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!!

 

Keep Busy During Quarantine, Organize and Binge

Happy April fools Day, April 1st, Hump Day everyone!

I know that everyone is sick of being stuck at home at this point and it might be extra hard for all you extroverts who thrive on human contact. I'm an introvert and honestly my preference is always to be at home but this even has me wishing I could browse the aisles of HomeGoods, go out to dinner, and see all my friends and family.

I am fortunately still working from home during this time but I know many people are furloughed, laid off, or otherwise have no work to keep them occupied for even part of the day. I wanted to share some areas you can organize during this time and also some shows and podcasts you can binge during this time.

Areas To Organize/Declutter

• Coat Closet: This is a great time to go through all of your coats and see what you have worn this year and what you can potentially clear out. I recently donated a bunch of clothes and before I took them for donation I quickly went through our coat closet and found a coat that I haven't worn in years that I finally was ready to pass on. 

• Clothes: I recently went through my closet and dresser drawers and I was able to pass on quite a few things. I regularly declutter my clothes but I'm always surprised how many things I actually can get rid of each time. I try to be honest with myself and think about the clothing that I try on and then hang back up because I don't like the way it looks. It's also a great time to list your clothes on Poshmark to sell! If you have the time why not make a little bit of money on the nicer clothes?

• Under the Bathroom Sink: This is a great spot to declutter right now because you can really take the time to check expiration dates for beauty products and organize them the way that makes most sense for your daily routine. 

• Pantry/ Fridge: I did both of these recently and it was great to go through everything. I honestly just wanted a good idea of what we had to work with especially with everything going on. I went through every item of food and reorganized everything so it made sense. We also were able to buy groceries and spend less money because we knew what we had. It also prevents us having to make extra trips when right now we don't want to go to the store unless it's absolutely necessary! 

Shows To Binge

• Good Girls: Have you seen this show yet? It's hilarious! I highly recommend it.
• The Office: I just finished watching this and I still laugh hysterically even though I've seen it a dozen times.
• Friends: One of my all time favorites but unfortunately you will need the DVDs or to pay for them right now.
• Tiger King: Have you watched this train wreck yet? If you haven't go check it out!
• The Circle: I really enjoyed this reality tv show and even Tim got into it!
• Love Is Blind: So good!

Podcasts To Binge

• YoungHouseLove Has a Podcast: I love John and Sherry and they are always entertaining!
• The Office Ladies: This is a new favorite for me, but anything Office and I'm in!

What have you been organizing and binging lately? I am planning on sharing some organization projects with you soon to hopefully inspire you!

Have a great day!

Organized Kitchen Drawers

I know we've only been living here a few months but it takes no time at all to have all the kitchen drawers get unorganized! 

When we moved in I didn't do the best job of organizing things and just kind of tossed everything in drawers and cabinets in order to get it out of boxes. I had decided to line the inside of each drawer so I had a good excuse to pull everything out and reorganize it!

My knives and cooking tools were everywhere! I used these teal bottom bins from Target in order to section things off and keep the drawer looking nice. Yes, the teal Kitchenaid tools are my jam! I picked these out for my bridal shower and everything looks so nice together. Can you tell what my favorite color is?

My silverware lives in this silverware container from Target and takes up the majority of the drawer. I kind of just lined everything else up neatly for now.

My plastic wrap, tin foil, and baggies are all neatly lined up in this drawer.

Sophie's treats (and medicine from her hurt shoulder) live in this drawer. We also have a treat container that lives on our counter but this is for smaller treats.

This drawer holds dish towels and extra napkins and plasticware. 

Out junk drawer holds no junk! Everything in here is useful and organized!

This small drawer is the perfect size for our pot holders. 

I love having things organized and although you often have to touch up areas like this in order to keep them organized hopefully I won't have to do a huge overhaul like this for awhile!

Do you have your kitchen drawers organized or are they a total disaster?

I love lists

Guys. I think I have an unhealthy obsession with lists.

Seriously.

While scrolling through my phone I realized between my lists for the new house, my to-buy lists, and everything else I jot down it's something that I should discuss here on the blog. I do everything from using the notes section on my phone, using the app Evernote, and making lists in cute notebooks.

Here's an example of the shopping list I currently have in my phone:

As I'm shopping if I see something I like I'll jot it down if I'm not ready to buy it yet.  Right now I'm thinking of many things that I need to buy for the new house but I can't buy them until we have a place for them to go.

Another set of lists I love to keep are labeled "Adventure" on my Everynote app. I keep track of every  place I've traveled along with a list of all the places I'd like to go. I also like to keep track of the number of states I've traveled to and the number of countries I've traveled to.

I also organize lists of books to read and tv shows to watch. If you saw my list of lists you would think all I do is make lists.

Do you guys make lists in order to stay organized?

A Quick Broom Closet Fix With Command Hooks!

Today I want to share a quick fix I made to our broom closet! 

If you've been following along you know that I'm passionate about cleaning and organizing. The closet in our hallway is half a broom closet and half a linen closet. The linen closet side is pretty organized but the broom closet side was driving me nuts. When I went to pull out the vacuum the mop would attack me! I needed to get this cleaned up a little bit.

Here's where we started:

Just a disorganized mess!

At Walmart I picked up these command hooks. I picked up two packs so I could hang four items and once I put them to good use they made things look amazing!

Check it out! I'm so excited to get these off the floor and on the wall.

These command hooks are labeled heavy so I'm hoping they hold up nicely.

So much better right?! I am very happy how this turned out especially since I can't make any major structural changes in the apartment. I really love making small changes that make a big impact.

Have you done any small  projects that made a huge difference in your living space?

Life Lately

It's been a minute since I shared a Life Lately post, so here's what we've been up to this month!

Parker's first birthday party happened in early January and the theme was The Chosen One.

I an always game for a good photobooth!

Emma loving her Uncle Tim!

Parker wasn't feeling 100% at her party but that didn't stop her from enjoying her cake!

It was a really cute party and I always love celebrating little ones!

Tim and I took advantage of free basketball tickets and went to the URI Basketball game!

Parker was still feeling sick so she and Brittni didn't attend but we got to hang out with Emma and Stephen for the second half!

One night Tim and I went to dinner at Apponaug Brewery which is so good!

Their pretzels are awesome, but the beer cheese is unbelievable. I am obsessed with beer cheese!

The pulled pork fries are delicious too! I forgot to ask for no coleslaw though!

I've been reading Rachel Cruze's book Live Your Life Not Theirs and it is truly inspiring. I think I will do a review on it when I'm done but for now know that I'm loving it!

Last weekend we celebrated Tilly's 2nd birthday!

This girl loves to read! 

She also looks adorable in the present we got her! It was about time I introduced her to Princess Belle!

Lastly, I am working on getting my spaces more organized. This is my workout and pajama drawer and I used the Kon Mari method just to get it a little more organized. This way I can see everything I have a little bit easier.

What have you been up to lately?

Quick Organization Game Changers

Happy Wednesday friends! 

We are halfway through the week- we can do this! I actually have Friday off and am heading on a mini vacation for my college roommate Megan's bachelorette party! I will be sure to share all the details when I get back from my weekend away :)

Today I'm sharing a few organization game changers that are super quick and I have implemented in our home. They help keep things looking clean and organized for the most part which helps me keep my sanity.

First up: baskets

I love baskets. They are the best for hiding items away you want to keep in a room but keep out of sight. See these six baskets in my tv stand? One of them holds all of our medicine but you would never know that unless you were super nosey and peeked inside. Tim also has an absurd amount of video games and the last thing I want is them on display- those neon green cases aren't exactly pretty. Two of the baskets house those and electronics that I like to keep tucked away. (And when I say electronics I mean away...)

The floor of my closet is a great place for stockpiling toilet paper and paper towels. I like to grab these when there is a sale and I have a coupon so I've started putting them on the floor of my closet so they aren't out on display but are easy to grab if we need them.

I love bins almost as much as I love baskets and my linen closet is full of them! I keep bins for lotion, shower gel, laundry products, soaps, and even Tim gets his own bin for his products. I think they are great way to corral items so they don't look loose and disorganized.

Some other ways I've organized in my apartment?

• Buying an entryway stand- this has helped immensely with Tim putting away his hats and coats. The seat lifts up so I can store winter stuff inside too!
• Decluttering! Always my biggest tip: GET RID OF WHAT YOU DON'T NEED! I love to take a big bag of items to donate and find myself constantly decluttering.
• Organize by type- don't just group all your beauty products into one cupboard- get them organized by type so you know exactly what you have! It will help prevent from buying duplicates.

What are some of your organization game changers?

Our Wedding: List Number One

Today I'm sharing a bit of wedding organization with you guys! We really hit the ground running since we are planning a wedding in eight months- we have less then seven months to go so I thought I would share how I'm organizing all my planning.

I decided to make three lists to split up my wedding tasks. The first list I am planning to complete before May, the second must be completed by the end of August and the third is the final list to be completed by our wedding day.  Today I want to share what was on list number one and what we've already completed, I will be sharing my next two lists in the upcoming months as well- don't worry I'm taking you along for every step of this journey!

Wedding To Do List #1

• Go to bridal expo  We really enjoyed this! It gave us quite a few ideas and we got a ton of free stuff! To see our day at the wedding expo you can check that out here.
• make bridesmaid proposal gifts and give them out  You can see my bridesmaid proposals here!
• meet and hire photographer We hired Carissa from Ella Grace Photography and are THRILLED with our decision- she is fantastic!
• meet with Peggy at The Rotunda We met up with Peggy one Saturday to view the inside. She was great and gave us some great insight on using the floor plan!
• make appointment at Davids Bridal I made an appointment for April 14th and I can't wait to spend quality time with Rachel and my mom trying on dresses
• engagement shoot We had the best time working with Carissa even though it was freezing on this day!
• insure ring this was super easy to do- I signed up through Jewelers Mutual and it was much cheaper then I thought and certainly gives me peace of mind!
• get ring resized again, super easy to do and I was just putting it off because I didn't want to give up my ring. I went to Simply Majestic and had a great experience- it was done so quickly!
• create wedding website I just used the free website TheKnot does and have started to put our information on there
• book Kayla for hair- I briefly spoke to her about this but want to make sure she is completely booked for my day! I actually will see her later today and plan on checking with her then
• book Laura for makeup I checked with Laura and we will be setting up my trial soon!
• book hotel for wedding night- Tim is currently working on this!
• block hotel rooms for guests done! The credit for this goes all to Tim- he has been dealing with the hotels which has been so helpful!
• book caterer Once again, the credit for this goes to Tim! I did put the deposit down for this and went with Tim to drop off the contract- so it was a team effort!
• order save the dates and get them mailed out- We are waiting for our pictures to come back and then this will get checked off- hopefully in the next couple of weeks!
• book videographer My brothers best friend will be our videographer for our wedding day! I'm happy to have someone we trust and know well to do this important task! 
• book DJ Another point for Tim- he's the one who contacted Dr Graeme and booked him. 
• register for gifts we have three registries going right now and although we will be revisiting them in the future to add I'm sure I'm counting this as done!

We've had a very busy first month planning and have almost this entire list crossed off! In a few weeks I'll share list number 2 as I start to work on that next!

What were the most important things on your wedding to do list?

Have a great day everybody!

Apartment Living: The Living Room

Welcome to our living room!

You've seen a couple pictures of the living room in this post where I shared the ladder bookshelf I decorated from Kohls but today I'm here to share the rest of our living room! 

I love our minimalistic living room. Less stuff, less stress! As I shared before, we bought our couch from Jordan's furniture. So far we absolutely love it. There's nothing better then lounging on the couch after a long day at work. It's so nice to have room to spread out. Our coffee table was an internet buy from Kohls. The corners are awful sharp so I would not recommend it if you have kids in the house, but it's working for us right now. The candy bowl is another Kohl's purchase and has been quite dangerous as we keep it pretty fully stocked.

The above is a more recent picture. We have purchased a basket to hold a couple throw blankets and some coasters and received the candle as a gift.

Behind the couch we have the ladder bookshelf and this smaller white bookshelf my dad built for me when I was younger. I don't hold onto a ton of books, only ones that I will re-read but nevertheless this bookshelf is packed. It also has the same beach theme from our previous bedroom.

I love the sign above the bookshelf. Tim picked it out in Target which was super sweet.

We also may have bought a new tv which was one of our favorite purchases so far! Yes, I was watching Gossip Girl when I took this picture :)

In addition to everything above, we've also started a gallery wall which I will be sharing soon! So far it's more frames then pictures but soon we will have pictures to fill a ton of frames!

We still plan on purchasing floor lamps for either side of the tv stand. We also talked about a side table but I'm not even sure we need one. I love how this room is coming along and it's my favorite room in the apartment!

A Couple of Weekends...

How can it possibly be Sunday night again? My weekends have been absolutely flying by and it's been hard to believe that I have to head back to work every Monday morning.

Now that the laundry is done, the bedroom and bathroom are clean, and Tim is completely enthralled with his video game I figured I'd sit down and update you on the last two weekends.

Last Sunday was our one year anniversary! May 1st is the day we had our first date at the a local restaurant the Mews Tavern and I can't believe it's already been a year. Tim played golf early in the morning and came home with these beautiful flowers for me. So sweet :)

Later in the afternoon we went to meet Tim's sisters new puppy! We were so excited to meet Addie her new bernese mountain dog. She a sweet little puppy and it was so nice to spend some time playing outside with her.

Then we met up with the rest of Tim's family for dinner. Our anniversary is shared with his brothers birthday so we went to dinner at Kon.

All last week was pretty depressing here in Rhode Island. The sky was cloudy and it rained pretty much the entire week. Not a great thing to see out your office window!

Last week we did view some places to live and put an application in. Hopefully we will hear soon and I will let you know of moving plans! I started packing up things we don't necessarily need to have in our room right now. We are getting ready to move out and it's so exciting!

On Friday night this weekend I had after work drinks and appetizers with a few girls I used to work with. We had a blast catching up and it was so nice to see them. Unfortunately I didn't snap any pictures at all on Friday. After we enjoyed our time at Dan's place, I met up with Tim and our friends Fred and Marissa to see the brand new Captain America movie. It was an amazing movie and I really enjoyed it!

On Saturday I did remember to take pictures when we headed off to Foxwoods with Tim's parents for the Kentucky Derby!

We drank a few mint juleps and enjoyed the derby hype before heading to David Burke Prime Steakhouse for a delicious dinner! I cannot rave enough about the food there. The french onion soup was incredible, the steak delicious and the macaroni and cheese is mouthwatering! If you've never been, you need to head over immediately.

We hung out for awhile longer, spent some time hanging out at the bar and then stopped in Cake.

I could get in some serious trouble in Cake. They have so many sweets! I chose a chocolate bar and it was great but there were so many different things to chose from it was a little overwhelming.

Today was mother's day and we spent the day with my mom! We always visit the cemetery where my grandma is buried and put some roses on her headstone. Then have lunch at the Pizza Place in downtown Westerly. The Pizza Place is not my favorite restaurant at all, the food is nothing special but it's never crowded and it's nice to sit and catch up with my family.

After lunch Tim and I took a hike with my mom down in Charlestown. It was so nice to see the sun finally shining after looking out clouds for so long.

We will definitely be enjoying more hikes and exercising in the coming weeks. We have been talking about making sure that we exercise and enjoy our time outside now that it's light out when we get out of work at night.

I did put together a new exciting thing today as well!

A laundry sorter! I can't be the only person who gets excited over things like this!

I've already started sorting our laundry! :)

Have a great night!