What I Did Today: Organized a Linen Closet

before

after

This client recently moved into a 2 bedroom apartment with her husband and 2 small children. The apartment is beautiful and all the closets have great shelving but having great closets doesn't make you organized. She wants to make the space more functional and I want to make sure the insides look as great as the rest of the apartment.

For the linen closet, she did a pretty good job categorizing and has plenty of nice storage bins, but I wanted to take it a little further and make it more functional.

The large striped tote is now in the master bathroom holding extra toilet paper and we plan on getting something similar for the kids' bathroom. We edited down the rest, sorted by category, moved a few shelves, and reused existing containers to put it all back. Things least often used are on the top shelves (which she can reach either way). And there's still room to add more.

For more info, check out my flickr.

UPDATE: Just realized I spelled toddler wrong on the label, it has been corrected!

Blog Love: Manhattan Nest

(image courtesy of manhattan nest)

I just had to show you what Daniel over at Manhattan Nest did to his bathroom. Any bathroom can be fabulous. And just about every bathroom I encounter needs a bigger medicine cabinet. Especially love the art. Click here for the full post and to more more pics.

5 Easy Everyday Things To Make Your Home Nicer

(unknown source)

(design by albert hadley via lonny mag)

(image by stuart mcintyre)

- MAKE YOUR BED(s). if it takes you more than 2 minutes (per bed), consider simpler bedding. i have a fitted sheet and comforter, takes me 15 seconds.

- KEEP THE TOILET SEAT/COVER DOWN. seriously, who likes looking into the toilet?

- TAKE OUT TRASH + RECYCLING. i don't understand the storage of garbage, it takes up so much room and quite frankly it smells!

- DO THE DISHES. even if you do it before you go to sleep, it's so nice waking up to a new day with a clean, empty sink.

- OPEN THE WINDOWS. i don't have to explain this one do i?

Update: My Bathroom

before

after

A few recent shots of my bathroom. I don't like 'bathroom accessories', I like the bathroom feeling and looking like the rest of the apartment. Click here for details on what's in here.

I'd still like a rug and new curtain. For the rug, I'm looking for a regular rug; either a runner or two small rugs. With a shower stall not bathtub, I use a long window curtain instead of a short shower curtain. There's a lower rod hung behind the curtain for a shower liner.

I'll let you know when I find something...

Diary of a Move, Bathroom Progress...

(entrance from bedroom, clothes closets on either side with bathroom at end)

BATHROOM

- installed lucite shelves

- hung art

- installed single hook near shower

- installed ceiling track for curtain

- need to buy and hang opaque curtain

The bathroom is 2 small rooms; the first with the sink on one side, linen closet on the other, then the second with the shower and toilet. There's a door to the first room, but not the second and since she has family staying with her often, we installed the ceiling track for a curtain. Also, I hung the shelves pretty high because her family are quite tall.

Organized Medicine Cabinets

(his)

(hers)

(hers: vanity drawer)

These medicine cabinets are from the apt with the chinese cabinet I showed you. Sorry I don't have before pictures but I can tell you there was minimal use of any kind of containers or risers so things were just 'in' there, with no real order.

For her cabinet, using stackable acrylic drawer organizers and acrylic risers creates almost 1 additional shelf. The organizers keep small items together and makes it easier to get things in and out without knocking everything over. Group things by category; cleansing, facial moisturizers, hand and body moisturizers, oral care, medicinal...

The top drawer of the vanity, you can see the center opening that fits around the pipe. The large shallow trays in the back help things from getting lost in the back (it goes back really far), and small trays she already had plus a few small jewelry boxes (the ones you get with purchase) help group everything else.

Click on the pics to make larger and check out my flickr for more detailed info. Happy friday! Though for me, it's really a tuesday...

Love These!

Use the wall mounted metal Slat Ring all over the house for magazines, towels, jewelry and belts, scarves, put stuffed animals in it in a kid's room...

This long Spontan magnetic board has a little shelf on the bottom. Put it in the entry to hold family notes, mail, keys; in the office; or in your closet to hold inspirational pictures, jewelry, and accessories.

The Fridge Monkey holds any kind of bottles and/or cans. Use it in the fridge, in a cabinet, and/or on a bookshelf for wines. Cut it to fit anywhere...

Of course I love them all more if they came in white!

Sorting the Laundry

I've mentioned how to lessen your laundry load, now I'd like to share with you a couple tricks for sorting the laundry.

The first two shots are from my previous studio apartment. The hamper is from Muji (can't find online) that's actually two short hampers I cut and stacked to make one tall one. Two wash bags are attached to the side with Muji wire clips, but a binder clip would work just as well. I used them for the first reason, but there are a few ways to use these:

• sort out pieces that can go into the washing machine but not the dryer
• sort out your hand washables
• sort out your dry cleaning

The last photo shows a large double hamper marked for laundry and dry cleaning using my trusty label maker. If you don't have a label maker, you could easily use a Sharpie and a stencil (scroll down to see the letter stencil), write directly on it, use a piece of masking tape to write on...

Apartment Progress... Bathroom

Do you remember how I painted the back wall of my bathroom and it didn't look so great. Well, I finally repainted it... guess what color? White! I did want something dramatic but more importantly, I want to keep the space looking bright and open.

I removed all the shelves but not the brackets to make painting easier. Afterwards I caulked the edges to give it a finished look. For more pics, click here.

What do you think??

Apartment Details: Bathroom Storage

(basket as it 'should' be)

(flipped over)

I wanted to show you how I'm using my bathroom basket. I used it in my first apt like this, and in my previous studio like this. For this bathroom, I wanted something that had the look of being raised off the floor so I just flipped it over. Now it has a whole new look and feel.

Living Better With Less... Chapped Lips

I wanted to share something with you. Some may think this has nothing to do with organizing but what I do as an organizer is geared towards lifestyle rather than strictly coming up with storage solutions.

Lately I've been running into people who suffer from chronic chapped lips. My first question to them is if they use Chapstick® which they all do. My next question is if you always use Chapstick® and always have chapped lips, WHY are you still using it? I think that stuff causes chapped lips!!

I speak from experience. Back in jr high I used Chapstick® religiously until one day I asked myself the above question. I stopped cold turkey, never to touch it again and have had chapped lips once since then (we're talking 20 years)...

To prevent chapped lips:

- always have something on your lips (lip gloss or lipstick is fine)

- never lick your lips

- after brushing your teeth (and tongue), brush your lips to exfoliate

- after exfoliating, and before going to sleep, use a moisturizing lip balm. I personally swear by Burt's Bees® Beeswax Lip Balm and Kiehl's® Lip Balm SPF 15

Bathroom Storage Ideas

Since I've already shown you his medicine cabinet, I wanted to show you what else we've done so far in this client's bathroom.

These Muji drawers fit his tiny vanity perfectly giving him easy storage for extra toiletries. And since his vanity is so tiny, giving him hardly any surface space, we decided to install a little shelf over the toilet. We used a white wood shelf from Ikea, cut to size, attached to the side of the vanity with a simple bracket and held up on the other side with his old closet rod (will show you what I did to his closet soon).

Is Your Medicine Cabinet Ridiculously Small?

Use acrylic drawer organizers (on top and middle shelves) to hold smaller items. Acrylic risers (middle shelf) create additional shelf space. Try putting your toothbrush holder without the lid in the cabinet to hold toothbrushes and other oral hygiene tools.

If you click on the image to get a larger view, you can see a shot glass behind the toothpaste holding small metal tools; tweezers, nail clippers, etc.

Apartment Progress... Bathroom Transformation

DONE

- installed remaining shelf

- repainted walls white

- installed mirror across from medicine cabinet

- replaced medicine cabinet

- installed hooks (no longer on ikea's website)

TO BE DONE

- get curtain for shower stall

- repaint back wall

I love the two new mirrors across from each other. It brings in so much light! I also love the mirror that replaced the medicine cabinet. I don't miss the cabinet since I have a nice size vanity with plenty of storage for products. I hung it low and on a slight downward angle to make the most of it (and I'm pretty short and hate high hung mirrors). Even though the bathroom has new tile floors (the broker told me there would be an entire new bathroom, one of the many fibs I was told), they're NOT my taste so I covered as much of it with two bath mats that I cut to fit. I like to cover tile floors anyway; I don't like standing barefoot on tile.

I'm going to live with the changes for a little bit to see what else I'm going to do style-wise. I haven't looked at paint colors for the back wall yet and know what I want for the curtain (white linen gauze) but I haven't looked for it yet. But so far I'm pretty happy with what I've done considering when I moved in, this was the worst bathroom of the three apts I've lived in, and none of them were great!

Apartment Progress... Bathroom Transformation

DONE

- installed 4 of the 5 shelves on back wall (cost: existing shelves $0, brackets $5, installation $30)

- put in new bath mats (cost: $20)

- installed towel, robe and misc hooks (cost: $12)

- styled/decorated (cost: $0 existing)

TO BE DONE

- install remaining shelf

- get curtain for shower stall

- repaint back wall; dark grey??

- repaint rest of walls white; there's a red hue now

- install mirror across from medicine cabinet

- replace medicine cabinet

When decorating I only like to do what is absolutely necessary, not only to save money, but time and energy. Normally I'd just leave the medicine cabinet but it's ugly and in bad shape; outside looks like it's been chewed and there's water damage on the inside. Since the vanity has plenty of storage room, I figured it would be less expensive to replace it with a mirror not another cabinet. Also I'll have better luck reusing a mirror than a cabinet if I move again. I picked up this one today from Yesterday's News for $45. I plan on painting it either high gloss white or an accent color like turquoise... still deciding.