From Crap-tastic to Can-tastic! (Closet Makeover #2)

Y'all...I have too much stuff. Too much stuff to do and far too many things in my house.

 The closet in my dining room was pretty full before we had begun the kitchen remodel. When we did begin the remodel even more stuff was shoved into this closet. I am surprised it didn't implode, tearing a hole in the time space continuum...oh wait--wrong story... Regardless it was a terrible-no-good-horrible secret. Out of sight out of mind. Until the day the dog chased my cat, who jumped in the closet to get away from said dog, and there was an avalanche of stuff. It was bad. REALLY bad. I could no longer ignore the totes, bags, boxes and piles of random stuff. It was time to clean and organize.

There was stuff shoved in canvas shopping bags and plastic totes filled with an assortment of things, from xmas decor, school supplies,pictures, craft supplies, missing tools, and china settings.

There was a pile of just random stuff--house decor, 1 bag of papers and junk mail (from 2012), an assortment of hardware, and dog grooming stuff.

Canning jars

An entire basket of spray paint, a bag of winter scarves/gloves, xmas wrapping paper, the tub of linoleum adhesive, and a basket with the portable heater. Jeez.

I also found (not pictured) an unopened food dehydrator, an extra iced tea maker, an extra blender and my never used set of xmas dishes. What can I say?  It is a good sized closet and I was REALLY good at Tetris, heh.

I am rather embarrassed by this but at least it clean and organized now. I spent 7 hours--HOURS--cleaning, sorting and purging stuff.  There were several sort piles--garbage, recycle, donate and keep. All the xmas items were combined in tote, labelled and the hubbs moved it to the basement/cellar/dungeon. I repacked all of the china, using more plastic to cushion all the pieces, labelled the tote and it too was taken downstairs. I tried to combine like items and returns things to the proper storage. Like, all the tools. Especially the ones I swore to the hubbs I didn't have in my possession. Moving on...

I now have a canning and kitchen overflow storage closet.  Items which only get used a few times a year--like the xmas dishes, my replacement dishes and glasses-- are stored on the top shelf. The bottom 3 shelves are for items used more frequently, such as kitchen overflow (stockpots) and canning supplies.


I am pleased with the results.  My stuff is in close proximity to the kitchen. The semi-opaque totes make it easy to see the contents of each tote, and the totes have wheels! Maybe someday when I am feeling ambitious, I will paint and cover the shelves. However for now it serves its intended purpose.

What do y'all think?

Pay no attention to that mess behind the curtain

Well to hijack a quote from the Wizard of Oz...I guess that was the philosophy I had a adopted for a while. When you walk into my dining room this is what you would see...

However, lurking just a few mere inches away was a horrible mess, that I ignored. Until I couldn't anymore  (because things began falling out of the closet onto the floor!) Yikes--right?

It wasn't always like this. I don't know when it became a jumbled messy dumping ground. I am surprised our local waste management company didn't charge me annex fees. I mean seriously--who lives  like this? I guess for a while--I did. Boooo.

So with some determination, caffeine and lots of trips to the recycle bin I began to make to progress on my dumping ground. 

Finally after a few hours of purging documents, filing, sorting and organizing I ended with a nice little office nook. Not comfortable enough for me to work on my laptop, but organized and inspirational.

The tie back for the curtain is simply and elastic headband!

And when I want to have a "desk type" surface to work at I can remove my laptop from the closet and sit at my dining room table (instead of leaving it there ALL the time!)

It's not perfect but it is a beginning until I decide where exactly I can carve  out some office space in in my house. Now I don't have to worry about anyone peeking behind the curtain and seeing a junk closet! (The garage is another story/ post all together!)

I will be organized. This is my year--I just know it! How about you--do you have messy closets? And where is your office.