Organize Me Pretty: Tried and True

Hi, all! I was really honored when Ursula from Home Made by Carmona invited me to be a part of the Organize Me Pretty series. Have you met Ursula? What an eye and such gorgeous photos over on her blog. You’re in for a real treat with this series. I am so inspired by what all of these talented bloggers have in store for you. 12 bloggers are opening their homes to show you their best tips and tricks for organization. I happen to have been tossed into this group so I decided to show you a few of my well organized spots. Some are very subtle and have hidden storage while others are quite obvious. In any event, I am sharing the spots that have stood the test of time. We all know that many spaces can end up looking really messy after time, but when you find the right system, it is so much easier to maintain. The following ideas have really passed the test around here. First up is our buffet in our dining room. I am a firm believer that your organized spaces can truly blend in with your décor style. You don’t have to go nuts with storage containers or random plastic bins. In this space, I actually store many of my white serving dishes and napkins. They literally become part of my décor and I don’t hide them away. It also makes life so much easier when we go to entertain or set a pretty table. I also leave out a few wine glasses during these fall and winter months. I think it’s an inviting look and is great for impromptu get togethers. The medallion box is one that I made {tutorial here} and stores extra place cards and napkin rings that I use for parties. Next up is our living room! Most don’t know that my ottoman {we have had it for years now} is home to all of my table linens. That normally means moving a flower arrangement and a tray of magazines when I need to switch up my table. Really not a big deal. I think it helps to have them so close to my dining room. I love to set a fun table {a favorite here and here} so these come in handy all the time. Our dining room has a fun bar cart off to the side. When we entertain, I fill it with appetizers or drinks. However, for every day, I put this baby to work. It hosts our crayons {and pencils not shown here} for the children’s homework. They work each day at our table and simply grab the crayons and pencils from the cart. I think they work as cute décor as they are such a part of where we are in life right now. We often do smoothies after school so their straws are always on here as well. You can see more family friendly barcart styling here. If you are a mom, you know laundry. And you know it well. I swear I live in this space. This was one of the very first rooms I decorated. That’s saying something. I also gave the cabinet that I use most a glam little makeover. I realize I am the only one that sees this but I can’t tell you how happy the gold touches make me. It’s the little things in life. The gold vase was a DIY. The backing is just wrapping paper from HomeGoods and the black stripe on the shelf is grosgrain ribbon attached with hot glue. The best addition I ever made was the chalkboard on the inside of the is cabinet. You can see how I did that in the laundry room post. This has been a life saver. I am tossing in loads at warp speed around here and ALWAYS forget to take things out that shouldn’t go in the dryer. No joke. My hubby has had more clothes shrink than he can count. Oops. So now when I toss something in the laundry machine that needs to hang to dry I open the cabinet and write it on the board. When I go to toss it all in the dryer I see the open door and it forces me to read it! Works like a charm. When we gave our kitchen a makeover, we added to glass doors. While this may not look like a space that you normally organize, I am here to say that this has saved us from creating a mess and these cabinets always stay pretty. Because they are glass, I had to choose wisely. Our everyday dishes are white and neatly stacked. If we didn’t have the glass cabinets I am sure they would be a mess. . . some of our other ones are for sure. So  a little tip is to not avoid glass cabinets or open shelving. They really do add instant organization. To see how to create diy lined cabinets go here.  The other spot that has really held up is our junk drawer. I used a double decker organizer I picked up at The Container Store. It was inexpensive and has really kept us so tidy. I keep things we often need as well as little note papers so I can include a written note in the kiddos’ lunchboxes each day. Go here for more on the organized junk drawer And lastly, our garage. If you have followed my little blog for a while, this is very old news! We did this years ago and I am including it because it really has been one of our most successful projects. We simply covered our metal storage bins with drapes. Easy and not that big of deal but it makes a huge difference in the appearance of our garage. People often ask if these drapes get dirty. Not at all. . . and they protect everything inside from getting dusty. More recently I organized my side {Hubby has his own}. I used a collection of bins to house all of my craft/project supplies. However, the upside of covering your storage is that you really don’t have to have matching bins on the inside. That’s the beauty of it. Click here for more on the organized garage Thanks for stopping by! If you are new around here, you can check out more organizing goodies here. Tomorrow you will be blown away by the very talented Cassie from Primitive & Proper. Monday, Oct. 6th | Home Made by Carmona Tuesday, Oct. 7th | A Thoughtful Place Wednesday, Oct. 8th | Primitive & Proper Thursday, Oct. 9th | Oh Everything Handmade Friday, Oct. 10th | Up To Date Interiors Saturday, Oct. 11th | Delineate Your Dwelling Sunday, Oct. 12th | Life On Virginia Street Monday, Oct. 13th | with HEART Tuesday, Oct. 14th | The Blissful Bee Wednesday, Oct. 15th | Cuckoo 4 Design Thursday, Oct. 16th | Place Of My Taste Friday, Oct. 17th | A Home Full of Color