Under Bathroom Sink Organization Project

Happy Christmas Week!!

I can't believe it's the week of Christmas- this month has flown by! Today I just want to share a quick organizing project I did recently. Under our bathroom sink has looked like this since we moved in:

A total disaster. I literally would just toss products in here because there was no place for them to stand upright. I had no idea what was in the back and it was just a nightmare trying to find anything.

So I did what I always recommend everyone to do- pull everything out, organize into categories and put everything back in! Remember it always gets worse before it gets better. 

I picked up two new organizing products from The Container Store to help me organize.

The first is the Silver 2 drawer mesh organizer which is a reasonably priced container at $25. I feel like sometimes organizing products can get a little ridiculous, but $25 doesn't seem bad for the amount of products it holds!

The second product is the iDesign Linus Deep Turntable  which I think is another reasonable product, the large one I got is $19. I decided to use this to store all my cleaning supplies.

The only other product I used was a basket that I bought at Target years ago. Everything fit back in the cupboard neatly and having just a few places to corral products truly made a huge difference! 

It's definitely not "pinterest worthy" but not every organization project has to be about that. Most of the time you simply need to be able to organize in order to make your life easier! Every day I benefit from this project and I'm so glad I finally completed it!

Guys, I have so many projects (organizing/cleaning/redecorating/renovating) that I want to complete in the near future, so make sure you stick around!!

Have a great day!!

 

One Year

Guys. It's been ONE year that we've been in our house!!! Can you believe it?! 

One year ago yesterday we started moving in but we actually reached the one year mark of owning our home on September 12th. Let's recap some of the changes that have happened in the last year of home ownership, shall we?

I shared the news that we had officially bought our house and I shared when we moved. 

Our first project (before even moving in) was painting all of the kitchen cabinets.

We brought Sophie home.

We went to Ikea and did a few small projects with Ikea organizers. and purchased some Ikea furniture. We bought some new kitchen appliances from Home Depot.

We decorated for Christmas, bought some new decor, and figured out how to deal with having no pantry.

I made extensive to-do lists for our house interior and the exterior.

I straightened up our office.

We updated our wall decor and bought some cool wall art for our kitchen. 

We installed new blinds- finally some privacy!

I organized some kitchen drawers (check back on Wednesday to see inside all our kitchen drawers and cupboards!)

Some small house updates were made, did some yard work, learned all about gardening, and Tim built a walkway all by himself!

Once that was completed I created some new front gardens. I managed to keep everything alive that I planted! I have been loving having gardens this summer and can't wait to add on next year!

Can you believe we completed all that stuff in our first year here? Tim is currently working on a project right now and I will drop a little teaser picture right here....

Any guesses what we are up to?

Cheers to another year of projects in our first home!

Little House Updates

We've done a few little updates around the house lately and I thought I'd share them with you guys!

These are super small updates but made a big impact in our home.

The first has to do with recycling. I am a huge promoter of recycling and we generally have a completely filled outdoor recycling bin every week. We always have more recycling than trash, a fact I am very proud of, so why was our recycling bin so tiny?

This was our setup before, trash on the left, recycling on the right. Often the recycling was overflowing and we had to either empty or move it everytime we left the house because we were worried Sophie would get into it. 

In HomeGoods I was browsing the clearance section as I like to do and found a bunch of trash bins with lids for only $22! I picked one out that I liked and Tim carried it out of the store for me.

It would definitely look better if they matched, but I am thinking about getting a recycling sticker to put on the top so it will be easier for guests to know which is which.

Tim asked if it was silly that we had a bigger recycling than a trash but I said no because we have so much recycling every week! Also, trash is better taken out more frequently since food trash starts to smell.

Next up is our wedding guestbook!

We finally got it custom framed. You might remember I tried to stick it in a poster frame but unfortunately it was too thick and it wouldn't stay put. Now we have it in a custom frame from Michael's and it looks great!

To see a closer up version you can check it out here and here. It was made by a family friend, Kate, and you can find her at KaitlynsOccasions

The last is a really small update and just involved us getting a new toothbrush holder. Our old one was literally falling apart and I had cut my hand on it a couple of times. Eventually we want to redo the whole bathroom so I was trying to hold off, but for only a few dollars I bought a pretty marble one from HomeGoods and it makes me happy!

Any small (or big) changes going on in your home lately?

Spring Cleaning: The Bathroom

The bathroom is one of those rooms that you clean every week but definitely needs a deep clean every once in awhile. I knew I wanted to really scrub it down well so I spent an afternoon working on this room that can get pretty icky. 

I wiped down the mirror with Windex. I go back and forth between Windex and SprayWay and like switching it up. I like Clorox wipes to wipe down the sink and toilet because then I know those areas are getting really clean. I also use the Clorox wand for the toilet bowl which I love since they are disposable.

I've been using a mix of Soft Scrub and Method Bathroom Cleaner for my shower. Also spring cleaning is a great time to take down your shower curtain and liner and throw them in the wash!

I also vacuumed out the vents in the bathroom, wiped down the trash can, vacuumed and mopped the floors to really get it sparkling clean.

My final touch was to organize the under sink area. Since this area is so small we often just toss things in there. I try to keep items organized by type. All my cleaning supplies are on the left side and personal care is in the center. I keep feminine care items in a basket on the right hand side. Extra toilet paper gets piled up in the front for easy access. I also keep small trash bags in here for our bathroom trash can.

I gave this entire area a good wipe down as well which really freshened everything up.

Have you given your bathroom a good wipe down this spring?

One Year Later

Can you believe we've been living in our apartment for an entire year?

Last year I shared Our Moving Story and then shared some pictures of our apartment in different posts. You can see all of the posts revolving around our apartment here where I've shared decorating and organization that we've done over the past year. However, today I thought I would share updated pictures of our apartment.

I spent a ton of time cleaning one day recently (cleaning routine post AND speed cleaning video are coming soon!) and decided to take pictures while everything was looking super sparkly.

I clean starting in the back of the apartment and work my way towards the front so the first room you get to view is our bedroom.

Our bedroom hasn't really changed in the last year. We still have the same comforter but did get some new softer sheets from Kohls which have been amazing. We are still loving our Ikea furniture which has held up very well.

I am still working on getting all our hangers switched over to huggable hangers, my side is almost complete and then I just have to get through Tims!

Not too many changes in here at all but we love our bedroom. It's peaceful, relaxing and I don't want to spend the night anywhere else!

Our second bedroom has a nice bed for when we have guests, but also holds our dirty laundry and quite a bit of storage. I didn't do much with the decor at all just hung up a few things and threw some random decor items on the nightstand. Also the paint on the dresser and nightstand are peeling but that's something we will just have to deal with until we move out since I don't want paint fumes inside our apartment!

I love the curtains in here even though Tim thinks they are boring. I prefer nice neutral items with random pops of color if I choose. No need for crazy color everywhere because that's not relaxing to me.

This room is definitely not as put together as I'd like. We have piles of paper goods stockpiled in here, a bin of paper memorabilia, tons of childhood trophies, a spare tv, and you don't even get to hear about what's in the closet!

I swear I don't like to hoard items and really only keep items that are important to us, but this room needs some serious work and decluttering in the next year.

I love Tim's Gronk picture and I'm so glad I've inherited it by moving in with him :)

Just some random decor on the nightstand...and onto the next room!

Our bathroom is super small and simple. It could definitely use some more organization because we've been just adding products to it throughout the past year.

Nothing really new in the bathroom! (It's not the most exciting room in any house I don't think)

We have our "middle room" which we use as an office and to store some kitchen supplies.

My desk area is really unorganized right now. I kind of unloaded everything into the desk when we moved in and honestly haven't touched most of it since. I really should I go through all my desk supplies and donate what I'm not using. There are probably a ton of things I could toss at this point as well.

On the right hand side of my desk is my Alex 9 Drawer Unit from Ikea where I keep all my makeup and most of my beauty products. There is still plenty of decluttering that could happen in there.

On the left hand side of my desk is my jewelry armoire which could also be decluttered quite a bit. I know I have plenty of things in there that I don't need or want anymore. My list of areas to declutter keeps getting longer and longer!

I have my Target cabinet filled with extra kitchen supplies we don't have room for in our kitchen as well as our recycling area.  We go to our local transfer center every Saturday to drop off our weekly recycling since our apartment only has a dumpster and no recycling program.

I love my Martha Stewart file organizer. I like having a TO DO section where I can put items that I need to take action on and a TO FILE section for papers that need to be filed into my file drawer.

The next room is our kitchen....

We have a small galley kitchen and often dream of having a bigger kitchen in the future. We still have all the same appliances as last year but have upgraded our rug to one from Kohls and picked up a new nicer trash can at Target.

It may not be the prettiest, biggest, or nicest kitchen but it works for now!

I think my favorite room and the one we certainly spend the most time in is our living room.

We have updated from a candy bowl on our table to a simple teal tray with a candle and a few decor items.

Our gallery wall has been added to since we first moved in and is my favorite project.

That's it! Our cute little apartment :)

We are loving it here but are also dreaming of owning our own home and have started looking at houses and property. We plan on hopefully purchasing so we can move out next May/June but we will see what happens!

Thanks for coming on the tour!

Under The Sinks..

When I typed the title of this blog post I totally sang it to the "Under The Sea" tune from The Little Mermaid...just in case you were wondering how cool I am!

This past weekend while I was cleaning I noticed some dirt under the bathroom sink in our little cupboard so obviously that meant I needed to take everything out and clean the whole surface. While I had everything out on the floor I figured I might as well put contact paper down to make it look a little nicer. (Side Note: This is starting to sound a lot like that book When You Give A Mouse A Cookie)

I think placing the paper down and reorganizing made a big difference in our two under-sink cabinets.  I didn't think to take before pictures, but here is a peek at what each one looks like.

Bathroom Cupboard:

I love Method products! I have been obsessed with their cleaning products lately. 

Kitchen Cupboard:

Although neither place is absolutely beautiful; they are organized and functional and that's what truly matters!