Category: organizing

2020, accessories, bedroom, cosmetics, makeup, organizing, Uncategorized

The Shameful Shame, part 3

by casadeberry2 Comments on The Shameful Shame, part 3

My closet is pretty and functional again. I am very happy with the results and wanted to share the last of the process here. The sources are listed at the end of this post. I tried to repurpose items I already had to minimize waste, but did need a few things.

Taking everything out was the easy part.

Putting things back in an organized way and being honest about items that needed to be purged or put away somewhere else or in storage was what took the longest time.

Also, I couldn’t put anything back on the center counter area until I got the wall decals I had ordered. Originally I wanted a dark floral wallpaper, but then I decided it would make the closet feel like a cave, so I switched to a light floral design, and since I only wanted the center area covered, I decided on these beautiful decals, which I could position however I wanted.

They were so easy to put up – I cut them out first and mapped out how I wanted them with poster putty, and then I peeled them off the backing and stuck them to the wall.

I had these pretty trays that I decided to use for my nail polish and perfumes. I used to have so much nail polish in every color of the rainbow but I hadn’t used them in years, so I only kept the nudes and top coats. Manicures that I do myself don’t last a day, and I hate having chipped polish, so clear polish or colors super closed to my nail color are all I use now. My lifestyle is becoming more pared down and if I want colorful nails, I have no shame in using the press-on kind. They have come a long way from the crap I used to wear (for ten minutes) in the 80s.

My perfume collection is courtesy of my beloved husband except for the two perfumes I got in Italy a couple of years ago. I am not a “signature scent” kind of girl but I do prefer the Warm/Spicy type. Much to my personal shame I do remember stealing my mom’s Giorgio back in the 80s, anyone remember that scent? Oh my dog, it was as strong and bold as the yellow-striped box it came in.

That necklace is one I made for my wedding day. I have only worn it one other time to another wedding, but I love seeing it every day.

Makeup is not a particular fascination of mine, to be honest I just do the basics to look polished. I do like to be able to close my closet door and be able to put my makeup on so I don’t wake up my husband since he leaves for work after I do (he also gets home considerably later than I do). This mirror lights up in three different settings and is great for what I need.

The moment I saw these jewelry trays, I knew I wanted them. I originally wanted to buy just one but I do have a few special pieces of jewelry and I didn’t want to cram everything I am keeping onto one of these. They look kind of steampunky and I really like them.

All the jewelry pieces shown here were bought locally – I believe in supporting local businesses, small businesses, BIPOC-owned businesses. I am also working on switching all my makeup, skincare, and scents to cruelty-free and I love recommendations, so please send those my way.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing this project, I am certainly very happy with the results. And now it’s on to . . . the medicine cabinet!

Sources:

Peony wall decals from Simple Shapes

Vanity mirror from Amazon

Peru watercolor map from Poppy & Pinecones

Paris photographs from Georgianna Lane

Gold tray (perfume) and mirrored tray (nail polish) from Michaels

Terrace tray jewelry organizers from The Container Store

Rolling stool from Amazon

Naked manicure set from Zoya

2020, clothes, home, organizing

The Shameful Shame

by casadeberryLeave a Comment on The Shameful Shame

When we moved to Wisconsin five years ago, I was thrilled to have my own small walk-in closet. As someone who had spent her while life content with having part of a regular mirrored-door closet and a dresser, this was a major upgrade.

Unfortunately . . .

this is the current state of my closet.

AND! This is AFTER I removed most of the yarn and work-in-progress bags.

#theshamefulshame

Recently, I have been wanting to pare down. Don’t get me wrong, the pictures of gorgeous closets with luxe finishes, endless rows of handbags, walls filled with expensive shoes and rack after rack of shirts, jeans, dresses, etc. are beautiful to look at.

But they are not me.

I don’t know if it is being older, because it’s definitely not being wiser, I am not sure when (if?) that will ever happen, but I am wanting to pare down. I like having a “uniform” which for me it’s soft pants or jeans, light top, and a cardigan. I usually carry one handbag for months/years, and since I received my dream bag last Christmas, I have no plans of switching. I don’t faff around with lots of jewelry – usually earrings, especially since I cut my hair. I do have some pieces for special occasions but my everyday outfits are predictable and comfortable.

I have big plans for my closet, including some accent wallpaper. Which might run into issues with the center shelf bracket.

My husband said it would be no problem and he could install the wallpaper.

I need to be more respectful of this space. Every December I start throwing boxes and bags everywhere I can stash them because I hide everyone’s presents here. That needs to stop. No more throwing yarn here instead of putting it – oh I don’t know – in the storage space I have in the basement?

No more of that. Respect for this space will beget less stress for me because right now, just walking in makes me nervous.

Looking forward to sharing the process, and hopefully, the progress with this space.

2015, clothes, clothing, house, husband, ikea, organizing, wisconsin

My husband’s walk-in closet

by casadeberryLeave a Comment on My husband’s walk-in closet

I know. How fricking lucky are we, right? We get two walk-in closets in our master suite. Mine is still a mess because I haven’t figured out exactly how I want it configured, but Steve did a great job organizing his space, all on his own.


There is a place for everything, so it’s super easy for us to put his laundry away. He also has a dresser, for shorts and t-shirts, socks, etc.

Work shirts and ties:

Heavier shirts and hoodies:

Work trousers:

There is even room for beloved childhood toys, along with sweatpants.

Toiletries and clothing accessories.

Shoes are neatly housed in IKEA shoe racks.

The back of the door is the perfect place for his collection of caps.

Steve also did a purge of his clothes before organizing them, which is exactly as it should be. We do keep heavy winter coats in the closet by the garage, and I am sure some more winter gear will be added to his wardrobe.

Didn’t he do a great job?

2015, kitchen, living room, organizing, wisconsin

Our first few days in Wisconsin

by casadeberry1 Comment on Our first few days in Wisconsin

We’ve been here almost a whole week and it has been busy, busy, busy. We did not bring any major furniture – sofa, dining set, beds – so we’ve got a card table and folding chairs as our dining / gaming area, and a very, very glamorous home theater set up:

My awesome husband bought me Mockingjay, Part 1, so I now having it the background as I finish setting up the kitchen. We’ve been eating microwavable food after eating on the road for a week, so more homemade meals, even a bowl of our favorite oatmeal, has been a treat.

Speaking of the kitchen, the set up is different than at our old house, and putting up a pot rack as we had is not an option here, so we’re exploring various solutions.

0322kit

There is a sliding door about two feet to the right of that lower cabinet, which might be the perfect place for some wine and stemware storage. I love the mix of the traditional dark cherry wood and modern brushed nickel / steel, my husband added the pulls and knobs a couple of days ago, so I will be looking for something like this in a bar cabinet.

Have a wonderful week!

2014, accessories, jewelry, organizing

A Raskog for Stella

by casadeberry1 Comment on A Raskog for Stella

Like hundreds (thousands?) of bloggers, and many muggles, I took one look at the Raskog cart that IKEA released a few seasons ago and immediately knew I wanted it. A couple of months ago, I got it. And it’s been sitting in my trunk the whole time. I knew it could serve a good purpose, but the truth is, we have A LOT of storage already.

Bar? Nope, we already have one.

Nightstand? We have two.

Books, school supplies, office stuff, craft items, underwater woven baskets? Nope, we had places for everything.

And then I started my new venture. And I needed a place to keep my samples, literature, display items, planner, etc. together.

It’s pretty damn perfect.





I love having all my business items contained in one place, instead of scattered throughout the house!

2013, bedroom, clothes, husband, organizing, storage

Not so very masterful after all

by casadeberry4 Comments on Not so very masterful after all

You’ve seen them. On Pinterest, magazines, blogs, etc. Those gorgeous master closets with chandeliers and fancy rugs and maybe an ottoman (or a sofa!) in the middle, or if you’re lucky, a whole separate island or vanity area for primping and glamorizing.


source

Well, that’s not going to happen here.

Our master bedroom has a plain old closet with ye olde mirrored sliding doors. We are keeping those because they bounce a great deal of light around and as dark as our house is, we love all the light we can get. Unless it’s time to sleep. Then we love our light-blocking panels.

But I digress.

This is the starting point. I’m so sorry.
Left side:

We’ve had the white unit for almost 10 years. Steve reinforced the back, which was bowing in, and it’s good to go for another 10. He gets two drawers, I get two drawers; my makeup and most of my jewelry go on the lower shelf. We share the top shelf and he gets the middle shelf.

Right side:

Did I mention we share?
Yep, he gets the top level while I (being all of 5’1″) get the lower one.

Since we didn’t have a good place for my long skirts and dresses, we decided to move things around, and give the old thing a paint job while we were at it. Nothing fancy, just the same Valspar “Cream in my Coffee” we have in the living room, but it was an improvement over this loveliness:

Of course, things got a lot worse before they started to get better:

I still have a lot of sorting to do, given my array of costume jewelry, so things aren’t 100% finished. But we are both happy with the results so far.

Hopefully, I will have more (neater) stuff to show you soon!

Have a wonderful week!

2013, house, husband, organizing, project, storage, wood

Sweet and Simple Storage Solution

by casadeberry4 Comments on Sweet and Simple Storage Solution

Our garage houses many things, except our cars. Most of our “stuff” is stored in large bins, but as always, it is the little things that are always bouncing from place to place, unless they have a permanent home.

We recently inherited, among other things, a few bins from Steve’s parents, who closed their catering business after thirty years. Given the unused space next to Steve’s desk and the new-to-us bins, he decided to build something to store small things like cables, computer parts, etc.


This idea is similar to Ana White’s Laundry Basket Dresser.

The area before:

Measuring (twice) and cutting (once)

The finished – and oh so useful! – storage area with bins in place.

As always, I have to thank my sweet husband for always looking for ways to make our lives more efficient. Less time spent spent searching for things means more time spent having fun. Yesterday I sat at his desk, while he measured and cut, working on a little project of my own, while our boys had fun in the front yard. But for now we are loving the orderly look and more streamlined area. Woot!!

2013, living room, movies, organizing

DVD storage solution

by casadeberry9 Comments on DVD storage solution

We didn’t use to own many DVDs. Then we had kids. Then we got chubby. So now we have ton of kids’ DVDs and, since we got our XBox, games and workout DVDs. There were DVDs everywhere, a couple even got damaged because they would be thrown into a drawer with no sleeve or case, so I started to look for a system that would work for us. I wanted things to be organized and for our boys to be able to see where their own DVDs went.

I ended up going with these mini binders from Atlantic:

I bought two – with 4 binders each – and LOVE LOVE LOVE them. Plain old grown-up movies are labeled alphabetically, with room for more should we purchase DVDs in the future. The rest are labeled “misc.”, “kids”, “workout”, and “xbox”. There is room for almost 200 DVDs in these binders and they are all neat and organized.

As you can see, we do save cases for movie collections like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, but all the cases from the movies stored in the binders are up in our attic storage, lessening the bulk and frustration of finding a case only to open it and see that the DVD is not inside.

Above the DVD shelf live our votives and wax melts.

I made the little boxes out of chevron tape and one mini-corn dog box (my oldest is addicted!), because, again, the wax melts were all over the place, and the burner is to the left of this cabinet.

Now I need to tackle the CDs. Holy crackers, that is going to be a huge job – I’ll report back in a year or two.

katherines corner

2013, office, organizing, paper, storage, under 5

Taming chaos

by casadeberryLeave a Comment on Taming chaos


You might recall my pledge to makeover my husband’s desk. You know, the one I’ve been relegated to because, as my oldest says, “we like playing on your clean desk” – mm-hmm. So in my quest for a new desk, I started with an area that drove me batty every time I looked at it — the charging “center”.


Believe me, I was very kind in taking a grainy, far away picture, because you did NOT want to see this desk up close. Or the tangled mess that was the charging strip and the bazillion cords plugged into it. It’s the area to the left of the monitor where the Kindle and assorted black cords and items are sitting.

I chose a boot box we had laying around because it would be large enough for the bulky charging strip. I covered it in some delicious peacock paper from my home away from home, Paper Source, and then made two holes in it. The one in the back was large enough for the charging strip:

and the rectangular one in front was for the charging cords to plug into our various items.

I am so happy with the result. It’s not a space saver but a visual chaos tamer, and a much welcome one. The peacock paper brings together the colors I plan on using in this area, including shimmery gold:

First step taken — well, actually, the first step was cleaning the behemoth of a desk, so second step taken, yay me! I like how $4.95 (plus tax) for the paper was all I invested in this little change, and I already had the paper from a previous excursion to the store. I hope to make more progress this week and share the new desk area with y’all. Wish me luck!

* Today is my darling daddy’s birthday. I miss you so much, dad, I hope you are enjoying some good Peruvian coffee and freshly baked bread, and having a good conversation with friends, or maybe watching some Peruvian futbol. Love you lots.

2012, bloggy friends, link parties, office, organizing

Know when to hold ’em – and a blog hop!!!

by casadeberry24 Comments on Know when to hold ’em – and a blog hop!!!

and know when to fold ’em. And, people, I am so folding!

See this?

This is my office. Or rather, it will soon be known as The Area Formerly Known As My Office. TAFKAMO.

I love it, don’t get me wrong. I chose the sleek IKEA desk with red legs, I made those lovely bright file holders on top of the shelf. I made that little corner my own.

And for some reason, EVERYONE in the house wants to use MY computer. My boys (that’s my youngest there) love to play Minecraft on my computer. My boys’ friends come over and play Minecraft on MY computer. My husband uses my computer. Never mind he has his own desk and computer:

Although it’s now become The Electronic Dumping Ground. TEDG. I can’t say it.

My oldest has his own computer, my dad’s old laptop. Does he use it? No. Mama’s computer is so much better. It’s like food, they don’t ever want what’s on their plate but I sit down to eat and within 2 minutes one or two little monkeys will be sniffing around, asking for a bite.

So you know what? I’m Claudia, and I’m taking over 😀 my husband’s desk. I’m going to work with what is there. Which means, first, I will be taking everything off the surfaces, giving it a good cleaning, and then sorting through everything before I decide what gets put back, and where. I have plans for this little corner. My first project for 2013, I’m so psyched!!!

For now, though, I am co-hosting a blog hop with one of my favorite bloggy friends!

Please share the hop with your readers and let Katherine know if you would like to co-host with her.
Remember to leave her a comment if you are a new follower so she can follow you back:-)
Thursday favorite things is where you can link your favorite post or write a post about your favorite things You gain visibility for your blog and make bloggy friends too!
Here are the rules, yes there are rules. But just a few:

*** Follow Katherine’s Corner preferably through Email it’s on her sidebar (or facebook, google plus or twitter) And My Blog, Facebook, or Twitter too.
*** Visit as many blogs in the list as you can.
*** Share the button on your post.
*** No adult content blogs

Grab the hop button code from Katherine’s button page. It’s always nice to have the hop button on your post. It IS NOT mandatory; but a Link back to Katherine’s Corner is always appreciated.

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