Organized Chaos

Pardon more pictures of our ugly basement.  The good news is that now our basement is at least ugly and semi-organized.

It seemed that no matter how hard I tried to keep things orderly, they just kept piling…

Then my dad came to the rescue—for about the millionth time—by mentioning that he found a good deal on sturdy shelves at Sam’s Club for his business inventory (SHAMELESS PLUG: Live in the Midwest and need some great automotive, tire, or lawn & garden service? Check out the family business here).  We grabbed three of them while my parents were in town.

Thanks to some quick work by Matt and Dad, we had ourselves some shelving! 

I’ve basically designated one shelf to staging decor, another to baby items, and the last one to miscellaneous gear.  It felt so delicious to get stuff off the floor and into a space where I can now see what I need at a glance.

While I dream of built-in storage tucked into cozy spaces…

I’m thrilled that we have a workable solution for our current season of life.  

Closet Combining

Nesting.  It’s apparently all the rage when you’re pregnant, although I think that I tend to nest even when I’m not with child…which means my nesting is slightly more neurotic than most…hence, my freakish desire to combine closets. 

Whoever built our little 1947 house decided that closet size wasn’t a major necessity, and while I would love to say that closet space isn’t important to me because our material possessions are not our priority, I have to admit that I like having space for my shoes.  And clothes.  Bags.  Belts.  You know…girly stuff.  But at the same time, I love that having smaller closets forces us to pare down and not hoard tons of extra junk.  If I buy something new, I tend to donate something old.  But I’m rambling.  The point is that we have two bedrooms with small closets, so when we moved into our bungalow, Matt took the back bedroom closet and graciously allowed me to take the master bedroom closet.  This system worked fine for quite awhile, but now that the back bedroom is being converted into a nursery, I decided it was time to truly unite as a married couple—it was time to share a closet. 

Now some of you might say that a newborn doesn’t need a closet all to themselves, that we could get away with keeping separate closets for awhile longer, yadda yadda yadda.  But I’m not good at doing things halfway.  It bothers me.  At some point there might be two kiddos sharing that back bedroom and then we’d definitely have to make the switch, so why not do it now and learn to live with it?  Even if the closet isn’t loaded with clothing, I already have lots of baby items that will be making it their home, as there is nowhere else in our house to put them.  So last weekend we bit the bullet and spent a good portion of Saturday morning paring down, moving seasonal clothing items to the basement for storage, and rearranging the master closet. 

Here’s what the master closet looked like when it was just little ole’ me using it.

The back bedroom closet when Matt was using it… 

And the combined master closet…

Here’s the now empty nursery closet (notice that the hubs converted that funky removable plumbing wall into a hinged door—yay!).

My goal is to paint the nursery closet a fun color (actually, I’m planning to have my mom paint it when she comes out to paint the rest of the nursery), so we’re not filling it up yet.  We’re also replacing that nasty bar with a new white one, since we’re removing the closet door and hanging a curtain instead.  The door doesn’t shut completely, takes up valuable wall space, and I like the idea of a cute curtain hanging in its place. 

As for our newly combined master closet, I have to say I LOVE it!   I’m not sure if Matt would agree with me, but I really like storing only the clothes I actually wear in the closet at one time.  I was shocked to find that extra space existed after we combined our clothes, belts, bags, and shoes.  That deserves a woot woot!  We do have two dressers plus a stand of wicker baskets that hold stuff like t-shirts, socks, and our unmentionables, but I was even able to give up two of my wicker baskets so that Matt could store his socks in them. 

Ahhh…freedom from clutter. 

So a few tips for organizing/combining closets:

1.  Have garbage bags on hand, that way you can create a stash of items for the thrift or consignment store.  My rule of thumb is that if I haven’t worn it within the last year, I’m not likely to wear it again.  Out it goes.  Last year I experimented with hanging my clothes on backwards hangars; any hangars that were still facing backwards were clearly clothes I hadn’t worn in the past year, so they were thrown out (I made a few exceptions, but not many). 

2.  If combining closets with your significant other, be flexible and willing to share.  This can be challenging, ladies, as you likely have a lot more stuff than your man.  Thankfully, we were able to work together so it wasn’t too difficult.  It also helped that we pared down to the items we are wearing this season and this season only.  For Matt, that doesn’t change all that much throughout the year (guys have it so easy), but I definitely have different items for warm and cold months.  At the moment, our closet pretty much contains only my prego clothes.  Also keep in mind that you change over time, and therefore things that you used to wear may not be as important to you.  For example, in college I wore a ton of bulky sweatshirts because I was always trying to keep warm on campus and in our old school apartment (love that tiny place).  Now that we live in Colorado, I find that I wear more fitted fleece items which take up less space, keep me warmer because they’re designed better, and have basically replaced my sweatshirts.  When I went through my stash, I ended up tossing several because I realized that my lifestyle has changed enough that I won’t likely be going back to sweatshirts anytime soon.  I kept a few and ditched the rest. 

3.  Use the space underneath the hanging clothes.  Several years ago we installed wire shelves on the lower half of the master closet, which provides space for stacking jeans and sweaters, along with stashing a few bins filled with hats, scarves, belts, etc.  There’s even enough space underneath the shelves for storing a few pairs of shoes.

4.  Don’t forget about closet walls.  There are several inches of space around the edge of our closet, and we plan to either hammer in a few nails or a rack for belts and ties.  It’s the perfect amount of space for hanging those long and skinny items.

5.  Leave some extra space in your closet for adding items in the case of unexpected weather changes, the occasional new purchase, and simply because it’s far easier to find what you’re looking for when you’re not shoving aside a bazillion items every morning.  A little breathing room also keeps clothes from getting wrinkled, which is certainly a plus in my book. 

I was a bit ruthless when it came to my own clothing, but keep in mind that we’re still storing plenty of seasonal items in our basement, so I didn’t get rid of as much as you might think.  Still, Matt did take an entire SUV full of stuff to the local thrift store (we pared down a few more items in the basement in addition to clothes and shoes).  Part of me wanted to keep everything for a summer yard sale, but who am I kidding?  I have a feeling a yard sale won’t be at the forefront of my mind when this child arrives… So we got rid of it. 

And that’s the end—or perhaps the beginning—of our closet organizing adventure. 

Basement Business

Have you ever seen a picture of our basement?  Hmm… Well, it’s time.  Honestly, the basement is sort of the Cinderella stepchild of our house.  When friends venture too close to the stairs, I typically go to great lengths to cut them off.  Personally, I would love to pretend that the basement doesn’t really exist, but since it’s our storage/laundry/project space, I’ve had to come to terms with its existence. 

Not long ago, I realized that the clutter in our basement was threatening to overflow into the main living areas.  It was pretty bad.  Disclaimer: Living in a two bedroom, one bathroom home with almost zero closet space makes it challenging to find storage for normal items, like office supplies, extra bedding, etc.  Don’t judge!  Now for the public humiliation…

Don’t you feel better about yourself now? 

I continued to put the job off until I heard that my dad (with a lot of my mom’s help) purged his office.  It sort of put me to shame, considering the…ahem…verycluttered/messynatureofhisoffice.  As much as I love my dad, I’m supposed to be the organized one!  Family pride was at stake.  So I cleaned it. 

This is not my first basement cleaning rodeo, and I quickly realized that if I wanted to create space and actually purge, then I needed to commit to getting rid of some serious paper.  As in, those old college notebooks and most of my teaching binders were never going to be used again.  Gut check time.  Okay, really, I mean I haven’t looked at them in six years, so is this really going to be the year?  Didn’t think so.  I did salvage some material from a few of Professor Lamb’s short story and Mark Twain classes, but I decided brutal elimination was my only hope when it came to all other paper.  You would not believe how many binders and notebooks there were.

Before you panic that I threw out the baby with the bathwater (what a weird saying…), let me assure you that nearly all the work I do is now electronic.  As a teacher, I’m constantly updating my curriculum on the computer, and I make sure to save it to our school’s backed up H drive, along with saving it to my PC and to a flash drive.  In the past I’ve created bazillions of binders, only to find them obsolete the next year when I decide to tweak curriculum.  Ahhh…the wonderful feeling of freedom that only comes when you loose yourself from the paper monster.  The longest part of the process was saving paper clips and binder tabs, which require very little room to store and will definitely be used again. 

In addition to recycling several trees, I moved items into more common sense spaces.  So instead of housing office supplies in three areas, I corralled them into one.  You get the idea. 

Do I now love our basement?  Nope.  Is it full of cute organizing bins and baskets.  No.  Is it the kind of basement space I envision living with forever?  Not really.  But it’s a lot more functional and at least I don’t get heart palpitations every time I put in a load of laundry. 

So what’s holding you back from trashing those notebooks that you haven’t even blinked at for a decade?  Confession time!

Reality Check

Our house has been looking a little lot like this lately…

and this…

and this…

Let me just say that pregnancy has been…harder than I expected.  While I haven’t been super sick, I definitely have not felt like myself.  As in, my body feels “off” and my energy is far lower than before.  Funny how I thought I would beat all those symptoms before getting pregnant… In some ways, it’s been a healthy wake-up call to realizing that I’m not super woman, nor do I have to be.  Since this might be the last time I can really rest when the mood strikes me, I’ve been taking full advantage of it.  As my good friend keeps telling me, take advantage of it while you can!  For those of you who’ve been pregnant before, you know that almost every symptom can be blamed on pregnancy—and there’s documentation somewhere to back it up!  Needless to say, blogging—and most extra activities in general—have been

low

on

the

priority

list.

Oh, who am I kidding?  What list?!  I haven’t made a list in two months.  If you think I’m kidding, just ask my husband!  It’s true.  While it’s been freeing in some ways, I’ve also started feeling slightly better this week, which has me chomping at the bit to do something a little extra.  Hence, this wee little post.

If I sound like I’m complaining about pregnancy, I’m not.  I’m just facing the reality of what my body is going through—and because I’ve been busy creating another human being—that’s right—I haven’t been creating much else.  But I do have a few things up my sleeve which I hope to share over the next few days, so I plan to be back before too long.  Did I just make a list?  Hmmm…kinda.  If anything, I think I just planned ahead!  Feels good.

A Backwards Way Of Thinking

When it comes to cleaning out my closet, which I usually do once in the spring and once in the fall, I have the best of intentions.  I really do.  But for some reason when it comes to downsizing my wardrobe, I often falter.  Why the weak will, you ask?  I really believe it comes down to the whole, “Well, maybe I’ll wear it next year…” mumbo jumbo.  The truth is that most of us will not wear it again if we haven’t worn it in over a year.  While I try to live by this rule, sometimes I simply can’t remember when I last wore it (which should be a hint in itself), and therefore, I stuff it back into my closet where it takes up precious space (have you seen the size of our 1947 closets?) and patiently waits for another year to pass.

This year I decided it was time for a change.  After all, the definition of insanity—according to Albert Einstein—is continuing to do the same thing over and over again expecting different results.  As it turns out, I’ve been reading about these wonderfully organized people who hang their clothes on backwards hangars at the start of the new year.  For each item of clothing they wear throughout the year, they face the hangar forward.  When it comes time to clean out the old closet, they pitch everything that is still hanging on a backwards hangar into the Goodwill pile and merrily go about their business without stressing over whether or not it was worn during the year.  So I’m giving it a shot.

I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that this solves my biannual dilemma. I’ll let you know if this backwards way of thinking actually turns out to be a winner!

Shelf M-M-M-Melf

Don’t ask…I’m so tired of grading tests that I’m struggling to think straight.  Ahh…the life of a teacher.  On the bright side, Matt made delicious chicken enchiladas for dinner while I graded.  Makes you want to lightly punch him on the arm and say, “What a guy!”

In other news, we’ve been puttering around the house, but our main focus has been the yard.  More importantly, we spent the past weekend at a marriage retreat in the mountains.  One of my favorite takeaway thoughts from the weekend: “Your marriage should be the safest place in the world for both of you.”  All that said, I’ve been neglecting our blog and need to get back in the swing of things.  But it’s hard when the trees are budding and everything in you wants to be away from the computer!  And when that’s the case, I say forget the internet—which never sleeps—and let yourself off the hook, right?

One project that we finally did tackle was hanging a shelf in our bathroom.  We wanted a shallow shelf above our toilet—right between the shower curtain and mirror—but we didn’t want it to be too big or too expensive.  But the real reason I wanted a shelf was not even for décor purposes.  No.  I needed a shelf to hold this stinkin’ cute clock I found on sale at Target.

Does anyone else lose track of time in the bathroom?  I thought so!  It’s those darn eyebrows that need plucking—you can spend forever on them!  Anyway, that’s why I needed a shelf.  If you’re wondering why I couldn’t just put the clock on the countertop, it’s because I’m Type A.  I mean, who wants a cluttered bathroom countertop?  Not me.  No sirree.

Our first attempt at hanging a shelf ended in the typical Braham Fam way.  We found a cheap version of what we thought we were looking for, realized that it was just slightly off after it was already hung, and ended up spending a few bucks more to get the real deal.

Sadly, I forgot to take pics of the first shelf, but let me just say that it was too deep.  Kind of felt like you would hit your head on it when you stood up from doing your duty.  It felt out of balance with the rest of our bathroom.

Then we took a night away in Denver.  Before dinner at our favorite Bonefish Grill, we popped into the West Elm store at Cherry Creek.  Wow…it’s the kind of store you could lose yourself in.  But thanks to the hubs, I was able to stay fairly focused, and we ended up finding this shelf.

Depth?  Perfect.  Color?  Excellent match for our bathroom vanity.  Price?  A little more than we wanted to spend…but that’s what you do on indulgent overnight getaways, right?  Well, at least it’s what we did just this once.

It didn’t take Matt long to pop this puppy up.  Once it was hung, we grabbed an empty IKEA frame and filled it with one of our favorite quotes.  (By the way, I’ve started a quote file where I can stash any great quotes that I run across so they’re ready to go for times like this.)  And of course, we gave our clock a new home.  I’m thinking that the space might need something else—like a tall, thin vase or maybe a wine bottle that’s painted a fun color.  You know, something to garnish with a flower or two.  There are tons of possibilities, and I have a feeling it will be one of those areas that changes regularly—kind of like a fireplace mantel.

Oh, and two of the best things about this shelf?  1.) There’s a small lip on the shelf that holds pictures in place.  2.) It came with a bar that connects to the wall and the shelf just snaps on top of it—which means it doesn’t tilt away from the wall, but sits nice and tight.  I just hate it when shelves begin to droop.

While we probably could have made this shelf ourselves, sometimes it’s nice to let someone else do the work, don’tcha think?

Bringing Spring Inside

Colorado Springs hit a record high on Saturday—we were even inspired to hack at the stumps in our front yard. (Ahem…I should say Matt did most of the hacking while I pruned a few unruly bushes.)  Unfortunately, snow decided to rear it’s ugly head on Sunday, dragging us from the 80s to the 30s within 24 hours.  One of my friends told me that she was reading a book in her backyard on Saturday, practically sweating, and then she and her husband went skiing on Sunday!  And yes, for those of you wondering, that is actually pretty typical Colorado weather.  The good news is that today the sun is shining again and the snow will be long gone before tomorrow.

In spite of the recent cold, the tulips poking their heads above ground in our front yard have given me spring fever, so when I spotted these darling plant stakes in the $1 bin at Tar-jay, I decided to bring a bit of it inside.

While I love their simple bird design (I’m into all things bird these days!), I wasn’t all that thrilled with their colors.  But I’ve realized that just because an object might look dowdy at first glance, it often holds great potential—our house is a perfect example.  It’s all about looking past those awkward details and seeing what it could be if you just tweaked it this way or that.  Is anyone with me on this?

My idea?  Name place holders!

Creating these was a snap.  After a quick coat of glossy almond spray paint…

I simply plunked them into one of our favorite mugs so they’ll be ready to go when we have guests over for dinner.

And since you can tuck pieces of paper between their wings, I think it would be fun to use these birds to label food dishes when serving buffet style.  To keep the spray painted portion from touching food, I’d just wrap the stem of the stake in foil.  And who knows?  Maybe someday they’ll grace actual house plants!

How’s that for adding a smidge of whimsy to a dinner party?

What other treasures have you discovered in the $1 bins?