Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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Organizing The House When It Gets Out Of Control

That’s me these days. At least I like to think it is. Checking off those tedious and lingering to-do list items that I’ve been meaning to do forever, and taking names. So how about a Friday smorgasbord post? The funny thing is that just a few days ago we got a comment that said “hey I miss your Dude Get On That Already updates – will those ever come back?” Do you guys remember those? Where I’d finally get around to tackling something that had been sitting around waiting to get done (usually just painting or hanging something) and I’d share a little update – like this wall plaque, this box, this coat hook, and this high chair? Well, the funny thing about that comment is that as I read it I was thinking… I have actually gotten on a few things. What has come over me? Is this nesting? Has my body been snatched? So here are those details…

#1: Ding dong, the dining room table is cleared. You might remember this recent house-tour video which revealed that our dining room and guest room were looking chaotic and cluttered (it’s pretty much a promise that when we work on one room, another room nearby pays the price). Here’s a still shot from that video to refresh your memory:

Dining Before

Well, I finally got my act together and found better spots for stuff. It really helped to get a bunch of the craft stuff that had collected there into my newly organized craft closet upstairs. And I tucked the decorative items into the two bottom cabinets in the living room where I store other vases and cloches and stuff like that. It’s nice to see the wood of the table again. (I won’t tell you how dusty it was before I wiped it down for this shot.)

Dining Room Table

A few folks asked if I thought I’d use this table as a workspace if it were clear since I admitted to using the kitchen table until we get the office whipped into two-people-can-work-there shape. But I’ve found that even with the dining table cleared off I still prefer the kitchen table. I think it’s because I can see Clara playing in the living room more easily from there (the dining room is a lot more isolated due to its layout). But it’s nice to know I can run in there if I want a little more solitude. And that we can actually host people for some fancier-than-the-kitchen-table dinner if we’d like to throw a Downton Abbey-ish ball sometime.

The bad news is that the kitchen counter still pretty much looks like this (minus the crockpot full o’ stew), thanks to our in-progress pantry re-org (everything’s painted, so we’re just waiting for it to dry so we can load in some nice new systems). Sigh. It’s a vicious cycle.

Pantry Food On Counter

#2: I hemmed Clara’s comically long curtains. You can sort of see them in this picture below (I usually tried to just curl them under so it wasn’t as noticeable) – but they were about 6″ too long and although I liked the drapey affect, they were borderline sloppy with so much extra fabric going on at the end.

Curtains Long

So last weekend while Clara played with her dollhouse in the middle of the room and we listened to some tunes, I got to work hemming them with some Heat N Bond hem tape. It probably took me about a half an hour to cut them all and then hem them (I still left them drapey, so they skim the floor a little for that casual vibe) and it feels so GOOD to have that done. Seriously, I’ve asked myself if there’s something wrong with me that hemmed curtains make me feel so accomplished – but I think it’s just one of those things that I thought a million times in the last eight months (“I should really hem those curtains” would pop into my head each week as I put away Clara’s laundry), so it feels great to finally check that box.

Curtains

#3: The extra pieces of our sectional have been sent to greener pastures. Remember how our full Karlstad sectional didn’t fit in our cozier living room, so “honey, we shrunk the sofa“?

WDHunt Karl Change

Well, the random extra pieces that we we haven’t been using (the corner piece and the loveseat-sized end) have just been sitting in our attic under a drop cloth for the last eight months. I even mentioned that we thought about craigslisting them, but “we just figured selling the corner and loveseat to a sofa that’s incomplete without another end piece that someone would have to purchase might fetch us $20 tops” so I said we’d rather hold onto them and see if we had a use for them in the future. It was a completely surprise when someone emailed us months later, and offered to buy them for $250! We hadn’t so much as looked at them at all in the past eight months, so… sold!

WDHunt Karl In House

The funny thing is that it wasn’t a blog reader who wanted them. A woman was just googling around to locate these exact Karlstad pieces (they don’t sell them separately, so she thought she’d never find them) and came across our old post about storing those in the attic. She’s not from around here (lives in Florida, actually) but she had items in a storage unit in New Jersey that she was going to be driving down to Florida in her SUV, so on her way down she swung through Richmond and (miraculously) fit them all into the back. So now we’ve got an extra $250 in our pockets and Karl – er, well the unused portion of Karl – is living a sunnier life in St. Augustine!

WDHunt Karl In Car

 

#4: I donated/gave back/handed down/consigned a bunch of Clara’s old clothes. There were four large bins in this video that I explained were being sent in a bunch of directions (some items were being returned to sweet friends who loaned things to us, some were being donated, some were getting handed down to other prego friends and relatives, and I wanted to try consigning some things as well).

Baby Clothes

So after they sat there for months, I finally got around to donating and passing along everything I had set aside, and I trekked the leftovers to Once Upon A Child (a little secondhand baby store here in town) just to give it a try. Forty five minutes after dropping them off I returned to get a nice little check for $141!

Consigning Clothes

There were a few things they didn’t end up taking, so I swung by another donation box on the way home with the extras, and finally that Corner O’ Bins in the living room is no more. The funny thing is that I dragged those downstairs from the storage room at around 18 weeks pregnant (in anticipation of finding out if this was another girl or a boy, so I could sort through everything). Which means they sat in that corner for over 10 weeks just waiting to be dealt with. Better late than never, right?

#5: Clara’s birdcages are no longer birdless. That’s right, I put a bird on it. Make that six. I noticed that West Elm was having a huge ornament sale about a month ago and they had these gorgeous little colorful birds on clearance.

Ornaments

So for $20 I got six of them, and when they arrived I reenacted Snow White and put them all over my arms used their clips or their ornament loops to make them cozy in Clara’s birdcages. A few of you guys noticed them in this picture on Instagram/Facebook, and I promised an update, so there you go.

Birds Far

I even added a little wood dowel to the grey birdcage since it didn’t have one and I wanted to create a spot for one to perch and another one to hang. You can just barely make it out in this shot (the cut off bird on the right is sitting on it, and the flying bird under that one is hanging from it). That’s what I get for trying to be artsy with my photography.

Birds Detail2

Clara’s favorite is this one right here. She named him Prince Sam Bluebird, and we say goodnight to him every evening.

Birds Detail

And in other update news, our new washer came bright and early on Saturday morning (some of you guys have been asking about it, which is beyond sweet) and it’s a HUGE relief that it’s finally here. I now sing and occasionally pirouette while doing laundry. I’m sure that won’t last for more than a week, but it truly is one of those “you don’t know how good you have it until an appliance conks out on you and you live without it for a while and then the new one comes and it’s broken so you have to wait another week and a half” things.

Laundry After

So those are a few of those “I actually got on them!” updates, along with a little Washer Status Report. I still have a bunch more should-have-done-that-yesterday things bouncing around in my brain, so maybe I should set a future check-in date with you guys to force myself to attend to them. Wanna get stuff done with me? And then we can all reconvene and attempt to hold ourselves accountable to the internet at large? What’s your “gotta get on that” list looking like these days?

Comments

  1. laurie says

    Random, but after seeing the clutter on your kitchen counter, I noticed that you have a container of Trader Joe’s soup – roasted red pepper and tomato. I’m 27 weeks pregnant and that soup has been my craving! My husband may be sick of it but it’s my go-to when I don’t know what to cook. I add in crunchy croutons and it’s amazing! Maybe you don’t love the soup as much as I do and bought it like a year ago and it’s expired or something, but just wanted to share. Lol.

    Reply

  2. Lindsay T says

    I can NOT believe you got that much from Once Upon A Child- Go You! I am in Ohio and our stores are very very picky when we have tried to sell- and I have name-brand items! I always feel like the kid who wasn’t picked in Red-Rover… womp, womp :( Kuddos to you!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Thanks Lindsay! A lot of Clara’s clothes are just Old Navy or Gap clearance stuff, but they seem to like those brands. They didn’t take much Circo/Target stuff though, so I got to donate that :)

      xo
      s

  3. Jillian says

    I bought a whole bunch of those birds from West Elms along with fake evergreen garlands from AC Moore and a decorative birdhouse from Marshalls. I placed them all in my flower boxes in front of my house as place holders until spring planting season. The result is awesome (especially for under $30 total!!!)

    Reply

  4. Christine says

    Did the delay with the washer and dryer let you get the floor trim painted? Silver-lining-style?
    Can’t believe you are getting all this done during an extended-morning-sickness-pregnancy. Pretty incredible! Give yourself a pat on the belly– ur– back, sister!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Haha, I wish! I couldn’t drag my prego butt down there to do more baseboard painting (being on the floor and bending makes the morning sickness worse since it seems to send things back up) but it’s on my as-soon-as-this-kid’s-here list! Our new machines are so much lighter and easier to move than the old clunkers we had, so it hopefully won’t be too bad!

      xo
      s

  5. Lori says

    Once a year, I pick a month and tackle one item off what I call my manini list every day. (“Manini” being Hawaiian slang for something little, minuscule, kind of irritating.) March is that month. I’m creating my list of 31 little things around the house that have been bugging me, and March will be spent getting them done. Usually they’re things that take less than an hour. Sometimes I cheat and skip a day then make up for it by doing two on another day, but they do all get done. I haven’t done much blogging in recent years, but last year I posted by list to my blog and did (almost) daily posts to record my progress, and it helped keep me accountable.

    Reply

  6. Kelsey Noll says

    I have a long “to do” list, but still being in the first trimester of my pregnancy (my first!) I am too tired and sick to get on it. Maybe when I hit trimester 2 in a few weeks? Thanks for the inspiration to start on the little things!

    Reply

  7. Amanda says

    I have so many of things like that around the house…those little chores that I keep saying, Oh I’ll do it tomorrow! and then three months later I get to. I’m so glad to hear that I am not the only one!

    Also, I wanted to thank you for publishing my comment the other day when you talked about your pantry organization. In my comment I shared with you my blog post on pantry organization, and since then, I have gotten nearly 600 hits on that post from your blog! I know that that’s small peanuts for some people, but for my three week old blog, I am thrilled! So thank you again!

    Reply

  8. Kristen says

    My favorite thing to do with decorative birds and bird cages is “set the caged birds free”. I place some on the outside of the cage and I once hung a bird in “flying position” from the ceiling with fish line a few feet away. It sure brought many smiles!

    Reply

  9. Caroline says

    I absolutely LOVE your dining room chandelier. Call me crazy, but it is awesomely charming. Can’t wait to see what you do with that space.

    Love this round up! Make me feel inspired that small tweaks make a huge impact!

    Reply

  10. Rebecca says

    Thank you so much for the motivation today. Gets me excited to start on my list! I also laughed when you mentioned snow white and the birds. I actually had a hummingbird fly into my house this past summer, and as it wildly beat its wings against the window I carefully put my finger underneath it and it hopped on, sat still, and let me carry it outside. I honestly have to say that I gloated about what I termed my “snow white” moment for a very long time. OK…maybe I’m still gloating a little – makes me want to break out in song all over again. LOL
    Finally, just a thought as I look at your washer and dryer space again – ever think about building open shelving on the right side of those cabinets – and extending that cabinet line all the way across?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      THAT. IS. AMAZING. I’m pretty sure you’re the real Snow White.

      As for the washer and dryer, we definitely want to build it out so it’s more balanced and functional! Not sure if we’ll do a hanging bar or shelves or more cabinetry, but I can’t wait to get to that someday!

      xo
      s

  11. Dana says

    Oh my gosh the birds in the bird cage are just way too cute!! I think it adds so much to the already awesome bird cages! Adorable.

    Reply

  12. tara says

    I’m impressed the Once Upon a Child actually gave you that much! Our once upon a child here in AK is not so good at that.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Someone else said that! I think I got lucky since a lot of Clara’s clothes are bought on clearance from Old Navy and Gap, but they seem to like those labels (the Circo/Target stuff not as much, so that got donated).

      xo
      s

  13. Kelly says

    Love the updates that you did. I call them right now in my home “Things to do – when can I find the time…” list. This has motivated me to get my small list done.

    We have cleared out our attic and I am going through the items. (Going down memory lane). Then, my craft closet is going to be a craft room (where our office is now.) And the office will be going into the closet.

    I would like to get these items done before we go on a mini-vacation out east (NC here we come!) When we get back, in April – we are painting our kitchen. White for now (Not liking the hunter green for the past 10 years.)

    Reply

  14. Haley says

    I wanted those birds but saw the sale too late and they only had one kind left! So I’m totes jelly of Clara’s birdcage.

    And I’ve been trying a new thing this month where I made a list of all the nagging little cleaning/organizing projects I need to get on and I’ve been trying to do one a day. I decided to take weekends off but so far I’m 10 items down! I’m usually so all over the place with projects I never finish anything so having the list helps me stay focused on one thing at a time.

    Reply

  15. Wendy says

    Love the birds!

    What are you plans for the dining room? It almost feels a little too casual in your (what I see as more formal) new house. Any thoughts on upgrading to some swanky upholstered chairs in there and moving the old ones to the deck/sunroom?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yup, I’d love to see those chairs in the veranda eventually (oh how fancy I feel when I type that) since they’re actually outdoor chairs. I picture them with a round outdoor table since they feel a little more cramped in the dining room. I also think paint and some built-in updates will help that room – the walls are just bare after wallpaper peeling, so it’s a little rough around the edges in there :)

      xo
      s

  16. Diane says

    I got a major thing done this week that makes me feel so Happy. My little corner where all my quilting supplies and sewing machine has looked terrible. So instead of one more day of unhappy face at it I got busy. I have a wooden corner unit from Ikea and taking a page from you I painted the top a goldy yellow color and the legs white and got a cheerful picture of birds on a wire to hang above it. Then organized all the projects into baskets or plastic containers. I added a low shelf under the picture and it looks so pretty now. I keep walking by and peek in just to assure myself it’s really done and not another daydream!! the best part was it cost next to nothing since I used a lot of things we had and weren’t using.
    Happy Valentines Day!! WE’ll be seeing the Lego movie for a good laugh!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Hmm, maybe try craigslist? Or an online flash sale site like Joss & Main? There’s also overstock.com or wayfair.com. We also created an affordable line of lights for under $99 here, but I’m feeling all awkward and blushy from mentioning that, so feel free to forget I said anything. Oh and sometimes West Elm has some good sales!

      xo
      s

    • heather says

      have you tried overstock? i got most of my apartment lighting from them. not too expensive and i love them! and i get so many compliments on them!

  18. Marianne in Mo. says

    We tackled cleaning glass shades on the light fixtures in the kitchen and dining area the other day. You have to take them apart to clean, so I admit to letting them get noticeably bad before we do it. Takes one of us to keep them balanced while the other dismantles. UGH! To do list is dropping things off to a charity, cleaning the baseboards and windows and making new valances for the bay in the dining area. Once it’s not so chilly in the basement, I want to go thru stored items, some that haven’t been touched since we moved in! The goal there is to see if I locate a few small missing items that have yet to turn up! “I KNOW I packed that thingy, but WHERE DID IT GO??”

    Reply

  19. Myrna says

    Somehow snow inspires me. We have a wall oven and the cabinet above was filled with glass jars of different sizes and about 6 old metal coffee cans. We did not used to have all those handy plastic containers for leftovers, we used jars. I even found a coffee can (1 pound size) with a price on the bottom of $.79 ; that’s right 79 cents. All of it has now been recycled and I have plastic to store plastic containers.

    Reply

  20. Amber says

    I LOVE Once Upon A Child. (I think it must be a chain, because we have them in South Dakota, too.) I try to drop 2 or 3 times a year to unload unused toys and usually come home with $35-$50 each time. So much less time consuming than a yard sale.

    Reply

  22. Susan says

    Great work! I have a list of my own “get on that already” things to do. I’m glad you posted this today, because I think it would be a VERY nice surprise to my husband if he came home from work tonight to all of my completed projects. I’m off to go take care of bidness! :)

    Reply

  23. Kelly says

    Hi! I just love reading your blog and I had two questions! Where is your dining room table from and Clara’s bird cages! Thank you!!!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Thanks Kelly! That table is a local find from an outlet in Richmond called The Dump. I think it was originally made by Haverty’s though. And Clara’s red birdcage is a secondhand find and the black one’s from Hobby Lobby a while back.

      xo
      s

  24. Andrea says

    My first thought when I saw the pantry items on the kitchen counter was, “Ooo…the cats are going to tear into that bread.” And then I remembered not everyone has cats or has to worry about them getting into things. It’s the only time I envy dog owners. :)

    Reply

  25. Darcy says

    I am so impressed you got that much from Once upon a child! My store is super picky, and only takes items that are literally brand new – I swear they can tell if an item was worn 2x – Nope, won’t take it! I love to consign clothes, but both of these boys are MESSY, MESSY eaters! LOL! Last year, I found a consignment shop that took Maternity clothes — And I made about $80 for about 6 dresses and a skirt (unfortunately, when I am preggo, I am incredibly messy, and all my shirts have stains on the belly! — Hmm — now I see where my boys get it!)

    So – how much snow did you guys end up with? My parents in the Philly region ended up with around 18+ inches! They sent me pictures of my poor dad snow-blowing — its CRAZY!!

    Happy Valentine’s Day!! XOXO

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Wow! My dad in Jersey called this morning to say they go 20″! We only got about 5″ but then it rained and packed it all down, and today it’s so sunny and warm it’s all melting. It’s supposed to be in the seventies this coming week here! Such crazy weather…

      xo
      s

    • YoungHouseLove says

      That one was too big/deep to hang over the dresser (we would have hit our heads on it) but I still have it! I love that monstrous thing and would love to find a spot for it somewhere!

      xo
      s

  29. Jennifer says

    I hear you on the new appliances. My dishwasher died in December but I just couldn’t convince myself to pay for a new dishwasher and Christmas at the same time. I figured it was a luxury item since I could wash dishes by hand. Now I finally ordered a dishwasher and it is on backorder. We cook a lot so I’m really tired of washing dishes!

    Reply

  32. kelly says

    I love the birdies. I have a birdcage in my daughters room too..BUT I have a big stuffed owl in there and it always bothered me. Guess what I just bought on west elm about 2 minutes ago?.. A $9 sisal bird (not ornament)…and it’s going to be soooo much better. I’m not sure we will ever come up with a better name than Prince Sam Bluebird, hahaha…

    Reply

  34. Jennifer I says

    I participated in AT’s Jan Cure, but as it turned out, I had done a lot of the assignments leading up to xmas, except for cleaning out my kitchen. So I spent about 12 hours cleaning up cupboards and reorganizing, like you seem to be doing now. I have a small kitchen and lots of stuff, so I now function much better. Kitchens and craft rooms, they attract stuff!

    Reply

  35. Ash says

    Do I spy a new gray lampshade on Clara’s moose lamp?? It was probably mentioned previously and I might have missed it. It used to be a book-project fabric cover, right?

    I was hoping to get “get on it” with our insane basement a few weeks ago, before my boyfriend went into surgery this week. When we remodeled 1/3 of our basement, stuff got thrown into another third and we… haven’t done much with it since, and I hate not being able to find things. Alas, we did NOT get on it (WHOMP WHOMP!) so now I’m delaying it until he is back on his feet in March. My incentive is the big regional Garage Sale Day in May that is put on in my neck of the woods, and I’ve invited a couple of friends to come schlep their stuff from my lawn. Can’t wait to purge the house with some epic spring cleaning!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh yeah, the old shade was a book project but it looked a little crazy with the rug switch, so that’s just a cheap Target one I found. As for he basement, good luck! Garage Sale Day sounds awesome. I WANT ONE OF THOSE in our area!

      xo
      s

  36. Meredith says

    We have the same washer and LOVE it and learned it’s good to leave the top open after washing to make sure it airs out. Hope you guys love it too!

    Reply

  37. Sandra says

    Holy maccaroni! One family’s trash – another person’s treasure, huh?! Nicely done on the couch segments and Clara’s clothes! I love when that happens!

    How cute are those birds? Awwww! Great ideas!

    Reply

  38. Keeley says

    We’re in a new (to us) home and our list is a mile long. We’re almost eight months in and we still have rooms filled with boxes (at least they’re upstairs bedrooms) and unpacked clothing (I guess it’s time to donate those!).

    Our entire home needs to be painted (it’s completely white) and we’re slowly updating fixtures. Our garage is also a disaster area. The cars just barely fit in there and we’re waiting for the weather to break (we’re just got about 14″ of MORE snow in DE) before we tackle the garage.

    Ah, home ownership. You two inspire me. My husband and I work full time and don’t get projects completed as quickly as you do, but reading your blog convinces us that we can do this stuff… with a toddler.

    Reply

  39. Kayla says

    I am totally with you on getting on those like 20 minute tasks that keep getting put off. We moved into our new house two months ago, when I was about 16 weeks pregnant. Now at 25 weeks, there is still a lot to do, and a lot of getting ready for baby especially since this is our first!! I love these little posts, they are inspirational!

    Reply

  40. Micalla says

    How crazy is it that someone a) needed the exact piece of Karl that was no longer needed with the new casa b) happened to have a storage unit within driving in NJ even though they lived in FL and c) they just so happened to be making a storage unit road trip, so it was convenient to pick up good ‘ole Karl along the way! Makes me want to start singing “It’s a Small World After All”…really fighting self-control right now ;) Happy Weekend!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I know, it’s so crazy! When she emailed and I asked if she was local and she said Florida, I thought “well, that won’t work” and then she said “wait but I’ll be passing through…” – it truly was meant to be!

      xo
      s

  42. katrina says

    I love posts like these! I have my own list of things to accomplish over this long weekend, and this is inspiring. Wish me luck!

    Reply

  45. Kimberly | Turning It Home says

    Your Karlstad story is so ironic it’s comical. Here’s why: I live in Florida and our Karlstad recently broke (the particle board in the arm, but it means there’s one side of the couch we cannot sit on) and I am on the hunt for a replacement arm, since I am not able to make a warranty claim (the downside for buying a couch for 50% off used).

    Reply

  46. Laurie says

    Oh man, I have two walls left in a room to paint and it’s starting to be one of those, “I can’t do anything else until I at least finish that!”

    I think some of my local friends and I should start a round-robin party where we all show up to each other’s house on different Saturdays and help push us over the hump on these projects.

    Reply

  47. Belinda mcbride says

    Well, thanks are in order! After being snowed in for 2 days and reading your latest post, I am now working in my to do list and cleaning out my garage. I’m halfway done and I feel so good already! Thanks for the inspiration!

    Reply

  48. Lux says

    Yay for your new washer and dryer! We moved into our new home in October but were refinishing our garage with finished pot light ceilings and epoxy floor and lots of stalling from the city on permits, so we just got our washer and dryer hooked up yesterday!! (I did like 10 loads!) I’m curious BTW how Sherry gets the close out of the top loader with the baby bump… It was a struggle for me while doing laundry at my MILs. Also not having laundry is awful when you are pregnant and your wardrobe is limited to just a few outfits.

    I’ve been getting some inspired motivation from your posts lately. My husband and I also have a baby boy due in April . Your nursery post made me go uh-oh… I need to get going!! But I’m close behind you as I have the furniture and just found the perfect rug that “really ties the room together”! Checking off little things really does feel good, especially since those are the things that are easier to put off. How cute are those birdies?!

    Happy Valentines Day!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Thankfully I have been ok with standing sort of sideways and unloading so far! I’m getting bigger by the minute though, so it’ll probably get more complicated in the next 9 weeks!

      xo
      s

  50. Carrie K says

    One word: Closets. Dude, I need to get on those already and make sure they’re using space smartly. I also want to organize our storage area, again, to use space smartly and see how much free space we actually have. Thanks for the ol’ kick in the pants to get on it!

    Reply

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