The Mundane

Well my friends, the no spend month is ending soon. I can’t say I’ll be sad to see it go but it sure does help me refocus when I do this. When I’m not spending on house stuff I can concentrate on bettering what we already have. I’ve decluttered a TON and whenever I felt the urge to go out and walk through a store I just found a new spot to sort through.

I’ve gotten a ton done this month but there’s so much more on my list! When I’m focused on the larger projects I find the smaller ones tedious. But when I’m working on a to do list and not bringing anything new into the house the mundane little things are oddly rewarding.

I’ve put off painting the inside of the built in cabinets in the family room for months – I finally sat down and just did it:

Even though you can’t see much with the doors closed you can tell it’s darker and more uniform in there which I like. For this girl who never even paints the inside of the cabinet doors, this is huge!! ;)

Speaking of painting…a lot of it is happening in the kitchen. I’m still working on the second coat on all the window trim in the bay window:

I won’t finish the white on the walls till the window seat is done, which will be sooner than I planned!! Whoot! Next time you see this spot the seat should be there. :)

We went through all of the toy bins in the basement and I finished up a few little things down there. We have an AWESOME ottoman with storage that holds our DVD books and other stuff:

Problem is the kiddo pushes it around all the time and we never know which way it opens. We have to move around it and pull till we get the right side. This is struggle people.

My solution took five minutes – I found some old belts while going through stuff and since I don’t wear them anymore I used one to make little handles:

I just screwed them into the ottoman framing and now we know exactly where to open and it’s easier to pull up:

I was laughing because as I was doing this I knew I had used another belt in a similar way years ago -- but for the life of me could not figure out where I did it. I placed my little DIY tray back on the ottoman and realized it was on that tray. Ha! I’m smart.

When something needs to be hung I tend to leave it leaning for months – it’s one of those little things that I put off. I finally hung a cute sign in the laundry room:

Love it! I will be installing shelves between the cabinets but until then I went ahead and hung it. Knowing me that could be another year from now. ;)

We’ve had a big mirror leaning in our newly organized closet for at least six months – and it took me all of five minutes to get it hung:

On a whim back in late December (I’ve technically been on this no spend gig since mid-December) I decided to hang a bunch of the random photos we’ve had laying around:

This wall in our loft is HUGE. I have to get a taller ladder to keep going, but it’s not empty for the first time in years!

And finally, as I mentioned I did a lot of purging, but not a lot of organizing just yet. I did switch the contents of a couple dressers around and things make much more sense now. I put all of our linens in the dresser in the dining room turned library – and I have a couple of empty drawers now too!:

I’d still like to get some shallow baskets to organize things a little more – baskets may be my first purchase. :)

These no spend months remind me that sometimes it’s the smaller projects that make me feel the most accomplished. It also reminds me that I’m pretty darn lucky to get to do the “mundane” in a house we love – I’m grateful for it. :)

The matter of clutter

So I know I touched on dealing with clutter earlier this week but it’s on my brain for many reasons today. I always talk about ways to deal with the clutter…but I rarely talk about why it happens in the first place.

I posted this article on Facebook yesterday and really enjoyed reading your responses. I find this kind of stuff fascinating – psych was my minor in college because I’m always overly curious as to why we do what we do. The article focuses on a study that correlates clutter and depression in women and I found it really interesting.

I’m never a black and white person so I wouldn’t ever go so far as to say this is always the case, but after reading it it was kind of a “duh” moment for me. It is SO me. The article also mentions that men are not nearly as affected by the things around our house as women are, which again…for the most part I believe.

It got me thinking…if we allow clutter in our homes, why? If we don’t (and I find those that don’t are dedicated to avoiding it every day), what was it that made it unbearable for them?

I’m mixing in some organized spaces throughout to give us some motivation. ;)

As I was reading the comments on Facebook I was struck with a few things about myself. First of all, as with so many things, I think the reason we do what we do is borne out of how we grew up. There is still a deep, internal struggle I go through when I declutter because of that.

(Replacing wire shelves in pantry)

It feels wasteful for me to get rid of things I bought…no matter when I bought them and how often I use them. We you don’t have a lot growing up it sticks with you. I’m a bagger, as I’ve mentioned before, and I will have things in bags for months and never need one thing in there. And I’ll still go through each and every item – when if I’m honest with myself I don’t need any of it after all that time.

I also don’t have many things from my childhood – the only items salvaged are photos and a few other items. So I tend to hold on to many things for ALL of us so that we’ll “keep” the memories.

(Organized linen closet)

I had to laugh because I was watching The Goldbergs last night, which is my favorite show and last night’s was stellar because it was about New Kids on the Block, but I digress. The rest of the story line was about how the mom had kept literally every single art project and drawing from her children over the years and couldn’t part with them. It was to the extreme but I identified with her.

The best part though was when she showed her husband a drawing of her son did with his hand – and how there was no possible way she could ever get rid of it. And the dad said something like, “well he still has a hand!” It’s a goofy sitcom but his response stuck with me.

I struggle with the difference between memories and needing to keep things in order to remember. I think as moms we all want to keep every memory of those little hands…all 50 drawings of them. ;)

(DIY laundry chute)

But I write a lot down and we have a crap load of pictures so do I need every single drawing? Probably not. Is it OK to keep some? Yes.

My other reason that I’m not always on top of clutter around our house is that I’m the only one here fighting the good fight. My husband is completely, totally oblivious to it. Completely. And honestly, I am to a point. That’s where the article comes in – I always feel better with less clutter around our house. Always. But I can deal with it to a degree. I have a fairly high threshold. ;)

I get to that threshold though and seriously feel like I’m going to lose it if it’s not gone right that second. I have cried because of clutter. I sat in our newly organized master closet yesterday with my husband’s clothes piled on the floor and was so overwhelmed I had to walk out.

(DIY rolling drawer)

He didn’t do it to be disrespectful – he was going through clothes to wash. But I could feel my blood pressure rising while sitting in that room.

We’re both creative types and for us clutter isn’t always a big deal – but even when I’m not overwhelmed by it I’m annoyed by it. My husband is never annoyed by it. But if I’m being honest here…he’s not the one cluttering up our house. It’s me. And if he attempted to organize the clutter I’d probably stress even more…so there. you. go.

I don’t make resolutions but I always focus on cleaning out our house this time of year and I DO love the feeling. It is freeing and light and truly amazing. I have a lot more to go through yet and I’m actually looking forward to it. It is hard for me to let go of things but I can count on one hand all of the things I regretted donating. And that wasn’t for emotional reasons, it was purely a “oh I could have used that thing for this” reason.

(Organized coat closet)

I have made a vow to myself to stay on top of the clutter more this year than I ever have before. I focus on projects around the house so much I don’t focus on the little things like the kitchen island piling up with crap. But I’m realizing those “little things” become big things and weigh me down emotionally.

I would never go so far as to say clutter makes me depressed, but I can certainly see how it could cause that. And clutter is a crazy thing – the more it builds up the less we want to deal with it. It can paralyze us.

(Simple utensil organization)

Do you identify with any of this as well? Of course the opposite is true for so many – they grew up in a home with a lot of clutter so they absolutely cannot handle it and stay on top of it. OR they grew up in a home that was free of a lot of stuff and they continue the same in their house. I admire that – I want to do the same.

I do want to find a good balance. I don’t think it’s wrong to want to keep the kid’s drawings and the birthday cards with sweet messages from ten years ago. I just think I need to be a little more selective. And this post may sound like I’m Beverly Goldberg and I’m not. ;) For the most part our house is organized and functions well.

Does the clutter in the house affect your mood? Do you stay on top of it daily or can you let it sit like me? And was your childhood home the same?

Another no-spend month!

Hello all! I hope the end of last year and the start to 2015 were great! We stayed at home and partied in the basement…meaning we sat on the couch and ate popcorn. ;)

I’ve been busy going through rooms, purging and organizing and it feels so good. I love it. I’ve had zero desire to bring anything new into the house – it all must go! So I figured this would be a great time to do another one of my no-spend months.

I’ve done these a couple times before and it’s just a time for me to focus on what we have, make things work and get stuff done around the house. I always have list a mile long of projects I want to accomplish that get pushed aside because of the bigger stuff. And it just feels good to not bring any more STUFF into the house. My only cheat may be an IKEA trip that’s already planned, but I may just reschedule. ;)

I thought I would share a few of my favorite projects from no-spends past so you can see what I’m up to during these months.

I still love my little candlestick table that sits in our family room:

You can see how I made that (with items from Goodwill that I had) here.

Years ago I found an amazing online resource for free prints and used that to create some art in the family room:

I later added some gold rub n buff to the corners of those frames too:

Those prints now sit on the built ins near one of my other favorite no-spend projects, the DIY wood trough: 

This is one of the projects I get asked about most! I made it from scrap wood and it’s SO EASY. These are great for the middle of a long table too.

Another one of my best no-spend projects was when I took an old 80’s night stand we had forever:

And made it over with white paint and handles (all we had on hand).

So much better!:

I didn’t love the scrolly wood underneath so I recently removed that with my jigsaw, as you can see in this Instagram pic from the other night:

It removed even more of the 80’s feel. ;)

I used some scrap wood to build some shelves in the guest room closet:

I hate wasted space and this makes that awkward spot SO much more useful!

I also finished up a big project in that same room:

I had the paint…I just never took the time to do it! Still love this ombre wall!

We had some drapes that needed lined and some sheets I was going to drop off at Goodwill – so I used the sheets to line the drapes:

I share how to line drapes in that post too. The sheets were the perfect weight – love how full they make the drapes.

Like I said, I tend to get a lot of little things done in these months and last time I finished up a bunch of little details in our basement bathroom and shared the reveal:

I adore this room and it’s pretty colors! You can see more of this space here.

I’m looking forward to getting some projects knocked off the list! Hope you’ll find them useful too!

You can see all of my no-spend projects here and here. :) Have a great weekend my peeps!

Dream plans for 2015

Hello and welcome to my second favorite time of the year! The start of a new year is always so refreshing and exciting for me – I love decrapifying and organizing and dreaming up new plans for the house.

And as much as I love the Christmas decor I absolutely LOVE taking it down and rediscovering our house. It’s a fresh new space!

I always share plans I hope to accomplish for each year here on the blog, partly cause it’s fun to share but also because it kind of keeps me accountable. Early this year I did just that – and I’d say I accomplished about half of what I planned. But what I did accomplish was BIG (the family room renovation).

I had planned to get the rest of our interior doors painted black and I only got two more done…whomp whooomp. But they are beauties!:

 

I still have six doors upstairs I’d like to paint but the main floor is done. LOVE how they look.

I hoped to get a lot done in the mud room in 2014 and I did – I shared that progress with you earlier this week.

There are two rooms I really wanted to change up this year and I basically did nothing in both of them. Ha! This is how our living room looked late last year:

That rug was a total, epic fail (it literally fell apart with wear and tear from the dog), so we won’t be doing that again.

This room is a wide open one with high ceilings but those are the things that stump me. I decided this would be the year that we’d get a new sofa in there because I hate the one we have. I guess hate is a strong word…strongly dislike. It’s been there forever and was one of those I-need-to-fill-this-space-so-I’ll-buy-something purchases years and years ago. You can’t clean it without shadows appearing all over the upholstery and it’s HUGE. It is comfy…it’s got that going for it.

Well other stuff became priority so the new sofa didn’t happen. Which is fine because I’m still not sure how I want this room to look. It’s hard to work with because there’s only one usable wall and it’s like 20 feet tall. I laugh that these are my “problems.” Nice ones to have.

I did go add the craftsman trim to the windows which I lurrrve:

Those drapes were moved to the library and I love them in their new spot!

Another space I’ve been wanting to work on for YEARS is our loft:

It’s been many “rooms” over the years – before the kiddo it was a lounging space for us. Then it was a playroom. Now a craft room. Someday (hopefully no time soon) when we move we’ll probably make it into a bedroom so we can sell as a four bedroom.

It’s a large room but I still don’t feel like we’re using the space well. I finally came up with a plan and I’m SO excited to get started!! Here’s the layout as I see it:

Disregard the colors – it will not have a purple rug and pink pillows. ;)

I use an app for the Ipad called Living Room to create these by the way. I bought it years ago and have used it many times. I planned the both the basement and family room renovations with this app – it’s awesome:

Anyway – my plan is to add mega storage. Wonderful, glorious storage. Do you hear the singing?? I hope to add a line of drawers along the long wall to the left. And built ins on each side of the window seat have always been the plan, like this:

Because the line of lower cabinets will run along the one wall I’ll have to figure out how to butt them up to the built ins around the window on the left side:

This photo shows how I could make it work:

(source)

I want build a table out into the middle of the room from the line of cabinets so we have a big spot to sit and craft, wrap presents, draw and color, whatever.

Something like this:

(source)

Although I want mine to have storage under the end of the table.

We currently use my DIY craft table but I think I’d like something shorter at table height. I think it’s just more comfortable to sit down at that level.

I’m really excited about how functional this room could be! We will keep a TV up there so we’ll still have a spot to sit and lounge as well.

This is one of those rooms we really don’t need – but we do end up spending a decent amount of time in there. I just hate that it’s not as functional and pretty as it could be. Hopefully I’ll fix that this year. ;) First up though – we want to put hardwoods down in the room. The carpet is truly gross but we’ll have to save up for that and I won’t start up anything much else till we get those done.

The final project I had hoped to start/finish this year was the kitchen…and I’ve barely touched it! This redo will be one of my biggest yet. Or the biggest. I’ve had a good idea of what I want to do for years now but I’m glad I waited to tackle it because now I’m feeling really good about the direction. I’ll share that plan soon too – it needs it’s own post!

Of course not all of this will get done this year. I try to do as much as I can myself and I tend to take my time. ;) Plus finances will determine how much I can get done too – but I’m SO excited to tackle both of these spaces and finish up some others as well!

Do you have any fun plans in your house for 2015? It’s such a fun time of the year to dream of what’s to come!

Hope you have a wonderful and safe New Year’s Eve and a great start to 2015!! Thanks for joining me for 2014 – I am truly grateful!!

Biggest changes in 2014!

Hello there my friends! I hope your holiday was wonderful!! Ours was fantastic and we’re totally enjoying the entire break so far. I read one book cover to cover in one day, we’ve seen Night at the Museum 3 (loved it) and hope to see Into the Woods tonight. I’ve done equal parts sitting on my butt and cleaning/decrapifying/organizing as well. :)

Since we are nearly the end of 2014 I like to look back at the biggest projects I completed throughout the year. If you haven’t noticed before and after pictures are pretty much my favorite thing ever, so I’m including pics of how they looked at the start of the year as well as the final result (which is often not the end result cause everything takes me forever).

First up, the mud room. Ohhhh yes. The mud room! When we had the basement finished a few years ago we moved our laundry down there and it’s seriously one of the best things we’ve ever done. We lived with it as it was for quite a while and then at the beginning of this year I got started. This is how it looked to start:

What’s funny is I was so tired of the bright yellow I had in there for years I felt like the blank white looked a ton better:

I love that you can see where I painted around the washer and dryer way back when. At least I used tape to get a straight line!

So anyway, I got busy installing the rest of the beadboard and painting it, building a bench (out of kitchen cabinets), DIYing a cushion out of a rug and then adding the sconces:

Um…we LOVE it. Love love love. Seriously, I’m so happy to have an actual landing zone when we walk in now.

I still have a lot I want to do in here – I’ve been wanting to build the upper storage for a year now and just haven’t gotten to it. The ceiling needs to be patched and painted (due to some water issues) and I will add crown molding too:

I changed out the overhead light in the space recently and still need to show you that too (it created some new holes in the ceiling as well).

Funny thing, seeing our big cat in these photos – this bench is his absolute favorite spot in the house. The furnace is in here so I think it’s probably the toastiest room:

On a side note – if you’ve ever wanted to spray paint your door knobs be sure to check out my experience with it in this room here.

We didn’t do much in the basement this year (although I still have some fun plans in mind) but I did make some progress on the little kitchenette down there. This is how we started at the beginning of the year:

I installed the (super cheap!) countertops and painted the cabinets. Then I added a little bling to that wall with a stencil I found at Hobby Lobby:

We’ve since installed the sink down there and I’ve had the shelves to hang for probably six months. Hoping to get those up over break.

I also shared the details of how we had our basement finished for (what I think) a great price:

Basically we used small business contractors, spread it out over time and I did the finish work myself. But I share all of the costs and break down in that post.

Our master bedroom got some updates as well. I’ve been working on this room for over a year now and may finish it next year…we’ll see. ;)

I couldn’t decide if I wanted our room to be bright and light or dark and comfy…so I went halfway. I started painting the room the lighter color I picked out:

And then decided I was craving some drama. So I added it in the form of some trim and a dark gray color called Peppercorn:

I also beefed up the baseboards (without taking off the old ones!), added craftsman trim around the doors, and changed out the light (from the old dining room). It is becoming a truly beautiful space and we love it!!

(To see how I made the tufted headboard for less than $100, go here.)

I worked my tail off on one of the biggest transformations in our house this year that no one sees but us – our master closet. It’s big and we weren’t using it well. This before photo was the closet on a really, really good day:

I mean…really. This was nothing compared to the usual mess.

I purged big time, installed more kitchen cabinets (yes, I have a problem. Yes, they work and they are cheap!) and then painted everything in purple tones – my one girly room the house! :)

It kind of changed our lives:

You can see more of the final reveal here. A functional, clean closet it highly underrated. I still have more plans for the space but so far it’s working SO MUCH better than what we had before.

And finally, the spaces I got some help on. We had dreamed and planned to potentially add on to the back of our home – our family room and kitchen were open to each other but very tight and awkward due to the layout of the fireplace and windows.

We had saved up a chunk of change do a renovation but we realized pretty quickly it wasn’t going to happen. Getting contractors to respond was impossibly hard (only a few even responded) and the costs we were getting from those who did respond were astronomical.

Along the way a reader put an idea in my head and we went with it. Here’s an old photo of the wall that we took down:

Believe it or not this after photo is only taken a couple feet behind where the one above was taken:

We knocked down the wall between my office and the family room and reconfigured the fireplace. We gained 100 square feet in doing so:

The biggest part of the room is the new fireplace placement and built ins. They looked like this to start:

That white chunk of wall is where the old corner fireplace was. So happy that is gone!!

After I trimmed it out and painted, added some new doors to the cabinets (so we could hide the electronics in there), tiled the surround and then planked the wall above, it turned out like this:

That’s the Christmas version. ;)

Here’s another view of the room before (a more recent one):

And now from the same general area: The changes made a bigger impact to the kitchen than we anticipated too, so we went ahead with our second phase sooner than planned. Here’s the view into the family room before:        

And here it is now (as a kitchen!) with the new doors:

Those doors? Easily top five best things we’ve done in the almost 11 years here. They are amazing and completely changed how we function in these rooms. Absolutely love:

You can see the entire renovation process (over five months) here.

It’s been a GREAT year! I am so happy with the changes we’ve made and so thankful we were able to make them!

Onto 2015…I’ll share my plans for that next! Did you do anything fun to your house this year? We did a lot but it’s kind of my job. ;) And it’s my passion – I love it!!