Operation Home

Ever notice how one small change can kick off an avalanche of epic proportions?? Such is the case with our home at the moment. So, what am I referring to, you ask??

One small change = New nightstands

Result = I’m not even sure where to start

Okay, how about we begin with the immediately displaced cd-racks-turned-nightstands that we’d been using before we acquired our new loves (check them out in this post about our new nightstands). I didn’t want to get rid of them, so I put my thinking cap on and decided that they would be useful storage for the closet in No Man’s Land (Our spare room). Which looked like this at the time…

Once this decision was made, I set about emptying the closet so that I could figure out where to put the cd racks. Which caused No Man’s Land to look like this…

Seriously. I’ve joked about this being my Monica Gellar Closet for some time now. Now.You.Know. Do Not Enter. Do not pass go. I suspect your search party won’t make it out either. Now, as I emptied the closet, I did a cursory evaluation of the contents of this disaster-zone, and decided that some of this stuff will need to be stored in our hall closet. Problem?? Our hall closet currently looks like this…

So, that’ll also need to be reorganized in preparation for the impending No Man’s Land Purge.

Next, we have this furniture which previously lived where our newly revamped bench now sits in the master bedroom….

It went fine in our bedroom with the old nightstands, but with the new ones… not so much. So, it had to go. I decided that it’d also be useful storage in No Man’s Land’s closet. Problem??? It stored my tall boots, scarves, bathing suits, boot socks, etc. So, that stuff got dumped into our master closet. Which looks about as good as No Man’s Land right now (sorry… turns out the pic I took was not suitable for human viewing.). Thus, it will ALSO need to be organized and made functional. Heck, I’d settle for being able to enter and exit without experiencing mental trauma.

And to think this all started with ONE. SMALL. CHANGE.

ONE!

One small change turned our house into a veritable organizational mad-house (not that it was a stellar example to begin with).

So, with all of my closet secrets exposed (pun.intended), my goal will be to pump this house with organization. And to do it on a budget. I want to utilize items we already have and find inexpensive storage solutions to make me less afraid of our house. I’ll be blogging about the experience, obviously, but can’t always promise pretty, clean before and after pics since this is real life and sometimes things just take time. I plan to chart our voyage as we go. Step by step. Little by little. Until it’s done.

And just so ya know… The laundry room and Lucas’s closet are also on the list. They aren’t the new nightstands’ fault. That was all me. And Lucas. And Joey. But they could still use some sincere organizational help.

And I would love your input along the way. Any and all suggestions are appreciated and will be considered. Because goodness knows, the organizational portion of my brain has been one card short of a full deck for some time now. Although, I will say that writing this post is really getting me pumped for these projects. So, Mission Accomplished. 🙂

P.S. A huge thanks to Lindsey over at Better After for featuring my newly revamped foyer cabinets! Check it out here!!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!!

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Hello all! So, this is a project sparked by my little man and his creativity. The other day, I was driving to my parents’ house after work to pick up Lucas, when my mom told me that Lucas had made me a surprise. Now, I love surprises, so of course I was ecstatic. I hurriedly made my way over there and was greeted at the door with a giant Lucas-hug and this…

A little Lucas DIY!! Pride nearly busted out of my little DIY-lovin’ heart!

My mom said that he chose the paint colors and spent a good amount of time painting the house (which was then topcoated with an outdoor-specific sealer by my mom). I asked Lucas if we should display it outside in the backyard for the birds and he instantly stated “That’s a great idea!”. So, done deal.

I wanted to place it in my herb planter, so my initial thought was that I’d add a stake to the bottom of the birdhouse and call it a day. So, half-serious and half-trying-to-be-funny, I typed “Birdhouse Stake” into my good friend Google (fully expecting the internet to laugh in return), and wouldn’t you know…. a birdhouse stake is actually a thing!! Not really the thing that I was looking for, but still… A THING!!! Color me kind of proud of myself for choosing an actual key phrase.

Now, I have to warn you… I’m about to take you on a journey through the inner workings of my mind… As I was lazily scrolling through the mystical land of birdhouse stakes, I came across this picture…

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Which reminded me of this candle holder in our bathroom…

Which reminded me of this candle holder that I’d purchased in college many years ago and kept in storage ever since…

Which totally clicked in my head as a potential birdhouse partner.

The rest of this story can really only be chalked up to fate. It’s pretty much the only explanation. I removed the square ceramic plate from the metal base and…

The birdhouse and candle holder fit together like they’d been separated at birth.

I simply used some Aleen’s Tacky Glue and adhered the birdhouse to the candle holder. Once it was dry, I ceremoniously paraded him to his new home. And here’s my little man’s masterpiece in action…

That is, my little man’s masterpiece in action next to my basil TREE! Seriously, remember when my basil looked like this a few weeks ago????

Jeepers creepers! I’m not used to plants flourishing. It makes me think I’m doing something wrong.

So, anyways, thus concludes the harrowing tale of how a birdhouse and candle holder found love. And how our backyard got a little more beautiful courtesy of Lucas. 🙂

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Linking up at: City of Creative Dreams, Tatertots & Jello, Lines Across, I Should Be Mopping The Floor, Tip Junkie, Upcycled Treasures