My Thanksgiving Day Project

I did it! I made curtains for the girls' closet. I won't tell you how many mistakes I made and how long it took but they are hung anyway. They definitely make the room look more finished.


I added simple pleats across the top to give them some detail. There is something about white linen curtains that gets to me. In our old house I took down the blinds and made them for almost every window. Some had pleats across the bottom, some across the top, some rows of vertical pleats and in my daughter's room they even had pretty ties at the top. I loved those curtains! Unfortunately they all stayed with the house and I'm sure were taken down and thrown out. Oh well.

Join me every day this month for GeMoOrgNo - Get More Organized Now! I started an official group at NaBloPoMo. If you would like to join you may go there and request an invitation.

More Participants - Make sure you check out their fun photos and posts!
Multi-Tasking Mommy
My Pursuit of Happiness
Just About Perfect
Tyler's Triumph

The Victor's Organized Closet

Before, I started with an unfinshed closet and dresser.

During

After!

Thanks to Laura and her awesome Challenge we now have another organized closet! (The Fall Challenge) Don't you just want to sit and stare at it all day? Ok, probably not, but I do!

Some of the features I built into it are (and when I say built, I mean with power tools and my own two hands):

1. A spot for the dirty clothes basket with enough room above it to throw the clothes in.

2. Shelves for toys. I bought the containers before I started so I could get the width and height of the shelves right. There is just enough room to slide them in and out of the closet. My nine year old doesn't play with these toys. He is just storing them for his little sister. Isn't he so sweet?

3. A spot for the dresser. He doesn't need space for long hanging clothes but I made the dresser space a little bit wider and added a bar for company to use since his room is where they always sleep. It made a perfect spot for the guitar to slide next to the dresser. If one of my daughters ever move into this room she can move the dresser out and have more space for hanging clothes.

4. I built around the secret door that leads into his sisters' closet. When he gets too old to use the door and wants more space for clothes then he can use the lower rod.

5. I put a storage container on top of the dresser to put outgrown clothes in. Its empty because we just sent clothes home to his cousin this weekend. Hopefully the container will keep him from piling junk on his dresser.

6. A high shelf for long term storage of clothing and suitcases.

Now for the questions.

1. What was the hardest part of the challenge for you and were you able to overcome it?

The hardest part was just commiting to the design I've had in my head. We've lived in this house for a year without closets and the reason I didn't build them sooner was because I didn't want to make a mistake! I knew I would have to live with it forever so I wanted plenty of time to think about it. I had to get over thinking it would ever be perfect and just do the best I could.

2. Tell us what kind of changes/habits you have put into place in order for your area/room to maintain its new order?

Since this is my nine year old's closet I don't know how well it will stay organized but Victor has been taking time to clean his room every morning as part of his Personal Time. He has a couple containers just for "treasures" so he will need to work on keeping his treasures in the boxes instead of all over his room. And of course I will help him re-organize as its needed.

3. What did you do with the "stuff" you were able to purge out of your newly organized space?

He didn't have a lot of stuff to begin with so we didn't get rid of much but when we went through it he was able to give a lot of out-grown clothes to his younger cousin.

4. What was the biggest lesson you learned from this experience?

That I should have finished this closet sooner so we could enjoy it! Also that I know why it is so hard to do projects like this. I had to neglect my kids for a week to get it done. I'm lucky that my son is a great baby sitter.

5. Now that you have completed the PROCESS, do you think having and keeping your space organized will make a difference in your life?

I know it will make a huge difference in my son's life now that he has a place for everything. It has been frustrating for him to try to keep his room clean when he didn't have anywhere to put anything. I am so happy that I was able to do this for him to relieve some of his stress!

Now his room is almost completely finished. Thanks again for the motivation Laura!!!

Surprise!

I made you a present! An Organizing Bag for the book I am giving away for the Smart Habit Saturday Drawing this month. We absolutely love these book bags around here. Now you will be able to take your latest read anywhere without worrying about it getting wet or crumpled. P.S. It also makes a great little diaper bag if you have a baby.

It's the girls' closet all painted, as of tonight, and ready to go! I'll hang the closet rods tomorrow when it's dry and have a wild time stuffing it full. I can't wait!

This is just one corner of their walk-in closet but it gives them plenty of storage space for now so I'm going to take a break from closet building for a while. I still have some finishing touches to put on Victor's closet before the contest is over so I need to get to work on them.

All Done and Just Beginning

My son's closet is all painted and ready to go. The only thing I have left to do is paint the dresser. This is all you get to see until the final reveal for the Organizing Challenge. Are you so bummed? I knew you would be but don't think we are done with closet photos yet! I got started on the girls' closet last week. Here is one corner of it.

Three whole boards put up before I came down with the flu of death over the weekend. Thankfully I am still alive to finish the job.

Remember last Monday when I said I thought I might be getting sick? Apparently I was getting sick and that's why my brain hurt so much when I was working on the closet. All I had was a sore throat all week though so it didn't hold me back too much. Then on Sunday I got hit with the flu that my kids had two weeks ago. I haven't gotten the flu for years so it was a great refresher course in how horrible it can be.

I'm back on the computer today so I must be feeling better right? Time to get back to work!

I Know

"Look what I did yesterday!"

Yes, Lara. We just can't get enough of these exciting closet photos.

Please post more.

We hope they never end.

Closets, closets, closets.

Post them every day.

Forever.

"Thank you. I will."

Closet Update

This is how far I got yesterday and let me tell you how painful it was! It hurt my head to put up every board!!! I hate figuring this stuff out and it took me forever to do just this much but I took my time and I think it is going to turn out ok. I hope I can get all the boards put up today so I can work on caulking tomorrow. Who knows. Maybe I will get the closet finished this week and have time to start on Persistence's closet before the challenge is over!!!

I Want Candy

Today did not go exactly as planned. Instead of working on my closet project we went horseback riding and to the local children's museum. I came home so exhausted that I laid on the couch surfing the web for closet ideas. I really hope I am not getting sick!

I have gotten so many questions through the years of how to divide up closet shelves so that stacks of clothes don't tumble into one another. One solution is to use a wooden or plastic crate turned on its side and stack clothing inside. You could even use a cardboard box if you don't want to spend money.

I think this solution is adorable however and you can buy these corbels at home improvement stores for a few bucks. If you had the right tools you could build your own. Click on the photo to follow the link to the story at BHG.com. You can skip most of their closet stories because they are so unrealistic for the average home owner. How many people have an entire dressing room in their home? Its great eye candy though!

I did spend the morning measuring and planning Victor's closet and I stopped by the lumber store to buy the type of rods I wanted that I couldn't find at the big stores last week. I didn't find anything particularly useful on line for my project so I'm going to stick with my original plans. I'm hoping it rains tomorrow so we can skip park day to work on it. The kids think I am just so rude!

A Trip To Home Depot

We have gone our separate ways lately but I used to live at that store! When we were at our old house I was constantly in and out of it, buying plants or paint or lumber for projects. When Persistence was tiny she was playing house one day, threw her purse over her shoulder and announced to all her dollies, "I'll be back. I'm going shopping at Home Depot." Yep, I taught her everything she knows. No hair salons or shopping malls for the women in this family!

She spent a few hours shopping the great isles with me today and it was not fun but she didn't complain. I told her that when I finish Victor's closet I would start working on hers and she believed me. Kids are so gullible!

No, just kidding. I really will, I promise. You'll make sure I do right? I may have to have my own organizing challenge where you all challenge me to organize her closet and then you send me prizes when I'm finished. Sound fun???

So, don't tell Stranger that I came home with a couple hundred dollars worth of supplies. You think you're going to go spend a couple bucks on lumber and you leave with a $200 receipt in your purse. It's weird because I thought this stuff grew on trees.

I plan to make a big dent in this project on Monday so I will keep you updated on the DIY.

30 Day Challenge

I am honored that Laura has asked me to help with the judging of her Spring Organizing Challenge! I'm excited to see so many of you participating. It's going to be fun to watch what you come up with this time. The projects that you tackled last time were amazing and I'm sure we will see even better stuff this time around!

I'm not competing for prizes but her last challenge was so motivating that I have to play along again. I am going to build my son's closet. We've lived in this new house for a year so it's about time don't you think? I've got about four more rooms to go after this one so I'd better get started!

I decorated his room in December so all I've got left in there is his closet. You can see the photos here. That is an unfinished dresser that I am going to build into the design and there will be hanging bars and shelves in various places. I guess it's time to rev up the power tools and hit the home improvement stores.

Ready?
Set?
Go!!!!

The Sweetness of the Sweaters

I've been at it with the hooks again. I realized it could take me 10 years to actually finish my closet so I installed some temporary hooks. I'm not even going to paint the boards because they are not staying there. Is that a bit too optomistic of me?

I have always kept my baby's clothes in my closet until they old enough to dress themselves and put their own clothes away. It makes it so much easier to get myself and the baby ready at the same time and in the same place.

I was organizing Lovely's clothes into gallon sized baggies but that was a pain so I gave up on it. I bought all these boxes over the New Year sales and I thought I'd see if I liked them better than bags. So far I do and I also think they're pretty! I have two outfits organized into each one.

The white bin holds her pajamas. Since I like to freeze everyone out at night she wears two pairs to bed. She has more pajamas than regular clothes. It doesn't look like a lot of clothes does it? There might be a few things in the wash but what you see here is about all she owns. I would rather have a few cute things than a closet full of cheap ugly clothes. That doesn't mean I buy expensive clothes. I live for sales! Three out of four of those sweaters hanging up were hand-me-downs from a cousin and I bought the fourth one on sale from Gymboree last year for $3.

I also got tired of throwing Organizing Bags on the floor in the corner of my office/sewing room and installed a few temporary hooks there as well. Thank heaven for power tools!

Click on my Power Tools Label to see more about my hook fetish.

Organized Girls Closet

Were you just dying to find out what exciting thing I was working on last week? I knew it! I needed to get started on another project so I picked the girl's closet. I didn't feel like tackling the entire closet all at once so I began with one wall and lots of my favorite things (hooks) that work with my other favorite things (Organizing Bags).


The entire project took less than three hours. I cut and hung and caulked the boards one night, the next morning I applied two coats of paint and that afternoon I installed the hooks. I put one row down low. Another row up a little higher where Persistence can reach but Lovely can't and then a third row way up there for long term storage. It's still waiting for some hooks.


I added some cork board to hang jewelry on and we made labels so the girls would have a spot for everything.

While I was at it I put up two rows of hooks in our bathroom so we finally have a place to hang our towels by the shower. Ahhh, the small luxuries of life!

See those chrome hooks? Everyone grab your wallets and run to Target because I bought them in the dollar section at four for $2.50. That is cheap!!! Ok, they look a little cheap but they are great if you don't want to spend a lot. I wish I had found them before I put the hooks in Persistence's closet. I paid $2 each for those hooks. I'm going back to Target tomorrow to buy up their entire stock so you had better beat me to it if you want any!

The funnest part of the project was when someone left the bathroom door open and this little twerp found the paint bucket. After dipping my tools and her body in the bucket and flinging paint all over the bathroom, she wandered down the hall to show me how much fun she was having. Do you think it is possible for a one year old covered in paint to walk across the house without touching every single thing she passes? The answer is no.

Decorating a Boy's Room

So how do you decorate a boys room? When Victor was born and I started collecting things to go in his room I knew that I didn't want a baby nursery. I wanted a room that would be a good fit no matter how old he was. Call me lazy but I just didn't want to re-decorate when he outgrew elephants and clowns. You might call his room Patriotic Transportation.

This is his room in our old house where I went kind of crazy experimenting with paint. He liked it but I wanted something more timeless in our new house. I had the painters paint all of my new walls, ceiling and trim the same bleached sand paint so I could take my time adding color. I painted Victor's trim shortly after we moved into the house. After that I decided that bleached sand was a perfectly good color and haven't done any painting since!


Instead of getting ready for our trip yesterday, I spent the day (and night) decorating Victor's room for his birthday next week. He stood ready to hand me hammers and drills until he passed out on the bed at around 11:00. I kept working, staying up till 2 a.m. to get it finished. I'm so happy to have one more thing crossed off my to-do list!

I bought this rack from Pottery Barn on clearance. Now the boy has a place to hang his robe, a towel and a sweatshirt. The floor has been working really well for him so far but I didn't so much like that system.

This is the secret door in his closet that I wrote about a couple months ago.

We found this ore at the lake several years ago. It's hanging over his (unfinished) closet.

I found the old wooden racquets at a garage sale and I picked up the artwork of ships and planes at various discount stores as well as the clock. Eventually I'm going to put a window seat under the window for him that will have a couple extra drawers for storage.

This flag hung at the White House! Did you know you could order flags that have flown at the White House? Apparently they just run one flag after another up the poles all day. You can call your local congressman and ask for a flag request to be mailed to you. I think I only paid $7 for this one.

I bought this old wooden sleigh for five bucks at a garage sale. The blue bookshelf is the first thing I tried to build for my house. A friend of Stranger offered to let me borrow his tools but when we went over there he wouldn't let me touch any of them and ended up building the whole thing himself. After that I started collecting my own tools from garage sales. I built this headboard from an old wooden door. The little night stand I bought at a garage sale for $5. I want to paint the bookshelf and night stand. What color do you think I should use? I'm thinking black or dark chocolate brown.

I bought these little star quilt hangers from pottery barn so I could figure out how to make my own. I've never made any and in fact this is the first time I have ever used the stars! They need to be painted too, probably black. The quilt is black and red and gold. Those are supposed to be suns but my sister said she thought they looked like turtles so now it's the turtle quilt.

Do you think some day I will get all my doors stained? I'm afraid it's too far down my list to happen any time soon.

Here is a happy boy looking very cool.

You like?

It's an Organized Closet!

In just a couple weeks my hall closet went from this:

To this!

I’m so happy with the way it turned out. First of all I decided what I wanted to do with the space. Then I cleared out all the tools and building supplies and organized them into boxes according to the following categories: things that needed to be returned, painting supplies, hardware, and tools. All of it went down to the basement except for the return box which went out to the garage.

Finally it was time to get to the fun part! I had a pile of wood scraps and I rounded up all my tools when I was working on this project so I had everything I needed to get started. I measured and drew lines where I wanted the boards to go. Then I cut them and screwed them to the walls. After the boards were up I filled all the holes, caulked, put on two coats of paint and installed the hooks. It sounds easy doesn’t it? It was but of course it took longer than I thought it was going to take. Things like this always do, especially with so many helpers!

Everyone begged to get in on the action. Stranger spent an hour in the ceiling/attic finding one of the flooring boards I needed for the bench. I really wanted to do it myself but he kept begging and begging so I gave in and let him do it. He also screwed down the boards on the bench because I didn’t make the braces wide enough and he thought I would mess it up. I pretty much agreed with him there! The kids helped by fending for themselves for two days while I worked and they posed long enough for me to take their picture during the painting process. Lovely helped by being in the way, walking off with the tools and losing screws but she got to be the first one to climb up on the bench and hang up her sweater!

One blue container holds swimming towels and the other holds all our pool toys; floaters, balls, diving equipment, bags full of shampoo, sunscreen, combs, etc. The bench is extra deep so we can keep our swimming bag on the back of it and still have room to sit on the front of it. It’s extra sturdy, allowing me to stand on it to reach things on the top shelf. I discovered that top shelf was a great place to store a sleeping bag and a roll of quilt batting.

The bottom row of hooks is right where the kids can reach them and the top row is for Stranger and I to use. A hanging rod might have been efficient for storing more jackets but who wants to take the time to hang their jacket on a hanger? Not this lazy family! I am in love with hooks and I use them everywhere I can.

This brings us to how much I spent on the hooks. I bought 18 hooks at $2 a piece, $36 total. That was all I spent on the entire closet. All the wood I used was from the scrap pile. Pretty cheap re-do don’t you think? I love saving money!

It feels so good to have one more project crossed off my list. I can’t wait to get started on the next one! What should it be?

More Closet Photos

Where have all the photos gone?
Long time loading
Where have all the photos gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the photos gone?
Blogger has lost them every one
When will I ever learn?
When will I ever learn?

I'll try again tomorrow.

All Hail to Jodi for leaving me this comment, "When ever i have problems loading pictures using blogger i go to the menu bar, click on "tools", click on "internet options", on the "general" tab, click on delete under the browser history (which deletes cookies and such) and then try to upload the pictures.i dont know why the history would affect my ability to upload but it does. just something you might want to try. " Where have you been for the last four years of my life Jodi? Will you marry me?

So this is what I was going to post yesterday:

It's been a long day! I spent the morning cooking for a class and I spent the afternoon working on my closet project. I’m so excited that it’s almost finished! I cut and screwed up all the boards. I’m just waiting for Stranger to find two more lengths of 2x6’s to make the seat as deep as I want it. Then I’ll be ready to caulk, paint and attach the coat hooks. Yes, that is a quilting ruler you see propped up against the wall. Power tools, quilting supplies, whatever.

There will be a set of lower hooks for the undersized people and a set of upper hooks for the oversized people. I added a bonus shelf waaaaaaay up there for long term storage. If you’ve got it you might as well flaunt it. The space I mean.

After I did all this it occured to me that the Lazy Organizer's Club was going to be meeting at my house early in the morning and it might be a good idea to clean up a bit. Kay, now I really am exhausted. It's time for a quick shower and bed!

The Goal
The Beginning

Check out the Organizing Junkie for more Organizing Challenges!

Closet Organizing Update

I committed to getting this closet cleaned out and organized this month and then I proceeded to organize everything but the closet. I worked in my pantry, my sewing room/office and my guest room, but not the closet!

I finally felt the urge to tackle the closet on this snowy Monday morning. I sorted all the clutter into boxes and stashed them in the basement. It was a project that might have taken 30 minutes but instead took 2 hours as I tried to organize while refereeing three energetic children.

Hopefully I’ll get started on the building part tomorrow. I’m fantasizing about using my newly organized closet and I can’t wait! Meanwhile I’m going to be leaving the door open so I can walk by it 50 times and look inside because there is almost nothing more beautiful than a clean closet. Oh the emptiness, the wonder, the possibilities!

30 Day Challenge

Ok, she talked me into it. I’m going to tackle this hall closet this month. I’ve sat and thought about it tonight and I think I know what I want to do with it after I clear all the tools out.

I’m going to build a bench into the back of it and put two big organizing tubs under the bench. One will hold swimming towels and one will hold swimming toys and equipment. On top of the bench is where we’ll store our huge swimming bag that we don’t really have a good place for right now. This will be great because this closet is right next to our mudroom. When the kids come in sopping wet from playing outside they will be able to grab a towel without yelling for me. Plus it will be easy to pack the swimming bag and run out the door with it when we need it.

Above the bench I’m going build a hook rack that goes all the way around the closet. Why use a hanger when you can use a hook? So much easier, don’t you think? In fact I think I will do two rows of hooks, one that the kids can reach and one up higher that Stranger and I can use. These will be great for coats, sweaters, backpacks, purses, hats, etc.

I have many projects that need finishing but I think this is one I can accomplish in 30 days, it will be oh so useful and it won’t cost a lot of money. Thanks for the challenge Laura!!!

Update: Progress photo!

Laundry Room Organizer

Oh how I’ve wanted to post a photo of my new ultimate ironing board holder! I controlled myself though and waited till it was completely finished. I built and installed it several weeks ago but needed to finish caulking and painting it which I did yesterday. Yay!!!

I was getting so tired of my ironing board propped up in a corner and Stranger wouldn’t let me buy a holder for it. When I was looking at one at Target he said, “You could build something sturdier than that cheap thing.” Well look at that. I guess he was right. It was quite a project too considering it was my first in our new house so I had to hunt through boxes to find all my tools.

It holds my ironing board and iron, a bag full of dryer sheets, a bag of socks waiting patiently for their mates to come through the wash, and extra pegs where I can hang clothes that need ironing as I pull them out of the dryer. Now I need to go do laundry so I can have some wrinkled clothes to hang on my finished Laundry Room Organizer!