Organizing My Utility & Linen Closets

I thought I’d show you all my utility and linen closets that I re-organized. I have lots of painting to do but it’s been too cold to have the windows open (even with using low VOC paint). So I’ve been organizing and decluttering since I don’t want to move with junk!
This is the utility closet door before. I really liked my shoe organizer. It was a great way to keep things organized and I could easily see what I had. It was also a handy place to stuff plastic bags. I do have re-usable shopping bags but often forget to bring them into the store – therefore the plastic bags!
So now I have a couple of aprons and a cute plastic bag holder  from etsy on the door because my husband always hated that shoe organizer AND I don’t want to give the impression that there’s not enough storage in this house. People do look in closets when shopping for a home!

This closet was also pumpkin orange! Actually I don’t have one white closet. ALL my closets are painted a color on the inside. The inside of the door was yellow as you can see in the photo at the very top. 

Now the inside is very light blue (sigh…because when I tested this color on a bedroom wall it was practically white but without any natural light you can see the blue – but it’s less noticeable than bright pumpkin orange). The inside of the door was painted white.
The vacuum cleaner hose holder is from IKEA. I have a few photos of some organizing things from IKEA at the end of the post (long post – this is what happens when you only post once in a while).

I have plenty of room on the shelves!

Now for my hall linen closet!

As you can see it’s not all that big! Anyway it was a mess. Below is the after!

Here’s the heartless truth. If this is all the space you have than this is what you have to work with. The only way to have it organized is to get rid of stuff you don’t use/really need. (I do have a couple of towels in the dyer but as you can see, there’s plenty of room for them.)

Things I got rid of – Christmas and Easter towels. Yes, at one time in my life I used to change my entire hall bathroom at Christmas and Easter. I had holiday shower curtains, towels, bath accessories  - you name it  I had it. It was fun when my daughter was little. I also still had a stack of the little facecloths I used for her when she was a baby! She’ll be 19 this month. Time to let go of those baby cloths I think. I got rid of ratty towels (donated them to my vet and cut some up to use as rags). I do a load of laundry every other day – I don’t need to keep a whole lot of sheets and towels. I got rid of (donated) tablecloths that don’t even fit the table I have now (why was I keeping those?).

I put the washcloths in a container (also from IKEA) and the hand towels next to it. As you can see this closet is still pumpkin orange! The wallpaper on the shelves is the one I had in my kitchen in my first house in Georgia. I papered those shelves 11 years ago!

Do you see that I have an entire empty shelf now that I got rid of stuff!!! I keep my daughter’s sheets in her room’s closet but I may move them out here. Also, I only have one set of guest room sheets and they’re of course on the bed. I do have some extra pillow cases for that room and I keep those in a container in that room.

Well that’s two closets done – four more to go!

For some reason I wind up in IKEA every January! Here are a few photos of some of their organizing systems.









I'm motivated to declutter and organize since we're selling our house but I must say it also just feels freeing to have less stuff!

Thanks for taking the time to drop by and have a wonderful weekend!

A Thrifty Find & Organizing Tip

Hello everyone! I finally put up an initial decal that I got last year at TJ Maxx.


I wasn’t sure where I was going to put it, but I got tired of it sitting on the floor so I just picked a place LOL!



It's over my Inspiration board which I also gave a light blue wash. I thought that was a good place since the board is all about me!



But my happiest find last month was this fantastic basket at Goodwill. It has wheels!


It’s got a removable liner and wheels!



Have I mentioned it rolls! LOL! Right now I’m keeping my slipcovers for my Parsons Chairs in it.



I know most of you probably think I need something in between the board and the basket.



Well that’s where I usually stack my file boxes. The first one is where we keep all our receipts in alphabetical order. Except Home Depot, Target, and Lowes which get their own folders since we shop there all the time. It makes it easier when you want to return something to have one place to go to for the receipt. Most stores have changed their return policies these days and aren’t quite as lenient as they used to be. You need a receipt to make a return unless you’re happy with a store credit.

The second box is where I keep all the paid bills and that’s organized by month.

So when I need to work on stuff I can just roll my basket over to my desk and file things and use it for another surface. Plus it’s storage! Multi-purpose pieces are so important when you have a house that doesn’t have a lot of built in storage.

Hope you are all having a good week and thanks for stopping by!

February Book Winner & Weekend Chit Chat

Hi everyone! The winner of  Country Living’s Storage Style is Katy @ The Country Blossom.  Please email me a shipping address and I’ll put it in the mail next week. Thank you to everyone that entered – you know there will be another book giveaway next month!
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Speaking of storage…I put away most of my tablecloths etc in the black bureau as Step 1 of my closet re-organization. A major part of this project is finding a place for all those things that are in my closet that need to be else where!


I lined the bottom of the drawers with some wrapping paper I got on clearance at Hobby Lobby after Christmas.



They really have the best selection of wrapping paper at Christmas. They always carry some great non-traditional patterns that you can use year round.

 

This is where most of my table lines were kept – stuffed on a shelf in my clothes closet! I also had some in my hall linen closet.

Here’s where they are now!



The top drawer is placemats and napkins since that’s what we use the most.



I don’t think I’ve shown you these napkins before. I made them over three years ago and used iron on letters to monogram them. They’ve held up surprisingly well - M=mom, D=dad, s=Savanna, G=guest. Very easy and you don’t need a steady hand to paint on the monogram or a machine to embroider them. I don’t normally iron my napkins (usually they’re rumpled) but since I was ironing tablecloths I thought might as well!



Table runners. I realized I don’t have very many of those! I’ve been wanting to make some.



Tablecloths. The tablecloths for the screened porch table will have to stay in the linen closet as well as seasonal tablecloths and napkins.



Vintage tablecloths and tea towels in the bottom drawer.


So that part is done. I did set a few aside to donate that I don’t like anymore. Next I need to get all the magazines and books out of my closet! To be honest, I will never have a closet that just has clothes in it. I have too much stuff and not enough places to put that stuff! Plus, I’m not ready to get rid of my stuff at this point in my life. Maybe one day!

A lot of people want to know how I hang those trays. I just use plate hangers from Hobby Lobby and Michaels. The largest size they have. The trays aren’t heavy.



I did buy this one off of ebay recently because I have a transferware platter that I want to hang. So you can also look there.


Thanks for the feedback on the blog loading issue. Seems like only a handful of people are having an issue. Personally, I like large photos and that was my main reason for switching to Windows Live Writer,  but I’ll try to be more sensitive about the size and number. I must say that when I use Firefox I don’t have problems with pages loading like I do on AOL or even IE. So you might want to give that a try.

My Household Notebook

 

Hi everyone!  I bought a very cute Mary Englebreit planner over the weekend on clearance at Barnes & Noble. I probably won’t really use it – I bought it mostly for her illustrations (which I just adore) and I love the quotes that she uses with her art work.  I miss her magazine! It’s the only one that I’ve kept every issue intact from the first one to the last!

I LOVE that - “Your Home is Your Canvas Make Something Of It”.  Anyway, I realized that I hadn’t talked about my Household Planner in a while. Actually it’s my Home Notebook and it  holds info that I need/want at my fingertips. It also gives everyone in my home one place to look for certain things. 

It’s just a plain 3 ring binder that I had to put my spin on! My daughter likes to say I “cute things up” LOL!   You can just slip a piece of scrapbook paper under the plastic or go crazy! Of course, you don’t have to do anything to your binder.  I always try to make ordinary things just a bit pretty if I can, cause that’s just me!

I had to scrapbook paper my dividers (a fun activity to do while watching a movie). I do a lot of things while watching movies! Your Notebook will be different from my Notebook. Use categories that make sense for you and your family.

Emergency/Frequently used phone numbers is a good category to begin with. I also think a good thing to have at the beginning of your planner is some sort of Mission Statement for your family. Check out How To Write A Family Mission Statement. I LOVE Meredith’s Homekeeping Mission Statement (how I miss her posts).


Maybe you have young children that are involved in afterschool activities and you need a place to keep their schedules and info. My daughter is finished with high school but I used to keep contact info for her teachers, counselors, principle, class list, lunch menu, field trip info etc plus anything important that I needed to keep like permission slips. Maybe you want to keep a calendar with appointments on it. I use a separate calendar on my desk for that. Whatever works for you!


I keep my menu plans in my binder.  I try to plan out my weekly dinner menus. When I’m really on top of things I do a monthly one.

I keep my freezer inventory here also. I used to do a pantry inventory but I can pretty much just look and see what I’m low on whereas the freezer, who knows what’s in the bottom? I sure wouldn’t without some sort of inventory.

Some people (very organized ones- not me) have a cleaning schedule and all the tasks they want to get done. I’m more of a “I’ll clean it when I see it’s dirty " kind of person. But I do keep a list of Spring Cleaning chores. Mostly because I actually start my spring cleaning in the fall. This way I know what I’ve done and still need to do. I don’t know how people do spring cleaning all at one time? I just can’t do it! Plus in the spring I’m out in the garden so I have to spread those tasks over the year. Also this list is so detailed that there are things on there that I probably wouldn’t do if I didn’t see it written down! If  you google “Spring Cleaning Lists” you’ll get all kinds from the very simple to the “you’ve got to be crazy I’m not doing that” kind!

Maybe your Home Notebook is also where you’d like to keep your budget and finance info (I have a separate binder for that). How about medical info that you need to access quickly in case of emergency. We used to keep a list of my MIL’s medications as we would need that info whenever she was taken to the ER.

This is  where we keep our take-out menus. We also keep a list of video rentals. We walk through Blockbuster and see what movies we want to rent and then I add them to my list. Once a month or so I update my Netflix que.

So a Household Planner can be as much or as little as you want it or need it to be. Here’s a link to some free  Printable Planner Pages to help you get started.