidays next year for sure!  And I packed everything away really neatly so it won’t be so daunting pulling it back out!

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Popular Posts of 2016 | Home Decor & Organization

Popular Posts of 2016 | Home Decor & Organization

This last full week before school starts has me vacillating between I’m so ready for school to start and get back to some semblancy of law and order again!! and Noooo, it’s not long enough and I’m gonna miss James soooo much when he’s gone all day! Can you believe we start back so soon?  Most schools in Houston start around August 22, but we start on the 10th!

Until school starts, I’m not beginning any new projects, just recapping some of the most popular posts of 2016 so far.  After all, there’s still 5 more months to go and a list a mile long of things I still want to accomplish before the year ends.

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Playroom Toy Organization & Let’s Meet!

Playroom Toy Organization & Let’s Meet!

And just like that, it’s back to Monday again! Some weekends just fly by and this was one of them.  I started working on Jordan’s “transitioning to the crib and sleeping through the night” post, so I’ll have that to you soon!  Since it’s been several weeks now, I’m starting to feel like it’s not a fluke! #praisetheLord And guess what?! She’s five months old today!  I can’t believe it!  I just wrote her 3-month old routine yesterday! 

This weekend, we did manage to create some toy organization in the playroom/media room that I’m all giddy about.

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Organized Spices

Organized Spices

Yep, like I said yesterday, nesting is in full gear over here and after I organized our spice drawer, many other drawers were begging for a little refreshing too.  I’m not sure anyone in my household really appreciates our newly tidied spice drawer, but y’all are my people, so I bet you will!  Things like this get us giddy and no one else has to understand, right?! Thank God for each other- this is what caused me to start blogging in the first place when I was a new SAHM and needed women like you to relate with! 

spice jar | round labels (red)

This mini project was inspired spur of the moment while I was preparing a crock pot meal and having to add many spices that were past their prime or I was having to reach into both the drawer you see here and the cabinet above to find what we needed.

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Getting Organized in the New Year

Getting Organized in the New Year

Now that we’re in the new year, how many of you spent the weekend cleaning up the mess from Christmas and trying to get your house back in order?  If I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I never would have believed it, but while I was dismantling all the Christmas decor and trying to fit it back into the bins (how did it multiply?!?!), my husband got working on organizing the toys and playroom. He went all out, even taking apart the couch to get at everything under there and then even vacuuming!  We seriously cleaned and organized all day on Friday,

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Home Cleaning Routine

Home Cleaning Routine

This post is sponsored by The Home Depot. Although I often share my organizing tips with you, it’s been a long time since we’ve chatted about cleaning tips.  I admit to being a “neat freak”, but I’m a neat freak who also appreciates and enjoys  living in a home where you know kids are present.  So, while we tend to have those little boy messes to contend with, and lots of legos found in the most interesting places, for the most part I like to keep our house clean, clean, clean.

Our morning and evening routines are still in full effect (most days) and I’ve come to rely on waking up to a semi-clean house.  

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The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up | Books – the Reveal

The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up | Books – the Reveal

If you read yesterday’s post about the process of Decluttering & Selling Books, you are ready for Part 2 today, the actual reveal of our newly tidied up spaces!  I mentioned yesterday that, after reading The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering I got to work tidying our linen closet, kitchen drawers, and also got a big start on our playroom.  But, the newly decluttered and organized BOOKS is what I’m showing you today!

 

THE REVEAL
Now at home with only the books we really love,

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Organized Purses

Organized Purses

Cleaning out and organizing our linen closet prompted many other organizing changes throughout the house.  One new idea I’m excited to share with you is a quick and easy way to organize your purses and tote bags.  I don’t know why I never thought of this earlier, but it finally occurred to me to hang them from the rod on shower hooks so I could easily see them at a glance.  Before I organized and hung them, some were hanging on the back of my closet door and others were stuffed into cubbies.  I like this way much better! 

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Organized Linen Closet

Organized Linen Closet

It’s probably a combination of school starting again and moving our son from his nursery into the larger guest room that has prompted a major purge, organization, and cleaning session lately.  That, and I’m reading The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up.  I’m already an organized person by nature so I wasn’t sure this book would make any difference in my life. But it has!  I’ll share more on that later. This weekend, I worked on three kitchen drawers, the linen closet, the massive amount of books in our house, and the paper clutter.  No wonder I’m starting this Monday morning off tired!

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Organized Magazine Files

Organized Magazine Files

My magazine tear sheets were getting out of control.  I’m an active magazine/catalog reader, meaning I’m not afraid to circle things, make notes, and tear out pages for inspiration for everything from home decor to health and fashion.  These images and articles can be a jumping point for future blog posts and now I’m also starting to get gift ideas for Christmas, so I wanted to get them organized.  I found a perfect file solution at Target with a wooden file box and bright geometric green and white file folders.  

I sorted my magazine pages into categories with post-it note labels. 

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Organized Office Closet

Organized Office Closet

How about a peek into my freshly organized office closet?  It was quite the cluttered mess a few weeks ago, but I dug in and got her all cleaned up! I’m fortunate to have a built-in dresser with shelving above for extra storage, but I wasn’t taking advantage of that space and the stuff was just piling up.  My craft paint, pens and brushes are now at my fingertips, which has led to a few more craft projects lately.  

Of course you can see why I’m excited about this makeover once you look at the before! 

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Organizing & Storing Kids Schoolwork & Art

Organizing & Storing Kids Schoolwork & Art

It’s about time I got around to condensing, organizing, and preserving my son’s artwork- he’s 4 and, as I’m sure you can relate, has created enough art is his young life to create quite the gallery.  He’s been in preschool at least part-time since he was 18 months old and every week would bring home all the art he’d created that week at school.  I kept nearly everything from 18 months to 3 years, and then when he started PK3, I knew we’d have a big problem if I couldn’t let anything go, so after admiring and talking about each thing he’d made,

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Fabric Organization

Fabric Organization

What started with wanting to get my son’s artwork condensed and organized turned into a weekend full of cleaning out and organizing my office closet where things tend to accumulate until I can’t even get in there, let alone find anything.  This closet is a good size and has lots of potential, but I wasn’t making the most of it.  I moved my two wrapping carts into the closet because they didn’t go with the calmer, more grown-up vibe I was going for in the room.  I still use them quite often (more on that later this week), but with all my mess stuffed onto the floor,

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Back to School Organization

Back to School Organization

That time of year is upon us, getting the kids back to school and a major feeling of needing to “get organized” in order to deal with the change.  Before we know it, our schedules will be filled with  homework, sports practices and games, class activities and parties, and everything else that comes with the school year.  Today, I’m sharing one way I’m preparing for this new school year over at 11 Magnolia Lane in their Operation Organization: Back to School Edition.   At our house, I think I can safely say Wednesday (our first day of school) is going to kick our butts as we have been sleeping in too late and our mornings have been particularly lazy lately.

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Organizing the Kid Clothes

Organizing the Kid Clothes

I’ve been trying to tackle a few organizing projects on my Master List and have happily completed two:  our mudroom, and, over the weekend, my son’s clothes.  As our weather is getting warmer and warmer, I needed to take stock of what shorts and t-shirts still fit, what needed to be pulled out as too small or too hot to wear.  

We don’t keep his clothes in a dresser in his room; they are stored in the drawers in the bathroom.  Two of the cabinet drawers are large and deep, which contain shirts, pants, and shorts.

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Organized Mudroom

Organized Mudroom

Okay folks, only took me 4 days to finally have some time to clean out and organize our mudroom, but now that it’s done, I’m loving it!  Hopefully, it can function smoothly and stay this way throughout the summer.

My son was at school when I snapped these photos, but his backpack goes on the empty hook. 

You may remember the before:

A few simple changes made all the difference.  

First, I removed the pillows (even though I sewed all of them myself) because I figured they were contributing to the cluttered look.

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Organized “Boutique” Closet

Organized “Boutique” Closet

Happy Monday! Hope you all got enough sleep last night, it’s hard to lose that hour. 🙁  I’ve gotten my closet all organized and pretty to show you, but I wish you could just come over and see it! Photographing is so tricky because of the light situation.  There are three windows, which provide nice natural light, but I realized that it also gets hot or the sunshine glares into the mirror, so I keep two of the three windows covered with retail boxes. Lends to the boutique feel I was going for. 😉 I have whittled down my wardrobe and jewelry to items I will actually wear,

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