Organized Entryway

I have really been wanting to start my spring cleaning lately.  There are great posts all over blog land about it.  I should really stop reading and start cleaning.  I did deep clean our main bathroom yesterday, but today I really only had time for the usual weekend cleaning routine.  I did a small organization project in our entryway today.  Well, not so much a project, but just re-organizing of our shoe cabinet that sits right inside our front door. 

It's the Hemnes shoe cabinet from IKEA.  We bought it a few years back and it has worked out really well for this space.  My husband had to put some "feet" on it in order for it to fit over our heater.  It has a small drawer at the top and two pull out cabinets that are meant to hold shoes.  In the top, I put 6 small baskets that I purchased from the Dollar Spot at Target.  I got that great idea from one of my favorite blogs, I Heart Organizing.  Jen's post about her shoe cabinet drawer can be found here.  In our drawer we keep a flashlight, a lighter, sunglasses, gum, some notepads and pens, hand sanitizer and a few hair ties and clips.  

My husband keeps his shoes in his closet (and all over the house!), mine are in my closet, and my older daughter keeps hers in a larger drawer under her daybed in her room.  So this shoe cabinet is mainly for my three younger children.  Sometimes I keep my most used sneakers or flip flops in here as well.  

On top of the cabinet I just have a family photo, a candle and a plate where my husband drops his keys and wallet.  It's perfect for our small entryway!  The top drawer was pretty messy before today.  I threw a bunch of stuff away and only kept what we actually need to have in here.  I also took all of the shoes out today so that I could vacuum out and wipe down the drawers.  

All better!  Are you guys doing any spring cleaning these days?

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My Organized Scrap & Wrap Room

Hello!  How was everyone's February? Unfortunately, I was a no show for the whole month.  I have been organizing, but I was lacking any complete projects to write about.  Until today!  My craft room, or as I like to call it, my scrap/wrap room, is pretty much complete!  I am sure there will be tweaks here and there as I use it and make changes accordingly.  It has been a long time coming.  I actually didn't even realize that I needed this space until my wrapping supplies were getting out of hand.  I had some in our laundry room in an over the door organizer, some in my desk area and some in the basement.  Since I do the majority of my wrapping at Christmas time, and I keep everything hidden in the basement, I figured I should make a space down there that is dedicated to my wrapping supplies.  I have also very recently started scrapbooking using the Project Life brand.  I heard about it and got many of my ideas for this space from Toni at A Bowl Full of Lemons.  You can read her post about it here.  Her space is awesome and I am so happy to have come across Project Life.  I realized that I would also need a space dedicated to scrapbooking.  I organized my space to accommodate both my wrapping and Project Life supplies.

I will show you a few befores first.  I wish I could post some side by side befores and afters, but I haven't gotten around to figuring out how to use my new Photoshop software yet.  Let me try to explain where exactly my scrap/wrap room is located.  Our basement is basically two large rooms.  The side you first come into from the stairs is the man cave.  Reclining chairs, TVs, a bar, a pinball machine, etc.  All decked out in New York Giants stuff.  There is a door from that room into the second half.  Back there consists of my scrap/wrap space, my husband's weightlifting equipment, tools and storage.  I would love to have a separate room specifically for my stuff, but this will be just fine.  I am actually in love with what I have done and I try to get down there any chance I get.

WARNING:  This post is VERY photo heavy.

This is what the space looked like when we moved in about 2.5 years ago.

We had a pipe leak on one side of the room which ruined the tiles.  We had to rip them up and then my husband painted trim right on the floor and for awhile we had zebra looking black and white striped floors.  I did paint over the stripes and it's much better!  I also gave a facelift to an old framed pegboard and a wardrobe cabinet that the previous owner left here.  So here are some more befores.  This time with all of our junk in the space!

Ahh, pretty scary, right?  This room has been a dumping ground for the longest time.  While the storage and tool area still need some work, my little corner and the weight area are pretty much done.  The whole space is 100x better and I am so happy.  First I will show you some wide angles of the room so you can get a sense of where everything is and then I will go into detail on my scrap/wrap room!  Yay!

And the coolest part of the space...

Isn't it fabulous?!  I am so proud of myself and so in love!  Let's see some close ups!

There are two desk spaces here.  This is the one where I plan to do the majority of my scrapbooking.  I have everything setup how I THINK I will need and use it.  The setup may change as I actually begin using the space and figure out where I need things to be.  The white shelf to the right of my desk is by Closetmaid and it's from Target.  The plan is to keep all of my Silhouette Cameo (the machine sitting on top) supplies here.  The over the door shelving is from The Container Store and I keep all of my Christmas gift bags there.

I found this cute magazine rack at Marshall's.

Among many of the ideas that I got from A Bowl Full of Lemons, one was to organize my stickers by categories in this cute heart container.  You can find them in the kids decor department at Target.  So cute!

The shelving system is the 5x5 Expedit with desk attachment.  It's from IKEA and it's awesome!  All of the boxes and flower containers are from Target.  I keep all of my Project Life core kit cards in the flower containers.

The box for the large photos is from The Container Store.

The clear photo containers are from The Container Store and Michael's.  Along the bottom row I keep our yearbooks and high school memorabilia, empty photo albums and empty picture frames just waiting to be used.

The left side of my Expedit is mainly for my wrapping supplies.

I have one drawer insert for the Expedit.  In there I keep gift tags/labels and ribbon.

My greeting card organizer is from The Container Store.

I use the wardrobe cabinet to keep all of my birthday, baby, wedding, love, Easter, etc gift bags.  I also keep gifts in here.  Throughout the year I tend to buy things in anticipation for future gift giving.  This is a perfect spot for them!  

Whew!  That was a lot of photos to get through.  I hope you were able to gather a good sense of how I organize all of my wrapping and scrapbooking supplies.  There is still more I would like to do with the space, but for the most part, it is done.  Now you know why I didn't have time for any posts during February!  

My SCRAP/WRAP room is done!  Hooray!  

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