Bathroom closet makeover

I've hated our bathroom closet ever since we moved in our house.  It feels as though the contractors had some leftover space and said, "Hey, lets throw some shelves up there and call it a closet."  It's an awkward space since it's narrow and deep.  Think 3 feet deep.  The worst part is the wire shelving that they put up is about 12"  long...so there's almost 24" of wasted space, per shelf.  At any rate, here is my before...

There are three girls in our house you know!  And here's another photo after I cleaned it out:

 You can see how far back the shelves sit back from the door.  So I removed everything from the walls and proceeded to fill all the holes I left behind.  I spackled the holes, sanded, primed, and painted the walls a white color that I found out in the garage. You can't really tell from the picture, but at the bottom of the closet is brown carpet that ran across the bottom and down to the floor.  I ripped that out, swept the closet really well, and put some self-stick tiled on the bottom that I had leftover from a laundry room project from a few years ago.  That alone was a huge improvement!  I like the cheapo drawers that I have in there, perfect for throwing in the hair dryer and various irons (curling, flat, etc.)  So I measured out the shelves with intentions of leaving those drawers.  In total, I was able to fit five shelves.  And I increased the depth from the 12" to 24" so I went from 36" of storage space to 120"---tripled!!!  I had everything I wanted on the shelves in a laundry basket, so I grabbed the biggest items and made sure my distance between shelves would allow them to slide easily on the shelf and stay upright.  After I had my measurements marked and leveled on the wall, I screwed in my slats.  (I used five 3/4" by 2" by 48" boards, and just cut them in half.)

 When they were in, I painted the boards, and while they were drying, I went downstairs to cut my shelves, prime them, and paint them the same color as the walls and slats.  Here it is with my shelves inserted:

 And here it is with some 'stuff' on the shelves.  Again, they are 24" deep, so bulk items like hand soap, toothpaste, and body wash are in the back.  Overall, I'm really pleased with how it turned out, as it's added so much function to the closet and has cleared the clutter from the rest of my bathroom.  I was able to put the items from three other bathroom storage units (vanity and two wall cabinets) into the closet!

 

Pantry clean-up

I think everyone has a junk drawer.  Our family has taken junk drawer to the extreme, dedicating an entire closet to the junk collecting pastime:

Horrifying, huh?  It has become a catch-all for dog food, snacks, costco bulk buys, purses, light bulbs, rags, cleaning supplies, dog supplies, camera bags, mops, potatoes, plastic recycling bags, and believe it or not, I can usually cram my dyson in there as well.

After having not been able to shut it the other day, I decided to repo my closet from the junk.  Where else did I turn for inspiration but Pinterest, of course?!?!  I fell in love with the look of this pantry posted on http://www.modernkiddo.com/: 

The best thing about this pantry was when I followed all the links, I found that the labels were free printables!  How awesome is that?!?  So I emptied the. entire. pantry.  My all-or-nothing-approach tendency kicked in, and I went ahead and emptied all my cabinets as well.  I don't recommend this approach.  I feel as though it took 3 times as long, due to the chaotic state it left behind in my dining room. It wasn't until after I emptied everything that I realized I might want containers to put the stuff in. Duh. I wish I could call it being spontaneous, but's really that I'm just impulsive.  So...I made a list of everthing I wanted a container for, and off I went to the Dollar Store and Big Lots.  I'm lucky that my hubby's use to my antics. After spending about $25 I returned home and started organizing.  During this process, I gave alot of thought to what I use and where it should be.  I took the flour, sugar, and generally all baking materials out of my cabinets in the kitchen and placed them in the pantry.  1. I'm not a frequent baker, and 2. those items aren't something I need daily, or even weekly, so it makes more sense to put it over in the pantry.  The other things that made a big difference was getting rid of the household items and putting them elsewhere (light bulbs, rags, cleaning supplies).

Here is my result:

 

Close up of items on the top shelf:

It isn't nearly fabulous as my inspiration picture, but I'm happy with how it turned out.  The picture is from my cellphone (no flash) so it looks much darker than it appears in person.  Notice I bought a storage rack for the inside of the door.  In here I put all our specialty vinegars, oils, etc. that we don't use daily and was taking up valuable cabinet space.  Everything has a place that it goes in and the best part is that the kids (and my hubby) can find things AND help put them away since everything is labled. 

My cabinet came out fabulous: 

A note about the labels.  After making my notes of what labels I would need (you can choose blue, orange, or green), I printed them, cut them out, and modge podged them on. This means I can't put them in the dishwasher, but I can still gently handwash them, which I'm fine with.

Closet Organization pt 1

So, really, the most ridiculous part of our home has GOT to be our shared closet. When we moved it, I felt as though I hit the closet lottery. It was bigger than anything I had ever hung my clothes in before. But alas, the months turn in to years and my side of the closet morphed into sections: 'someday', 'fits now', 'fits on a good day', and 'period-perfect'. So this is what I have ended up with:

You can see that I've made attempts at organizing the closet, evidenced by the multitude of plastic shoe bins stacked all over the place :) So I buckled down and got serious this past weekend.  I grabbed a garbage bag and tossed things into it that I hadn't worn for the past two years.  Well...mostly. I admit that I salvaged one or two pieces--simply because they had been so hidden that I'd forgotten I had them! Step two this weekend was to remove the linen cedar trunk that was in the back of the closet. I've been wanting to put a bench beside the door in our living room so that's where it went.  The result gave me a lot more of open space to work with:

 

Now the third thing I did was free up over a foot of closet rod space.  By taking my camis off. the. hangars.  Yup.  Over a foot of valuable space.  I can assure you that I don't have any extra drawer space that I was able to toss them into.  Nope, I folded them in half and rolled them up and put them here:

I was able to fit a max of three per shoe pocket.  And had plenty of room left over to put my scarves in the top two rows :)  Ahhhh...baby steps.

Dills to Dimes

We all have them...containers that hold our spare change.  While it's intention is to supplement our vacation stash, I admit that I occasionally remove quarters for washing and vacuuming my car. 

So, our change jar has sat in our living room for the past 7 years looking like this:

I know, I know....embarassing.  I admit that I normally hide it in a corner when company is expected.  So Friday night I decided I'd had enough of my dill pickle jar and began by removing the label.  After poking around on Pinterest, decided that plain old vinegar was my best option for removing the label.  1/2 cup of vinegar, an old washcloth, and 15 minutes later, I had this:

Vinegar is so magic!   Using my hot glue gun and my trusty ball of twine, I covered the lid with twine:

Then my creative side took over and I began making designs on the the change jar.  Here you can see it.  The second picture I have a piece of paper inside so that you can see my "Spare Change" wording...



Finally, I spray-painted the jar with a flat antique white paint:

It's been a year already?!??

Aside from the fact that I remembered I had a blog, I also remembered the password. 

Much has happened this past year.   The completion of student teaching resulted in my long-awaited, well-deserved, and most definitely hard-earned Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education.  Whoot! Whoot! And so now... I am officially licensed to teach in my home state of Pennsylvania.

 I did alot of DIY projects during the past year.  One that I'm particularly pleased with is our kitchen counter re-do.  Our kitchen counters were a dark green color with swirls intended to make them look like marble (not so much):

And while in hindsight, that photo doesn't look terrible, I really, REALLY hated them.  I felt like it made the whole kitchen so...dark.  After reading (stalking) many other blogs on the process of redoing countertops, I set out to do my own. 

First, I took our hand sander and sanded the entire surface of the counters.  My main goal during this process was to take away the shine. 

Second, I primed the countertops using a paintbrush.  I gave the countertops three coats, allowing for 24 hours drying time between each. 

Third, I wasn't brave enough to paint the countetops with several different colors/coats to mimic a marble finish.  So, I opted to use a stone finished spray paint. I used American Accents in a tan color with black, white, and brown speckles.  I really LOVED how this turned out.  If I have any regrets, it's that I didn't go with a darker brown.  The cap on my spraypaint (I used 4 cans) indicated a tan color, however, the end result is more of a gray. Nevertheless, it's a 100% improvement over the green, so I'll take it!  Of course, I taped plastic around my basecabinets and backsplash (probably the biggest pain in the process):

 Then I put 3 good coats of pain on top of my primer, again allowing 24 hours between coats. 

Fourth, I used a clear polyacrylic in a semi-gloss finish to seal and protect my counters.  Otherwise, you would be unable to wipe them or get water on them.  I went through 1 quart: painting, drying 24 hours (with fan blowing directly on them), until my polyacrylic was gone.  I gave it another 48 hours (to be safe) before I placed any of my items back on my counters.  I placed felt on some of the larger items that I was afraid might scratch or adhere to the tops the first week (microwave, coffee pot, plate holder).  

Close ups of the color:

Final product.  Wish the lighting was better

 in the picture, because it truly looks great in person!