Anyway, over Spring break I decided to organize some of the more commonly neglected areas of my house: the linen closet, the coat closet, and the laundry room. I'm sort of embarassed to admit how bad these 3 areas had gotten... I guess this is where I will pull the "single, working mom" card so you all have sympathy for me instead of thinking I'm a slob. ;) Honestly though, it is almost impossible to find the time and energy to take on large-scale projects in the evenings when my little "helpers" are around. So, I sent them to spend time with their dad this week and I got stuff done. I took before and after pictures because I wanted to remind myself how BAD the areas were to begin with so that I never let them get in that shape again.
First project was the linen closet, which really doesn't hold "linens" (unless you count the girls' bath towels), but a menagerie of other things... I guess the pictures will do a better job of explaining. The first picture is (obviously) the "before," and the other pictures are the "after." I purchased baskets from the dollar store to organize all of the stuff, and then labeled them to make them more user friendly. I figured this would also be helpful for babysitters or guests to find what they need.
My second project was the hall "coat" closet (although it has never had a single coat in it since we moved in!). This closet was pretty much the "throw things in and slam the door" closet. It was never useful at all. NOW, however, I find myself opening the door just to gaze at its loveliness! ;) I used more of my handy little baskets in this closet to organize "hair stuff" (I usually do the girls' hair in the living room before we go out for the day), "household stuff", and "dusting and mopping" supplies. I also splurged a little on this awesome wire cubby thing at Target. Now we each have a place for our school bags, diaper bag, purse, etc., and the bottom compartments house my reusable shopping bags.
The third (and most difficult!) area that I organized was the laundry room. With 2 littles girls (one of whom wears cloth diapers), I spend a great deal of time in the laundry room, so I have no idea why I had let it get in such bad shape. It was depressing and down righ hazardous to walk in before. Now I think I could meditate in there (or at least hide out from the kids! Hee hee.)
Anyway, I started off by taking everything out of the room and cleaning the floors, then I did a lot of tossing out junk that had accumulated. I also splurged for this room on a new utility table to use as a clothes folding table. Yay! :) I also got a shoe rack to contain the pile of shoes that get kicked off by the garage door. I even decided to hang up some artwork to make the room more inviting, and I hung up pictures of my loves over the folding table. :)
My "mini" project of the week was organizing my kitchen junk drawer. I used more of those little baskets and some fun contact paper to make it pretty. :)
Hope you enjoyed seeing all of my hard work! I think I've inspired Sophia to start organizing cabinets! ;)
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