Month O' Organizing- Dreaded Junk Drawer

Yes, it's November, and October was my month dedicated to organizing, but technically this project was completed in October, so I'm using it.

So there.

Sorry, been around kids for the past 24 hours, my sass got the best of me.

I have a SUPER island in my kitchen. If you haven't seen it, check it out here.

The bad thing is that it is a super clutter magnet.

It is the first stop when we walk in the door and everything lands there.

I was reading the Nester's 31 days series and she had a post about a "man station."

I thought that was pretty brillant.

So I decided to dedicate my junk drawer

(well, okay a PORTION of it)

to my man for his "station.

Here is the before: This is the drawer that I stuck everything in I didn't know what to do with when we moved in -a year ago- and it has just gotten worse since then.

See that Valentine's dish towel?

The dish towel drawer is RIGHT NEXT TO IT.

Don't ask me why it ended up in there. Well, okay ask me. It is probably because that drawer is too crammed.

I emptied it, purged some stuff, put other stuff away and dedicated each section to certain members of the family.

Here is the after:

The far left is for the kids.

It is the homework, school paperwork section.

I found about a million pencils in this drawer. We can NEVER find a pencil. The far right section is hubby's.

This is all the stuff that ends up on the counter.

Yes, that is a smoke detector.

It was removed the other night when it went off as he was frying bacon.

Yes, I have a degree in Safety and Health as well a certification in School Safety.

I am a prime example of do as I say and not as I do.

The middle section is mine all mine.

That is because most of the clutter that gets on my nerves is mine. It is another disease. It is called the Sprawl-Your-Stuff-All-Over-the-House Disease.

Maybe that medicine in my section will help.

Oh! My organizing spread to the drawer next door and I tackled the dish towel drawer. I didn't get a before (but I'm sure you can imagine if I couldn't squeeze in one more towel), but here is the after-sheer loveliness!

I love dishtowels, can you tell?

I think I am going to extend this organizing month for a little while longer. I have a pantry project to share and I REALLY want to tackle the master closet.

I'm thinking I have another series idea thru all this, remember "Decorating A-Z?"

I may post an explanation about it in a few days, keep coming back!

OH! BTW, I'm sure you noticed that I changed my blog background. I need some feedback from you all to see if you can read it okay. When I pull up my blog on my iphone, I can't read it because the background doesn't pull up (and the font is white). I'm hoping you all are able to read all this. If you don't mind, would a few of you leave me a comment and make sure all is well on your end?

Another BTW, if any of you readers are blog pros, I could use some help reorganizing my blog. Maybe a total revamp? If you have any suggestions or people you know, pass them along!

Month O' Organizing: Get out the Decorations!

For those of you who have been reading this blog for awhile, you well know that I am coming up on the one year anniversary of moving into this house.

What does that have to do with organizing? Okay it is probably a stretch but last year I couldn't decorate for Halloween much less fall because my life was in boxes and I didn't know where anything was.

Plus it didn't make any sense to decorate our old house since I was just going to have to pack it up.

This year, I was organized enough to actually put out some fall and Halloween decorations and even organize a Halloween party for my kids (which I will share about a little later).


I somewhat like Halloween, but Hubby's birthday is actually on Halloween so I feel like I need to be a little festive for him.

I don't do creepy stuff or gross stuff. We just don't want to celebrate or endorse that aspect of Halloween. If I do something "monstery" it is usually more

cartoon-esque than realistic.

Please don't get me wrong, I have enjoyed seeing pictures of some of the "creepier" decorations and the talent is incredible. It just isn't my style.

That being said, here are some areas in my house and how I have tried to fall and Halloween them up:

This is my foyer.

I don't know if I have shown my new vinyl that I finally put up:

It isn't EXACTLY the version I wanted, but the meaning is the same.

like that people who visit get a sense of who I am right as they walk in the door.

I also just got another vinyl piece from Leen the Graphics Queen and with it she sent me these little bats for FREE!

I thought they were a fun touch to the corner of the mirror.

Next you get a view of my mantle (now a gleaming white)

Here are some close ups:

I found this little owl at a local Flea Market and love him on my newly painted dresser.


Both these things were new additions to my Halloween decorations this year:

I know Frankenstein is a little monstery. But he is cute and not really scary.

The witch I COULD NOT resist. If you can't read the sign she is holding it says

"Forget the witches, beware of kids!"

Those of you who know me IRL know that I love my kids,

but I joke about them much like The Meanest Mom. I think she and I are kindred spirits.

Finally, downstairs where the new BLACK entertainment center lives is this mantle.

Keep checking back, I will show and tell about the Halloween party later!

Month O' Organizing

September was the dubbed the "Month O' Painting."

October is the Month O' Organizing. I have already gotten some of it accomplished, but I am going to st-r-e-t-c-h the blogging about it as long as possible to get some good blog action from it.

Here are the super exciting posts you get to look forward to:

Bathroom (today's subject)
Kids' rooms
Decorating Closet (that is super scary)
Master Closet
Maybe the pantry

I don't want to get too carried away because I only have the first two items done and there are only two weeks of October left. I don't want to set myself up for failure you know.

Anyway, I think I can get two posts from the bathroom blog. (I have to think about that now because I have really stunk up the whole "keeping up the blog thing" this summer.)

My family has been quick to jump my case about it!

Disclaimer: This post is very embarassing because you are going to see how completely unorganized I have lived for the past year. But I am just going to be real and hopefully you won't go blind looking at the chaos.

I have TONS of storage in my bathroom. It's a little ridiculous really.

But here is how I have treated it thus far:

These are the upper cabinets.

You can see a couple UNUSED lazy susans and a small set of drawers.

Oh and you can also see my youngest daughter's "fake hair." Looks gross just sitting there, but looks pretty cute in her hair.

Except when it falls out in the middle of P.E. class and freaks her friends out!

(Really did happen)

This is the lower bank of cabinets. Pitiful isn't it.

I know. Don't scold me.

I still have one more area to reveal the pitifulness of.

This is the area below the sink. See more containers and drawers.

I totally do it backwards. I like to get the organizing stuff then try to put the junk in it.

It is more fun to find the cute stuff to organize with than to do the

actual organizing!
So I started out by setting the timer for 10 minutes and unloading the cabinets. As I unloaded I divided the junk into categories. You know, pool, guests, towels, bedding, medicine, spa, cleaning, stuff to go somewhere else and of course trash.
Next I wiped the cabinets out then tried to rationally think about where things should go. I had to consider what needed to be gotten at the most and what I needed to store but wouldn't need that often.

I told you all my categories. Here are the loverly afters.

The Upper Cabinets:

The lower cabinets:

Finally under the sink:

My categories were not just arbitrary. In fact, that is what the next post is about. There is a small clue in this blog, but I'm not going to tell. You just have to try to find it, come back and read the next installment and see if you are right.
I'm mean that way!

I'm linking up at Domestically Speaking for an Organization Party. Maybe some of the ideas will encourage you to do some things for those unmentionable areas in your house. They sure make me want to get to the decorating closet!

D is for DVD

Okay folks, I'll admit it. I have stunk it up pretty bad this week with the "D" projects. So many things I could blame it on: testing at school, 2 night classes, 2 migranes, but isn't that just the way things go? Today; however, is a wonderful day. We have a "fake" snow day! I call it fake because the weather man got everyone freaked out about a possible 10 inches of snow and as of 10am we have ZERO.

Sidenote; I live in Kentucky. In the area of the famous "Ice Storm of '09" And ironically, this recent weather forecastt came on the year anniversary of that weather event. If you don't know about it, in a nutshell we are talking no power, no water for like 2 weeks.

I'm not complaining about having this fake snow day. I rather love it. I get to catch up on laundry and baking and decorating and sewing and cleaning and, of course, blogging.

So, thanks to the fake snow day, I am finally bringing you the first blog of "D" week in:

I love movies. I could watch certain ones over and over (The Notebook-when I want to bawl my eyes out-You've Got Mail, AIr Force One, The Rock). I have three kids who love movies. WE HAVE ALOT OF MOVIES. I am going to ask you to not judge me here, but I let my kids watch a movie before they go to sleep at night.

The problem comes when the movies are all over the house and stored in different bedrooms. My 5 year old is alseep in bed and my 9 year old wants a movie out of his room. I needed a central location for them.

On a weekly jaunt to one of my favorite thrift stores, I came across this:

It also had doors on it. Hubby got the doors off before I could get the "before" picture. (Yes, he has since learned to take a picture before he touches anything.) I KNOW this looks rough, but it was the perfect depth for the little nook I wanted to place it in. You should have seen the look hubby gave me when I asked him to "rough it up so I could paint it." He said, "Uh, I think that is already taken care of." I didn't care, I saw the potential.

I spray painted it, with several coats of paint. Then I finally bought some Rustoleum white paint and I will tell you I will NEVER use another brand again.

Confession: There was a point that I thought it wasn't going to work out. Actually several points. 1) when the paint WOULD NOT cover this thing 2) When the panel on the doors didn't come out the way I thought they would (I had planned on putting fabric in where the panels were). There were some scary moments with this little sucker.

I figured out the door delimma by stapling my fabric to poster board and slipping it into the groves left by the panels:

It turned out just like I pictured it would! I was so relieved, er I mean glad. Hubby was surprised I pulled it off. I couldn't believe I stuck it out.

I am ADHD on decorating projects. I start out meticulous and gung ho, then I get all "I want this done" and messy.

I am still looking for a basket to slide in the where the drawer was, but here she is in her place and hiding all those movies:

Thanks for stopping by. I may get one or two more "D" projects squeezed in on my fake vacation. Check back for parties I've linked to and projects I've shared!

Update: 1:09pm and it finally started snowing!
Linked to:


Thrifty Decor Chick Before and After Party --if you haven't seen her, she's GREAT!