An Organizing Craft

So I'm a hoarder sentimental person. I have kept most of my cards that special people in my life have given to me throughout the years. My mom gives me a card for every holiday, I've kept every letter my dad wrote when he was deployed, birthday cards since the age of 10, graduation cards, etc. Here's just some of my stash:

So I knew that I wanted to keep the wedding cards that Kenny and I received but I didn't just want to shove them in ziploc bags and hide them under the bed (the fate of most of my other cards). So once again, I turned to pinterest and found this tutorial. Click here to see in detail. The only thing I would add to this is make your ribbon longer than what she suggests - cause you can always cut it but if it's too small your bow looks dumb (a la my bow). But here's my finished product:

It's sitting on our coffee table so people can look through it if they want :)

Bathroom Makeover

Before I got here, Kenny took the minimalist approach to decorating. Such as a see-through shower curtain, old towels (which he only had 2 of) and mismatching rugs. Now, I do have to give him credit for having rugs in the first place. And that each sink had it's own thing of soap, I'll give him props for that. So here is what the bathrooom looked like when I first moved in:

The toilet has it's own little room, and an awkward towel bar in there - like who really needs a towel while they're on the toilet? You can see the clear shower curtain. All of *my* stuff strewn on the counters, and the weird cubby hole that's in between the sinks.

The first line of business (after putting up my pretty new shower curtain), was to get the stuff off the side of the tub. I'm probably a freak but I really don't like it when my shower things just sit on the side of the tub. They leave rings that are hard to clean, and I just don't like how it looks. So once again, the before picture.

So I bet you're thinking "you should just get one of those things that hang from the shower head to put all your stuff on," right? Well, in a normal case that would work. However, since Jacksonville has such 'hard' water - think smelly water that makes your skin dry, rough and red - we had to get a filter to go on our shower head. It is definitely worth it because the water smells no longer and my hair and skin actually feel pretty nice. But since it's so bulky, getting a shower caddy to go over, and still have my big bottles of shampoo/conditioner fit just wasn't going to happen. After looking through pinterest, I saw an idea involving a shower curtain rod and a hanging device from urban outfitters. I happened to already have an extra shower curtain rod - it had gotten moved down here along with my backup curtain rods. And I happened to have a coupon + promo code from urban outfitters for this beaut (here), so I managed to only spend $10 with shipping. So in total the project cost $10 - winning!

Anyways, Kenny put the shower curtain at the back of the shower and just a little lower than the outside one so you can't see it if the pretty shower curtain is closed. And then we hung the organizer plus some hooks (for my washcloth and loufa) and voila an organized shower without stuff all around it.





Next up was the "cubby" area that was between our sinks. We decided to use this area as a storage area for all my "girly stuff" as Kenny calls it. The storage bins are home to my womanly needs, nail stuff and all of our travel stuff. I thought this was genius. But everytime I walked into the bathroom, I got hives looking at it. For one, those plastic bins are kind of unsightly and two, my business was out there for everyone to see. And yes, I'm aware that not many people will be hanging out in our master bath but still... I didn't like my business out there for the world. So I decided to remedy this situation.

I went and got a shower curtain/tension rod that was made for shower stalls, so it was smaller than most and would fit in that little space. I then got the shower curtain that matches our bath accessories (I didn't want it for the shower cause I liked the lace one better) but I thought it would be a perfect match for this. I decided to go for the "no sew" version. I don't have a sewing machine, and if I did, I'd probably end up sewing my finger to the curtain...so it was just better if I stuck with things that I knew I could do. I bought some no sew tape from Joann Fabrics (here) and decided to give it a try.

Cutting the curtain

So I measured the cubby hole, and then cut my shower curtain to that length. I used our laser level to attempt to keep the cut straight. I can't say that it was the cleanest cut ever, but it did the job. I then attached the curtain to the shower curtain rings and put it on the rod to measure the length of it.

Cutting the curtain for it's length

Once again, I didn't really do it precisely. I kind of just folded it where it needed to hit the ground and then took scissors to it. I knew that I would be folding it over a little bit in order to use the no sew tape and get a prettier/straighter line so I wasn't too concerned about it.

After making the necessary cuts, I got out the ironing board and the iron to make the hems look better. I followed the directions on the tape, you basically put the tape between the pieces of fabric, cover with a damp cloth and press down for 10 seconds on each side. Once again, I didn't go for perfection here. I used a ruler to attempt to make a straight line but didn't spend hours upon hours making sure everything was straight. It was definitely a practice for my ocd/perfectionism to be like "it won't look perfect, as long as it looks okay - it'll be fine." So here's the finished project!

I actually had enough leftover fabric  to make a curtain as well. It actually worked out that where the curtain was folded, in a nice straight line, in the packaging is where it needed to be folded to make the hem. So I just used that line, followed the instructions for the tape and voila a curtain. Since it's a shower curtain and I didn't want to use shower curtain rings on the curtain rod (shocking cause I'm obviously obsessed with shower curtain rings), I used curtain clamps. And here's the final product of the curtains.

We also added that white counter storage seen above for my make up. And its definitely allowed me to get better about trying new make up styles since I can actually see everything I'm working with.

For the little toilet room, I ended up cutting a corner shelf from Bed, Bath & Beyond to hold the tissues/extra toilet paper, etc. I also took a piece of the fabric I had left over from the curtains and framed it - already had the frame and the fabric so easy and free! I put the extra hand towels/wash clothes/decorative towels on the towel bar in there. Although I'm still kind of confused as to why anyone would need a handtowel in the toilet area for appropriate reasons.

I also got a print for $1 at Ikea and put that in a frame I already had to go above the towel bar that's right by the shower. So I technically spent $1 on the art for the bathroom - that's what my husband likes to hear.





So just to remind you - here's the before:

 And the after:
We still need to get 2 more dark blue rugs for by our sinks - but that's the last thing to do before the bathroom is officially complete!

I'm in the closet...

organzing, that is. See what I did there?

So, my parents always got on my case about how there was stuff ALL over my room - always. But now that I have sufficient storage space, everything has a place and our room is neat & tidy. So, I blame this on not having sufficient storage space Mom & Dad. Not MY fault!

But seriously - I have a huge dresser + a night stand + a huge walk in closet. My husband isn't working his way to a GQ award for best dressed, so his closet space needed is minimum. Which, is definitely a good thing, since apparently I'm border line hoarder status when it comes to shoes + handbags. Sorry, I'm not sorry. Shoes + purses fit no matter how fat or skinny you are (my weight flucuations are for another *very long* post).

Anyways, here are the "before" pictures. These were taken right after I got down to Jacksonville. I only had a few of my possessions while we were waiting for the POD, so these are representative of how Kenny had the closet. And yes, he does hang his t-shirts.

My solution for everything? Shower curtain rings. We have one of those white/plastic Closetmaid systems. So I just put the shower curtain rings around the bars and then put what I want on the shower curtain ring.
Putting my purses on them was life changing. I can actually see all the purses/wristlets that I have and they don't get smashed.

My belts/scarves

My purses

My hats were a little bit tricky. They don't exactly hang from a shower curtain ring the way the purses/scarves/belts do. So I used small curtain clips, put those on the ring and then clamped my hats. And voila!

Hats

On to my hoarding problem...my shoes.

Even though I got two extra long shoe racks that hold 3 shelves of shoes each - there still wasn't enough room. Oopsies. So while searching through pinterest I found this (here). Basically you can hang your flip flops. I have enough hanging room so I said 'yes please' and went ahead and made these. I didn't make them pretty cause I was going for function first.

Flip Flops hung up

And the "After" picture.

 See Mom? A place for everything and everything in it's place :)