Under Sink Storage Solutions

There's something about January that gets me organizing my whole house.  

Storage in a bathroom is so important.  

My daughter's bathroom has a single sink vanity.   

The only storage in that bathroom is below the sink in the cabinet.

This is what it looked like yesterday underneath her sink.

It was a mess. 

I started by totally emptying the cabinet.

I had found this super cool contact paper, so I decided to remove the old paper.

I have never had as much difficulty removing old contact paper as I did yesterday.  I had to get out a scraper to get off all of the paper.   It took way longer than it should have.

So much better already with this cool chevron pattern.

But I still needed a solution for all of the stuff.  I found these at Bed Bath and Beyond.

I bought the large and the medium stackable drawers.  They fit perfectly and use the otherwise wasted vertical space under the sink.

What a big difference!

Hope you all have a great weekend.

-Judy

I'm Dreaming of an Organized Garage

I find myself dreaming of an organized garage.  

Source: Images.Meredith.com

Wouldn't I love if my garage looked like this.

Image from Pinterest

This simple idea makes the entrance from the garage look so great.

Image from Houzz.com

Somehow my garage never seems to looks like any of these photos.

  My space seems to get cluttered over and over again.

Here's a reality check on what the workbench area of my garage looks like.  

After seeing all of these organized garage photos from Pinterest, I was inspired to at least clean up the workbench area of the garage.  A little better, right?

Maybe if I had gorgeous garage doors like this, I could hide the clutter better.

How about you?  Is your garage well organized?

Don't forget to stop back tonight at 8pm EST for my Fall into Fall party.  Hope to see you then.

-Judy

Let's Get Organizing - The Mud Room

I'm continuing on my mission of cleaning and organizing my home room by room, all before the kids go back to school.  Today my attention turns to my mudroom.  My mudroom seems to be the hub of our home...especially in the mornings and afternoons.  It's where schedules, mail, book bags, shoes, jackets etc are all kept.

The summer has left the place a bit of a mess with piles that must be gone through.  I started by sorting the piles...garbage, to be filed, and action needed.

I also removed all the old paperwork from last year, to make room for the new.  However, even with the two cork boards you see, it seems that I have never seem to have enough space to tack up all of the papers that come home from school.  My solution...

adding some self-adhesive cork to the inside of the cabinets.

I started by cutting it to size and adhering it to the inside of each door of a double cabinet in the mudroom.  I have two kids, so one for each of them.

To avoid any confusion, I created "name tags" for each of the sides using my Silhouette machine.

Here's a close-up

Now when the papers start to come in, I'll have somewhere else to tack them up.  The best part is when I shut the doors no one will ever know.

Here's the end result of my clean-up.  It's so nice to see the countertop again.  

Hope you have a great day!

-Judy

Let's Get Organizing - The Pantry and Refrigerator

I'm on a mission.  A mission to re-organize and de-clutter my home room by room before my kids go back to school.  Yesterday I showed you how I went through my vanity table and purged all of my old cosmetics and re-organized the ones I was keeping.  You can check that out here.  Next stop on my trip around the house was the pantry and the refrigerator.

This is my before photo.  At first glance it doesn't seem so bad.  I do a basic clean up of the fridge weekly, however, it was about time to do a major clean-up and go through the fridge and empty it out,

clean all the shelves, 

and only put back food that had not expired.

Obviously, this must have been hiding somewhere in the back of the fridge...expired November 16, 2007...YIKES!!

When the inside of the fridge was scrubbed clean, it was time to put the food back neatly...

and categorized by type of food.  I know - reality check - it probably won't look like this for long.

Next it was on to the pantry.  Same system...empty it out, clean all the shelves and then put it all back neatly...less any expired products.

One of the things I learned during this clean up is...apparently I don't need to buy chick peas anytime in the near future.

Even if the pantry and refrigerator don't stay perfectly organized for long, I am happy to be rid of all the expired products.  It's a good idea from time to time to do a major clean-up.

Okay...now it's your turn.  Hope I've inspired you to go and clean out your refrigerator and pantry.  You'll be glad you did.

Hope to see you all tonight at my Sizzle into Summer party...the link opens up at 8pm EST.

-Judy

Let's Get Organizing - The Cosmetic Drawer

This summer has been really awesome.  However, we've been so busy having fun that things have gotten to be a bit of a mess here and there around my home.  Does that happen to you too over the summer?  To be honest, some of the mess actually dates back to prior to the summer.  The next few weeks are going to be spent organizing my home room by room.  I hope you will join me as I conquer the clutter and put things back in order, all before the kids go back to school (which will be after Labor Day).

Project number one for me is my make-up area.  For instance, see all those bags on the vanity...those are still there from the last trip we came back from almost two weeks ago.  Granted I was sick with salmonella poisoning for a while...but I'm healthy now and it was time to clean things up.

After clearing off some of the items on the vanity, I started emptying the drawers.

Technically, you are supposed to go through your make-up at least every year, depending on the product.  Well I haven't gone through my make-up in years.  I switched over to Bare Minerals make-up when my daughter was a toddler (which BTW has a much longer shelf life since it is all natural and made without any chemicals to bind it together).  If my calculations are right, that would mean that all the other make-up brands in the drawers have to be 8+ years old.  Yikes...think that's a problem?

Yep...that's lipstick that is half stuck in the cap.  

 Now I have gone through my make-up many times over the years, but for some reason I didn't get rid of all the old stuff.  Not this time... in the garbage all the old products went.

So when should you get rid of make-up?  Here are some guidelines to follow:

-  Most powders, concealers and lip balms don't contain water, so they can last for a couple of years.

-   Cleansers and moisturizers often contain fatty acids, which can turn rancid quickly. Toss after six months.

-  Multiuse products such as 3-in-1 sticks and creams can spread germs from lips to eyes and cheeks. Wipe the surface before switching areas, and discard or replace after six months.

-  Pencils can last several years unless you wet the tip with saliva or water. To be safe, sharpen before each use.

-   Mascara should be tossed after three months without fail. The tube is a breeding ground for bacteria.

-   Foundations can last up to a year if you keep your fingers away from the bottle. Instead, use a sponge to apply.

-  My rule of thumb with lipstick is when it starts to smell funky...it's time for it to be thrown out.

Next it was time to take all of my brushes and wash them with soapy water.  Some of the brushes needed some extra scrubbing to get all of the make-up off.  It's a good idea to do this from time to time to avoid the build-up of make-up on the brushes.

While the brushes were soaking, I started re-organizing the drawers.

By getting rid of the oldest products, which by the way had not been used in years, it left plenty of space for the products I actually do use.

After I was done organizing all of the products, I took a look at the vanity seat and thought it was time for a new seat cushion.

There were only a few screws to remove in order to recover the seat.

Using fabric I had left over from another project, I simply stapled new fabric over the old fabric.

This fabric is perfect for the bathroom.  It has all the right colors (it's actually the fabric I used for the window treatments in my home office).

You can see that I moved my brushes to the top of the vanity in a container I had in the mudroom (which wasn't really being used there).  I love that my make-up area is all neat, clean and organized now.

Okay...now it's your turn.  I hope you will be inspired to go through your make-up drawers and throw out all expired products.  You'll be happy you did.  

-Judy