I Heart Organizing: Baby Closet

Hi,
I am over on I Heart Organizing today talking about Hudson's new closet. Organizing a baby closet was a bit different than organizing a grown up closet I found out. For one . . . the clothes are much tinier. I worked out a very simple system for our little man's clothes.
If you have a second check it out on I heart Organizing!!

Cleaning Supply Caddy

I shared one half of under our kitchen sink here. I still LOVE the lazy susan for under our corner sink (in my experience corner sinks are more difficult to organize, what can I say . . . I am a girl who loves right angles). The lazy susan is great for things that stay in the kitchen . . . things like club soda, kitchen sponges, dishwasher detergent, dish soap etc . . . But things that I need to clean other areas of the house, things like . . . Window cleaner, all purpose cleaner, cloths, scrubber, counter wipes, paper towel, microfiber cloths etc . . . are better left in a caddy that way I still have easy access to them in the kitchen but I can grab the whole caddy and take it to the upstairs bathrooms, or basement bathroom!

I think any caddy is great it doesn't have to be an expensive one, but this one from Rev a Shelf is amazing! It pulls out on rails, and then clips out so you can take it around the house with you.

When you are done you can pop it back on the rails and it tucks away neatly under the counter!

 Every Cleaning Caddy should have: 

• All purpose cleaner, whether it's a homemade cleaner or a store bought cleaner. Or a homemade cleaner in a store bought container. 
• Window Cleaner
• Carpet Stain Cleaner
• Bar Mops (I like using small bar mops for quick clean ups, you just pop it into the wash when you are done and it saves on paper towels).
• Paper towels . . . I know I just said bar mops to save on paper towels. But I keep paper towels handy for the really gross messes. I am sorry but I'm not cleaning dog sick with a towel . . . that's paper towel territory! 
• Sponges 
• A toothbrush or other stiff bristled small brush for fine detail cleaning around faucets and in crevices.
• An abrasive cleaner like Bon Ami for toilets and other exceptionally grimy places.

I really love our new cleaning caddy! It's better than making two or three trips up and down the stairs with arm loads cleaning supplies. I bought ours from Lowes but you can find them on Amazon for a slightly better price!

Happy Cleaning!

Our garage garden station

One of the questions I get frequently is about our garage. Generally the garage is considered Lee's domain . . . but I do have my own little corner. It's our garden corner. I keep everything to do with gardening there (except the lawn mower).
Space for my little garden station is tight because we have a two car garage and park two cars in our garage . . . but we figured out a way to fit enough room for some shelves and one very smart table top.

We couldn't fit a table in the garage for potting, but this drop leaf table top from Ikea is perfect!!! It's their Norbo Table and it's just under $40.

When we aren't using it . . . it folds up and sits just over 3" off the wall.

To organize the shelves (also from Ikea), I found these blue plastic containers from Dollar Tree. I store our blood meal, and our bone meal (both we used up when we planted our cedars and hostas last week). As well as our hanging basket, slow release fertilizer. 

We store all the bird seed in this tin container with a little scoop. I found it back in August of 2010 (here's the link to the post I wrote about it).

I also keep our sunflower seeds (for larger birds) and some extra fertilizer on the middle shelf as well.

I installed a couple of hooks under the bottom shelf and hung up a little garden bag (I found it at the Salvation Army Thrift Store). I keep all of our small garden tools in the bag, it nice because I just grab the bag when I need to weed the garden, or prune a tree, I have everything right there. 

I also keep a little spool of twine so I can do a quick tie up of a vine, it actually comes in handy more often then I thought it would.

Beside the shelves we store our rakes, and shovels. We found this organizer from Amazon . . . it's awesome! Super easy to use and keeps them up and off the garage floor.

I've shared this part before but I thought I would share it again . . . we store our potting soil in a big garbage can from Ikea, and in the smaller can we store Corn Gluten (a natural lawn fertilizer) in the summer, and Salt (for de-icing our steps) for the winter.

So there's our little garden station. It is really handy to have somewhere for all the bits and pieces that go along with gardening. If you are like us and have to store your garden gear in your garage and still want to park two cars in there I hope this post was helpful.

(and to be perfectly honest if I was really potting that fern on the table there would be a MUCH bigger mess on the table ;)

Perfect Drawers

First . . . please excuse my photos I forgot to charge the battery on our camera so these are phone pictures . . . phone pictures in low light.

I LOVE unexpected pops of pretty. Like when you open a closet door and it's painted a fun color inside or a jewel box powder room. Our cutlery trays were at one point a splurge item for us. They are wood and while we snagged a good deal on them, I would still consider them a splurge item. So almost 5 years later they are seriously showing some signs of wear and tear. But structurally they are still great (if a cutlery tray can be structurally sound??).

I thought about giving them a coat of spray paint but I didn't like the idea of our cutlery touching the paint and all of the chemicals that go along with spray paint. I thought about painting them with a more natural no voc paint or even a chalk paint . . . but I didn't think they would hold up to the abuse, from all of the metal utensils.

I thought about shelf liner . . . easy to clean, easy to install. So I went to Target . . . (p.s. I couldn't be more excited there's a target in Canada now!!) I looked at the pretty liners, but then I saw the cork one and cork in cutlery drawers just made sense. The utensils would slide around as much when the drawers were opened and closed! And for less than $10! Perfect.

The only Piece of advice I have about installing it, is:
Cut with scissors not an exacto knife . . . for some reason the cork doesn't appreciate the cutting blade approach, it kind of crumbles around the edges.

The drawers are in way better shape now . . . I was able to get rid of some extra bits and bobs, and most important make room for a recent gift . . . my new Sophie Conran measuring spoons and cups!!!

Once the battery is all charged up I will take some much better photos for you . . . but I hope these will do for now.
If you follow us on Instagram you would catch a couple photos of my new Sophie Conran dishes. I am so so so excited! When we first got married I wanted to much to register for Sophie Conran dishes but we decided that the fact that we could barely afford food at the time . . . having fancy dishes to eat off of seemed a little extravagant. So I waited and waited, finally 7 years and an amazon gift card later I have them!!!
So I am doing a major cupboard overhaul . . . probably as you are reading this. I can't wait to share!

4 Steps to an Organized Coat Closet

I set out to organize our coat closet . . . it wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. In fact it was pretty simple.
First we installed a simple wire shelving system, you can buy packaged systems, rubbermaid makes a good one. Or you can buy the individual pieces like we did, from stores like Home Depot and Lowes.
I usually don't like the wire systems but I chose one for our coat closet for a reason. Because our coat closet on the main floor is where we keep all of our "everyday" shoes. There are no high heels, or men's dress shoes in our main coat closet, just runners, and boots, shoes that Lee wears to work (a cross between hiking shoes and dress shoes), and flats. Our everyday shoes get dirtier than our dress shoes, and if I had chosen solid shelves (either wood or MDF) they would get muddy and dirty and I would have to clean them off. Wire shelves don't leave a lot of surface space to get collect dirt. The wire shelves also allow the circulation of air around the soles of the shoes drying off wet bottoms.

After we installed the wire shelves, I was able to organize the closet in 4 steps:

 

Step 1: Hooks

Every well organized closet needs a couple of hooks. The back of the door would have been wasted space. I usually have a tote bag and a scarf hanging from them

Step 2: Seasonal Storage

I think all coat closets could use a basket or box for seasonal items. In the summer we keep our snow boots, and all of our mittens and toques, knitted scarves . . . and a couple of Max's winter sweaters (don't laugh he's very tiny and needs a little sweater, the fact that it has a monkey on it is just for fun). In the summer we keep our flips flops and sunscreen in the basket . . . because we live in Canada and there is NO need for flip flops in the winter unless you wear them with socks . . . so classy.
*basket is from Michaels.

Step 3: Baskets

These two little baskets are from The Real Canadian Superstore. They are the same baskets from our townhouse bathroom. They are the perfect addition to our coat closet. They catch all the hats, and mitts, and toques, all the essentials for a Canadian winter. In the summer we use them to hold a cotton scarf or two, sunscreen and our ball caps.

Step 4: Somewhere to store re-usable shopping bags

We all try to use our re-usable bags and storing them can be a bit awkward around here. I use to store them in the car . . . which was great but while they were in the house they would always be sitting on top of the front hall console, or in the mudroom on top of the machines. They aren't the prettiest of things and I didn't like seeing them on the counter or table tops.
This little wire basket is meant to work with the wire shelving systems, and we use it to hold our shopping bags! Because I have to go into the coat closet to get my shoes before I leave the house . . . I never forget my re-usable bags!

Your family is probably different than mine . . . so your coat closet might have different needs . . . for example you might need extra hooks, or extra baskets. You might need two or three baskets/boxes for your seasonal storage. But I really do think that these are the 4 parts that every coat closet needs.

Bonus Step 5: Matching hangers

Ikea sells hangers for amazing prices, grab a couple packs . . . spend less than $10, and wow yourself with your pretty closet! ;) haha

Bonus Step 6: Key Hooks

We have our key hooks beside our front hall console, but if you don't have a console a couple of small hooks in your coat closet would be very useful!

Anyone have any other Coat Closet organizing tips??? I would love to hear them!

Baking Cart

I Love to bake . . . actually we both love to bake (ever seen a 6 foot 8 inch weight lifter bake a cake?? FYI it's super sexy ;). haha

I saw these Raskog rolling carts from Ikea and I couldn't resist. I originally picked it up for our bathroom, but it wouldn't fit into the spot I was thinking of. I drove myself, and I'm sure Lee, crazy trying to think of another place we could use it. I came up with, what I thought, was a great idea but only if I had a pantry and I don't.
But I thought I would photograph it and explain it for all of you lucky people who have pantries, before I returned the cart.

I thought about making a Baking Cart. You could keep it in your pantry with all of your baking supplies, and roll it out when you're ready to bake.
I love it!!! Everything you need at your fingertips. I've always had a baking cupboard (in fact I have a new post coming up on our NEW and Improved baking cupboard) but a baking cupboard is definitely second to a baking cart! All the ingredients are easily within reach, there is no running back to the pantry for something you forgot. And the cart is so darn cute!

I popped the spatulas and wooden spoons on the top, as well as our large jars of flour and sugar. I would also keep our measuring cups and measuring spoons up there!

On the second shelf I stored our glass jars of things like powdered sugar, brown sugar, graham cracker crumbs, and ground almonds.

Lastly, on the third shelf I stored our dried fruits and nuts, as well as chocolate chips!
I don't know if I'll ever have a home with a large pantry but if I do . . . you'll see this baking cart in it!

I hope all you lucky ladies with pantries can find this post useful! For the rest of us I'll have a post up this week of my new organized baking cupboard!

How we organize all the books

I LOVE getting questions from readers! This one came right after our new Library Bookcase post.
Thanks Jennifer!

I don't have an overly organized bookcase. By 'overly organized' I mean I don't have it organized alphabetically or by the Dewy Decimal system. 
I read mostly non-fiction so our fiction section fits on one shelf alone. As for the rest of my non-fiction collection I organize them by topic.
While I don't have a super organized system, I do have a weird system all of my own. Well the system itself isn't weird but the categories are a bit unorthodox. Here are the topics found in our library:
1) Healthy Living. Mostly heath books, or exercise books.
2) Sewing and other craft books.
3) Finance Books, I love a good finance book. I have no idea why but I love books about saving money. I think it's the organizer in me . . . I love new ideas on how to organize our spending.
4) Spiritual books. 
5) Biographies, every one from Tori Spelling to Sidney Poitier, my tastes vary greatly in this area.
6) Green Living, this section takes up two shelves. Here's one:

7) Gardening.
8) Simple Living. I have enough books on simple living to garner their own shelf. Ironic because having tons of books on the same subject is definitely NOT living simple ;).

9) Style books. Books on pretty clothes and defining your personal style. Choosing clothes and defining my own style wasn't something that came easily to me. I found a lot of help in the writing of people who have it together in that department!
10) Adoption books. This is also where we'll keep the books on babies and kids and subsequently teenagers.
11) An entire shelf dedicated to Home Organization. 
12) Another shelf dedicated to Home Design.
13) Cleaning and Home Maintenance. 
14) I have an entire shelf for Ms. Martha Stewart herself. I have no idea why I have a whole section on Martha. All of her books could fit into other categories in the bookcase but for some reason I like grouping them all together!
Last is my favorite section:
15) An entire shelf for "Housewife" Books. Those are books that have anything to do with being a housewife. Or any retro books about women.

And that's how we do it. I could alphabetize them within each category but so far I don't have enough books to make that worthwhile. Maybe one day when we have more books we'll need to get them in alphabetical order, but now it's easy enough to go to the section and find the book I'm looking for.

I almost forgot to mention that the books that are either currently in use or that I have recently purchased and haven't gotten around to reading yet, get put on top of the lower bookcase between the A and Z. Once they've been read they get put into their respective categories. This way I ensure that I don't overlook or forget about a book I intended on reading! 

Bonus:
I collect Martha Stewart Magazines I have approx 150 of them. They are relegated to the bottom shelves of the bookcase because they are very heavy.
I hold the magazines in magazine holders from Ikea and I group them by month. That way I can grab an entire month at a time. It's really handy for planning seasonal menus or for holiday ideas! Just grab a month and you have am abundance of ideas for each and every holiday!

I hope that answered your question Jennifer!

Books, Books, Everywhere!

It's been 7 years and I'm not itchy at all!!! (get it, the 7 year itch??)

That's right it's been 7 years since we said I DO! And we are more in love than ever . . . well I am anyways . . . I don't want to speak for Lee but I think he'd agree!
I was down right spoiled rotten this year, usually we decide on a gift for both of us . . . almost exclusively it's something for the house. For 5 years it was our wood dining table (for the traditional wood gift) and 6 years it was our pots and pans organizer (iron is traditional so we did a spin on that). 7 years was copper or wool. I didn't want anything copper . . . but a warm wool blanket would be nice??? Cashmere is a type of wool . . . right??? hehe
We still haven't gotten around to purchasing our mutual gift but Lee did sneak in a couple of very sweet gifts for me!

The first was a stamp I've been wanting forever!

With so many books in our little library and so many friends and family members with similar reading tastes I'm always lending out books I wanted to make sure that our books get returned to us, so Lee picked me up a book stamp. It says Ex Libris (which is Latin for "from [the] books", which when used as a bookplate means "from [the] books [owner]") and in true anniversary style he chose "Mrs. Malinek".
It's perfect! I couldn't love it anymore! He gave it to me before he headed to work and came home to THIS:

(That top stack I'm staring at fell down on me seconds after this picture!)

I stamped every book in our library. I thought about only stamping the books that get lent out . . . but how do you know which books people are going to want to borrow?? and stamping a big MINE on a book, right in front of someone before they take it home just seems in poor taste! Kind of like, "I don't believe you'll return this to me so I'm going to make sure you don't forget!" So I just bit the bullet and stamped them all in one big go . . . although I still haven't made my way into the kitchen to stamp all the cookbooks!
I'll share my other two gifts tomorrow!!! All I can say now is Anthropologie! (and I still can't imagine Lee in that store all by himself!) haha

Ex Libris stamp is from Holmes Stamp . . . Lee said they were really helpful and even emailed a mock-up of the stamp so Lee could see how it looked before they made it!

I Heart Laundry Room Organization

 I hope you get a second you'll pop over to I Heart Organizing where I'm guest posting all about our Laundry Room organization!

From the counter top tray, to the piggy bank! It's all happening Today! ;)

I hope you'll check it out! I have some new clear laundry bottles (that are actually old Milk Bottles from Whole Foods), as I mentioned before a new tray and of course a little piggy bank for all the Husbands change (what is with husbands and carrying TONS of change?).

The Importance of Decluttering

I think that because I spend so much time in our home, thinking about our home, working from home etc . . . the state of our home directly affects the state of me ;). Meaning that if the house is messy or cluttered, I feel messy and cluttered.
Both Lee and I are, self described, "amazing declutter-ers", we are cut throat! If I can't remember the last time we used it . . . it goes into a box and that box goes into the garage. It stays in the garage for a couple months and if we don't need anything from the box, it goes!
I've found that this is the BEST way to declutter because you are way more likely to get rid of things if you know that, if you suddenly need it you can get it back out! But if you don't need it in a reasonable amount of time (ours is 2 months) then you drop the box off at a second hand store, or a friend, or a consignment store . . . just get it OUT!
It just so happened that one of the items I have pictured here, was retrieved out of the garage box today. I'm throwing a girls night party on Saturday Night and our DIY'd tiered flower stand would be perfect!
THE most important tip should be:  When your ready to get rid of the box . . . DON'T OPEN IT! Believe me Do Not Open the Box! After a few months in the garage it's common knowledge that the box of stuff will have developed a deadly, airborne virus . . . you must quickly move the box from the garage, to the car and donate it! If you open the box, I am not responsible for what happens to you! ;)

Here's what's sitting in our garage ready to be donated:

1)An old Ikea print (actually the very first thing I ever bought for Lee and myself from Ikea). This is where the Ikea Madness began!
2) Our DIY tiered stand. Which I realized I could use this weekend.
3) A "fake" telescope that use to live in our library.
4) A homemade poof. It looks cool in this picture, but in real life it's pretty darn ugly. I knitted the outside myself, almost like a large scarf and cinched it together at the top and bottom. The result was two LARGE holes on the top and bottom. And a lot of saggy-ness all around.
5) Two pillows that came with our townhouse couch.
6) A basket in a weird shade of green that refuses to play nice with everything else in the house.

7) A set of pillow cases (not the pillow inserts).
8) A couple of Ikea boxes we had bought for our townhouse.
9) Another pillow case I sewed but have no room for. More and More I'm finding that it's less about the color and more about the TONE of the color (for example . . . not all shades of yellow get along).
10) A Boot for Halloween. We bought it a couple years ago I still LOVE it but I have never been able to fit it into our Halloween decor! It's oddly shaped and for some reason or another doesn't work.
11) Crutches from when I tore a bunch of ligaments in my ankle 2 years ago. We kept them in case I needed surgery on my ankle to repair the damage, but it's almost healed up. I have another scan for it next year, but it looks like I've managed to miss surgery, Yeah!  Time to get rid of the crutches!

12) A birdcage candle holder, I LOVE IT. I have never been able to find a place for it in our new house! Our dining table is round now and it looks a little odd. It was perfect when we had a rectangle table but just not working on our round table. (I also tried it on the coffee table but it was too big).
13) A print from Jysk. I LOVE Punch Buggies and thought that I would love a punch buggy print . . . turns out I only like to drive them, not hang them in the living room.
14) A set of pillow cases I made for the guest room. I thought that they would read RED and match the drapes, but they read orange, thanks to the orange flowers. They had to go.
15) These baskets live in our front hall console. I wasn't in love with the green so I've been on the look out for new, wood toned, wicker baskets.
16) The matching pillow to an old duvet cover we don't own anymore.
17) Curtain Panels I bought for the living room when we first moved in. I don't know what I was thinking.

18) A basket, again, Love it, but the tone of the basket doesn't match anything in the house, also there's a bit of a hole in the bottom.
19) A silly impulse purchase from the As Is section at Ikea. This vase was on sale for $1 I bought it and tried to like it . . . but I don't.
20) A couple of bolster pillows we used to use in our townhouse bedroom. I like 'em, Lee hates them. Because Lee hates them, they never made their way onto our current bed. For that reason they have to go as well.
21) Two candle pillars I bought from Homesense 3 years ago for $9 and $7 dollars. Again, something I really like but has never been able to find a place for.

We ended up going through not only our storage but also . . . our kitchen, our library, and our closets!
On top of all our Home Decor related items we were also able to purge . . .
50 items of clothing (that went to my favorite teenager :)
10-15 books
A set of tea cups we never used
An old coffee maker
A bread machine I never use (I started making it myself and it's so much better . . . recipe to follow next week).
Some old dog dishes (Max is picky about what he eats out of)
A couple of mismatched mugs

People ask me all the time how our cupboards stay so organized and it's because I purge regularly. How many coffee cups do two people need?? A set of 4 white coffee mugs can run you less than $10, for my cupboards it's worth the investment. Buy a matching set and do away with the mismatched chaos . . . unless that's your thing, then go for it! :)

I feel like I lost 10 lbs! The house feels lighter. I feel lighter! Never underestimate a good declutter it can do wonders for your home, your mood and if you donate it, it can do wonders for someone else! It's a true Win Win.

I hope you enjoyed today's post, it wasn't an easy one for me to write. No one likes to admit they've made bad decisions/ wasted money/ or just plain did something wrong. But blogs should be about the good, some bad, and some ugly. Today was the bad but this afternoon we have something GOOD for you. We're on I Heart Organizing, talking about organizing our laundry room!

Make sure to pop back later today! We posted on I heart Organizing, all about organizing our laundry room!! :) We'll have the link up here this afternoon.

Tupperware Organization

Tupperware has always been one of the most difficult things to organize. But I think I've figured out an easier way to do it . . . you have to start from Scratch!
I think the reason that tupperware cabinets and drawers are so messy is because we all have a hodge podge of different tupperware, that don't stack up together or nest nicely within each other.  Right before we made the move to the new house (over a year ago) I decided that we should really have just one or two types of tupperware and stick to them. I started piecing together our new tupperware collection, slowly because it's not a super cheap thing to do. A year later I now have all the pieces we need!

I decided on Glasslock tupperware. A lot of Lee's lunches are leftovers that need to be reheated, and with all the concern over heating plastic I thought I'd play it safe and invest in some Glass tupperware.

Honestly, it's totally worth the extra money. The lids always fit perfectly, no matter how many times you wash them and you can store soup in them too! (and NO glasslock hasn't paid me for saying that . . . I really do love them, all on my own).

SO without further ado . . . Our Tupperware cabinet:

Here's what we've got going on:

1. Glasslock Tupperware containers.
2. Glasslock Tupperware Bowls, I swear these things might be the most useful tool I have in the kitchen. Once a week I make a large salad (Greek, Pasta, Tomato/basil) then I pop the lid on and keep it in the fridge so we always have something to snack on. They're also great for taking a dish to a potluck! We found ours at Costco, $19.99 bought you a set of 3.
3. Glass juice jugs, better then plastic, they won't get dyed from fruit juice, and you don't have to worry about leaching plastic (although BPA free plastic is considered safe). We found our glass juice jugs at Target.
4. Water bottles. BPA Free!! And his and hers TO GO coffee mugs.
5. Rubbermaid Produce Tupperware. I like to chop up vegetables and have them ready to eat, it makes it more likely that I'll snack on something healthy (more likely, not guaranteed ;). I find that the produce tupperware keeps it from going soggy, and I do think it keeps vegetables fresher longer.

We also use the back half of the cabinet for misc. party supplies, like:
A. Plastic knives and forks, and paper napkins
and
B. Some Mason Jars . . . You can never have enough Mason Jars!

So there's how I organized my tupperware cabinet. I know it's not the most cost effective way to do it, but it works. All in, I think I spent about $60 in Glass lock Tupperware and maybe another $15 on produce tupperware. Not to bad considering I spaced it out over a year. It doesn't matter what tupperware you use, as long as they all stack up and fit nicely together, it could be super expensive tupperware brand, or super cheap dollar store brands (as long as the plastic is BPA free).

Kitchen Organization: Pantry Cabinet

It feels so good to be moving through my Kitchen Organization To Do list:

• Organize Take Out menus
• Organize Loose Recipes, in a box, and on a cork board.
• Organize Upper Pantry
• Organize Lower Pantry
• Organize Knife drawer
• Organize Spice cabinet
• Organize Tupperware Cabinet
• Organize Cookbooks
• Organize Everyday Dishes
• Organize Fridge
• Organize Pots and Pans
• Organize Under the Sink
• Chalkboard Paper and Chalkboard on kitchen wall  
• Organize Pet Drawer
• Turn two drawers into dining room storage
• Organize Liquor Cabinet
  

This weekend I checked off Organize Lower Pantry Cabinet.
Lee installed some pullout wire baskets for me. I found them at Lowes for less than $15 each. The reason I had to have them was because they go all the way to the back of the cabinet, and have full extension so they can pull all the way out of the cabinet!

Before Lee put them in we were only using half of cabinet depth, now we can use all of it, definitely worth $30.

We also installed a little plastic, tiered Rubbermaid shelf. I don't think it's possible to have too many canned goods on hand so we needed another way to store them. The shelf does just that!

Only a few more projects and the kitchen will be officially organized!