Apartment Living: Organizing Beauty Products

If you're a longtime blog reader you may remember when I bought my makeup drawers from Ikea. I was so excited to be able to organize and store all my makeup that I have received from Birchboxes, bought with coupons, or gotten somehow! 

When we moved into the apartment I just threw all of my products into drawers and didn't sort anything out. It was not working efficiently and I desperately needed to get everything organized! I set aside some time one morning to get this project done.

Step one: Make a mess. The only way to get everything organized is to take absolutely everything out of all the drawers and get it all sorted. I took my time making sure each product was put in the correct category.

If I ever start to think I don't have a ton of products all I have to do is lay them all out and my reality is shattered. This is why I'm on a no buy this year! I have purchased a few items throughout the course of the year but far less than I purchased last year.

Now let's go through each drawer:

The top drawer is full of sunscreen, face products, makeup remover, and face washes. I desperately need to start using up these products. I have so many travel size products to use up that I haven't even tried yet so my goal is to get some of these products used up this year.

The second drawer is full of foundations, concealers, perfume samples, blushes, bronzers, hand sanitizers, and makeup setting sprays.

The third drawer is all eyeshadow. I have an eyeshadow obsession and love buying it. I haven't allowed myself to buy any this year. I did order a palette from Birchbox only because it was free after points but I have so much I could never use all of it in my lifetime!

Drawer number four is mostly lip products, but there are also eyeliners and mascaras in here too. Inside the blue box is my stockpile of cake batter chapsticks- I'm obsessed!

Who needs a full drawer of hairspray?! Not me! I don't use hairspray all that often but all of these bottles were completely free so I might as well hold onto it for when I need it!

The rest of my hair products live in this drawer. They are sorted by repairing products, dry shampoos, shampoo and conditioners, and sea salt spray. I do like to try all different products so it's nice to have a wide variety to choose from.

My nail drawer looks so much nicer when it's organized by nail polish brands! I keep my toenails painted pretty much at all times so I like having a ton of polish to choose from.

The next drawer is mostly stockpile items. Extra deodorant, extra dental items, and q-tips.

Finally, the last drawer is extra soap, bath items, and other spa like items. Now that I finally have a bathtub I would like to actually be able to use some of my bath bombs!

Now you might be wondering where my lotion and shower gel are. They are actually in bins inside our linen closet. I will share that space with you soon!

So that's todays organization project! What have you been organizing lately?

Apartment Living: Our Bedroom

Our apartment is slowly coming together! I spent a good portion of the week working on apartment decorating and organization. I have been really enjoying working on the apartment. As much as I loved decorating and browsing through Pinterest in the past I never knew I would enjoy it this much. 

Today I'm sharing our bedroom which I wanted to be a calming place. I tend to get really anxious and knowing that I can walk into a clean, uncluttered environment at night makes me feel better. I wanted a simple room where I can just relax and that's exactly what our bedroom has become.

Our bedspread and sheets are simple ones from Target. I love the bedspread so much, it is definitely one of my favorite purchases we made, so simple but beautiful! The headboard came from Pier 1. It was a pricer purchase but one I think makes the room and we will have forever. It is part of the Hayworth collection from Pier 1. The two nightstands are from Ikea and were items that we built. I have been loving them for being so roomy as well as great looking. Our bedside lamps are from Target which are super simple but do the job.

Both of our dressers are from Ikea and Tim built them entirely on his own. I've been keeping the decor very simple with only a few items out on top of the dresser. The tall dresser holds only one of our tvs. The other dresser holds my perfume tray, our deodorants, a couple of pictures, and a vase full of shells. You'll also see a pile of Tim's clothes peeking out from around the corner...living with a boy is never dull!

I am very pleased with how the room turned out. Eventually we will have pictures hanging on the walls and the room will be complete!

I hope you are enjoying seeing bits and pieces of our apartment and I will be back with other parts of the apartment soon!

May Birchbox

Since it's mid-June perhaps it's time to review what came in my May Birchbox right?

I have to be totally honest and say that I haven't been good about using products as they come in. This moving business has totally messed with my organization...I haven't even organized my products- they are just shoved into drawers right now!

Anyways...back to business...

I love how Birchbox does different themes each month and I love when the summer months come because the boxes are always so bright and festive!

The first product is from Coola and is a mineral primer. I'm not a huge primer person but I will try anything by Coola because they make such awesome products.

Obliphica Seaberry Serum looks interesting to me. I definitely have coarse hair so I will be trying out this product to see if it makes any difference with my unruly hair!

I'm not sure about this Vita Liberate Fabulous Self-Tanner. I've never been the type of girl to use self tanner but I don't get out in the sun much working in an office all day so I am considering trying this!

Every Irish girl needs some sunscreen in her life! I love getting sunscreen samples so I don't have to spend all my money preventing burns!

Lastly a Model Co lip gloss! The color is very pretty despite the fact that I don't wear lip products too often. I do like Model Co products so I was excited to find this in my box!


What did you get in your beauty box this month? Any new products you've bought to try?

Life Lately!

Happy Friday! Thank goodness it's finally Friday, I swear yesterday dragged like no day I've ever seen before! Todays post is all about my life lately and if you've hung around in this little corner of the internet enough you've seen several posts like this where I share a hodgepodge of pictures I've taken recently. 

We're going a few weeks back but here are some things we've been up to besides moving!

One night after work we headed down to Narragansett and took a hike that was absolutely gorgeous. We walked all along the water and even though it was just about a mile walk we spent a lot of time wandering around the rocks and sand, picking up shells and enjoying chatting.

The hike was Black Point in Narragansett and it is a gorgeous area! It starts to get pretty crowded down that way after Memorial Day so I'm glad we did this hike before all the tourists showed up!

Just a quick loop but a fun one!

I also got to spend some one on one time with Tim's sisters dog Attie!

I went and let her out one day that I had off work and she was such a sweetheart! I miss having a dog so it was great to get to play with her for awhile!

The same day I was in charge of letting Attie out they gave us our apartment keys and the fun really began!

I visited Tim at work and thought the way he sits is hilarious....it's a very casual office ;)

Emma came and ate lunch with Brittni and I one day! She was so quiet that I didn't even know she was in the backseat of the car at first! This little girl is truly the cutest baby and is so well behaved!

Last weekend Tim and I spent some time walking 6 miles on a local bike path! We didn't set out to walk six miles but rather walked three, realized it wasn't going to loop around, and then turned around to head back to the car!

Along the way there was an outdoor gym which provided us some entertainment!

Look at those muscles! ;)

Oh hi Tim- thanks for reading my blog! Even though I tell you not to!

So I forgot to turn off the app once we had completed the six miles and were back to the car. It ended up being slightly over 6, but for part of the last little bit we were wandering a grocery store grabbing some water and eating from the salad bar! So we'll just call it 6!

Afterwards we thought we deserved a reward so some good old-fashioned Del's it was! We both opted for the Watermelon flavored Del's which I highly recommend if you ever visit our lovely little state.

That night we headed to a party where...

SURPRISE my brother showed up too! Well not so much of a surprise because I may have called him to come. How often am I somewhere that my brother is invited too? Not that often is the answer!

Poor Tim, dealing with drunk Melissa.

On Memorial Day we had our youngest visitor yet at our apartment...

Emma! Her parents came over as well :)

She loves her Uncle Tim! I swear every time Tim holds her she just stares and stares at him! It was so nice to have Brittni, Stephen and Emma see our new place! Rachel and Ant came to see it on Sunday but they came for breakfast and unfortunately I didn't think about taking pictures at that time! I love that my best friends have visited so quickly! 

This week has been slow going but we welcomed the newest member of our trivia team!

Yup, Emma again! She's certainly around a lot these days huh? :)

Well I am off! Have a great Friday and weekend everybody!

What exciting things have you done lately? Share with me in the comments and keep up with my daily adventures on Instagram!

Ladder Bookshelf

Today I'm going to be sharing the decor I have done on my ladder bookshelf. It sits behind our couch right near the front door and I'm absolutely obsessed with it! 

I purchased this shelf via Kohls.com and it was one that had to be put together but it was fairly simple to assemble.

I thought I would share the decor specifics and where I purchased everything but I'm very proud of how I styled this bookshelf.

Top Shelf: 
               Beach Sign- Kohls
              White Lantern- Kohls

Second Shelf:
               Succulent Plant- CVS
               White Frame- Pier 1
              Shell Jar- Made from shells at the beach and a mason jar

Third Shelf:
                Teal Bowl- HomeGoods
                Shell in Candle Holder- Homemade from shells found in France and a taillight holder
                Picture Frame- Not sure
                Tim's Rock- Rock that Tim contributed after picking it up on Charlestown Beach

Fourth Shelf:
               By The Sea Sign- Not sure, it was a gift
               Coral- Found on Florida vacation at the beach
               Shell- Found on Florida vacation at the beach
               Books: Spark Joy, Young House Love and Style- Amazon

Bottom Shelf:
               Twilight Collectors Edition Box Set- Amazon
               Candle- Not sure, it was a gift
               Gray and White Basket- TJ Maxx
               Cards Against Humanity, Uno, Decks of Cards, and Bananagrams- Various Stores

Doesn't it look pretty?! My favorite piece is the bowl from HomeGoods! Tim and I found it one night while wandering around and I knew I had to have it :)