It’s That Time of Year Again

It happens every year around this same time.  People make resolutions.  One that seems to be really popular is – Get Organized!  I myself love any and every project that helps me get more organized.  My song goes a  little something like – if you liked it then you should have put a label on it.  😉

Last year I made an effort to really get our house in order.  And I can honestly tell you that it made such a huge difference in our daily life.  Pretty spaces make me smile, but organized ones makes me absolutely giddy!  I thought it would be fun to recap the organization projects from 2011 that made the most impact, so here we go!  Hopefully looking back will help me get motivated to tackle some of the not so organized spaces in my home!

First up the master closet went from this

to this

Oh my, did this make such a difference in my daily life!  The floor length mirror functions quite well and really makes this small closet feel bigger.  I have learned too that when you take the time to “dress up” your closet spaces you do a better job of keeping them looking nice.  Adding the chevron pattern with electrical tape was inexpensive and gave my teeny, tiny closet the feel of a dressing room.  I have to say the best thing I did in here was switching to wooden hangers.

I highly recommend them!  I buy mine at Ikea for the most part, but Walmart and Bed, Bath, & Beyond sell them too.  You can’t get as many of them in there which is a good thing for me.  It forced me to do a much needed purge, and now I can honestly say that there isn’t a single item in my closet that I don’t love.

That red ottoman also functions as a hamper and a step stool for my 5’3″ self to reach those top shelves.  Best. Target. Purchase. Ever.

This is the smallest master closet we’ve had as compared to our previous homes, but it is without a doubt the most organized and pretty of them all.  Someday I’d love to ditch the wire shelving, but for now we’re making the wire shelving work.

You want to know who got the closet real estate in our house?  My little girlfriend did.  I tackled her closet back in August.  It started out looking like a hot mess.

And now it looks like this.

I’m a big fan of these Ikea bins.  They have little casters on them, so they’re easy to roll in and out.  Keeping things accessible for her makes her responsible for putting her own things away which is a huge plus for me.

What was that song I sang about labels?

I’ve actually made a few tweeks in here that I’ll be sharing very soon, and I’m just now getting started on the “toy side” of her closet.  My favorite part of the clothing side of her closet is the hair bow organizer I made.  Such a simple project that makes her hair pretties easy to find.

 After revamping the girl’s closet, I had to do something about my boy’s closet.  It looked like this not too long ago.

Now it looks like this.

This is where he keeps his toys in addition to clothing and shoes, so I wanted to make it feel more like a room than an closet.  To achieve this I papered one wall with scrapbook paper.  

                   

I love this wall!  It still looks great, but if I decide to remove it later on it won’t be a bear to remove like wall paper.  This was just put up with scotch tape!  

What was that about labels?  

Then there’s the coat closet turned mud room.

More labels.  I. can’t. help. myself.  This functions pretty well for us, but I actually have another plan up my sleeve to make it function even better.  More on that later.

Let’s change directions and head to the North Pole – as in my North Pole under the stairs closet space.  

Labels anyone?

Just because it’s not a finished closet doesn’t mean it can’t be pretty.  Taking the time to get this space organized made putting away all of my Christmas decor a breeze rather than a chore!  The bonus is I’ll never have to deal with this again.

Soooo worth the small amount of effort!

Earlier this week I showed you my very last organizing project in 2011.  If you missed it, I turned the guest room closet into my very own craft closet and I love it!  You can check out all the deets here.  

So, have you been in an organizing mood lately?  Any big projects planned?  How do you get yourself motivated to tackle the disorganized, hot messes in your home?  Oh, you don’t have any hot messes -so  it’s just me then?