So, here's one of my super dirty, bird-pooped, sitting-out-in-the-elements-for-a-year cushion cover.
I wash my outdoor cushion covers once a year. I would do it more often, except the covers are really hard to remove from the cushion so I can't be bothered to do it more often. Plus I know I can get them clean again even though they look terrible at the end of the seaon. I'm sure there are many ways to wash these things but I'll tell you what I do because it has worked for me. So, here's one of my super dirty, bird-pooped, sitting-out-in-the-elements-for-a-year cushion cover. I pour some warm water into a bucket and add some laundry detergent and a few caps of bleach. I never measured how much of what goes in and I've never gotten different results, so just eye-ball it. It'll be fine. Then I dunk the entire cover into the warm water. I usually dunk the dirtiest part in first because I somehow believe it'll turn out cleanest. :) I'm sure there is no scientific basis for that, but do whatever makes you happy. Make sure the entire cover is soaked thoroughly and immersed in the detergent. I usually dunk the cover in and out of the water a few times. And pretty soon the water is filthy, which makes me happy! I then leave the cover submerged in the water for a few hours before throwing it into the washer. And ta-da! Here is that same cushion again after wash! Granted, there is a very faint black mark across the top there (can you see it?), but it is almost as clean as new! And that concludes the simple and rewarding job of washing a cushion cover. :) The end.
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So, one of my goals for 2013 was to clean the garage. As you can see below, we barely had a walkway to the house from the garage. This was the dumping ground of all the things that don't quite fit in the house. I also clearly order too many things from Amazon and Target. We got these 4 wooden shelves like 2 years ago from Ikea for $10 bucks each! They were much needed as verticle space storage, but let's just say we didn't make the best use of them. Things were put in the shelves with little to no rhyme or reason. The white bookcase next to the shelf was also a dumping ground for all the little knick knacks we have. I frankly don't know exactly what we put in there, except that I always am searching there for screwdrivers, tape, screws and other things. On the other side of the garage we have boxes, a wire shelf, some rugs and our bikes. We have bike gear, household goods (like paper towels, lysol wipes, kleenix tissues, etc), chairs, fans and chicken broth(!). And our laundry corner is also quite depressing. You can't see this, but the detergent is on the floor. Space is also so tight that we have to shimmy ourselves (holding a laundry basket, no less) to get to the machines. Well, that was all very depressing to share and type out, which is why I didn't want to put it out there until we had some progress to share as well! Here is what the garage looks like today! I know, i know. It's not "done" or "pretty", but it is good progress. There is now a lane wide enough for two people to walk into the house at the same time! *gasp!* The verticle shelves are better utilized now.
The white bookcase to the left of the shelves also got organized. I had gotten a bunch of yweave-baskets from Target since they were 50% off after the holidays. I got some white ones for the shelves above, but for the white bookcase, I thought blue would be fun. These bins hold our most used hand tools (screwdrivers, wrenches, pliers). We also put things we use the most in various bins, making it less frustrating when we are in the middle of something. I want to add a pegboard above the white bookcase to hang the hammer & mallet. This picture below probably makes me the happiest! A clean and spacious entrance to the house! No more shimmying our way to the washer/dryer! This does make me want to change out the rugs, though! #yourdaysarenumbered! We have another white bookcase (which was buried somewhere in the middle of everything). We moved it next to the washer/dryer so now we have a place to store laundry things! We need to get a wastebasket to replace the paper bag there. And oh, the stool -- the bane of my reupholstery existence. #crysalittle David moved all the boxes to a corner and it does feel much cleaner. Although I think we'll probably eventually stack all the boxes together against the wall to clear out the middle a bit more. And I fantasize about making sliding panels to cover up the boxes. :) A girl can dream right? :) I also horde my free/cheap CLchairs in the garage and they're just hanging out in the middle. It may be time to finally part with them somehow (sell on CL or donate to Goodwill if we're lazy). I also need to figure out how to store our bakeware properly. One wonders if they can find a home in the kitchen somehow. :) I gotta thank David for this post because I woke up one morning to a clean garage! David apparently got up in the middle of the night at the beckoning of the organization fairies to get this done.
I do hope there will be a second garage cleaning post because here are things I'd like to still do:
But for now, walking through the garage no longer reminds me of my long overdue goal. Walking through a clean space makes coming home that much nicer. Happy winter cleaning, everyone. :) It was a year and a half ago when we painted stripes in the guest bathroom. And at that time, I basically called this bathroom done. Because, well it was! Here's what it looked like. Well, when my mom last visited us in November, she remarked that having a place for guests to put stuff in the bathroom would be nice. Actually, she was just telling me she's on the hunt for something (a basket, container, etc) to put on the toilet so her guests would have a place to put stuff. So she wasn't referring to our guest bath or anything like that. But it got me thinking. Yea...that would be nice. Fast forward to about a month ago, I saw the "wire towel holder wall bin" was on clearance from $49 to $19.99! So I bought it having our guest bath in mind. Well, we installed it a few weeks ago! I put a bunch of magazines there for now but when we have guests over, they'll be removed and the space will be free for toiletries, clothes or whatever.
On Sunday we dropped by Staples after going to a friend's baby shower. David wanted to drop by Staples to look at the Nexus tablets and I was more than happy to tag along! As you know, Staples carry the Martha Stewart line of home office supplies! I got a file pocket in white (it also comes in blue as shown below). And these pretty blue file folders. About a year ago I read this post and since then I've like how functional the wall pockets is. David and I are both avid recipe followers and have a huge stack of recipes sitting in the pantry. So I thought this would be a great way to organize and store them. So we first divided the recipes into categories. We settled on savory, breakfast & desserts. Not surprisingly, there were about twice as many recipes in the "desserts" category. :) What can I say? We have a baker in the house. Then I just put a piece of washi tape over the tab. That way I can change out the categories without ruining the file folders if we wanted to changes things in the future. Then I just dropped the file folders in the pocket and stuck it on the back of our pantry. The pocket basically has a huge strip of adhesive on the backside and it is not sticky at all, much to my surprise. It feels more tacky(?) than it is sticky. Not sure if that made sense. It also removes cleanly from wood. I was skeptical at first if it can bear the load, but it didn't budget at all when I gave it a good tug. So that was pretty awesome. :) Go engineering! And there it sits. :) I kind of love it. And yes, I need to empty those bags of pasta into their containers! That's actually something I weirdly like to do. Haha. Organizing makes me happy.
I always knew that I had to do something about our kitchen drawer organization. Yes, we have a too-small organizer stuck in a big drawer. And while we can usually eventually find the tool we need, it's just ugly. Here's another drawer. It's basically an overflow of the above drawer so many times we have to look in both drawers to find what we're looking for. I measured our drawers and found that the Rationell Variera Cutlery tray (18") would be a pretty darn close fit so I got 2 of them from Ikea. And six dollars later, here's what the drawers look like now! :) I think I'll use washi tape to label the bottoms of each space so we'd remember where everything should go in the future. :) Even though a lot of the longer items didn't fit, it still looks way more organized. And I might switch to these in the future since they were out of stock today. :) We'll see...
I saw this image on Pinterest a few weeks ago and I was immediately inspired! So I went on etsy and got some washi tape from a store called Twine & Tape. The package arrived in the mail today! I was so excited. :) Btw, I know that Target sells some washi tape for really cheap (like 4 rolls for $4?), but I didn't love the designs so I decided to just splurge a little and get ones I really loved! And this is what I decided to do with them! As labels for the storage containers in the pantry! We have a fairly good idea of what most of the boxes hold. But once in a while I have to pull the less-used ones off the shelves to check the content. So having labels is nice. :) I have thought about getting a label maker, but they're both expensive and produce ugly labels. So I am loving the washi tape as labels idea! Washi tape comes off cleanly from these containers so I can easily relabel if any of the contents change over time. It's hard to tell from these photos, but I am loving the blue of the tape against the white. So clean and pretty. :) Ahh, another satisfying OCD moment. :) Now...what should I label next?
After some reshuffling, I think most of the contents in the office closet are in their places. :) So I figured it's a good place to document the progress. So here is what it currently looks like with the new Elfa shelving and the Expedit we added earlier this year. This corner has come such a long way and I'm loving all the added storage space and the ease of keeping this place organized! Here's what the left side of the closet looked like just weeks earlier. It's hard to believe that we lived with this for 2 years because it provided zero functional storage. It was basically a dumping ground for anything that didn't belong in a bedroom closet. And needless to say, I always kept those doors shut! And here it is today! I'm a bit embarrassed to say I basically keep the door open all the time to admire it. Haha. I'm weird, I know. The top shelf is stuffed with two king pillows, one accent pillow and a mattress topper. It isn't exactly beautiful, but I love how I can just stuff these things on top. The second shelf holds file boxes, which holds our tax information from since we both started working (you're supposed to keep tax documents for 7 years). I like them on this shelf because it's something we access just a few times a year. The next two shelves are the workhorses of our new closet space. I got these yweave baskets from Target earlier this week because the dimensions are perfect for the space. Plus, I love the weave pattern and the color! They're holding all our random crafting, sewing, electronics and RE/Office Supplies. Love these! And I'm not quite sure what to do with this blank shelf yet but I kind of love how I have a blank shelf I have no idea what to do with! Such a luxury. :) I have two baskets I bought from Home Goods on the floor level. The left basket holds all our scrap cardboard paper and other random paper supplies that are weird in size. The right basket holds all my larger fabrics like batting and felt. Those things take up a lot of room so it was nice to have a place for them. So that was the left side of the closet. Here's the right side of the closet just a few weeks ago after I pulled almost everything out. Before this there were two huge plastic boxes on the floor with pillows and other guest bedding stacked on top. And here is that same side now! The top shelf holds two euro shams (continuing from the left side). Here's a better picture of the iron caddy. See how the cord is nice and organized in the cord holder? It seriously took no styling or effort on my part to make it look nice. Even though the right side of the Elfa system is really a place for guests to hang things, I didn't want to leave it empty. So I figured I can put all the other guest bedding stuff there like pillows and blankets. When we actually have guests, these things will move to the bed which clears the space for guests to hang their things. And as you can see, I do have floor space here that I'm not sure what to do with. I did move my basket of wrapping paper here, which seems to be a good place for it. And I have plans to add a row of hooks on this wall so guests can all hang their bags or jackets or whatever. That was the best use of this space that I can think of, but feel free to give me your suggestions! Would love to maximize this space as well! And that completes the tour of our "new" office closet, a space that I'm really happy with. :)
Is it normal for someone to be eyeing an iron caddy for a year? No? Well, yours truly has been eyeing this Jerdon iron caddy on Amazon for a year. It was just sitting in my "save for later" cart because I wasn't sure where I would mount it. I finally clicked "buy" after we finished configuring the office because I left room for it! The Elfa shelves we have are 24" (2 feet) wide. Our closet is 5 feet wide so do a little math and you'd see we're left with 1 foot of empty space when there are 2 shelves. While I could've centered our shelves leaving 6" on either side, I didn't want to lose that space. So we ended up aligning our shelves to the left and leaving the 1 foot space on the right. It's really the perfect space for it. Just a few notes on this iron caddy in case any of you are interested in buying.
First of all, it comes with a separate iron board holder, too, but I've decided not to use it because the iron board is a bit too wide for the space. Bummer. Also, know that it does not come with the metal tabs as shown in the Amazon photo. I think those metal tabs were to keep the iron in place. It wasn't a concern for me because mine is in a closet so it's kind of hard for the iron to fall out accidentally from there. Should there be an earthquake that shakes it out, it's unlikely that it'll fall on anyone. We also don't have children or pets so no one will accidentally push it out. To be safe, I would not recommend mounting this on a door or on anything that moves. All that said, the iron does sit at an angle in the caddy so it feels really well-seated and secure. It's not like it's wobbling on a flat surface or anything like that. As for color-snobs like myself, the color is tan/yellowy (exact same color as yellowy wall/switch plates). I don't like the color because it looks so dated. (We actually changed out every wall/switch plate we have in the house from yellow to white when we moved in.) So I just used a can of primer that I had around and sprayed the iron caddy white. Rustoleum sells high-heat white spray paint as well. So if you are super safety conscious that would be a great choice. I plan to let my iron cool before storage so I didn't spend the $5. Lastly, I love the cord holder on the side. Note that it only attaches on the right side so plan accordingly. It's great because I don't have to deal with dangling cords and it's easy to use. You basically just wind your cord in figure-eights then stuff it in the cord holder. The cord is held in place via friction. Simple and elegant solution -- my favorite kind! It made me happy to get the iron a home and get it off the floor! One step closer to a perfectly organized closet. :) Yesterday I picked up a pack of 50 clothespins from Target for $2. Five of them are holding up labels in our closet. I always forget what content is in which storage box. Obviously a way to solve this problem is finding a way to label them. Well clothespins do a great job! Now I don't have to peer into every box to find what I'm looking for! Another dozen or so is holding ribbons! It's nice because the tail of the ribbon is secured by the clothespin. No tape required! Also, I got rid of all the spools which saved a lot of space.
Say hello to our new office/guest room closet! Yup! It now has the Elfa storage system and it is so nice and beautiful! It even has a 2' hanging rod! Yes, I'm no longer ashamed of having overnight guests over! So how did this project come to be? Well, first of all the office closet was a mess so I've been thinking about what to do. At first I really want to build long shelves like these. I know that people all over the blogland have built some sort of shelving. The concept is not hard: you nail 3 strips of wood to the walls then plop the shelf on top. But that said, we don't own a proper saw or a strong drill so it'll probably turn out to be a more frustrating project than it sounds. So I hesitated and scoured Ikea for some ready made shelves we can easily adapt instead. Then one day I was standing in our master closet and I stared at this column of shelves. Granted I pulled off like 10 pieces of strewn clothing to take this picture but it was basically used as a clothes dumping ground because it was available. Then a light bulb went off -- I can relocate these unused shelves to the office closet! I felt like a total genius for having connected the dots! (I know, it doesn't take much to be a genius in my book apparently.) But we basically reused $300+ of unused Elfa shelving components! Recycling does not get better than this!
I did buy another $40 worth of Elfa components to round out the space (like the closet rod, another easy hang standard and track) but that was well worth it! And all said, we got all the original shelving for free courtesy of the previous owner. Those birch decor Fascia are $20 each and there are 7 of them here! The shelves were $12 each and again there are 7 of them here! So we basically spent $40 and ended up with a $350 shelving system in our office closet. And thankfully, Elfa is a relatively easy system to install (it's like 7 holes in the wall, although that proved to be frustrating even for us because we own such a weak drill). But it is still much easier than installing wood shelves! Plus, it's easy to move around if I ever want to reconfigure the space! It's pluses all around! I'm so excited that I'm using way too many exclamation points! And I did just place a few things on the shelves to demonstrate how awesome the space is. But I've since reshuffled the items as I saw fit. :) Oh happy, happy day! |
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