This time it’s the back hall with the china cabinet and the closet in the kids’ room. Mostly both of these areas just needed some actual storage containers and a little labeling. And as always there was some purging of unnecessary things and putting trash in the trash can. I’m finding that this is an actual problem all over the problem. The trash just never makes it out of the hose (example: I cut a tag off a shirt and put the tag on a surface that then gets lost in the clutter.)
Hallway / china cabinet before (blurry because they’re from video, I forgot to take a picture):
And after:
I fell in love with these canvas boxes from the Container store. I also used a medium size one in the front hall. On the top right are two small boxes that hold all my table linens (except for everyday napkins), paper dining ware (for parties) and a few holiday table items. On top of these are large place mats and a cake carrier. The top left is the crockpot (which we realize we actually kind of hate) and some disposable casserole pans for mercy meals and pot lucks. The middle is my collection of vases, fake flowers (I purged half of the vases – I’m happy about this), and various holiday decorations.
Moving all of the linens up top was awesome because it made space in the cabinet for serving dishes that were previously homeless. And I can now access everything IN the cabinet easily.
Underneath was the mess that was my sewing supplies. Two medium size canvas boxes now hold ALL of my fabric, batting, patterns, and yarn. The sewing machine on the right holds thread and scissors. My small sewing box with pins and needles is on top of scrabble. The casserole carrier and lunch bags now have a home in the kitchen (oh yeah, I almost forgot I cleaned out the cabinet over the refrigerator and put the rarely used things there and made space in our pots & pans cabinet when I moved the serving stuff and linens). And as always I tossed/recycled the random trash (empty boxes) that accumulated.
And now to the closet. Here’s where we started (the rest of the room is coming):
And now:
I have my mom to thank for this one. When they visited she kept Simon for two nights and I got all the Christmas decorations put away – in the red canvas boxes which are exactly like the black and tan ones only more festive. There are two medium boxes and then some wrapping materials to the right. The rest of that shelf has some purses and bags I don’t use often but do still use, the booster seat that I’ll keep until we use it for baby brother or buy another vintage chair and my fancy dress shoes in boxes.
Then before mom left we sent Simon out for a walk with Chip and sorted ALL the kid clothes and shoes. It’s not all put away, but everything is now at least grouped by size and labeled. The bottom shelf has some children’s books and boxes of kids shoes. On top of the boxes are 0-3 month baby clothes and some maternity things that were borrowed, I’ve outgrown, & aren’t conducive to nursing. The far right are gift bags and boxes.
The guitar is getting moved to the living room. The bag on the floor is newborn cloths and I’m not sure yet if the hanging cylinder will stay or go. The closet holds our off season clothes and my business attire. As well as some non-maternity things that can probably be donated, but I want to wait until summer to deal with my many clothing sizes.
WOW!!! I need to get myself to (something similar) to the Container Store. Though, I admit that I’m afraid I’ll buy stuff that won’t work and then… DEFEAT. I am going to use these spaces as an example of how to plan for the space that I have, so that I do it right. This is awesome!!!