Guest Room Closet - Before

At first glance, this closet may not appear to need much work, but let me explain:

This is the storage closet for all extra bedding and outgrown childrens clothing. I currently have 7 storage bins in the closet labeled by size (0-3 months, 2T, etc.). As the kids outgrow those jeans and onesies, it is my intention to immediately write a letter "R" on the tag and put it away in the coordinating bin. (This, in my opinion is ideal for passing around hand-me-downs).

Here's the problem (this is where my face starts to turn shades of red): My procrastinating self typically throws the outgrown clothes into a heap in front of this closet, promising myself to come back to it after the baby goes down for a nap... after baths.... another day... until finally the mountain is so high that I can't stand to not put it away.

I then start sort into piles by size and separate them on the guest room bed.... I then get bored and take a break.... the procrastination starts in again.... this is when another couple days (or weeks) go by. Finally it is the Friday morning of the weekend we are expecting company and I am forced to quickly stash the neat piles into a trash bag (thus undoing all of my sized sorting). See the problem?

Well it gets worse (face starting to burn now): I not only have the over-flowing laundry basket seen in the picture above, but 3 additional trash bags to sort, label, and put away. Ugghhh! I can only blame myself!

Here we go.... "After" picture coming soon (I hope)

CD Storage Solution

Thank you for the many comments and emails with suggestions. Here is what I ultimately decided upon. They are "Tribeca CD bins" from the Container Store. I am also planning to purchase some paper cd sleeves.

Also, introducing February's Home Project Theme:

CLOSET CLEAN OUT

I don't know about you, but there are several closets in our house that are in need of some major TLC. It's a spot in your home that strangers may not see, but you have to live with daily! A little organization goes a long way. So let's get started!

I Need Your HELP?!?!

I am happy to report that I organized the book shelves last week, into what I call a "library mode". There are different shelves and sections for everything.... Bibles, Commentaries, Classic Novels, Marriage, Pregnancy & Parenting, Art... not to mention a shelf dedicated to my dozen Left Behind books. If you ask me where a book is, I can now find it in seconds! Ahhh.... a triumph!

But.....Even though January has ended, I still find myself attempting to finish the office! Since Noah is away at Grandma's house for the week, I am taking the time to complete my unfinished tasks. I have two final projects that I would love your advice on...

CD Storage
How do you store cd's? It seems as if Justin & I have hundreds. We both bought many during our high school and college years (before the age of MP3's). Now they seem to just collect dust.

Justin has downloaded most of the music onto the computer into MP3 format. But what do I do with all of the cd's now left over? Pitch them? Store Them? Make coasters out of them?

When I look at the multitude of discs I can only think of one thing - money - all the money spent on these numerous songs and albums. I can't throw them away - no way!

So how do you store cd's? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Recipes and Cookbook Storage
I recently transported my dozen cookbooks and seemingly hundred recipe cards to one of the office book shelves. I have an entire shoe box full of scattered index cards. I have notebooks full of newspaper and magazine clippings of recipes. Post-it-notes with scribbled ingredients, etc. So how do I organize? Any suggestions?

Please leave comments or email me directly!

Coming this week.... February's Theme!