So after we finished up the master bedroom closet de-cluttering this past weekend, we turned our attention to the hall closet (which sits right outside of our bedroom door). It was home to photo albums, old videos and notebooks, random personal keepsakes and a plethora of spare shopping bags. In the words of Christian from Project Runway, it was a hot mess.
Our technique for this closet was to simply undo the thoughtless hodge-podge approach that created this clutter to begin with. Which meant actually putting photo albums together (there’s a novel idea) and not keeping every single bag and box that we brought home “just in case.” Plus we had to commit to- and this was possibly the scariest part- cutting down on the personal keepsakes that filled those two plastic towers of clear drawers… all in the name of earning back valuable square footage and finding a place for things that were offset by the third-bedroom-to-nursery conversion.
Once we actually resolved ourselves to doing this it really wasn’t that hard. We were saving a lot of “fluff” that we didn’t need and it actually felt better to toss anything that didn’t mean much to us anymore (which also allowed us to really appreciate the stuff that made the cut since it wasn’t buried amidst piles of useless junk). After all, just because a photo is old doesn’t mean it’s always worth keeping (do we really need every poorly-lit picture of high school homecoming and shots of our cluttered dorm rooms from every angle?). So Sherry and I sat down and enjoyed one last flip through some of those old memories, said our goodbyes to a bunch of them, and filed away the remaining keepers to really be enjoyed instead of “watered down” by weird stuff that had no business being kept for so long. But you know I campaigned to keep this photo of a blond teenage Sherry posing with her childhood dog Dante, right?
Let’s take a closet look. Note: At this point Sherry would like to interject to explain that those were suede pants and they had a side zipper and they were from Delia’s. Hot stuff. Try to contain your jealousy ladies.
One rule that we decided to re-enforce on ourselves was to limit our relationship keepsakes to one box. For instance, Sherry’s quite sentimental when it comes to John + Sherry memories (she has plane tickets from our first vacation together, a napkin from our wedding, etc). But the great thing about her (love ya babe) was that long ago she designated a special box for “relationship memorabilia” so not only was everything in one place, but it forced us to limit what we saved. If it didn’t fit in the box, we either didn’t keep it or found another way to memorialize it (like taking a picture of it and throwing that in the box instead- or framing it if it was really important).
This weekend we realized we were unintentionally overflowing into a second box (the shame) so we whipped ourselves right back into shape and pared things down to that single solitary box again. Which actually felt good because it was fun to flip through everything – and we were happy to lose a few items that didn’t mean as much anymore in return for adding some fun new stuff to our “limited edition collection.” It’s definitely important to find a place for the things that matter most in your home (many of which are photos and other memories) but there’s a fine line between keeping a few of the most meaningful items and saying that every last scrap of paper is special and letting those things slowly overrun your home. It can actually interfere with your day to day happiness (anyone watch Clean House?) not to mention rob you of space that could be much better served for storing something else that you actually need. So we do our best to walk that delicate line (and probably err on the side of minimalism just because we lived in NYC long enough to adapt to living with zero storage space).
In the end we achieved our goal of eliminating one entire plastic three-drawer tower of random paraphernalia (victory!) by condensing things that we had (grouping like with like, etc) and eliminating weird odds and ends (like business cards from our old agency jobs in NYC and ancient notebooks full of college assignments). And the good news is that we actually earned a new place for our vacuum – which had been displaced from its former home in the now-nursery closet – along with our fireproof safe (we actually have a safety deposit box at the bank so it’s not full of “valuables” per se, but it’s where we store things like a CD of our wedding photos and our wedding video along with copies of other irreplaceable momentos that we would want to survive a house fire – just in case).
As of Saturday afternoon I was left feeling pretty satisfied with how the hall closet was shaping up – er, paring down.
But Sherry had bigger plans in store. Since she also lost her wrapping paper/stationery station in the nursery switcheroo, she was on the hunt for a new storage spot for that stuff. Gift bags, ribbons and wrapping paper had temporarily been shoved above the laundry nook and was later moved to an underbed storage bin in the guest bedroom…
… but with bending over becoming more of a challenge for my cute prego lady, Sherry saw the never-used-mirror on the back of the hall closet door (thanks to the wood full length one in our bedroom) and immediately envisioned a remedy to her underbed wrapping station situation. I almost literally saw the light bulb go on as she stared at that door rubbing her chin.
So off came the mirror (thank to a few quick pulls of the 3M Command strips that we had originally used to hold it in place) and off we went to Target to find some sort of back-of-door wrapping paper hanging solution/caddy. But once there we were quickly reminded that Target is no Container Store… and something so specific was nowhere to be found. Instead we settled on three of these “wire CD baskets” that showed promise (on sale for just $5.39 a pop).
Our big idea was to screw them right into the door since they seemed about the perfect size to house stationery, wrapping paper, envelopes, and other random accessories. And all it took was a little pressure with a screwdriver to create a screw-sized opening in the back of the wire basket…
… which we then screwed right through (and into the door) in two places to hold our baskets nice and steady.
In about five minutes the top half of the door was equipped with two bins spaced about eight inches apart for housing stationery, birthday cards, envelopes, and other gift-related paraphernalia:
And the bottom half of the door got the third basket which we planned to use to store wrapping paper. But because we didn’t want the paper to flap around every time we opened or closed the door, we had to brainstorm a way to keep it easily wrangled. Our solution? Screwing two small white coat hooks right into the door, about twenty inches above the top edge of the basket. These hooks – along with a ribbon that we had laying around – created a nice little “seat belt” of sorts for our wrapping paper (which can still easily be slipped in and out from behind the ribbon whenever we need it).
Then in an impressive bout of energy that could only be attributed to true nesting, Sherry decided that 8:45pm on Sunday night was the perfect time to touch up all that dated wood trim inside the closet that she hadn’t gotten around to painting yet. So before I could say “aren’t you supposed to be tired in your third trimester?” my wife had a gallon of no-VOC Freshaire trim paint cracked open and was furiously painting the dark wood trim, shelf and even the dowel in there. And I must admit that it looks a lot more clean and current thanks to her little Sunday night paint job. Even though I thought she was crazy at the time…
You’ll also notice that we further pared down all those collected gift bags and added a hanging shoe/sweater organizer (a free gift from a friend- thanks Kristin!) for the rest of our present-wrapping supplies. It’s definitely nice to have a caddy full of things like tissue paper, a box of smaller tags and little fabric totes, a box full of ribbon, and small gift tins & containers housed within larger gift boxes that we can use whenever the occasion strikes. It all goes back to grouping like with like, so instead of spreading our wrapping supplies throughout the house we now have a one-stop-wrapping-paper-shop of sorts in our hall closet. Which certainly beats the unused $5 mirror that previously hung on the back of that door.
And yes Sherry did paint the pebbled black sides of our wall-mounted plastic bag dispenser while she was attacking the trim. She’s a wild woman and she just can’t be stopped. But to her (admittedly insane) credit, it does blend in better now. Even if it’s an absurd way to spend four minutes of your life. In fact the whole closet looks pretty great- especially considering that it look like this a few short days earlier:
So with that project done, we finally turned our attention to the usually-concealed shelves above the laundry nook (we love those bamboo blinds but they were like a personal challenge to be as messy as possible since everything’s so well hidden). Of course you already know that a big step in improving this area was getting all the random wrapping paper into the hall closet. But there was still a lot more paring down/cleaning on the agenda to get this beast of a before picture under control.
Admittedly there wasn’t much science to cleaning this area, since it suffered less from too much stuff and more from just quickly tossing things up there instead of actually finding a smart place for them and grouping like with like (although we did ditch our rusted and mostly useless drain snake as well as FINALLY recycling the cell phones that we replaced back in August and stored up there with dreams of donating them “someday”). And I would like to earn some points for actually volunteering to vacuum the dust that was collecting up there. Secure in my manhood? Check.
In the end we didn’t reinvent the wheel up there, we just whittled things down and organized a bit, which resulted in some much appreciated freed up space that is now ready for who-knows-what (our guess: more baby stuff- at least that’s what everyone keeps telling us). No matter what ends up living in there down the line, we’re just breathing easier knowing that we have more empty space in our not-very-closet-riddled home to store things as our family grows. Whew.
So that’s the end of our closet sprucing weekend extravaganza. One thing that we now realize wasn’t photographically captured were the errands that we ran after it was all over, which included:
- Bringing a huge bag of clothes, shoes, and accessories to a local clothing drop box (if you don’t know where to go in your ‘hood, try googling for a Salvation Army or a Goodwill near you)
- Returning a bunch of books/clothes/DVDs and other borrowed items to two of our friends and one family member (thereby lightening our load substantially and earning us points for those timely returns)
- Finally recycling our own cell phones- yes, the ones that we replaced way back in August- at Best Buy (after a few attempts to donate them at local stores or police departments for causes like battered women or Haiti relief failed us)
- Dropping off two giant sacks of old books and magazines to a local used book store (your neighborhood library may take them too, but ours only accepts things during certain times of the year)
- Bringing all of the change that we found to Coinstar (it turned up in some of Sherry’s old purses, our car, my key & wallet bowl near the door and our piggy bank- the crazy thing is that we made 54 beans for our trouble- not bad, eh?)
In the end we only spent around $16 for those three wire baskets that we hung on the back of the hall closet door, and thanks to our change drop-off we made $54. So if you subtract our basket purchases we still netted $38 which was definitely the icing on the extra-storage-space cake. But enough about us. Let’s talk about your closet sitch. If you haven’t already shared your closet de-cluttering adventures or tips on this morning’s post, we’d love to hear all about ’em right here – especially if you found yourself culling down personal keepsakes, creating new storage solutions or finding new ways to reuse or recycle items that you were purging. Oh, and if you’ve got pics to share, head over to our Facebook page to post ’em for all to see.
jasmine says
Can’t knock the Delias! Congrats on the accomplishment. Since our reno, we now have a garage we can no longer walk in. Hopefully we will be motivated in a few months to do the same!
Monica says
Seriously in 1 weekend you had time for all of that?? How can that be?
YoungHouseLove says
We’re crazy. And we only stop to eat. And we knew we had people tapping their feet for after pics this week. We actually ran most of those bulleted errands on Monday night (Coinstar, returning things to friends, dropping off donations, etc) but other than that we tackled those closets all weekend long. And we liked it.
xo,
s
Sarah Sarniak says
This looks great. I love the solutions you ended up using for the hall closet. Excellent ideas, it looks awesome. I have a hard time limiting our sentimental stuff to one box. It’s a good idea. But I guess what I like to do is scrapbook a lot of the sentimental stuff so that it’s not in a box. But if anything I would have to have one whole box for wedding memorabilia and another for the rest.
Kathy says
Love the baskets! I’ve been trying to think up a clutterless way to store our wrapping and stationery supplies. This will work perfectly in our basement under-the-stairs closet area. I don’t know why I even try to think on my own when I have you guys around!!
Jessica @ How Sweet says
Love what you did for the wrapping paper – mine is just all jumbled in the hall closet and gets ruined!
D says
I love the hanging baskets..great idea!
Sherry – I also had suede pants with a side zipper, but mine were hot pink! haha, try not to be too jealous of that :)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- you totally win D!
xo,
s
Tiffany T. says
This motivates me!
Kiley says
Sherry and John, you rock! Now if I could just get my fiance to get rid of all the clothes that no longer fit him. ha ha!
I have plans to reorganize my four closets, yes, four, in a rental! Gasp!
We have a coat closet, linen closet, and two full closets in the bedroom and office. So many spaces to cram things! Now I must pare down!
We’re both writers, so the amount of paper flying around is crazy, not to mention, books! Plus I have a whole box of just cards! Is that crazy? I have a hard time getting rid of them. But with everything else, I don’t mind tossing it! I have cards from when I was a kid (you know the kind, on your 6th birthday). They’re too sweet to toss.
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Kiley,
Everyone has different things that mean something special to them- so we say embrace it! Get a nice decorative box from Ikea and keep all those cards inside of it. As long as it makes you smile (and takes up half a shelf as opposed to all four closets) then your little “collection” sounds perfect!
xo,
s
Ashley says
I LOVE the wrapping and stationary baskets on the door! I am definitely going to add that in! You guys have the best ideas! I love your blog :)
jen@odbt says
You rock. I need an intervention when it comes to my kids’ artwork/school stuff. I thought I was good about paring down but I am feeling so overwhelmed with all their stuff. Will they really want this stuff when they move out?
I used an over-the-door shoe organizer (macgyvered it) as my gift wrap station. With a few cuts, it holds all my wrapping paper, tape, scissors, ribbon, etc.
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Jen,
Both my mom and John’s mom kept one box of childhood memorabilia for us (and they both passed those along to us after we moved in together). They each did the same thing that we did with our relationship box (periodically went through the box and got rid of some things to make room for newer more meaningful ones) and we definitely appreciated NOT inheriting four or five giant tupperware bins of childhood memories. After we each got our box we went through it and probably saved 10% of it (we got a good laugh from the other 90% though, so the one box route seems like a smart approach). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
mags says
If I may ask Who is the pictures of in the background of the picture of sherry in the suede pants? Thanks
YoungHouseLove says
That’s actually a photo of me and a photo of my very tan brother (aka: Almost-Doctor Dan).
Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Rebecca says
The back of the door basket idea is a great idea, but I have to ask… how far does it stick out into the closet when you shut the door? Does it have an impact on what you can put in there? It is really hard to tell from the photos…. Target, Lowes, Home Depot, Container Store also sell those wrapping paper storage upright bins with the top part of ribbon, cards, tape, scissor….. for anyone out there who doesn’t have a closet this idea would work for…I bought mine for $9 at Container Store and it is smaller and takes up less room than a vacuum (for size reference).
Thanks for sharing
Karen says
Great job guys…I am inspired! I have way too many gift bags, but think it is wasteful to throw them away. Any thoughts on where they could be donated or recycled?
YoungHouseLove says
Karen- We recycled any that were paper and used a lot of the larger shiny ones to drop off our donations at the drop boxes- that way we didn’t have a ton of them ending up in the trash. Hope it helps!
Rebecca- We actually worried about that but because the bins are only about four to five inches deep and the molding of a doorway is around that depth, it really doesn’t interfere with storage at all. The hanging cubbies and our vacuum and everything else in our newly organized closet are definitely not being disturbed (or anywhere near being touched) by our back-of-the-door bins. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Oonafey @ Little Pink Houses says
I had two pairs of those same suede pants, only in baby blue and red. And I had a black t-shirt with big red lips on it to go with the red ones… Ah to be young again, lol.
erika wilson says
Please oh please come to my house and help me do this!!!!?:)
You two inspire me!!!!!
Amie Barber & Abbey Road says
OMG Delias – That catalog was the best thing ever…I would dog ear nearly every page and I drooled over all of it.
I recently cleaned out my closet as well, but mine could still use a lot of work…I’m just not very good at getting rid of things…
http://www.abbeycatchat.com/2010/01/closet-revamp.html
Sarah says
LOVE the wrapping paper roll idea! This is exactly what I need for my storage closet. Thanks for the great ideas (as always). You guys are the best.
Melissa says
I am doing spring cleaning this week since I have the full week free of everything minus my toddler. haha! I’ve managed to tackle the living room and kitchen so far, which includes one closet that looks oh so lovely and clean. I still have tons to do, the stairway closet is on my to do list for today. It tends to be my catch all closet.
I have a hope chest that my dad built me when I was a teenager. It holds all my cherished memories and if it won’t fit in there then I let it go.
Madelaine says
I am feeling so motivated right now! For me, all of this “stuff” is in the basement and I did a major re-organizing weekend after Christmas, but there is lots to get rid of down there. I have one bin of childhood stuff that has not been unpacked in over 10 years! Also still have all of the old college text books. Those are going to be mulched, just have to load them up and drop them off! Thanks for keeping me moving!
lori says
Love what you did with your hall closet, especially the wrapping paper idea. I’ve been struggling with what to do with my messy pile of wrapping paper and you’ve given me a solution. Thanks.
I must ask though, where do you store your coats? We have a mud room with hooks like yours, but if we hang every coat, jacket, etc. we own on the hooks, we’d have a jumbled mess. So I put out-of-season jackets in my hall closet. Are they in another closet, storage box, etc.? Just curious. Your answer may give me another idea on how to organize my stuff.
By the way, I love your blog. Check it out every day. Thanks for inspiring me to tackle my neglected closets.
YoungHouseLove says
Good question! Spare coats used to be in the third bedroom closet but now that it’s a nursery they’re in the guest bedroom closet. We try to keep our numbers down (just two or three each) and hang a few on the coat hooks in the den (aka: our mini mudroom) and that seems to work out for us. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Pam @ Design Fanatic says
Congratulations on a job well done! It feels soooo good when you clear out, clean up & organize!
Lauren says
Love me some World of Mirth!! And just Carytown in general. Actually…. just Richmond in general!
erica says
gotta love delias! so much of my wardrobe came from there back in the day. hahaha.
i love the new gift wrap storage!!! you guys always come up w/such creative solutions. i would never have thought of that!
i’ve really got to get rid of my school stuff. i’m so sentimental i keep everything! hahaha.
betz says
Where did you find your awesome blue keepsake box? It looks substantial and worth of all those memories.
YoungHouseLove says
It a little faux leather box from Crate & Barrel that I picked up years ago in NYC. I actually grabbed three of them and they always come in handy. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
travis says
Love the gift wrap organization! You should pattent that and put it on some TV info-mercial and sell it for “not $90, not $50, and not even $25, but one easy payment of $19.99!”
Very cool!
heather s. says
Looks great! I’ve been trying to find a better solution than under the bed for my gift wrapping supplies as well.
Valerie says
love the closet! i’m getting ready to tackle my linen closet and i had thought of something similar to do on the door. i had to settle for an organizer kit for kitchens, but i wasn’t completely satisfied with it. mainly because of the gaps between each wire. i wasn’t sure it would work with some of the items i need to put in them.
however, you have given me a brillant idea with the cd baskets! perhaps i will use those instead. and keep my kit for the kitchen.
thank you!
Tammy says
FYI, The Friends of the Chesterfield County Library would be thrilled to accept book donations anytime of year. It’s one of the ways they help fund the work they do for the library and, with all the cut-backs in the county lately, the library can use all the help it can get!
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks for the tip Tammy! Good to know.
xo,
s
Emily says
love, love, love!
Natalie says
FANTASTIC organizing! You have officially inspired me to clean out our guest room closet. Thanks for the kick in the bootie! :)
Handy Man, Crafty Woman says
awesome job! looks great! I couldn’t tackle our downstairs bath closet; I was too sick. But I intend to get to it sometime!
We also have “grubby work clothes” in our closets, for messy painting and reno jobs. ya just GOTTA!
The Virginia House says
I love the wrapping paper/gift idea! Score 10 points for “nesting”!
elicia says
Another great way to store wrapping paper is using a similar ‘seat-belt’ idea, but upside down. I have used 2 ribbon straps tied to the bottom of a wire shelf as a kind of under-shelf that holds my rolls of wrapping paper. It even keeps it high enough that hangers and clothes can still be hung, the wrapping paper sits just above the shoulder of a hanger. Then your shelf is still open for the rest of your packaging, and the rolls cant roll off anything. I suppose your shelf must be at least as long as your rolls though.
I really like the vertical version of your idea! Now I want to do this with my saran wrap and tinfoil and such in the kitchen!
Caitlin says
I love the baskets on the back of the closet door! Great use of space.
I just did a blog post about clearing closet clutter that touches on using often-overlooked space like on the backs of closet doors. I love how yours turned out! Great job, you two! ^_^
Jenni says
Thank you!!! Organizing/purging junk is what I have been working on this year–my husband and I have been working through the book/guide “Unclutter Your Life in One Week” by Erin Doland (unclutterer.com). It is a great movtivation to see your real-life pictures of clearing clutter, along with your methods and ideas. It can be done! ;*)
Emily says
Okay first of all…way to rock those Delia’s pants lady!! Secondly…holy moly the impromptu wrapping station is ingenious! Wonderfully done!
TellaLuca says
Nice job on the closet cleanout(s)!! Question for you, as the mother of two adorable kids, I’ve taken HUNDREDS of pictures. What is the best way to store photos? Photo albums (actual albums — not online ones)? I have baby books for each child, but a lot of pictures are mashed into a couple photo boxes right now.
YoungHouseLove says
We actually have a post on our to-do list about storing photos so stay tuned for that. Admittedly our post to-do list is super long but we’ll get there someday!
xo,
s
Kate says
I need help. I keep too much sentimental stuff also. I have boxes of notes from my best friend when she moved away in elementary school (and we wrote back and forth through high school!), all my old birthday cards, notes from high school, any cards or invitations we receive, lots of old artwork from when I was younger (a lot of it is actually pretty good), t-shirts from elementary school where all your friends sign them on field day. I also have a lot of knick knack type items my grandfather gave me (like a display of all the coins from the year I was born…cool, but what am I ever going to do with it), but it’s hard for me to get rid of it b/c he has since passed away.
What should I do with all this stuff? Should I have a one box rule for each category and pick the best of the best? Maybe just take photographs of some of the other items?
Keep the tips coming! I’m loving this inspiration!
YoungHouseLove says
Yup, your one box rule for each category idea along with taking photos of certain items sounds like a great plan! Just do whatever makes you happy (some people are happy to store a lot more stuff than us, so there’s no need to pare everything waaaay down unless that will make you happy). We’re all about getting rid of things that will make you feel great (and help you appreciate the items that are worth keeping since they won’t be “hidden” among piles of junk you don’t need) but we never think you should get rid of things if it’ll make you feel bad. So it really is all about evaluating what you like best and figuring out ways to memorialize things without keeping them all if you don’t have the space for them (like photographing some items or passing some keepsakes on to other family members who will treasure them – whereas you have a bunch of boxes of them that aren’t being appreciated as much). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Amelia says
What a fantastic “small” makeover! I especially love the wrapping station – you two are so inventive.
But for the cheap-y in all of us, I was going to suggest taking your change to another coin counter instead of Coinstar. Unless you’re putting it towards a gift certificate (which isn’t bad, but sometimes you just want the cash!), Coinstar takes, I believe, 9 cents for every dollar you drop in (almost a tenth of your change!). Instead, you can call your local bank branch and see if they have a free coin counter (I know that Commerce and Bank of America do!). Some of them still charge you if you don’t have an account with them, just to be aware of that snag (but even if they do, it’s a lower fee than Coinstar). Or take all that change to the local branch that you belong to — although you might get some sighs when you bring in loads of coins, many of them have the huge coin counter machines in the back anyways, so it won’t take any longer for them to do it than you (well, minus waiting in line at the bank).
YoungHouseLove says
No way! Our Coinstar only takes five cents per dollar. So we only lost about five bucks (and still made over fifty) to save us from all that rolling trouble (which literally would have been hours of work). But we must admit that as we dumped our change into the Coinstar we lamented the fact that Commerce Bank isn’t here in Richmond (since we used to drop all of our change off there when we lived in NYC since it was a totally free coin-counting service. Oh those were the days. Our Bank Of America’s don’t do it here either, so the options were pretty much either roll over fifty bucks of dimes, nickels and pennies or pay five cents a dollar to “outsource” that job. I guess after all that closet cleaning we just didn’t have the energy to get our roll on!
xo,
s
jennifer F says
congrats to you guys for accomplishing so much! I have not yet gotten the organization spring cleaning bug (though I do get it eventually). So this made me think of the spare bedroom closet we have that is still filled with all of our wedding jumk :-) I love the cute box idea and may try and do that for those keepsake items.
Also, how do you differentiate between organizing things and putting things away, versus making it “look” nice. I mean, all of your cute boxes and bins seem to add decor to your closets and storage areas, whereas my things are all stacked up on top of each other or in plain site where I can get it to quickly if needed (like my bathroom for example). All of my toiletries are in plain site and looking at yours everything is neatly put away in a cute bin and everything seems clean and clutter free. Do share your secret? Do you really feel the need to buy a bunch of cute wicker bins or is it actually ok to just, say, put your towels directly on the shelf in your closet :-)
YoungHouseLove says
It’s all about whatever floats your boat! We could never live with our doorless linen closet without some bins for organization since they’re kind of like “drawers” to us. They keep everything contained so our things aren’t rolling all over the place and getting shoved into the back of the cabinet. But if you have neat piles of papers or towels that work for you then there’s absolutely no need to bin or basket those things unless you like the look. Just do what makes you happy!
xo,
s
katiethelady says
Love it! Organization posts are my favorite!
Hey, I don’t know if it is bolted down – just a note about your fire safe. One of my friends had a fire safe where she kept the digital copies of her wedding photos and other important papers. When her house was broken into, that was the one thing that they just picked up and walked out with. Nothing valuable inside, but they thought it was. Her advice to me was either bolt it down or leave it unlocked. Heaven forbid this should ever happen to you, but it was just something I had to share because it never occurred to me!
YoungHouseLove says
Great tip! We actually keep our safe unlocked with the key in it (since it’s just for fire safety and our real “valuables” are stored at the bank in our safety deposit box). The bolting it down idea is a good one though. Maybe we’ll toy around with that (once we’re sure it’s in a spot where we’ll keep it for the long haul of course). Thanks for the suggestion!
xo,
s
Miranda says
In reference to the suede pants — I LOVED DELIAS! That was the stuff in middle school / high school. lol
Miranda says
OH and the before pictures are what my “clean” closets look like. haha
Amber says
The wrapping paper/stationery storage idea is genius and I’m totally stealing it! Right now I have my wrapping paper in an umbrella bucket thingy and my stationery in a small cabinet from IKEA, but it’s not ideal! I like your idea better!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ambernussbaum/761032091
Dana @ House*Tweaking says
I’m scanning my house for a possible door to cover its backside in baskets. Seriously, that gift-wrapping station is awesome, Sherry! And, to your credit, your younger blonder self is standing in front of some painted brick…or so it seems.
YoungHouseLove says
The funny thing about that fireplace is that it was actually made from white brick so it was unpainted but had the same effect. Isn’t it funny how things come full circle? Oh the irony.
xo,
s
Nicole says
Is someone…dare I say it… “nesting”? Aside from your usual productiveness… : ) Great ideas!
Colleen says
Aw, nesting ….. :) Believe me, it gets worse!
Maresa says
Totally random comment…IF there ever were a fire in your house it is best to have your fireproof safe on the lowest level of your house. This way it won’t fall through the floor in event of fire. Moving that into your finished basement would help clear up even more floor space in the closet.
YoungHouseLove says
Great tip! Maybe we’ll move it down there and free up even more closet space!
xo,
s
Wehaf says
I’m just glad to see you took the transphobic comment out of your post, even though it was a reference to someone else’s comment!
Kelsey says
I am so inspired!