Advertisements

Category Archives: Organizing

Flea Market Finds: Vintage Storage

17 Tuesday Nov 2015

Posted by in Inspiration, Organizing, Our Etsy Store, Vintage

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,


234ShelfFull
260StandFar
285FirstAidSide
257IronstoneFront
311Box2
312Bucket
I spent the week organizing.  I tackled the upstairs storage room on Monday and gathered five bags of clothes and toys for donation.  I updated our kids’ clothes bins and organized items per child rather than per size.  I filled a giant Ikea bag with shoes and clothes of my own to bring to the consignment shop.  Dare and I worked on organizing the storage room at Josie’s school this morning.  I had hundreds of other things I should have been doing this week, but when my head is swirling with to do lists and I find myself up at 2 am despite a lack of newborns in the house, it is time for me to organize.  Editing, tiding and purging stuff totally clears my head.

I read Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up a few months ago and of course loved it.  Marie uses a simple system to remove clutter and has clients keep only pieces that bring joy.  I totally agree.  I love her system.  We do not follow her advice perfectly, but when we do it makes daily life with three kids run much more smoothly.  My only hesitation with the book is that Marie does not mandate that the pieces used to store and stack be as beautiful as the items saved.  I think any large organizing job requires the right storage pieces.  If you are going to put in the effort to edit your belongings you should also extend this editing to your storage items.  We often use vintage pieces repurposed as storage.  My favorite trash cans are old enamel buckets.  We use a large wire bin to hold bath towels and antique pitchers to contain cooking tools on the kitchen counter.  I love storage that is beautiful, simple and useful.

The pieces pictured above are available in our Etsy Shop:

*Corner Spindle Shelf, perfect for plants in a kitchen or bath.

*Wicker Plant Stand, for a single pot.

*Green First Aid Box, great Band-Aid spot in the bathroom.

*Huge Antique Ironstone Urn, awesome umbrella stand.

*Vintage Tackle Box, art supply storage.

*White Enamel Pail and Lid, great as a small trash can.

 

Advertisements

New Year’s Resolution: Organizing

09 Thursday Jan 2014

Posted by in Organizing, Projects

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

Armoire2Armoire1Armoire3
Armoire4
One of my resolutions this year is to finish projects, namely to organize things in order to make daily routines simple and more enjoyable.  I have had armoire scrawled on my list for quite some time now.  It is difficult to find the perfect armoire in the perfect size for the perfect price in this city.  We have found several that were beautiful, but too large to fit up and around the curve in our stairs.  We found several that were in another state and too large to put on top of the Volvo.  We found several that were really ugly/smelly/strange.  The reason we need an armoire upstairs is because we have a huge rolling rack with all of our clothes downstairs – in the dining room.  (Old houses like ours have little to no closet space).  We neglected to measure the rack before we purchased, strapped it around the Volvo and dragged it up a flight and a half of stairs only to be forced back down when it would not fit up and around the curve.  The rack has been in our dining room for over two years now.  (Did I mention that this is the year we are crossing projects off of our list?)  The above armoire was a $50 Craigslist score (thanks Leslie!), and set of matching hangers was $20 on Ebay.  This armoire does a great job housing the girls’ shoe, blankets, and clothes and has helped to simplify our morning routine.  The armoire is still not perfect – the front of a door has water damage.  We are going to have a carpenter fix the damage when he builds a custom armoire for adult clothes into our upstairs bedroom space.

The Ball Jar

11 Friday Oct 2013

Posted by in Organizing

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

BallJar
Our house is full of rubber balls.  The girls love to drop them from the top of the stairs and watch them bounce and roll down the four floors.  It is annoying, not to mention treacherous to step on the remnants of the girls’ physics experiments on the bottom floors.  I decided to designate this Anchor Hocking Cracker Jar the official ‘Ball Jar’.  We got our cracker jar from Target for under $6.  Anchor Hocking still produces their glass products in the United States, as they have since 1905.  The girls are now in charge of rounding up their lost charges after the descent and herding them into the jar on Ada’s mantel.  The rubber balls look pretty and organized staring out of their glass windows.  (Pretty much anything looks beautiful when it is shown in multiples inside of a jar).   And we have hopefully all averted a trip to the emergency room.

Flea Market Finds: Side Table Bookshelf

03 Tuesday Sep 2013

Posted by in Organizing

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

Table1 Table2 Table3
We found this table on the street last week.  I drove past it, and then looped back after a minute of thought.  (I love good street finds- they are one of the best parts about city living.  I also love putting stuff out on the stoop when we are finished with it.  Anything good will be gone in a couple of hours, and everyone is happy).  We recently moved our large bookshelf out of the girls’ room and into the office to make room for their bunk beds.  The girls have made a habit of looking at books in the office, which is great, except for the huge piles they leave on the floor every few hours.  We have been looking for/ designing/ planning to build a small bookshelf for the girls’ room and this little table happened to fit perfectly under the window.  Our new plan includes my filling up their table with fresh books every morning.  When they have read them all they stack the books back onto the table and I rotate new ones off of the big bookshelf.  This way the girls get to read new books each day, and I get to deal with less mess.

Organizing

15 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by in Organizing

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

AsRoom1 AsRoom2 AsRoom3 AsRoom4 AsRoom5 AsRoom6
I can feel the season starting to change around here. It is cooler at night and the leaves are looking slightly less green.  The change always makes me feel like organizing, moving rooms around and moving out things we aren’t using any more.  The two big girls were at Nan and Pappy’s for the week and I took my time rearranging their room.  I moved toys to a shelf that Ada can reach on her own, and got rid of bags of broken and forgotten things.  (I LOVE that NYC is now recycling all hard plastics!)  Now the room feels more airy and they kids are excited to see toys they hadn’t played with for a while.  Here are a few of the things I try to do when I am organizing:

*Get the ugly out of sight.  I hate looking at ugly things.  It hurts me.  I am not kidding.

*Group like things together (all the blocks in one big box, etc)

*Rotate toys by storing some out of sight, and displaying others.  When the kids get bored with the first batch, rotate.

*Make sure everything has a spot.  If it doesn’t, find a spot or get rid of the thing.  Do not leave something in a place it does not belong.

*Try to have each room back to its organized state at bed time.  There is nothing worse than waking up to yesterday’s mess.  It is a pleasure to start the day with order.

*Do not keep something because you feel guilty about getting rid of it.  Your life will be better when you are not carrying around tons of things out of guilt.

*Leave some space around things.

*Live with only useful and beautiful things.  Get rid of the rest.

*Do not keep something because it may someday be useful.  Aside from really special heirlooms, if you haven’t used something in more than a year you do not need it.

*If it is difficult to clean your space, than your space is too cluttered.

*Do not buy ugly storage containers.  If you don’t want to look at plastic bins on your shelves, don’t come home with them.  If the storage container looks worse than the mess, it is not working.

*Life is too short to use ugly dishes, or cups, or toothbrushes…you get the idea.

*Purge!  It feels great!  I promise.

Out to Dry

24 Monday Jun 2013

Posted by in Organizing, Projects

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

Clothesline2Clothesline1Clothesline3
I have been dreaming of a clothesline for the back yard.  I really love the process of hanging washed clothes outside and bringing in fresh-smelling dry clothes.  (Not to mention the benefits of not running a dryer in the the summer).  I was a bit afraid that Brooklyn laundry would not smell as clean as New Hampshire laundry, but I am happy to report that the sun and wind do a great job here as well.  We found a vintage retractable line on Ebay.  There are some more Ebay examples here.  Technically our line is for indoors, and will likely need some chrome retouching each season and we plan to take it inside for the winters.  I replaced the old cotton rope with nylon to fit across the span of the back fence.  We unwind the rope to dry and attach it a hook on the opposite end of our fence. Every evening we wind the rope back into its shiny metal case.  It is so lovely to sleep on sheets that have spent the day in the sun.

Housewarming Gift

21 Friday Jun 2013

Posted by in Likes, Organizing, Shop

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

HouseWarming1
HouseWarming2
HouseWarming3HouseWarming4
Our good friends finally moved into their new house last month, after a long two-year search.  We are so happy for them and wanted to bring over some of our favorite housekeeping supplies as a housewarming gift.  We veered away slightly from the traditional gifts of honey, bread, candles, knives, plants, rice, salt, etc…They have lived together for years now and have most of these supplies on hand.  But we did put in a broom to keep the house “clean and free of evil spirits” (or at least free of dust).

*Swedish Horsehair Broom and Red Dustpan from Kiosk

*Linen Dish Towels from Moon River Chattel 

*A Craftsman Bottle Opener (who doesn’t need an opener to match their screwdrivers?)

*Cards from the Girls

Family Road Trip: Surviving the Drive

17 Monday Jun 2013

Posted by in Organizing, Projects

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

AsBackpack
We were on the road for a total of nine days for a recent road trip.  In order to make it through all of the driving with two little kids, we needed a plan.  I made a trip to the dollar store and stocked up on car activities.  We wrapped up things like stickers, bouncy balls and crayons in brown paper and each day the girls got to open one of the packages.  They unwrapped right before the longest part of the drive for each day, and each girl had her own backpack to keep activities organized.  The packages got us through some long stretches on the road, and let me get on with my knitting and Instagraming in the front seat.

Some of the packages:

*Wikki Stix and Bouncy Balls Day

*Sticker Dolls Day

*Beaded Necklace Day

*Sticker Day

*Activity Book Day

*Pipe Cleaner Doll Day

Balls

StickerBooks

Beads

Stickers

Kumon
PipeCleaners

Packages6

Backpacks

Family Road Trip: Packing

12 Wednesday Jun 2013

Posted by in Organizing, Projects

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

Bundles2 Bundle1
We took a family road trip at the end of May.  We had a great time overall and returned home feeling relaxed and tanned.  There were only a few times when Chris and I got nostalgic for the old days and a quiet drink without the company of two kids.  One of the differences between a family road trip and then ones I remember from college is the need to plan ahead.  Ada is not the most cooperative dresser in the morning.  She tends to be picky and change her mind about a hundred times before we leave the house.  In order to avoid arguments and get us out of the door to explore each morning, I wrapped outfits up for the girls for each day.  Each one was tied up with seam binding and contained socks and underwear as needed.  Every morning they got to pick their own ‘bundle’, but were not allowed to edit the contents.  I wasn’t sure how the whole thing would work, but it ended up making our mornings so much smoother.  Ada and Josie looked forward to making their choice every morning and the four of us started off to breakfast in a good mood.  Phew!

Flea Market Finds: Vintage Barware

22 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by in Likes, Organizing, Vintage

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

Stirrers

The neighborhood stoop sales were especially good this past weekend.  We barely made it to Ada’s school festival because we kept returning to the estate sale of a former set designer from New Orleans.  The sale was full of vintage Christmas ornaments, beads and glassware.  I found these stirrers for $.50.  The beaker is from a different sale and has pretty numbers etched into the glass.  It set us back $1.  How I love a good stoop sale!  We have been collecting nicer pieces for our “bar” (a shelf in the kitchen at the moment).  Chris likes to mix up a cocktail in one of his grandparents’ tumblers when we watch Mad Men.  (And he has been making me a virgin ginger beer version).  Everything tastes better when it is sipped out of a fancy glass.