Some Spring Cleaning and a DIY Fail

 Up until a few days ago, the vanity drawers in our (only) bathroom looked like this:

Oh dear. Look familiar? I obviously have a drawer problem. 

Here's all of the junk once I cleared out the drawer. 

That's why drawer organizers have become my best friend. 

Chaos has been tamed. 

The drawer organizer has two sections. A large bottom section and smaller top section. I put all of my makeup in the top section for easy access and my everyday items, like bobby pins and hair ties in the exposed bottom section. Underneath the top section is where I put the less frequently used items, like extra contact lenses. 

It's not perfect but it's about 400 times better now. 

I worked on another project this weekend. I've been wanting to do something about this bookshelf in our bedroom. 

I pretty much hate it. It's like a black hole that sucks all the light out of that corner of the room. It's a cheapo bookshelf from Target and it will not be coming with us in the next move. 

I spent two hours putting it together one day while Chris was at work. I stood it up and it resembled the leaning tower of Pisa. Whoops. So, Chris rigged it with a book so that it stands straight. 

 I had a plan to paint the back of the shelf to bring in some light. I used Behr Primer and Paint in One, in a bright white. 

It didn't work. 

[this is after two coats]

I guess paint doesn't stick too well to cheap cardboard backing. So, I'm on to plan B--finding some wrapping paper or contact paper to cover the back. I will be sure to keep you updated on how plan B goes. 

So, now you've seen more of my messy drawers and my DIY failure. Can we still be friends??

A Home for My Bling

Some people are just natural organizers. There is a place for every belonging and after something is used or worn, it returns to it's "home".

That's not me.

I wouldn't say I'm a messy person at all. I keep our home tidied and clean. But I'm not a neat and organized perfectionist. Most of the chaos in our home lurks in drawers and behind closet doors. I've been working on organizing some of the more chaotic drawers and closets over the past few weeks.

One thing that has been bugging me is that all of my jewelry is homeless. For years, most of my earrings have been crammed in a small tin Altoid container. I have no idea when I started keeping them in there but I'm pretty sure it started before a long trip, when I needed a safe place to store my fragile danglies.

I mean, it works, but those pretty little things deserve a better home than that. The jewelry that didn't fit in my little box was scattered about in random drawers and boxes in our bedroom and bathroom. So sad.

Once again, Ross came to my rescue (I really wish we had a HomeGoods, TJ. Maxx or Marshalls here, but alas, we do not). I bought two sweet lacey bowls for 3.99 last fall and they've been gracing our dining room baker's shelf ever since. I looked at them the other day though, and a light bulb went off in my lil' head!

The lacey openings on the handles of the bowl provide the perfect spot to hang my earrings from. And there's plenty of room in that bowl for all my favorite necklaces and bracelets. So now, I can choose easily from the jewelry in my bowl since it's displayed so prettily. 

How do you organize your bling? Do you display it in a pretty case, hang it on a jewelry tree or is it scattered in drawers like mine was up until recently??

For Chris

It's sad that after only 9 months of living in this house, our closets and drawers are a wreck. I mean, I guess it makes sense if you realize that they were never organized in the first place and when we got here we kind of just threw things into closets and shut the doors.

So this week I've started to clean out and organize a bit. Chris has always been frustrated with the state of our 'junk drawer' in the kitchen, so that was the first thing to get a makeover.

Before: It was difficult to open and close this drawer. Sad. 

After: Hooray for organization! I get a nice little surprise every time I go for a stamp or the stapler now!

Yeah, my life is pretty fascinating. I can see why you keep coming back.