Day 1

So it's day one of working towards an organized home

Today she talked about coat closets/entry ways. Our coat closet is actually at the back of our house, and our entry room lacks any sort of closet storage. So I'm going to save that for later. I apologize in advance, all the before photos were taken on my phone, so the quality isn't that hot (Trust me, it's OK, you don't want to see that mess in high quality!)

Now, brace yourselves. I decided to go for complete honesty on this one. Our entryway has really become our dumping ground and here's what our entryway looked like before I started:

 The upper left photo shows an overall view of the "entryway." It's often a dumping spot for Colin's cycling gear (Since it's usually a little rain-soaked when he comes in) It's also the quick storage spot for his bike when he's not riding it. The top of the built in usually gets knick knacks thrown on it as well as some more of Colin's biking gear (gloves/hats/etc.) Then the hooks which are supposed to be temporary storage for coats and dog stuff, is really Colin's heavy bike riding jacket, his helmet, and a few random things of mine (a purse I was using last week, scarf etc.) Then I also keep a bag of the dog stuff on there, which you can't see because it's hiding under my scarf. But it has all the dog sweaters and leashes in there.

So after examining it I decided I really needed to send the majority dog stuff back to the laundry room where the rest of their stuff is. The exception was the brushes that I left in the yellow box. I know if those get sent back to the laundry room the pets just don't get brushed enough. I put away my neglected scarf/bag. I snapped Colin's helmet on it's bike and put it back in its permanent home. I went through the keys a bit (but need help from Colin since he is the key decoder) I cleared off and sorted through the top of the shelf. I also put a clock there that didn't have a permanent home. I took our sad plant that I killed and replaced it with a less-dead one from the bathroom. The best idea was adding a crate for Colin to put his bike stuff in. And here's the result:

I would have loved to put a second crate on the floor for shoes. But, not only is it not in my current budget, I also know it's not all that realistic. Although Mimi is past her "puppy chew" stage, I don't really want to leave temptation out there for her. 

Have you done a recent organization project? Link it in the comments, I'd love to check it out!