Wishing you and your family a very merry Christmas and happy new year!!!

My sister-in-law, Elizabeth, is recently married, and she and her new husband, Matt, settled into their first nest together in Denver, Colorado.  After an out of state wedding, an overseas honeymoon, and the crazy whirlwind of Christmas celebrations, she asked for help organizing and combining their things into their 600 square foot house.  Um, yay!  We decided to make a trip out of it and my other sister-in-law, Becky, flew into CO with me for a weekend of work;)

Matt and Eli were very prepared for their small space and had done a lot of purging of the things they didn’t need.  No trash bags or donation bins required for this project!  Way to go guys!  The major tasks:

1. Arrange furniture to maximize space and functionality

2. Hang/stage decor

Duh!  Denver is cold and Matt and Eli were in need of some coat storage, without a closet.  Solution: A shelf from Hobby Lobby with heavy duty Command Hooks underneath and matching baskets for his and hers shoes.  A bowl on the shelf holds keys, phones, and wallets.

Entry Before

Entry After

Entry After

You won’t find a built in pantry in most older homes so Matt and Eli purchased this skinny metro shelf to fit in their laundry room space right off the kitchen.  Adding bins and storing ‘like’ items in each one makes it easy to utilize the hard to reach spaces in the back and tote everything you need to the kitchen counter.

Pantry Before

Pantry After

We would be embarrassed at how excited we were to discover a fold down leaf in the center of this dining room table, but what an awesome space saver!  We bought some fabric and recovered the dining chairs for a little face lift.

Dining Before

Dining After

I just LOVE the transformation of the living room!  We moved all the bulky furniture into the detached garage and in the process found a dresser turned TV stand and an adorable green chair out there. Score!

Living Room Before

Living Room After

Living Room Before

Living Room After

For the master, centering the bed in the wall to the left allowed for the big dresser to live on the other side of the room.  We dressed up the space with a wall collage of crosses and artwork that Matt and Eli already had.

Bedroom Before

Bedroom After

We tidied up the closet with a plastic three drawer unit and hat hooks up top.

Closet Before

Closet After

What a great weekend!  I know most people don’t consider organizing and staging very much fun, but for me, it is a ton.  Add in staying up late, girl talk, and eating out and it was pretty wonderful.  Happy home Matt and Eli!!

If you’re interested in organizing assistance and want to hire me, check out my services page and email me for more information at casey@letsGITorganized.com

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the holidays.  Cheers to 2018 and prayers for blessings on you and your family!

When we transformed the “craft room” into Madeleine’s big girl room, I was challenged with fitting all the supplies into the guest room…CLOSET.  I really wanted our last bedroom and guest room to feel spacious and relaxing for our visitors, not crowded with glue sticks, sharpies, and fabric scraps.

Before – This was the desk in M’s soon to be Big Girl Room

Taking down the desk was a little emotional.  I got this desk in 5th grade y’all!  It was from The Container Store, which probably started my love affair, and it’s amazing because it can grow and assemble in so many different ways. Sad day because they don’t sell it anymore:( Anyway, I took it to college (all 3 houses), it spent a few years in my brother’s casa, and then here it was in our first house.  I didn’t cry or anything but I really did not want to get rid of it or pack it away in the attic.

Light bulb!!  I got the idea of taking the different pieces apart and utilizing them as closet storage pieces. Much to my excitement, the tall tower of shelves fit perfectly in the tall hanging space of the new “craft closet.” Holla! And then to top it off, the mid size shelf fit perfectly in Madeleine’s closet. The only thing we had to put up in the attic was the desk top. Hooray!

Before

Before

After

The shelves now are full of bins and boxes that hold all my craft supplies.  TIP: I save old jars, chocolate tins, and cans and then paint them to coordinate with other containers in the same space. In this closet, I painted a tin, the frame of the cork board, and an old hat box.

The drawer contains the necessities like pencils, scissors, rulers, tape and tacs. On the various shelves I keep boxes of markers, ribbons, my sewing machine, and a file box.  I parked my scrapbooking bag and stationary sorter under the shelf and the wrapping paper container is also on the floor along with hat boxes full of paper, fabric, and refill supplies like staples, tape, etc. The over the door organizer actually came from our pantry when we first moved in and updated it here.  I love having most of the supplies just a grab away and not tucked into a bin, on a shelf, up high.

After

After

With our days as busy as they are, I don’t have as much time to start and finish a project.  Having an organized space and accessible materials means I’m able to save some prep time and get to the things I need more efficiently.

Want me to come organize your closet? Hire me! Check out my services page or email me at
letsGITorganized@gmail.com

Yay for an organizing project and blog post that’s not about my kids!!

before

after

This was my first big job since Joseph was born and maybe my biggest project EVER and I absolutely loved it!  For some people, I understand this is a nightmare, but going through a bunch of stuff and making sense of piles is therapeutic for me and something I love to do with my free time.  The design aspect is a great creative outlet and who doesn’t love a good before and after shot?

before

after

I really enjoyed this client’s garage.  Working outside with the beautiful Texas weather was a treat and I loved tracking the visual progress.

before

after

Like most of my projects, we started sorting through all the ‘stuff’ making different piles of keeps and tosses and then went back through categorizing items like outdoor cooking, beach toys, automotive, etc.

before

after

The solution to storage in this space was to put everything up, vertically.  This was a dream garage with tons of un-utilized vertical space, so we purchased 4 industrial shelving units and large utility bins from Costco along with a DIY workbench and track system from Home Depot.

The biggest challenge in the project was making room for the furniture that my client is storing for relatives and children who want these heirloom pieces for their adult houses.  We were able to pass some along to the family now, but the remaining pieces found homes in left over wall space. The large banquet table is a great ‘shed’ for big tools like the shop vac and tiller, but can still be pulled out easily for large gatherings.

On the design side, we carried out black, yellow, and steel throughout the space.  I painted the legs of the diy work bench and the wooden tracks black so they would look more finished.

The outlet for the freezer was located on the left side of the garage, so we installed a shelving unit to hold food and beverage related items like ice chests, propane tanks, burners, and charcoal.  Extra shelf space allows the client to stock up on party supplies like bottled water and soda.

We parked three rolling bins under the window, each filled with sports equipment, yard games, and pool toys that the grandkids can easily roll out to play and toss back in when they are finished.

We centered the workbench under the utility light and added three wooden, 8 ft tracks on each side with individual hooks to hang items.  TIP:  Lay out your tools/hanging gear on the ground to determine spacing, almost like playing Tetris, that way you don’t put unnecessary holes in the track as you go and risk running out of room.

The right side of the garage is home to three side by side shelving units with just enough left over space to store a set of tables and folding chairs. The open space in the middle is used for the foosball tables and parking the lawn mower.

I enjoyed the challenge of this big project and loved hearing that the family has spent more time outside since it was finished!

If you like this garage and want me to come organize yours, check out my services page and email me at letsGITorganized@gmail.com, I would LOVE to!

Madeleine has upgraded to her big girl room and inherited a big girl closet along with it.  Essentially it’s the same size as the nursery closet but has a different layout and, therefore, a different organization plan.

I am excited because her new closet has 4 rods but honestly, she is growing so fast that I am packing up small sizes before even using all the rod space.  This gave me the idea to remove one of the rods and add a shelf to store shoes, toys, etc.  The desk we had in this room before comes apart into a short and tall shelf unit and wouldn’t you know that the short unit fits perfectly inside the closet nook?  Holla!!

Before

After

Before

After

The unit has 4 shelves; the top two I used for shoe storage and the bottom two I used for toy bins and accessories. Joe cut another shelf to put right above the rod because the track was already there so now we have 3 shoe shelves, not pictured. (This has happened in several of our closets so check yours to see if your rod has the track and you can easily add storage space with a plywood shelf) I bought these adorable linen bins from target and I can fit three on each shelf.  The contents of each bin are:

• -Bloomers and tights
• -Headbands
• -Hats and beanies
• -Toys take up two bottom bins; I love having her toys on the bottom shelf so she can get them out on her own, and on a good day, put them away on her own.
• -Attic (This is where I temporarily put items that she has grown out of.  Once the bin is full I put them in the attic where I am saving all her stuff in case we have another little girl someday.)

Before

After

Before

After

Right now her clothes are divided by season, which in Texas is summer and winter.  I hang up all long sleeve shirts, sweaters, and winter dresses (winter) and hang all tank tops, short sleeved shirts, summer dresses, and rompers (summer).  I fold shorts, skirts, pants, and leggings and store them in the bottom drawer of her dresser.

For the top shelves in closets I like to purchase linen bins that I can easily pull down for those hard to reach high places instead of playing a balancing act.  In these bins I store luggage, memory boxes, and very seasonal things such as ski pants and boots.  On the shelf in between rods I have another linen bin that holds diapers and wipes so they are easy to grab and restock.

M’s big girl closet is perfect for this season of life. Her stuff is put away but it’s still easy to play!

Medicine Cabinet Organization

Y’all this is my first organizing project since Joseph came along and it felt so good to start and finish this project…even if it was a small one.  It all started when I was trying to put my vitamins back in the cabinet and every time I made room something else fell out. #crowded

BEFORE

BEFORE

I took everything out of both medicine cabinets, our and the kids’, and tossed everything that was expired.  I was SO surprised at how much medicine we threw out.  No joke there were some from 2012…yikes! I realized that we had a lot more in our cabinet than the kids so I transferred all our thermometers, Pepto, and throat spray over to the kids bathroom to make room.  We don’t use these things on a regular basis so I’m sure we won’t miss them on our side.

The remaining items I separated into categories like allergy, cold and flu, pain relief, etc.  I took a picture of everything layed out on the counter so that I could reference back when I was shopping for containers.  This was very helpful to know what quantity and sizes to plan for. The Container Store has caddies and containers specifically for medicine and then their selection of small boxes is great too.

AFTER

Since everything was out of the cabinets I decided to add some “wall paper” using the same wrapping paper I installed as drawer liners.  This is how I did it here and here.

AFTER

Putting everything back in was a little like playing Tetris (remember that game?) and the caddy allows for easy reaching and maximizing the vertical space. I used tall acrylic boxes for storing bandaids (kids and adult) and thermometers.  The small cubbies hold items like chapstick and droppers while bigger bottles can stand alone.

Share your medicine cabinet organizing tips with me at letsgitorganized@gmail.com

I recently posted about our favorite books we are reading these days and thought it would be a good idea to talk about organizing them.  It really is amazing how many books you can accumulate as an adult throughout school, work, and leisurely reading, but then add children’s books to the mix and you begin to worry your house will start sinking under the weight!

A kindle or nook is a great space saver and totally convenient, but we prefer to have the actual pages in our hands and there is some satisfaction putting a finished book on the shelf.  Am I right?

We installed two floor to ceiling book shelves in our study a couple of years ago and this is where we keep about 60% of our reading materials.  The nursery bookshelf holds about 20%, including all my ‘mom’ books, and the remaining 20% can be found throughout the house as decoration. A stack of books on an end table or under a picture frame can really be beautiful decoration in your home and serves as double duty; staging and storing.

I have reading ‘stations’ set up throughout our house (in a basket in the living room, on the shelf above her bed, etc) so Madeleine and I can read in several rooms throughout the day.  The bottom shelves of the bookcases in the study are dedicated to her books and activities so they are within reach and inviting.  Making reading convenient for her has made it happen more often.

I’ve found that we have a lot of seasonal books for holidays, especially Christmas and Easter.  I have started to pack them up with that season’s decor which gains some space on our shelves and serves as a bonus when we pull them out the next year.  It’s like opening a present or getting new books at the store or library:)

Speaking of library, checking out books from your local library is a great way to introduce new stories for free and then take them back when you are ready, no extra shelf space needed.  Some libraries have great toddler story times too so make a day of it!  The Bulverde/Spring Branch library has toddler story time Mondays at 10:30 AM and they have a room just for kids with puzzles and activities.

Books last forever but you don’t have to keep them that long. Every now and then we’ll loan one out or I’ll see one I don’t think we need and we will donate it.  I truly believe in 15 minute purging sessions!

Have a cool way that you store or organize books in your home?  Let me know at letsgitorgainzed@gmail.com