Organizing the bathroom closet

Over the weekend, I was all prepared to get my spring decorating on and hopefully lure the warm weather to arrive with my springy vignettes. I opened the closet door in our downstairs bathroom, where I keep most of my decorating stuff. And I...was...afraid.

dun...

dun...

DUN! (that's scary music)

It's not like it doesn't usually look like this -- I'd like to say it doesn't, but it does. But for some reason these days I've had such an urge to get things organized, and as I stared into that closet, I realized I couldn't just grab my spring candles and birds and shut the door. I had to get this closet whipped into shape.

First, a bit about this closet. We have two full bathrooms in our house, including this one on the first floor with the disaster closet. Since it's just the two of us, the upstairs bathroom closet is really home to all our regular necessities -- towels, toiletries, medications, etc. That leaves a lot of space in this downstairs bathroom closet, space that I apparently filled with tchotchkes. It's also home to most of our cleaning supplies, and one big bag of dog food.

I started by pulling everything out of the closet (and getting the hubs' sneakers out of the way).

What really needed sorting were all my decorating stuff -- lots of candles and candle holders, some vases, little animal figures, etc. I weeded through it all and got rid of the stuff I didn't want anymore.

I decided to organize my candles by season. Is that a little type A? I used an incredibly high-tech and adorable organizing method ... the Ziploc bag and the Sharpie marker. We spent a good chunk of money on our puppy's surgery, so I did not want to spend any extra money on cute organizing supplies when a plastic baggie could do the trick.

I also used this super-awesome organizing trick called "empty your coffee into canisters and reuse the plastic containers to hold your rock supply." I seriously have lots of rocks. That's kinda weird, isn't it? They make great vase filler!

I scrounged up a couple empty plastic bins that were hanging out in the basement for my candles, rocks, and acorn and pinecone collection. These are going upstairs into the craft room, where they really belong.

Once all this stuff was organized and out of the way, it didn't take long to get the rest of the closet tidy and organized. Ready to see it?

Oooh, so pretty.

Peeking from behind the dog food is this little shelf I was storing in the garage that I put to work to make some extra space. Those baskets hold little odds and ends -- I'm hoping to make some cute labels for them.

A couple spare bins and baskets lying around made for handy-dandy cleaning supply and toilet paper storage.

Other baskets hold dish towels, dish cloths, tablecloths and light bulbs.

The big basket with the green-and-white liner is a hamper for towels and other laundry that needed to get tossed somewhere. This keeps it out of sight and off the floor.

There's still lots of room for the dog food, the mop and bucket and the vacuum, which isn't pictured here but definitely fits. 

Seeing all this order when I open the closet helps me breathe a little easier. It's nice not trying to jam stuff in and stack things on top of each other when I go to feed the dog or get the vacuum -- or go in search of my sea foam scented candles to bring some spring into my living room.

A little before and after action...

So, my spring decorating still isn't finished, but that's okay, because they're predicting snow on Friday. I guess I have time!

Before I sign off, a little update on Colby, who had surgery on his knee, if you recall. He had his two-week follow-up and the vet said he's healing nicely and looking great. Unfortunately, he's not enjoying being cooped up with no activity and has started taking it out on his crate when we leave him during the day.

Yep, he bent the bars with his mouth! So now he's on doggie sedatives so he doesn't break his teeth. Poor little guy. 

I can't wait until he can run and play again!

Storage on my mind...

I don't know if it's because I've got office organization on the brain, but I couldn't go two steps in HomeGoods the other day without finding awesomely adorable storage containers. I found so many I had to snap some pics with my phone and share their awesomeness with you! (So excuse my crummy phone pics.)

Love-love-love the pastels in these ekat totes.

I almost died over these metal cut-out containers. They had black, gray, red and aqua.

Black and white geometric = perfection

These Waverly-print containers had me falling all over myself. Aren't they gorgeous?? They had boxes with lids, boxes that zipped up and travel containers.

Apparently I'm very into black and white these days...with a touch of green, that is! I like the simplicity of these square and rectangle totes. I think the pattern either looks like leaves or amoeba.

Okay, these weren't at Home Goods -- I actually spotted them at Lowe's. But they get an honorable mention for being super cute. And for not being black and white! I'm digging the Moroccan-looking pattern on the inside and the leather trim.

So, I'm sure you want to know what I came home with, right? Here ya go!

Now picture me walking around HomeGoods trying to carry all these things AND take pictures with my phone. :)

I had to snag this flower box because it's the same print as the fabric I used to jazz up my bulletin board (also a Waverly fabric).

See?

The pattern is called "Button blossoms"

I totally fell for this damask-esque print, so I bought this lidded box. The lid is even a little padded, so it really feels like a substantial storage container.

And I picked up a pair of these metal baskets. They seemed like the perfect shape and size to hold notebooks or file folders.

I also bought this organizer for our desk drawer. It punches up the inside real nice, and it's useful.

We're still organizing the office, so I can't show you these in action yet. But stay tuned!

Where do you find cute-and-functional organizational supplies? Did you see anything in this roundup you're coveting for yourself?

Taming the basement

A couple months after we moved into the house, one half of the basement looked like this:

Terrifying, no? As we worked to clear boxes from the living areas, we simply deposited them onto any empty floor space we could find in the basement, and very quickly it became a barely navigable maze of boxes, bins and other random objects.

We soon realized we needed some additional storage, so, the hubs and I took a trip to The Home Depot for some lumber, and walked out with this (for less than $100):

The next parts were mostly my husband's doing -- but I did help hold the wood while he screwed it in. And I took some mean pictures. :)

He put up studs for the shelves, attached directly to the wall and ceiling beams. He measured out the placement of the shelves, leaving some space underneath for sliding big boxes and some smaller shelves above perfectly sized for smaller plastic bins. 

He even put everything onto the shelves all on his own. When he called me back down to check it out, I found this:

LOVE. Let's see some before and afters, yes?

All that storage is perfect of getting almost everything off the floor. Plus, it cost way less than buying shelves that would have filled the same space. Okay, it's not quite as pretty -- but hey, it's a basement. Maybe if I feel inspired someday, I'll paint them a pretty color and buy some cute baskets and bins for storage. (Apparently Michaels is having a half-off baskets sale this week -- score!).

Organizing them is still a work in progress; we have boxes we need to sort through and other decluttering to do. And we still have a pile of other stuff that needs to be taken care of. 

But we'll save that work until the spring when the basement is warm enough to work in comfortably. I think so far, so good! (And yes, that's another set of shelves my husband built for our old apartment. They need some organimization too!).

Oh, and the other side of the basement? It's the hubs' brewery. Seriously, he uses it to home brew. And while it's not super neat, it did also get a good dose of declutter.

Not the same angle, but you get the idea. Someday we hope to finish this half and turn it into a fun hangout room. And the hubs would surely call me out if I didn't mention that the chest freezer in the background is his own DIY project: a homemade kegerator, complete with taps! It's the first beginnings of the man cave...

I'm linking up to Thrifty Decor Chick's Organize It party. Stop by and see all the clutter everyone is tackling! 

Have you tamed your basement lately, or are you waiting for spring cleaning?