One of my BIGGEST urges of the New Year was to organize, clean, purge unused items, and organize more. Over the past 6-months or so of total craziness, one of the main things that we let go of was our sense of order in our apartment, so when January rolled around, I realized that I could no longer live in such a hectic environment. Therefore, last weekend, Ben and I set out on a trek to the one-and-only, Saturday family furniture & home-organization destination, Ikea (Phew! That place will stress. you. out.). Our main focus? SHELVING. We need more of it. In fact, if I could have it my way, almost every wall in our apartment would be covered in shelving, so that we could get everything off of the floors and into little labeled bins and categorized sections ;) But, since that isn't reality, I had to settle with buying enough shelving to cover two of our walls, which we have now begun to assemble and organize at home. So obviously, today I wanted to give you a sneak peek into my first organization project: my painting studio (our "den" that also doubles as Ben's closet). It has been absolutely fabulous to have this small creative space in our home, and when I first set it up, I figured that a little corner of the room would do. However, seeing as though my creative process involves sprawling out, jumping from one thing to the next (at a somewhat frenetic pace), and leaving wreckage in the dust, I should have known better. As I've worked in the room for 1.5 years, it's become more and more chaotic, messy, and disorganized. I need more space. Thus, the following room makeover. It's still an artist's studio (meaning that it's never going to be PERFECTLY organized, and will always have a little bit of hectic clutter), but everything is a whole lot easier to get to, find, and thus, use... BEFORE DURING AFTER Yes, you can see that poor Ben has been along for the ride. The best part? When I build an entire shelving unit, and then he comes over at the *very* end to hand me the shelves as I put them into the unit. He likes to feel like he's helping--but only at the absolute last-minute ;)
My next project? Our "dining area"/my office/Ben's "telework" office/kitchen spillover area (yes, that has all become the same room). It will definitely be a challenge and I'll post pics as soon as I've finished (hopefully this weekend)! How can you de-clutter your life, your living space, or your mind in 2013? I hope that you find a way and that it brings you just as much satisfaction as it is bringing me. There's just something about the New Year that calls for a cleansing, isn't there? Namaste, Mary Catherine
Kristy
1/10/2013 11:52:07 pm
I've been using sticky post-it notes all over my house as reminders to "encourage" myself in organizing certain areas :). They say things like, Task Closet. Remove all clothing items not longer worn. Helpful Hint: Organize into named piles, Never Worn, Sentimental, Keep, etc. Hopefully this will help keep me on track!
Mary Catherine
1/16/2013 10:41:08 am
Yes! Best idea ever, Kristy! I hope you don't mind that I shared it with all my readers on Monday :) Thanks for reading! xo Comments are closed.
|
HELLO!I'm Mary Catherine, a Cape Cod-based yoga teacher, painter, designer, writer, mom, and list-maker extraordinaire. My goal is to inspire you to start living a more creative, simple, joyful, + purposeful life.
{Learn more + read my story}
|