Organizing and Editing

I haven't posted since December 20th! Shameful. You are probably wondering what they heck I have been up to. Of course, the holidays take up alot of time. With parties, cookie and truffle making, gift wrapping etc.
One huge item on my to do list was to start 2011 off with a clean(er) slate. That means cleaning out all the junk that inevitably collects over the years. A smallish apartment means that storage is always a challenge for me. I love to have things hidden away in baskets or behind doors. Husband likes to have things at hand, so he can see them. As you can imagine, this had lead to some major compromising.

For Christmas, husband bought me 2 of these Ikea dressers. One for each of us. Hooray! Lots of roomy drawers to work with, and I love the clean lines. Putting them together took hours, we felt like Santa Elves. The first one took over 3 hours, but the second one was much easier, since we already knew what went where. Love Ikea, do not love putting it together.

Image: www.ikea.ca

Next, we used nifty drawer organizers to corral all the small items-socks, undies, belts, etc. My jewelery box even fit inside the drawer. Score.

My clothes used to be stored in cheap stacking drawers I bought from walmart years ago. Not sexy. Once my clothes were ever so neatly arranged in the new dresser, the plastic bins were moved to our second bedroom (aka storage/junk room). Husband went to town organizing tools and diy supplies in them. We did have one dresser already, so we moved that one to the kitchen. Husband trimmed the legs a bit, and it is now the perfect height for a counter. With a butcher block cutting board on top, it is now a food prep area.

Then, we set out three bins and pulled out everything from the closets and bookshelves. We did it twice. Six bins of stuff was donated to charity. Alot of other stuff was recycled.

Zellers had storage items on sale on boxing day so went and picked up 8 clear plastic bins. Clear of course, so we can see what is in them. Bonus-we used gift cards so it was free!

Then, we found a handy little battery powered label maker on sale for $15. I went to town corralling and labeling all the boxes.

My closets can breath again! It is so much easier to find what I need and to get dressed in the morning. And that of course is just how I wanted to start off the New Year.