Closet clean out, part 1

We are almost finished with our goals for February! There are just a couple of small areas in the bedroom left to tackle.

February
Master bedroom
Master closet

The closet project wound up taking a lot longer than I expected! To start things off, here are the before photos. Notice the leaning hamper and laundry basket precariously perched on top of a yaffa block.


See the bags spread out across the top shelf, taking up more room than they should.


And look at the floor... yikes! I think it's down there somewhere.


I started off by catching up on laundry. I think it involved at least 10 loads. But I am proud to say I am caught up. Everything is washed and put away other than the clothes we wore the last couple of days. YAY! Now, if I do just 2-3 loads per week I should be able to keep up with it.

After that, I went through my shoes. I realized I have mostly been wearing the same four or so pairs and haven't worn many of them in years. The shoes I do wear kept getting left out because they didn't fit in the closet. It was time to let a lot of them go. *tear* I had 16 pairs that went in Goodwill bags, and four that went to the dumpster. I loved those four pairs of shoes to death...literally! I had already had the silver and black heels repaired once, and the two pairs of flats were worn beyond repair. If only they made purple and gold shoe polish... I decided that it was time to let them go, but took this picture to remember my old friends shoes. This has definitely been the most emotional part of the de-cluttering process so far! See how cute they are? Too bad they no longer are comfortable and barely have soles.


The next step was going through all of my clothes and getting rid of things I know I won't wear again. It involved trying on lots of things to see how they fit my post-baby body. I am still in the process of losing baby weight, but there were a lot of things I knew I wouldn't wear again. I wound up with seven bags of shoes and clothes, plus a few bags, to take to Goodwill!


I also filled up an entire laundry basket with extra hangers! I'm going to see if Goodwill or anyone else wants them so I don't have to throw them all out. I decided to stick with the hangers that don't have the twisty hook part because they don't get all tangled up the way these do. For the most part my husband's are black and mine are white.


Stay tuned for the after photos, coming soon to a blog near you! By the way, do you want some extra hangers? Do you have an emotional attachment to your old shoes and clothes?

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Organizey Dreams is now on Facebook and Twitter! Since I don't write blog posts daily (even though I would like to), I am going to share quick tips and inspiration on a more regular basis via social media. And of course there will be alerts for any new blog posts. Follow me and we can get organized together! Yeah!

Laundry fix

This is an update to my previous Laundry Fail post, where my son's bibs were tragically stained by carrots. After writing that post, I received some great suggestions including:

• Use Oxi Clean powder and make a paste. Let it set, then wash until clean.
• Use Baby Oxi Clean in the machine and then spray Dreft stain remover on the stains.
  
• For really bad stains, soak clothes in Cascade or Ivory liquid soap in the sink. This can even get oil out of clothes.
  
• Take his shirt off if it is messy!

I decided to try the Baby Oxi Clean powder, but Kroger didn't have it, so I got the regular liquid Oxi Clean instead. I poured some directly on the stains, let it set for about 10 minutes, and then washed the bibs in cool water.


When I pulled them out the first time, they didn't look much better. I let them air dry and then repeated the process several days later. This produced much better results! The stains are still there, but MUCH lighter. I let them air dry again to prevent the stains from really setting it, so I might repeat the process one more time. Here's how they look now.


For comparison, here is the before picture again.


The lessons I learned from this experience are:
1) Carrots stain!
2) I don't like white bibs. Bibs should only come in black to make life easier on moms.
3) Oxi Clean is my friend.
4) Babies don't need to wear clothes to eat (duh)! I tried that the last time I fed my baby dude carrots and it made clean up so easy.

I hope you can learn from my laundry fail! Have you ever saved any clothes you thought were ruined? Do you also care way too much about how clean your baby's bibs look? I mean, their purpose is to keep clothes clean, so it is their job to get dirty!

More function, less clutter

A couple of areas in our bedroom that needed some improvement were our bedside tables and the changing table. Yes, we currently share a bedroom with our baby. That is one of the reasons why we want to de-clutter and hopefully move somewhere with a third bedroom! It has been convenient having him in our room, but it is definitely not a permanent arrangement. Our second bedroom currently serves as a guest bedroom for our frequent visits from grandparents and an aunt, as well as an office for my husband since he works from home.

I unfortunately don't have any before pictures for this post because I just started organizing these spaces in the middle of clearing off the bookshelves. I was on a roll! So, I'll have to describe the befores.

Previously, my bedside table had a horizontal stack of books on the shelf below. This was a pain because they would all fall everywhere if I tried to pull one off that wasn't on top. And they wouldn't stand up vertically because of the open sides.

The top of the table had a bunch of mail, papers, and pens. My cat, Ashtyn, was constantly knocking things off of it!

First I took everything off and dusted it. The books got moved onto the bookshelves now that my jewelry relocated and made room. What a brilliant idea, right!? I stacked two pretty boxes on the self. One holds my recently trimmed down greeting card collection and the other contains inspiring design samples I collect for future reference. A spiral notebook rests on top of the boxes.

The only things I left on top of the table are my lamp, alarm clock, and a post it pad in a clear plastic holder that also has room for two pins. The paper clutter got moved to the guest bedroom or thrown out. I love that I now have room to set something on the table temporarily, such as a glass of water. The slippers have now relocated to the closet too so it looks even tidier. The drawer was already organized so I left it as it was. It holds things like my eye mask, lip balm, lotion, bookmarks, and earplugs.


My husband also cleaned off his bedside table so that it is less cluttered. A lot of his books moved to the bookshelves in our bedroom. Some of his random odds and ends went into clear plastic bins for storage. I don't have an after picture of it yet, but it is definitely improved.

The changing table wasn't too bad, but it still had a bunch of random papers on it like instruction manuals for baby gear and print outs from our baby registry. On top of it we keep our diapers and other frequently used items in that fabric bin. Wipes are behind it. Our baby is getting long enough that the wipes will soon relocate to the window sill and the bin will move down to the shelf below.

The second shelf has an extra changing pad, bath toys, a high chair cover, and another bin with various baby toiletries. A lot of them including the medicines will need to relocate once he is pulling up and walking.

The bottoms shelf holds a pink tub with extra wipes. It's pink because it just came in that color from the hospital. We have at least three now and they really come in handy! The bottom shelf also holds diapers, trash bags, and the diaper bag. The diaper bag goes in the empty space. Daddy and baby were out running an errand while I took these pictures. I LOVE our diaper bag! It is this one from Land's End and it really helps us stay organized on the go.

There is definitely some room to grow on these shelves, so it will evolve. I would love to get some matching bins or baskets, but for now this works!

What do you keep on your bedside table? For those of you with kids, what do you store below your changing table other than the usual diapers and wipes?

It's the little things

I'm really trying to take care of little projects as soon as I come across them in my quest to get organized. A couple of weeks ago I hung this clock up in our guest bathroom. It had been getting in the way in various non-wall locations since we moved in on Valentine's day 3 years ago. So, it was about time I got around to that! The reason I had left it of the wall for so long was that one of the leaves had fallen off and I wasn't sure where it was. I kept the clock because I knew I had put the missing leaf somewhere safe! Sure enough, while I was cleaning out my jewelry box I found it!


I immediately got out my glue gun before I could lose the leaf again! I also remembered that I had a mirror which had fallen out of it's compact. I've been meaning to glue it back together too. Since I had the glue gun out already I grabbed that to fix as well.


You might also notice the white pom pom in the above photo. I found two of them in with my jewelry and was finally going to sew them back on the scarf that they had fallen off of. Unfortunately, one of my kitties got to one of them and completely shredded it into little strings. I guess it's time to get rid of that scarf now. I haven't worn it in a while any way since it was missing these pom poms.

At least I now have a pretty repaired clock and mirror!


It definitely feels good to tackle small projects after putting them off for months or years! I can't believe it took me so long to fix this clock. Do you also save things because you can fix them but then take years to do it?

Twinkle twinkle little jewels

Over the weekend I tackled the bedroom and closet project of organizing my jewelry!

Here is the before picture of the jewelry I keep in the closet. This is the first thing you see when you open the closet door. The magnetic/bulletin board with hooks is perfect for hanging larger necklaces and bracelets. The necklaces hang from the hooks, and the bracelets hang from push pins on the cork board part.


A few random items including a lei, tags from clothes, and apron were hanging on it, so I threw them away or put them back where they belong. I also moved the necklaces around to be in a more convenient order. Plus, I hung up the necklaces and bracelets that had been left on the bookshelf and in other rooms. It's not a huge difference, but it definitely makes things a little neater. As a side note, the Arkansas cling is my husband's, not mine. Go Frogs!


The next part was to tackle the craziness on the bookshelf. I told you it was crazy! This shelf is now full of books, but that's a post for another day. On the left you can see we had a bunch of stacked up jewelry boxes, vitamin bottles, and my husband's dresser organizer. On the right we had my jewelry box buried under some random papers, a couple of candles, old perfumes, a tray with more jewelry and odds and ends, and some photos. Since I had a lot of jewelry left out all over the place, it was getting hard to find what I wanted to wear! Stacking things on top of my jewelry box definitely didn't help with putting things away either.


First, I gathered up all my jewelry and laid it out on the bed. Then, I organized it! I decided to take everything out of the cardboard jewelry boxes because it makes it hard to see what I have and takes up a lot more space. Things I wear a lot went in the top tray of my wooden jewelry box. Things I wear a little less went in the bottom of the jewelry box. And things I rarely wear went in the pink and brown box (my yummy red velvet bundt cake I got for Valentine's day this year came in it). As you can see, one of my kitties was fascinated by the process... oooh, shiny stringy things!


The black drawers stayed on the shelf. The vitamins went in the bathroom, while the candles went in a drawer in the guest bedroom with other candles. I threw away all of the perfumes except for one because most of them didn't smell right anymore and I rarely wear perfume. The photos went on a shelf where my photo albums now live. I'll talk more about that in the upcoming post about the bookshelves.

The organized jewelry went on the top of the chest of drawers now that the was room. The box went in the center, and I kept some larger jewelry that I wear a lot in the heart tray. It looks so much prettier when it isn't overflowing.


Here's a close up of the heart tray.


And here's a close up of the jewelry box. I also cleaned out all the dust with a damp cloth while I had it empty. I'm trying to do a better job of keeping it closed now!


And where did the little pink and brown box go? It's behind the white metal basket on the shelf below! So, it's out of sight, but conveniently located. I love how it utilizes the space back there.


So, that's how I organized my jewelry. I probably can get rid of some of the jewelry that I put in the pink and brown box, but I decided that would make such a small impact that it can wait a while. I didn't take a picture of it, but the jewelry inside it is separated into little clear plastic ziploc-type baggies. I found them at Hobby Lobby by the cash register. They help keep all the earrings together and necklaces tangle free.

How do you store your jewelry? Did you organize anything over the weekend?

Organize This: Nicole's entryway

I am going to start a new feature where you can send me a photo of a space you need help organizing and I will make suggestions. I'm calling it Organize This! If you have a space you need help organizing, send photos and information to me at organizey.dreams@gmail.com for a chance to be featured on my blog.

To start things off, here is Nicole's entry way.


Here is what she wrote: Dear Kat, I have been reading your blog! This is my catch all area. The tray (which is normally utilized for mail) has a tendency to catch other things too. Any suggestions? As I get my new apartment painted, I plan on attempting to get organized and rearranged. As I said my ideal function is kind of a catch all but mostly mail ends up here and we are really bad about going through it since most of our bills are paid online. The brown bag underneath is full of mail, the Christmas can is actually housing random cords and wire which I suppose could be put in the closet. There is a slightly chewed up umbrella and other random things that don't belong but get put up there after picking them up off the floor because Buck got to them.

Here's what I would do to organize this space...

I would start by going through everything and throwing away all of the junk mail and trash. I think the bucket of cords would make sense in the closet. I'd even go through those to see if they are really all things you might use again. I always seem to find cords and instructions that go to things I don't even have anymore!

A great habit to get into is going through the new mail right away or at least making time once a week. I used to be great at this, but need to get back in the habit. It seems like whenever I get behind and have a large stack of mail, 80% is actually junk that I could have thrown away immediately!


1. If you don't have time to read all your mail right away, you can at least sort things you want to read later by family member and hang them in something like this scroll wall mount letter holder from Target that can hang over the table. I especially like this one because it has hooks where you can hang things like keys or a dog leash so they don't get buried under mail.

2. A couple of boxes like this green tabletop file storage from Target or a basket with a lid could be tucked under the table to store mail and papers that need to be filed or other items. Lids are important because they will keep things safely away from Buck and prevent things from getting dusty! I think this green color will look great with the pink and white flowers if you keep those on the table.

3. Something like this green magazine file from Target would be a great place to keep magazines and catalogs that come in the mail that you want to look at when you have time.

4. One thing that really helps keep clutter under control is sorting mail and throwing away the junk as soon as you bring it home. Keeping something like this sway trash can from The Container Store near by makes it convenient to do this.

Once you have things organized, just spending a minute or two a day going through mail and other items you set here will help keep this area nice and tidy!

Happy organizing, Nicole! I can't wait to see how it turns out! Does anyone else have any tips for this space?

No more chest of chaos

The dresser chest of drawers in our bedroom had become quite a mess. I always call it a dresser and it drives my husband nuts! This is where we store baby clothes and baby blankets since our closets are full. Some of the drawers were overstuffed and wouldn't close all the way. Plus, some random items had accumulated on top.

To organize it, I started by taking out all of the clothes and separating the too small newborn and 0-3 month clothes. *tear* Since I would love to have one more bambino someday, we are going to store it for now. I grabbed this gray tub that was empty after our trip to Half Price Books and filled it up. It also holds my maternity clothes, the newborn sling for the tub, and the newborn insert for the car seat. I'm going to label it once it is full and put it in the guest closet or storage unit once we clean those out and make room.

Since Mr. Baby is almost to big for his 3-6 month clothes, I cut all the tags off his 6-9 month clothes and washed them. They were in a bag in our guest bedroom still and always getting in the way. Then I filled the drawers back up in a more organized fashion.

Drawer 1: 3-6 month clothes, socks (corralled in a ziploc container that had lost its lid), shoes, and hats

Drawer 2: 6-9 month clothes

Drawer 3: PJs with 3-6 month size on the left and 6-9 month size on the right

Drawer 4: Blankies and some 18-24 month pants my mom scored for next to nothing at a garage sale.

Now the drawers are all set until he grows more! We definitely need to be on the look out for 9-12 month summer clothes. We love finding good deals instead of paying full price and the clothes we got as baby gifts will all be outgrown in another 3-4 months! Although if this summer is anything like last summer, Mr. Baby might be happiest in just his diaper anyway. It was a record-breaking 110 degrees on the day he was born!

The last step in organizing the dresser was de-cluttering the top. The bibs were moved to the kitchen so I no longer have to make that annoying dash to the bedroom. I also put some baby washcloths in there since I use them to clean his hands and face after he eats. The picture above the dresser was way too high and off center now since it used to hang over a TV, so I re-hung it.

Doesn't it look so much prettier now!? I love it and hope we can keep it this way.

We are a little behind on this month's rooms since I was busy scoring an awesome new job and my mother-in-law was visiting, but we hope to catch up and stay on schedule!

Have you organized any drawers lately? Do you leave pictures hanging in random spots for months after re-arranging furniture? Does packing up baby clothes make you cry too?

Laundry fail

February is the month of the master bedroom and closet!

February
Master bedroom
Master closet

We haven't really started on it yet, but hopefully will this weekend. Well, I did start some laundry which is the first step. Speaking of laundry, I am obviously not used to food stains! I washed my baby's bibs after his first carrots and squash. Now they look like this!


I didn't throw them in the dryer yet since heat will really set the stains. But I'm not sure of the best way to at least improve the stains. I put Shout on them the first time I washed them.

Do you have any tips for removing carrot and other food/baby stains? I definitely need to learn all I can since I have a little boy!