Organization Perfection

One of my current goals (I have a lot of goals, okay?) is getting my office to look more like a “room” than “that space behind the room divider where they shove stuff they don’t know what to do with.” Especially as I try to blog more consistently (every day if I can) I have found myself spending more and more time in this cluttered area.

Last night was a big deal! I did some major rearrangement and reorganization. It’s your lucky day… I dug around on my memory card and came up with a “before” picture. It is actually from quite a while ago. I think I took it back in September when I was taking pictures for my room divider post, to show what was going on behind the room divider.

Redoing the cabinets is on my list of New Year's Resolutions.

Not a ton has changed. The shelf I’m about to show you is over there on the left, covered in a blue piece of fabric because the “organization” on the shelf itself was, as they say, a hot mess.

I pretty much swapped the positions of the green chair and the shelf. This makes the office seem much more “roomlike.” Also, several rugs have been added which adds to the eclectic nature of the space. Once I do a little more in here I’ll share more pictures.

GLORIOUS ORGANIZATION.

The blue tote now contains our power tools (2 cordless drills, a dremel, and attachments). The boxes below that contain an assortment of things–one contains cassette tapes and vhs tapes for example. Also featured are sewing patterns. The two boxes on the top (one black, one white) hold CDs. Doug and I each have one and we got our most-listened-to CDs from our collection and put them in an accessible place. The rest are in a cabinet elsewhere.

Speaking of tapes, I am currently listening to an Emmylou Harris tape (including a rendition of “Mr Sandman,” a song that reminds me of Back To The Future every time!) on that radio you see there. Very nice.

Improvised Guest Room

Last winter, my mom came to visit me! That’s right, she came to stay in my cold, one-bedroom apartment on purpose. That’s how much she loves me. In order to reciprocate and make her as comfortable as possible, I rearranged my dining room into a makeshift guest room for her. After the photo, there’s a description of my dilemma. Any words of encouragement or ideas will be welcomed with open virtual arms!

Warm and welcoming. You too, can stay here if you don't mind a twin mattress on the floor :) Truthfully, it is an extremely comfortable bed.

I folded down the leaves of my dining room table and shoved it against the wall, covering it with an “attractive” tablecloth and stashing paint cans and storage boxes underneath it. This left most of the room available for the current arrangement.

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Now for the long story. The dining room has been, ever since the wedding, where stuff crawls in, gets “stored” behind the piano and won’t be seen until we move into a larger place with more storage. That said, it’s kind of a catchall room and while I try to make it usable for dining every once in a while (it’s in the name of the room after all), it’s the room we don’t talk about and hope our guests ignore.

This is unfortunate because we have a piano in there, a sweet dining table my aunt brought up from Texas for me, and a useful hutch that came with the apartment (it has been filled to capacity). If I could get rid of all the “extra” stuff it would be a great room.

Snowflakes on the Brain

Christmas may be over, but we just got our first real “break out the boots and snow shovel” snow. Kids were out of school, the whole shebang.

I’ve never been able to make a paper snowflake that looks better than a 3rd grader’s attempt… but this video gives me hope and I might attempt. But I’ll probably be too embarrassed to show you my results…

You can try though! I believe in you.