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!  

Linking up to these amazing blogs!

Organized Coat Closet

I don't know about your neck of the woods, but where I am from, we are definitely in the dead of winter.  I am talking snow and freezing temperatures.  There isn't a better time than now to show you how I organize our coat closet.  It's the first door in our hallway right off of the front door.  We have lived in this house for over 2 years now and still haven't gotten around to painting inside this closet or changing out the shelving.  I really would like to do both at some point.  Regardless, this closet does it's job.

The best thing I ever put in our coat closet was an over-the-door 24-pocket shoe organizer.  It's where we keep our most often used gloves and hats.  Prior to buying this, our outerwear was, well, out of control.  

All of our scarves and most of my husband's winter hats are in bins on the top shelf of the closet.  I labeled the bins with Martha Stewart chalkboard labels.  On the floor, there are two shoe organizers.  We don't keep any shoes in here, so I usually just store excess toilet paper there.  I keep our two diaper bags in here as well.  

It's very rare that this closet gets messy.  I love those spaces that stay organized no matter what.  There are very few of them in our house, but this is definitely one of them!  I never have to worry about things falling out when I open the door and we haven't had a hard time finding gloves and hats since I bought that shoe organizer.  Love love love!  Stay warm, my friends!

Linking up to these amazing blogs!

Organized Spices

The other day, I showed you our organized baking cabinets and told you how I was following along with an organization challenge over at A Bowl Full of Lemons.  The latest project was the spice cabinet.  You can read her post here.  I used most of her ideas and love the results!  My husband is the cook in our family and when he saw me taking all of the spices out of the cabinet, he said "you know you don't need to organize what you don't use."  Well, I did it anyway, and he approves!  We had been keeping all of our spices in the cabinet to the right of our stove.  After seeing Toni's (the blogger over at A Bowl Full of Lemons) cute spice jars in a drawer, I decided to utilize the drawer to the right of our stove for spices as well.

I picked up 12 of the same spice jars that Toni uses and a few other jars from Bed Bath & Beyond.  I took 15 of the spices we had in the cabinet and put them in these jars.  I labeled them with Martha Stewart labels and my label maker.  They turned out great!

To organize the cabinet, I purchased two tiered shelf organizers from Beth Bath & Beyond.  I asked my husband which things he uses the most and put them closest to the front on each shelf.  And without the 15+ containers that I moved into the jars, there was a lot more space in the cabinet.  He even let me *gasp* throw away some stuff.  

I am so happy with the result of this little makeover.  Maybe one day I will go into this cabinet and drawer for a reason other than to organize them!  Maybe!  :)

Linking up to these amazing blogs!

Quick Fix Friday - Warranties & Manuals

Today  I am showing you how I organize my warranties and manuals.  This QFF is something that could be done in a short amount of time, given that your warranties and manuals are already in one spot (in which case, maybe they are already organized enough for you! :)  If you have them all scattered about, it may take you longer.  The solution I have for keeping this paperwork organized came straight from one of my favorite YouTube channels, Home Organizing by Alejandra.tv.  This specific video can be found here.

The items you will need for this project are a 3-ring binder (mine is a 3" binder), plastic binder envelopes (like these from Staples - I purchased them individually at my local store), and some tab dividers (like these).  I also used my label maker.  Or you could use an accordion file, a filing cabinet, or punch holes right in the manuals/warranties/product instructions and just slip them in a binder like that.  Obviously, this won't be the solution for those items that come with phone book sized manuals.  There are many ways to get them organized and in a spot where they can easily be found if needed.  This system is basic and easy to put together.

My categories are TV & DVD, Computer, Gadget, Household, Kitchen, Beauty, Toys & Baby.

This binder lives on a shelf in our laundry room.  I do not need to access it often at all, but it definitely is convenient for when I do have a question about a product or when I go to sell something.  I find you can usually get a few bucks more if you can include the manual.  

Hooray for organized warranties and manuals!  Thanks to Alejandra for the awesome idea!  I find so many organizing solutions on her YouTube channel!

Linking up to these amazing blogs!

Organized Baking Cabinets & Utensils

One of my favorite blogs, A Bowl Full of Lemons, is currently doing a kitchen organization challenge. The last two posts were all about how to organize baking essentials and utensils.  You can read the posts here and here.  Of course, I have been trying to follow along with the challenge.  This weekend, I did a little baking cabinet and utensil organization myself.  My "baking" cabinets are underneath our oven.  Under our lovely, brown 1960's oven.  So beautiful.

In the cabinet directly under the oven, we have baking pans (cake, lasagna, cupcake, loaf, pie, springform, etc.), the hand mixer, measuring cups and spoons, mixing bowls and cake decorating items.

The cabinet to the right of this one is where we have many of our baking ingredients.  I keep them in a matching set of black canisters and some OXO containers.  I labeled them with Martha Stewart labels.  In here there is flour, sugar, powdered sugar, corn starch, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, light and dark brown sugar, chocolate (kisses, chips, baking chocolate) and a rolling pin.  

The drawer to the left of our oven houses some of our utensils.  The expandable drawer divider is by OXO.

On the counter to the right of our oven is where we keep the most often used utensils and knives.  My utensil crock is from Home Goods.  I am not fond of the magnetic knife holder, but my husband is the cook and he won't let me get rid of it.  We keep pot holders in the small drawer to the right of the oven.

And that sums up my organized baking area of the kitchen.  I am excited to see the next challenge on A Bowl Full of Lemons.  I will be sure to share my space with you as well!

Linking up to these amazing blogs!