organization

Jan

31

The Storage Wars-Part 2

kitchen / organization / small space / storage  Posted by / 3 comments

Welcome to the second installment of “The Storage Wars”. Today its on to the kitchen to look at a few more principles of home organization. Let us begin!

Okay, a recap from my last post, my house is small, I have a lot of stuff, I like things to look pretty.  So the kitchen is no exception. I cook a fair amount and like most of us I am plagued by where to keep things like the rice cooker, dog food,  waffle maker, pasta maker, tuperware… You get it, the unattractive, utilitarian stuff.  AND I having these fantastic LOOKING, but highly fixed and somewhat impractical 1949, original, beautiful, yellow, cabinets. Don’t get me wrong, I love them, adore them actually. But they are completely devoid of nifty shelves that effortlessly pull out, built in spice racks or lid holders, and most certainly no lazy susans. So yet again limited closed storage. All of this leads to principle number two:

Principle #2: Function and form are equally as important.

Translation: I try really hard to make my kitchen stuff both attractive and useable. This way if I need to leave it out on the counter, or on an exposed shelf, I don’t mind so much. And much like my bedroom, this frees up precious real estate for the rice cooker and other boring and ugly kitchen items. So next time you are in the market for a new kitchen appliance or gadget, take minute to look around. Maybe a large bamboo  spoon in the utensil holder would look nicer than a plastic one. Throw caution to the wind and buy the lime green dutch oven instead of the plain ol black one. And please keep in mind, one must not break the bank to be stylish. Some of my favorite items I’ve found at discount stores like Marshall’s, Tuesday Morning or TJ Maxx. The local thrift store is another treasure trove of cool kitchen-y, and often kitschy, things.

I found this great yellow colander that PERFECTLY matches my cabinets at Marshall’s. My Robin’s egg blue KitchenAid is an excellent example of a happy marriage of form and function-its incredibly durable and functional, and its just so so so dang puuuuuurty.

Principle #3: Put items you use everyday in easy to reach places.

If I find myself having to root around in dark and awkward cupboards for the same item more than twice in a week, I take it as a sign that the something needs a new home. And by the same token, if I keep shifting the same cake pan I use three times a year to get to the Cuisinart I use once a week, get that cake pan outta there! Move it to a less desirable location.  The green boxes on top of my kitchen cupboards is where I keep infrequently used kitchen stuff (said cake pan is in current residence). In contrast, I probably use a colander everyday so storing it on this shelf makes it easy to get to,and its not sucking up storage space in one of my itty bitty cabinets. Ditto for the dog treats and coffee filters stored in the retro green canisters. Added bonus, these canisters belonged to my parents and everyday I look them I am fondly reminded of my childhood.

Yellow canisters  hold tea, matches/birthday candles, sugar and doggie kibble. Simple white bowl from IKEA hold veggies  that don’t require refrigeration. And both make for attractive and accessible displays on my counter.

Principle #4: Glassware = jewelry.

And what do we do with jewelry???? DISPLAY. DISPLAY. DISPLAY. Please refer to “The Storage Wars-Part 1” for a refresher on this concept. I collect (mostly) vintage green glass. Its sparkly, its pretty, it deserves a place of honor. Besides looking lovely, having a theme for glassware makes it easier to mix and match. I have at least 6 different kinds of green wine glasses. Because my glassware already has an eclectic feel, its not such a big deal if one gets broken, one less really doesn’t get noticed. The fact that I also probably picked  up the whole set at the thrift store for under $5.00 also makes breakages a little less painful. And glassware is so, so, so plentiful at the thrift store! Honestly, it begs the question why anyone would every buy it new.

And finally, take no prisoners and embrace principle number five:

Principle #5: Use it or lose it, sister. (or brother, but that doesn’t quite have the same ring now does it…)

If you neeeever use that set of dishes Aunt Erlinda gave you, get rid of them. If you’ve got cookie sheets so burnt and warped you never use them, get rid of them (or at least move them to the garage to use for craft projects, but I digress…). The point is, the kitchen often is a place where there are literally cupboards of stuff we never, or very rarely, use. Take a moment, look around, evaluate your situation. Even for someone like me who has no qualms donating two grocery bags a week to the goodwill, I can usually find a few things lurking in there that I don’t really need.

Thanks again for coming by, I hope this inspires you to make a little room in your life!

Jan

20

The Storage Wars-Part 1

jewelry / organization / small space / storage  Posted by / 2 comments

Well, it’s a new year, and like many of us, January brings with it for me a frenzy of, “Let’s get organized!” So I thought for my first official Make Room post I would tackle the issue of home organization, or as I am referring to it, “The Storage Wars”.
I would like to start by stating that my house is not large. It was built in 1949 which means that its two bedrooms and three closets are small. Its saving storage grace is a large garage and yard. This has allowed us to convert a portion of the garage into an art studio and to build a garden shed. Even still, a person can’t realistically store items such as their extra linens and cook books in the garden shed, so storage in our actual house still remains problematic. In addition, our home is occupied by three adults, two dogs, and four chickens (okay, the chickens do live outside). All of who come equipped with a bevy accessories, and “stuff”. It doesn’t help matters that the humans that live here are incredibly talented and interested in a WIDE variety of things. I mean really, an amp hidden behind the couch, a food dehydrator in the art studio, three sewing machines and six bicycles? Never mind the potter’s wheel, my ridiculously large shoe collection, a variety of musical instruments stashed here and there, fifty pounds of chicken feed, dog crates, camping equipment, the threat of beer making on the horizon …well, you get the idea. We’ve got baggage. Just when I think the war has been won, one of us brings home some new fabulous item, immediately I think, “Wow! I’ve always wanted a [insert item] ! Now where the hell am I going to put it?” And so, the war rages on.

Over the years I have developed a few, let’s call them, “principles” of home organization. Today we focus on one.

Principle of Home Organization #1- If it’s pretty enough to wear, it’s pretty enough to display

Jewelry. Purses. Sunglasses. Scarves. Shoes. Hats. I’ve got them all in spades. Many times when we have limited storage, things get shoved in places that are hard to access, leaving us wearing or using only the things we can easily get at. I try to avoid this. And one way I accomplish this is by using storage that actually displays my most attractive or unusual accessories. And why not? If I think it’s cool enough to wear on my person, certainly it should be attractive enough to hang on the wall as art, right? THEN, this provides the added bonus of freeing up space in my drawers, closet, jewelry box, etc for my  less attractive items. It’s a win-win. Easily accessible accessories, more storage space, cool wall art. So I guess that actually makes it a “win-win-win”, even better!

Here’s a closeup of my jewelry holder. Notice its uncanny resemblance to a galvanized metal grate… I hang earrings on it directly and for necklaces I got these magnetic hooks at the home improvement store. On the back of the grate, er, I mean fancy jewelry holder, I put an additional magnet behind each hook for added strength. You could glue the hooks in place, but this way I can move them around as I see fit. On each back corner I have stuck a self adhesive rubber foot, you could also use one of those felt things you put on the bottom of furniture. Either way, this allows the holder to stick out from the wall, making it easier to hang things on it.

 

 

 

I spray painted my jewelry holder with a few coats of white, high gloss enamel. Please give around of applause for the lovely earrings featured here, fashioned out of an old necklace by my good friend Stephanie. What a clever girl.

 

 

Again with that clever Stephanie. Here she is using jewelry clips on a cable suspended between two finish nails to display and store her necklaces. Cute, creative and cheap!

 

 

And then there are the purses. Oh boy. Some might say I have a few too many. I say no! They are my friends! Keepers of memories of fabulous nights out and spectacular events. No way, I will work this out. And viola, I did. Behold my stunning purses displayed on equally stunning mirrored shelves (courtesy of Target). I painted a rectangle of light blue paint behind the shelves to set them off, and provide the idea of a frame. By the way, during the course of this project I discovered Frog Tape. I about wept with joy when after using it to paint my blue rectangle, I removed it to find clean, crisp edges. And on textured walls! Uh-mazing.


And last but not least is my collection of glamorous pins. All of these I inherited from my incredibly stylish grandmother (it must be where I get it from). Here you see them displayed in a frame. This frame was purchased at the thrift store for an entire dollar. I painted it white, removed the glass, covered the cardboard insert with batting and then a fabric remnant I already had. Fabric and batting is secured to the back of the card board with plain old masking tape. Hang it on the wall, stick pins in and you are done. Besides freeing up some storage space in my jewelry box, I see these everyday and think of my grandmother, and what a classy lady she was.

Stay tuned for Storage Wars-Part 2 where we will be applying a similar principle to the kitchen. Thanks for stopping by!