Finished (for now) Mudroom in the garage

So I have finished the garage mudroom makeover for now. I still have a little to do (paint the door and step and add a bench and get a new shoe rack) but for now its done and we've been "living" with it for a couple of weeks.

I hung two coat racks that I made myself. I literally went to Lowes, picked out a piece of wood and had it cut in half there. Then I came home and painted it and then added some brushed nickel hooks and screwed them into the wall, one above the other. Little people coats and book bags on the bottom and big people coats and stuff on the top.

 

I then added a new shelf and some bright yellow buckets I picked up from the dollar spot at Target to hold outdoor toys, and my gym equipment (since I use the garage to work out in too). I added a hook above that to hold our reusable bags, and next to that I hung a shoe rack that we use to hold odds and ends.

Right next to the door I hung two hooks to hold umbrellas - this is Seattle after all! On the other side of the door I hung a wire letter organizer and decided to use it to hold things like tape, measuring tape, stud finder, etc. All those things you need at hand but don't really have a place.

 

Right below the wire hanger is a shelf that holds our extra toilet paper, paper towels and emergency kit. I added a rug in front of the step and a shoe rack under the cost racks too. Not bad for now and it feels so good to be so much more organized as utilizing the space better.

More closet organization!

Another project I tackled in May was organizing my front hall closet. It served a purpose...many purposes, actually. It housed the vacuum, games, coats, shoes, hats, diaper bag, computer bag, and other random odds and ends.It wasn't completely out of control, but I just wanted some more order.

I took a trip to Ikea to get some bins, since they have the cheapest ones around. I had some wall organizers that are actually supposed to hold things like saran wrap, and plastic bags in a pantry. But since we have such a large kitchen, we don't have a need for them so I decided to see if I could use them in this closet. I also had a wire shoe rack that had been in the garage and I brought it inside.

So here's the before:

 

 Just not serving a great purpose

I took about an hour after dinner one night and pulled everything out and reorganized it and put it all back in. Here's the after...I love that this project took so little time!

 

I used the racks on the wall to hold an extra purse, as well as my running stuff so it's all in one place and easy for me to grab when I'm headed out the door.

 

I added the hooks on the back wall to hang things like the diaper bag and an extra backpack.

 

 

Shelves above the hanging area. I have hats, gloves, etc in one, extra blankets and toys in another, and games in the last two.

I love little projects like this that take about an hour, but provide a better result than I'd expected!

Garage Organizing

Our garage has served as a dumping spot for all things that didn't fit into the house since we moved in here last August. We kept it as organized as we could, but without shelving and just a bunch of random nails, it was pretty difficult. And then we had a yard sale, and when things were done, everything just got shoved back into the garage with no organization. Plus, we were storing some things for my younger brother as well.

Here's the before...and yes, these photos give me anxiety because it's so messy (well, messy for me!):

 

So I got to work. We bought some shelves, and some hooks to hang the stuff up that we needed to hang.

It took me three days since I only worked on organizing things when the kids napped or after they went to bed. But finally, finally, I'm done! Please ignore the random table in the photos below...we are trying to sell it on Craigslist!

 

The white shelves right next to the door to the house will be for extra storage as well as for our emergency kit supplies. We're hoping to also get a freezer to keep out here to hold extra food. I'm so happy to be in the garage now. And, I'll be even happier when I get rid of that table! :)

Purge and Clean - Kitchen Edition

So I'd gone through my kitchen and purged some stuff back before Santi was born (I guess they'd call that nesting?) but things still accumulate, especially after having a baby. We had new machines added (bottle warmer, baby food mill), and other new things popping up in the cabinets (first bottles, then sippy cups, kid plates and bowls, etc.)

So a good cleaning needed to be done (pulling things out of cabinets and drawers, wiping down the insides, reorganizing, etc.) and some things needed to be purged or moved to a new place.

Here's the whole room before:

This cabinet was my nightmare. Things just kept getting added to it, without other things being removed. You can see a crockpot (rarely used), rice cooker (rarely used), food processer, waffle iron, sandwich maker (hadn't been used in over a year until recently when we discovered Santi loves grilled cheese sandwiches), storage containers, blender (rarely used), baby food travel containers and water bottles. Ugh.

This is partially our cabinet and partially Santi's. I used to use this cabinet and the one below (which is next to it) for food storage, but it was awkward because it was across from the fridge, stove, etc and didn't flow well. So now it hosts our dishes and Santi's food and some of his dishes/sippy cups.

Spice/baking supply cabinet - yes, we need a house...with a pantry.

Cabinet above the stove - cookbook storage and mug storage

Gadget/catch-all drawer (sorry for the sideways photo!)

Food cabinet

So, I started with the worst cabinet. I pulled everything out to see if it belonged there, or if we needed/wanted it.

I decided to keep everything, even though I was going back and forth about the rice cooker. I hadn't used it in awhile, but thought that might be because we couldn't access it easily. So I put it back in the cabinet, with the rule that if I didn't use it within a few months then it would go.

All organized! I can actually see what I want!

Free space = good!

I moved the shelf up so I could fit all of the cookbooks standing up (I have no idea why I'd never done this before) and took the pitchers we had in the above the fridge cabinet (the one that no one ever goes into, so it's a pain to have anything stored there!) and put them where we can reach them and use them!

Above the fridge cabinet. We don't make a lot of baby food for Santi anymore so the ice cube trays will stay up here for the time being. The other storage containers are only used for fresh fruit (they're specifically for fresh fruit in the fridge because they aerate the food) so they're not used all the time. I also have our lobster pot up there (only been used a few times but necessary as a Maine girl to have one!) and we keep extra vases up here too (there were about 4 more that are currently being washed so they're not in the photo.)

 Not the best, but better. And yes, we need a pantry!

Added a small bowl to hold twist ties and rubber bands

So things are still pretty packed, but we use it all, and it's organized in the best way possible for us. Sometimes even just a little organization helps!