Before and After: Organizing my Jewelry and Dresser-top

Over the weekend I tackled a little "January Cure" Apartment Therapy project- to focus on the bedroom. The to do list included a deep clean of the bedroom- including washing all bedding (mattress pad etc), flipping your mattress, dusting and vacuuming all surfaces, including the closet... And if you really felt inspired- to purge clothes etc. Thankfully the Husband and I did a major clean, including flipping the mattress etc, last week once we had recovered from being under the weather (a great thing to make our room feel fresh once again after being cooped up and in bed!). SO, after doing just a light cleaning, I was free to tackle my very obnoxious dresser.

My dresser had become a catch all for everything known to man. And I wanted my dresser to be my little haven. Let me digress- since baby number 2 is on the way, I want to stream line and organize my life to the point where efficiency will allow me to still hold on to my goals and identity- in little ways- like putting earrings on and accessorizing in the morning will take me less than a minute. (this is already the case, but I'll admit it's a little daunting to think of the addition of a third family member and all the stuff that comes with them! Thus purging my own stuff will create a nice balance.)

Ways to accomplish Accessorizing Efficiency: Have less stuff to sort through, and even less space to collect stuff. Also- just because I have the space doesn't mean I have to fill it! (Hence my bigger goal to have a smaller jewelry box.)

The dreaded before.

A hot mess of everything under the sun... I took 15 minutes on Saturday and went through the large jewelry box I have and weeded out a lot of jewelry I no longer wear. There was A LOT! I did this to the jewelry that accumulated on top of the dresser as well. And I could even do this again and again and get my jewelry down to a tiny box... but the amount I cleaned out was slightly staggering, so I'll wait another 6 months to repeat the process. 

The beautiful AFTER shot.

Then On Sunday, I tackled the entire surface of the dresser. 

My method for forcing myself to be really picky about what stayed was- I removed EVERYTHING from the top of the dresser, giving myself a blank canvas and only allowing myself to put back the essentials. I kept in mind what I mentioned earlier- less storage options = less stuff will accumulate. I think the biggest addition was the little lamp. This lamp is right by our bedroom door and allows us to turn on a light quickly in our bedroom instead of having to cross the room in the dark. (Since the overhead light situation is not ideal, and the outlets don't sink up to the switch.) ALSO the lamp adds more of a purposeful element to the space- like a lamp on a desk. It helps to dictate the tone I want to maintain with my dresser. Plus having a spotlight on this space will hopefully keep me in check and tidy, only allowing what belongs to reside on my dresser. 

side note: it's funny to look at the before and after and see how I unknowingly put the little dishes back in the same place on my dresser. When rearranging and organizing the dresser, I tried all different arrangements, but clearly this is the best fit!

Now all that is out on my dresser, are a few bottles of perfume that I actually wear, the two bowls in the back house bigger pieces like bracelets that don't fit into the drawers of my jewelry box. I also added more hooks to my canvas to hold more necklaces, as well as tacked up a few favorite pictures. Ideally one has a mirror above their dresser, but we have a very large mirror to the left of my dresser that has hooks on it for scarves, etc. (see below)

So there you have it, another January Cure post/ Before and After!

My new-found efficiency can be attributed to another post from Apartment Therapy: The New Year's Resolution to Rule Them All. The resolution being, "Do It Now". If the idea occurs to you to do something, do it then and there, don't put it off. This has made my life so much more efficient and less stressful. I suggest reading the entire article to have your own dose of inspiration! 

Looking forward to the day when I can show you a completed studio/ office in the basement! Won't be long now!

Our Week in Pictures: 32 years, 28 weeks

This week was another busy one, but in a good way. Thursday was my birthday and with the husband's new schedule he doesn't work on Thursdays, so we spent part of the morning together...

... with a chai tea and egg in the middle. And the husband got me roses and such. very sweet.

This week also marks 28 weeks of my pregnancy, the start of the 7th month and the third trimester! Bring it!

And for dessert, the husband made us this AMAZINGLY rich chocolate mousse cake! It is REALLY good! By the way those cuts are not the serving size, you only need, or can handle a teeny tiny little sliver.

And we ended the night with a cozy fire at home.

Birthdays, like any Holiday, are very different now that I have a child... it's never a complete break per say, but the trade offs are fun. Like having our daughter sing me Happy Birthday. Hope you have a great weekend, I'll be working on some nesting projects- including to continue to organize our basement- studio/office, and prep the toddler's room for new paint!

See you on Monday!

Before and After: Remaking the "Staging Area" aka day 9 of Apartment Therapy's January cure.

Yesterday was Day 9 of Apartment Therapy's "January Cure" the task was to create a "landing Strip" in your home, or as we call it, the "staging area". We already have such an area by our front door, whose purpose is to house keys, sort mail and any other things we might need to head out the door. Even though we had such a space it was in much need of tweaking. Here are the changes that only took me 15-20 minutes.

The biggest red flag that called me to address this project, was the overflow of our staging area onto other surfaces. You can't tell from this picture but there is a metal mail sorter housing all of this overflow.

After: I simply removed the sorter, and pledged that this table would remain clear!

Before: The primary table by our front door had a receiving dish where keys and coins were dumped to mingle, inviting other non essential items to take root (receipts, mail, etc) resulting in a mess. And hence the overflow to the other side table. (Plus the mail was moved to the side table to make room for our Christmas tree, but had not been moved back.)

After: I moved our trash from the side table to below this primary table. Before it was too crammed and hidden between a table and a chair... and perhaps not used as much as it could have.  whoops! Now it's right by the mail area providing for immediate mail sorting. Apartment Therapy also suggests having hooks for coats and bags and a mirror in one's landing strip. I would love to have these things should we have the room.

After, Detail shot: The tray that holds our keys now houses a little coin specific dish, giving the tray more division and only enough room to hold our garage door opener, keys, and coins! I also chose a different container for our mail sorter. This container will only have one slot in the back for mail, a side compartment for pens, and the very front compartment for stamps. I feel that by restricting my space- I will keep the area even more tidy and organized. Plus it helps that we don't get that much mail.

Overall, I'm happy with the subtle changes I made to the area. Ideally I would have the plant live on another surface and replace it with a picture frame and a decorative object of some kind, but this table is prime sunlight territory, so the decision is made for me.

ONE MORE TIP:

Apartment Therapy made the point that the biggest change one can make for their home is to clean it and keep it clean and to set up an organized system. It's the most cost effective upgrade one can make. (This helped calm my angst over pining after the sofa of my dreams. There are big changes I can make in the meantime that wont cost me anything that might have a greater impact on my happiness when it comes to how I feel in our home.)

It's not too late to sign up for Apartment Therapy's January Cure! (up next, organizing the top of my dresser!)

Design inspiration: The Toddler's move to a big bed...

In preparation for our second child's arrival in April, we are making some home improvements and adjustments around here. The biggest one is moving our daughter down the hall to the third and smallest bedroom where she will be further away from a waking newborn and basically keeping their paths from crossing during each other's nap times, etc. I've given the husband and I a deadline to have her room all ready by mid february- which would give us about 2 months until my due date (give or take!) to have her adjusted to sleeping in her new big girl bed etc. When she and I talked about the move and her new bed, she got very specific, looked me in the eye and said she wanted blue sheets and blue curtains! lol. So I've taken her request into consideration.

It essentially comes down to our comfort level... are we ready to have to deal with wacky nights, after having such a loooong stretch of uneventful nights? Well knowing that we are going to have another wake up call with a newborn in the house... so why throw the toddler in the mix? But I think she is ready (eep)!  And to help convince myself, I am focusing on the fun wishful part of decorating her room. So here's my little round up!


1) Teal Otomi Bedding from Land of Nod or Tangled up in blue
2) okay to wake Night Owl, nightlight, changes color to let your child know they can get up for the day
3) Mini Sofa: to replace the glider. We will make it out of her cousin's old crib mattress... DYI to follow
4) Fabric hanging Baskets: pdf pattern- to keep things off the floor. Considering making larger ones for her stuffed animals too!

In addition: I'm thinking about using her closet as extra living/playing space- moving her dress-up stuff inside the closet, and perhaps having a little fort/ tent back in there, it's very deep and roomy and using the space would help balance out her move to a smaller room. I'm excited to organize her room once again to a more age appropriate activity level, which will ultimately give her a nice haven to go and be should she need some space with the bigger change of no longer being the only child in the house.

I'll keep you posted on all the projects and the final outcome!

our week in pictures...

I had every intention of blogging a normal daily, or at least every other day schedule, this week but the toddler and husband got knocked flat and are "under the weather". Thus the toddler stayed home from school and the husband from work. A big Thank you to my folks for helping me navigate the second half of this week. And now I must rest myself... sigh. But I still wanted to check in and share a few pictures from around these parts of our little week.

Above: the view of the Brandywine River from the post office parking lot.

Our daughter reading in bed

Our Tuesdays are our Saturdays around here...

And poof, needing some down time with Mr. Rogers this week.

Cinnamon bites for Breakfast.

Saying Hi to Millie, who is sitting on Cameron, who is sleeping on the sofa.

Playing with packaging for my paper garlands. Using the luggage tags as a spool to wrap them around. This one is off to Switzerland!

And today, Friday morning, the husband and toddler are feeling a bit better and wanted to venture out of the house to mail my orders and feed the ducks at the post office by the river. And here is our daughter's attempt to get her coat on by herself, it's quite the look! Maybe everyone's butt needs a hood?

Hope you all had a great week and I hope to be back up and running next week with more blog posts, but especially with a shop update or two!

Have a great weekend!

New Year's Resolution Update: Note Cards to the Rescue!

As I mentioned last week, the husband and I are on a bit of a nesting kick in prep for our newest family member's arrival in April and also equally inspired by the start of the New Year! There is still a lot of odds and ends that need to be done around the house we are renting... those little things that didn't quite get addressed when we moved in. So we are using Apartment Therapy's idea to stay organized- by writing tasks down on note cards. The idea is to pull one note card a day and to complete the task and thus cross it off your list!  On Sunday, my mom took care of our Daughter, allowing the husband and I to complete at least 3-4+ note cards each! It's fun to think of the day when we will scratch our heads to come up with new note cards (although I'm sure one never runs out of things to do... but at least the bigger nesting things will be taken care of!).

Below is a little round up of what we completed this Sunday. This challenge is also opening up my eyes to all that can be accomplished in a spare hour each day!

Note Card #1: re organize the bathroom cabinets and linen closet.

Sorry I don't have a before shot to illustrate what a transformation this was.

Basically- I still had queen sheets in this closet to a queen bed we no longer have! Plus there were towels that should be retired to dog and car washing towels. So once they were removed and housed elsewhere, this freed up a lot of space. I added a green tupperware bin on the floor of the closet to house beach towels and other jumbo XXL towels- rolled up to allow easier access to each individual towel, as opposed to folded and stacked...

I also had enough room to put all of the extra bathroom bits and pieces that don't need to live in the cabinets full time- IE: Toilet paper, extra soap, and tooth paste, etc. I used plastic kitchen tupperware to categorize and keep like things together. As well as a fold up metal closet shelf to use the height of the space as well.

Note Card #2: Rug pads for our new runners.

The runners we got for Christmas, FINALLY have rug pads underneath them! Now they no longer slip and slide around through out the day requiring us to constantly fix them. I don't know why I dragged my feet about this one... I guess it just never felt like a priority plus I knew I had some rug pads I just didn't know where they were!? Quick TIP! Once the pads were cut, I used a hot glue gun to adhere the pad to the back of the rug, on all the corners and along the sides. Because nothing is more annoying than when the rug pad and rug are constantly at war with one another. It's like walking around with your slip showing! how ghastly!

Hall Closet:

On the husband's list was to finish hanging the remaining blinds our landlord got for the house. He hung 8 blinds on Sunday!!!  He also added this hook to the closet door to hang our grocery bags. They previously hung on a hook back in the closet that caused them to take up valuable coat space. This was a simple yet genius idea that makes our hall closet more efficient. Lesson learned- use the door for storage! Below the hook is a set of hooks we hung for our daughter back in the early fall. These hooks allow her to have easy access to her coats, she loves to get her coat in the morning and hang it up in the evening. These little pieces of toddler independence and self sufficiency mean so much to her, plus it helps us out too! 

Nesting: the 3rd Bedroom. *BEFORE*

What once was my studio for a couple of months, is now becoming a room for a little one. (My studio is now in our basement. I'll share pictures once it's more presentable.) We just can't decide if we should move the toddler into this 3rd bedroom... or make it the baby's room...? Too many pros and cons to list, but I think ultimately it will become the toddler's room. Thus many more pictures to come!

And the AFTER shot.

Just a few subtle differences. On Thursday we went to a local discount carpet warehouse and bought this pale cream/yellow carpet for the room. (looks better in person) Then on Sunday the husband hung the faux wooden blinds, which immediately updated the room! Plus the room is cozier and once I sew some black out curtains for the windows, the room will be perfect for promoting sleep! hooray!!!

I've also been given the go ahead from our landlord to paint the wood paneling white!!! This will also update the room and make it feel more open. The toddler informs me that she wants blue curtains! And we've discussed the possibility of her having a "big girl" bed (with a blue pillow of course). Which I'm still debating if she and more importantly ME- are ready for this...? Although one of the more consistent lessons I've learned about parenting is- sometimes they just need a little nudge and then they will take off running. And like her coat hooks in the closet, these elements of independence really fill her up with confidence and promote more self sufficiency. So we shall see on that front!

In Conclusion:

By using this Note Card method- it's really exciting and somehow more manageable to tackle those pesky to dos that have been neglected for too long. As a result it's making us more efficient through out our day, which feels rewarding and makes our day less stressful and hurried, even though we are busier than before.

A Love Letter to Winter

Hi All, Happy Monday! I'm finally writing a new Love Letter to Winter for this week. My seasonal themed blog post whose intent is to inspire and help ease you back into a new week. We had a VERY productive Sunday all focusing around our New Years resolutions- thanks to the note card idea I blogged about last week! I'll report more in detail in a separate post, so stay tuned for that. Have a great start to your week!

On Sunday we woke to a light dusting of snow that was gone by the afternoon, but our bus looks fetching in the white landscape.

(sources for all images found here)

What's Been going on: Prego update and 2013 Resolutions!

This blog post is a real smattering of themes all rolled into one, so forgive the randomness of it... I just want to check these little things off my list all at once!

The Husband and I have been pretty busy this past month, I feel like we are constantly trying to catch up on sleep after our Christmas spent in Alaska and subsequent plane rides with a no-sleep toddler (future blog post to follow), which is laughable considering how we will have a newborn in April, and then sleep will really be up in the air!  But yesterday, we hit the ground running on the productivity front. And I must say our enthusiasm for staying on top of the daily domestic tasks, while finding time for the bigger projects- is all the result of reading a few organizing tips from this Apartment Therapy Article: How to be your own Professional organizer, top ten tips from the pros.  My three favorites from the list are:

Set a timer and see how much you can get done in 10 mins.

and

Play Cards: Write household tasks on an index card and draw one each day! (IE: finish organizing bathroom cabinets, etc)

and

Set Goals: Write goals on index cards and then arrange them in order of importance. Then write deadlines at the top of each card and then schedule a time to complete them by. This is great for those more looming and bigger projects!

Apartment Therapy has a big list of organizing articles, so enjoy jumping down the rabbit hole! Plus sign up for their 2013 organizing cure!

(the 24 week bump taken 2 weeks ago while in Alaska)

And this brings me to my pregnancy (currently 6.5 months along). Part of the inspiration behind our newfound zest for organizing stems from the pregnancy nesting that is kicking in. There is a big desire to get some major home projects crossed off the list before the baby's arrival. And secondly, by developing good habits now, IE: staying on top of the dishes, these good habits will feel second nature when we have another little one to care for. Plus it sets a good example for our daughter. And overall staying organized will give us a sense of relaxation and peace of mind that is sure to carry over into other areas. We are also beginning to write a bucket list of fun activities to do with our daughter before my April due date. Just a few adventures to take her on that seem more tangible with a family of 3 than a family of 4 with a newborn... although I know we will adapt and will continue to seek out fun trips for our family.

The list so far:  Please Touch Museum, Camden Aquarium, Philadelphia Zoo, and the Franklin Institute.  I think she will probably get the most out of the Zoo or Aquarium at this point. And I think the Aquarium might be our first choice since it's indoors! So that makes approaching the list that much easier.

As far as the pregnancy goes- just the other day I hit that- oh crap it's becoming more uncomfortable to put my shoes on, and sit for long stretches at a time- phase. I wake more often in the night, no thanks to our dog who snores louder than most humans. And the baby's movement is very frequent, often making my belly literally jump around. I still have an odd hunch that it might be a boy, but would honestly be happy either way (it would be nice to have one of each, but also nice to have a sister for our daughter plus we already have girl clothes! score huge on saving money!)

Other than that, this month I'm excited to write my notecards with specific goals and projects to tackle. And I'll report back on Apartment Therapy's January Organizing Cure. There are still a lot of bigger unknowns in our life at this point- Where will Cam get into school...? and then the domino affect from that, so it's nice to just slow down and focus on what I can accomplish in the present.  

Let me know if you have any particular exciting resolutions you are looking forward to this year?

Plus stay tuned for future blog posts: Alaska/Christmas recap, Tips for traveling with a Toddler