Master Bedroom REDO

For a Valentines Day surprise, this year I decided it was time to redo our master bedroom. We have lived in our new home for one year, and have not done a thing to our bedroom...not one thing! Sad, I know, to leave it until the last. I had a great time shopping for deals for three weeks previous, and thanks to my two good friends who helped me...since I have no decorating ability whatsoever. Sure, I can organize, but matching colours and patterns and placing things in the the right spot...that is something totally different all together. Here are the pictures...I spend a grand total of $250.00! I am not kidding you. The changes are simple, but for me, it makes a world of difference.

BEFORE

                                         

AFTER

The desk has to stay...Scott works from home at least one day a week and needs a quiet place to work. I also chose to put our diplomas here, since they belong to us and it is a mini office.

BEFORE

I know..check out those pillows. I think one of them is from our kids room.

AFTER

Ahhh, much better. I had more pillows on the bed, but Scott likes things minimal.

BEFORE

Check out that nice hole in the wall. That is what I looked at every night for the last year when going to bed!

AFTER

Finally, a beautiful piece of art, that we can appreciate. It was the most expensive item in the whole room, and worth every penny. The small green square near the middle matches the walls perfectly.

Scott came home, and went upstairs to our room to put his bag away, like always...and came back down and announced, "I can't find my room. Has anyone seen my bedroom, it is gone!". He loved it! 

Daily Cleaning Routine

Daily Cleaning Routine


Monday
Make breakfast
Make school lunches
Check blackboard (family calendar) for kids activities
Unload dishwasher and load breakfast dishes
Wipe down kitchen
Make beds (make sure the boys have done theirs!)
Put in first load
Drive kids to school
Another load of laundry
Make Lunch
Clean up/Sweep up after lunch/playtime with toddler
Another load of laundry
Make Dinner
Kitchen Clean up (load dishwasher/wash all dishes/sweep floor)
Finish up laundry - Scott and kids put away clean piles
Quick tidy up

This is just an example of the cleaning I do each day. I feel like doing a little bit each day, really keeps clutter under control, and my home can be ready for visitors. I know how it feels to do the same thing day in and day out, and I have my complaining time too..but my goal is to keep a clean and organized home, and cleaning every day is the way to achieve it.

Why should you do these things daily?

Under housekeeping at about.com, they say it best...

Dishes:

Smells, stains, and odd fungal growth usually go with forgotten dirty dishes. Cleaning dishes daily is the best choice all around.

Laundry:

Not every family needs to wash laundry daily, but many of us find that at least a daily load of laundry is necessary. With work clothes, school uniforms, soccer practice clothes, and sports uniforms, our families can generate a lot of dirty clothes. A daily load can help prevent a mad dash to find a baseball jersey in the bottom of a hamper.

Tidy Up:

Doing a little clutter control on a daily basis keeps your home ready for company at a moment's notice. A few minutes of picking up each day also prevent your home from turning into a disaster zone that will take hours to plow through. A tidy room makes a big difference in our motivation to tackle bigger projects. Use the 15 Minute Cleanups as a daily help to keep your main rooms ready for visitors.

Challenge ME #5 - Bathroom Drawers

Here is a look at the bathroom drawers in our home, organized in 30 minutes.

Master Drawer 1 - Things we use every morning, quick grab items

 Master Drawer 2 - Everything else organized into areas (nails, face, hair)

Master Drawer 3 - Large, bulky items

 Kids bathroom drawer

The trick to very organized drawers is finding the right containers/bins/holders to keep everything in. You can find containers like these anywhere. I got these at Fields.
Check out the container store for more ideas.

 We find it effective and efficient to keep similar items together, so if someone is looking for the nail clippers, they will be able to find them!

We also keep the kids teeth stuff in the drawer, rather than on the counter, to keep mess to a minimum.

Some other pics of organized bathroom drawers...

    

Challenge ME #4 - Under the bathroom sink

Under the bathroom sink at our home, organized in 30 minutes.

Master Bathroom

Left container is for extra soap, toothpaste, lotions, floss, etc.
Right container is our medicine bin. Yes, this is all our medicine/first aid for the whole home.  We keep one extra first aid kit in our basement, with our emergency kits.
In between we keep extra large bottles of lotion, shampoo and conditioner.
This cupboard is kept locked, so little hands never touch it.

The other side...extra set of towels, our travel kits, scale, extra TP and contact solution. This cupboard can stay open and keep our 1 year old distracted, and we can put it all back easily.

Kids Bathroom

Basically, we keep all the kid oriented things under the sink, for them to use. The stool, tub toys they can grab, and the black IKEA potty (for when we start potty training)

The kids bathroom has an extra cupboard we use for laundry (and extra shampoo, soap, etc for visitors). Our laundry is at the top of the stairs in the hallway, and there is no room to keep supplies there. This works well, and is safely tucked away from little hands.

We keep all extra toilet paper out of this bathroom, since our kids love to unroll the stuff..or plug the toilet with it! 

In every situation, you have to do what works for you and your family. 

That is the fun of organizing, because as your family grows, things change, and you can organize all over again. I am sure one day, I will be able to put the toilet paper in this bathroom!

Here is a video on how to organize under your bathroom sink!

Challenge ME #3 - Pantry

BEFORE

I got a little excited starting this challenge, and emptied an entire shelf before taking a picture. 

Here are the contents from the shelf.

I am going to be honest, this challenge took me longer than 30 minutes. It actually took 2 hours. We had 4 little ones to watch, and keep away from all the food that was all over the island, table and floor.

I found out today that organizing is more than just getting the job done (my effective way!), but setting up a system that works for the home owner, so they can stay organized in the future (Scott's efficient way!) He was right again! This takes more time, but in the end the result is better. Each item and shelf was discussed before a decision was made. We used what she had in her home and the finished product looked fantastic.

AFTER

Things you can do to organize your pantry:

• Take everything out and clean it. Make sure the space is big enough to see all the items.
• Place similar items together, and assign them a shelf. Label the shelf so everyone remembers what goes where.

Top shelf: cereal 

2nd shelf: pasta and rice (all the half used bags are kept in the green pull out container) 

3rd shelf: Baking (with all her coconut, chocolate chips, nuts, etc in the container with lid) 

4th shelf: Snacks (open bags of crackers, chips, etc are in the pullout containers)

Bottom: Cans and large items bought in bulk.

• Improve Access: In this pantry, the sliding door could not be used, and the pantry actually has about a foot to the right (inside) that you cannot see. We had to leave room (where you can see) for pull out containers so that she could reach to the right for the other things without having to move things out of her way.
• Expand the space: Use wire racks, wood racks (as you can see at the bottom), containers and bins, so you are not dangerously stacking cans, and store things compactly. 

You will find when you start the pantry, it will lead to all other areas of your kitchen...take the time to make a decision where things will go, and keep it that way. So, when you come home from a grocery trip, anyone in the home can help you put things away.

Here are some other cool pics of an organized pantry...

Challenge ME #2 - Under the Kitchen Sink

BEFORE

Under the kitchen sink becomes a catch all for all types of cleaners, scrubbers, plastic bags, unused fish tank supplies, pans, bottles, hardware...some others keep their garbage can and/or drying rack for dishes under the sink as well. That is a lot of stuff to keep in one place, and I am not sure how sanitary it is to keep all these things together. 

AFTER

Steps to take:

1. Take everything out and give everything a good scrub down.

2. Find something to put on the bottom of the cabinet. In case there is a spill, or leak of any sort...it is much easier to clean it up. (or replace). You could use vinyl paper, peel and stick tiles, adhesive backed plastic or even aluminum foil. We found plastic cardboard (the stuff used for creating signs) and cut it to fit.

3. Decide what you want to go under the sink and find a new home for anything that does not belong.
(In this case, there is no garbage or drying rack or plastic bags to put under - those are kept elsewhere, so there was plenty of room for the cleaners)

4. Find a caddy or container that is portable. Keep the basics like all purpose cleaner, window cleaner, paper towels, scrubbers, in it, so when you need to clean anywhere in the house, you can take it with you. This also saves on you having to keep cleaners under every sink in your home.

Here are some more neat ideas to make your under the sink more efficient and effective!

Challenge ME: #1 - The Spice Cupboard

Who has a cupboard like this?

All the spices, baking supplies, cake decorating, candles, etc..are put up here, and you can't find what you looking for in 10 seconds?

Here is what I did:

Step 1: Take everything out and put it on a flat surface.

Step 2: Clean the empty cupboard.

Step 3: Sort alphabetically

While sorting, throw away/recycle empties, check expiration dates and clean off the containers to be put back on the shelf.

Step 4: Consolidate the duplicates

This family loved Italian seasoning and Onion Salt, they had numerous half empty containers in various spots in the kitchen. I found them all and consolidated for more space.

Step 5: Find a storage solution

There are many great ways to store spices out there, check this out: Ten Spice Storage Options

But if you want to be frugal, use what you already have...

remember I only had 30 mins to do this challenge. 

Try this...

- I put all the small liquid bottles (extracts) together a see through plastic container. 

- I placed all the decorating needs(tips, candles, mini icing tubes) in a ziplock bag (all together and easy to grab when you are ready to decorate)

- I took all the bags of herbs that were opened, that would not fit into a jar, in separate snack size ziplocks and marked them with a sharpie. These were put into another plastic container.

- They had a healthy supply of cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg, so I grouped those together in another small plastic container. 

- Placed one container on top of the baggies of extra spices/herbs that are only needed to refill the jars.

- Took all the baking supplies (oil, breadcrumbs, salt, etc) and grouped them together.

- Placed all the extra packets (soup mix, taco season, gravy mix) in a large ziplock bag.

- Put all the spices back alphabetically, so they are easy to find (with the ones less used at the back)

DONE in 30 minutes! 

While timing myself, I had to stop the clock a few times...I had to find a sharpie, ziplock bags, and storage containers that were not in use in other parts of the house. 

Neat thing is...the family had a cool storage idea in a wasted space between a wall and cupboard in the kitchen, so we used it to put the large containers, and the three most used spices for easy grabbing!

If you want to get really crazy, check out this blog:

A Cozy Kitchen: Organize your spices

Toilet Paper Holder

Everyone uses toilet paper. 

What happens when you use the last of the roll, but still need more? Your options are: rummage through the cupboard, shout to your family to bring you another roll, use the tissue or towel (anything within reach), or run, pants down, to the linen closet to get another roll. 

What if it is someone else's home? There is no way you are going to shout out that you need more.

Here is the solution to keep your family and guests happy.

Oh no, we are almost out of toilet paper...hmmm...I wonder what is in that nice container?

Ahhh, an extra roll. Perfect!

The great thing is, you can choose any style, colour or shape that will work in your bathroom. 

Just remember, it must fit one roll of toilet paper. All of these work!

Box is from HomeSense, Brown round is from Ten Thousand Villages and Tall Blue is from Ikea.(It can hold two rolls!)

If you don't like it on the back of your toilet, find another place (within arms reach of the toilet), like on the window sill! 

Here is the one in our guest bathroom, also from Ikea. 

Thank you to my mother in law for this inspiring idea. It keeps the home organized, efficient and beautiful.