Blissful bedroom

It took a couple of weeks longer than originally planned, but our February checklist is complete! We actually tweaked our schedule a little after realizing how intense the bedroom/closet organization is since those areas contain the most stuff. Check it out here or by clicking the plan tab above. Being flexible really helps when trying to complete a huge project like organizing your entire home without being too stressed by it.

February – March 15

Master bedroom

Master closet

To finish organizing our bedroom I finally rehung my painting so it is centered over our bed. It used to be centered until we added the changing table to the right and shifted everything else left. Rehanging the painting took 5 minutes and made a huge difference! I also made the bed, which always makes a bedroom look ten times better.


Before I could make the bed, I had to tackle the wrinkled bed skirt. I washed and ironed it. Then, I put it on the bed before it had a chance to re-wrinkle. Last year I tried the same thing, but didn't get it put back on fast enough so the ironing was a waste.

I read somewhere recently that you can help keep a bed skirt in place by using bed skirt tacks to attach it to the box spring. While I was googling where to buy bed skirt tacks, I found a list of several ways to keep a bed skirt in place which included using safety pins. I decided to give that method a try since I already had some, making it FREE! I placed one on each corner and one in the middle of each side. So far it is working like a charm.


To finish off the bedroom, I mainly just had to put some things away, dust everything including the baseboards and door frames, and vacuum. It is amazing how much cleaner a room looks with clean carpet and baseboards. We had a couple of piles of "stuff" we went through. Most of wound up neatly put away in the closet or in the trash. All of the papers were moved to the guest bedroom where they belong. However, they aren't filed away yet because our files are full which is making our paperwork out of control. That's the next projected to tackle.

Now, on to the after pictures of our clean and organized bedroom. It is so relaxing to be in there now! I'm going to let you in on a storage secret. Since we are in an apartment and will obviously move again at some point, we saved our moving boxes from the last move. A lot of them are under this bed and the bed in our guest room. It keeps them out of the way and prevents our kitties from hiding under the beds!


Our bookshelves and changing table are staying nice and tidy. I even removed a few more things from the shelves. Also, our little one is long enough now that we moved his diapers below the top of the changing table.


Here's the baby's side of the room. The chest of drawers is also staying nice and tidy. The white thing on the crib is a cat net to keep kitties out. It also will keep Mr. Babycito in when he starts pulling up. It's not the prettiest thing, but it's very functional. And what little boy doesn't enjoy sleeping in a tent?! Since you can't use bumpers with a cat net, I decided to use the bumpers as a bed skirt. Once we make room in the guest bedroom, the glider is going to move in there. It doesn't get used very much where it is now that middle of the night feedings are a thing of the past. In it's place, we are going to put our new pretty hamper! I've still been using my pop up one from college and my husband uses a laundry basket. So, I'm very excited about this change!


Here are my favorite details from our beautiful bedroom.

1. Colorful boxes on my bedside table
2. A painting I made in college
2. My jewelry tray
4. Mr. Babycito's initial from one of my baby showers. It's hung over two small nails.
5. Flowers from my other baby shower and a teddy bear which disguises the baby monitor.

Next up on the schedule is:

March 15 – April
Guest bedroom
Guest closet

I'm pretty sure it will be the most challenging zone, as well as the most rewarding. I'll feel great if we have it finished by the end of April because it is going to be a lot of work.

Are you doing any spring cleaning? Do clean and organized spaces get you all excited too? I am absolutely loving our bedroom!

Books, books, and more books

Last May, while we were preparing for our Babycito's arrival, we decided that it made the most sense for him to share our bedroom with us. We had to get rid of our dresser to make room, but then we needed a place to set some of our things that were displaced. We decided that a tall skinny bookcase would fit perfectly on the small wall space between our bathroom and closet doors. So, we found this Billy Bookcase in the Ikea catalog, borrowed a friend's truck, and drove an hour-ish to the closest Ikea store. Or as my husband calls it, Icky-uh.
We got home, took it out of the box, and discovered that we bought the wrong one! It was the same price but much wider. After the hassle of borrowing a truck and paying for the gas to drive 2 hours in it, we decided to just keep it. It just fits. Well, it overlaps the door frames, but not the doorways. And it turns out we could use the extra shelf space. Here are the shelves before. We threw a bunch of things on them with no rhyme or reason. Not so pretty. There was also a pile of stuff on the floor in front of them.


To organize them, I started by taking everything off. Most of the stuff on the floor wound up in our closet when it got organized. Then, I planned out what would go on each shelf. From the top down, it goes:
1) My husband's toys (Lego Ferraris, Lego Buzz, and an Easy Button) which used to be on top of the living room bookcases
2) My husband's additional books and several boxes of keepsakes and odds and ends (he also has three bookcases in the living room!) which were previously on his bedside table and the floor on his side of the bed
3) Some of my books and a couple of picture frames
4) My photo albums and journals. The photo albums were previously on top of a bookcase in the living room.
5) The rest of my books, some of which were previously falling all over the place on my bedside table shelf
6) Baby books. At the rate him and his dad are going, we are going to need a library room!


I removed the baskets from the top of the bookcase because it looks much neater that way. Two of the living room bookcases no longer have anything on top of them either since my photo albums and my husband's Legos were moved onto our bedroom bookcase.

I like having Mr. Babycito's books on the bottom where he can easily pull them off. Also, this bookshelf already has an L bracket holding it to the wall so it won't fall on him.

I am definitely enjoying looking at our bookcase much more now that it is finally organized. I'd love to improve it some more by finding nicer looking boxes and further editing what is displayed on it, but for now it works and is a major improvement!

I would love to someday have our books stored in a hallway like this...

(image originally from houzz.com)

Or artfully arranged on custom turquoise built-ins like this...

(image originally from Brabourne Farm)

Isn't it fun to dream? What do you think of our bookcase makeover? What do you store on your bookshelves? Are they neatly styled or more functional? What would your dream bookshelves look like?

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?

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?

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?