Hope you all had a great weekend! I cooked and cooked and cooked. 🙂
Let’s just say .. I made an amazing Cinco De Mayo dinner that was out of this world! Complete with Mango Margaritas and fiesta dance music! 🙂
Back to the topic .. Sally’s guest post part 3.
You can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here. Today she is talking about her biggest project from her Year of Organization — the Arts & Crafts Closet. Read below! 🙂
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The last and biggest project that I did during my Year of Organization was our Arts and Crafts closet. This project was the catalyst for all of my other organizing projects and my main reason for contacting Jennifer in the first place.
It took the most time and thought process to make the most of the space. This closet was initially used to store our miscellaneous kitchen appliances that didn’t fit into our kitchen cabinets. I was finding that the older the kids got, the more art supplies I acquired, and it really got bad when I found Pinterest!
I was keeping our supplies in the buffet in our dining room, but it was not working well. So I decided to trade places, and moved the kitchen appliances to the buffet and the arts and crafts supplies to the closet. {BRILLIANT!}
I don’t have a picture of the closet with the kitchen appliances, but I do have a picture with all of the arts and crafts supplies jammed in before the organization began.
Closet Before
ONE BIG MESS!! I knew that we needed to find some type of shelving system for the best organization. So after recruiting my husband (who did all of the hard labor,) we took out the hanging rod and installed some wire shelving. I laid all of the supplies out and categorized them on direction from Jennifer and this is what we came up with….
Closet After
Closet After
{It is BEAUTIFUL!}
Most of the storage is from Staples (The Really Useful Box) and I also upcycled some containers (coffee, sour cream, etc) to hold markers, crayons, scissors, etc. for easy access. We still have a lot of art supplies, but because of the organization we use it much more often because it is easy to get to. I love that we can also store our board games at the top of the closet so we don’t have to worry about losing pieces.
Does my closet always look perfect and organized? No way! Sometimes little hands find their way in and pick and choose what they want, and sometimes we are in a rush to clean up before mealtimes, but overall it has been a great improvement over where we stored the supplies before.
I believe that organization has been a work in progress for me, some days I do well at sticking with what we have in place, and some days I find piles everywhere for items that need to find a home. It takes time to maintain organization and it needs to be a priority to work well.
I think it is important to strike a balance for where you are in your life when it comes to organizing. Would I have loved to have decorative fancy boxes and gorgeous paper lined shelves, of course, but not at the point I am in my life with my family’s needs.
This is more of a functional organization rather than aesthetic and I am happy with that. {What is it I say: function then fancy} 😉 Once my children are grown and in homes of their own, then I will have the time (and patience) to work on making it more aesthetic.
I hope you have enjoyed seeing a few of my organizational projects and my hope is that they inspire you to find the right balance for you and your family’s organizational needs.
Sally Sosler
Jamie Ball Photography
Sally Sosler is a photographer located in Orange County, New York. You can follow her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/SallySoslerPhotography or at her websitewww.sallysoslerphotography.com.
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I couldn’t agree with Sally more on several points!
- It won’t always be picture perfect because organizing takes time every day.
- Having a system in place makes it easier to keep up.
- It doesn’t have to be gorgeous and fancy. If you want to take that extra step, then by all means!
- So long as the items have a home and you know where to find them and store them, then the system works!
Thank you Sally for sharing those projects with us! What do you think of the transformation?
Clearly, I love it! 😉
Until next time…
Pure & Simple Organizing 