Have you ever sat in the middle of your house and wondered how in the world you were going to get your space organized? Where should you start? Will it make a difference? Is it overwhelming not knowing how to begin. That is precisely where my client this week was. She has a toddler and a baby…enough said. She didn’t have hoards of things all over her house. She didn’t have a dirty house. She just had stuff and hadn’t quite figured out how to fit it in her space. She had stuff she had been given from others and needed to make a space for those items she had not intended on bringing into her space.
We worked very hard together all week and I think we were very productive. I was super impressed with the way she was able to make decisions quickly on whether to keep or get rid of items. She was open to ideas I had and willing to let me move around entire rooms of furniture to help her space function just a little better. We ended up pulling several bags of trash out of her home. We piled up about 5 boxes/bags of items to donate and we accumulated 3 huge bags of clothing and one large bin of items for her to sell at the upcoming consignment sale. We overhauled her laundry room/pantry, kitchen cabinets, playroom, son’s room, daughter’s room and her hall closet.
Here are some before and afters from our project.
I think ONE WEEK of work entirely changed her home. We have plans to complete the house project and finish with her master suite and the garage. I believe she will be able to keep her space organized and have a more positive happy mindset now that we’ve worked to make her house neat and pretty!
I think my client would definitely say these spaces are both Neat & Pretty now that we’ve had a chance to work on them together. Hopefully this will inspire you to get started on a project of your own!
AWESOME work!!
Thanks Lindsay!
I always want to tackle the big things–the hugely disorganized craft room/pantry, for instance–and then I get overwhelmed and discouraged by the end. I end up with a box of miscellaneous stuff that starts to grow into a big mess again. My kids and husband will be out of town for a couple days this week and I’m going to try to organize the top of my wardrobe, the kids’ stuffed animals and my dh’s desk top (it’s his desk, but somehow it has a bunch of MY stuff on it!)
It is hard to tackle projects when you have kids around. It just is. So cut yourself some slack there and know that it’s normal. Especially when it’s a project that is in the middle of the hustle and bustle of your home. Start small and do one thing that you know you can finish. It will be rewarding to go back and see that space finished. And if it’s a large project, like your craft room/pantry, maybe it’s time to enlist a friend for help. They often can get you through the hump of “i’m just over it and i’ll leave it as it is” when you’re tired and don’t know what to do with the last part. Find someone who has a project to do as well and help each other. I think this is exactly where this client I blogged about was. She had good ideas but was just having a hard time completing them. So she called me and we got it finished. Let us know how it goes!
I had to come back to this today. It’s easy to be satisfied with my house as “lived in”–the way your clients house looked before. Not a disaster, but you can see busy people lived there. That’s how a lot of my house looks…this is a super inspiring before/after for me. It looks neat, pretty AND doable!
I think that’s how many people feel Jeni. And believe me…my house has many days where it looks lived in and I leave it. But sometimes getting it organized is going to save you time and money and that’s something a mother always seems to need more of. A couple of tips…similar containers make things look and feel more organized. Grouping like items helps make things more visually pleasing and look more organized. Try to implement these two things and see how that helps. If you work on a project I’d love it if you take before and afters to share! Good luck!
Can I ask you were you found the storage organizer at the bottom of your little girls closet? I love this idea but am having a hard time finding one that lays horizontal rather than verticle.
Olivia, that is a simple 4×2 cube shelf that my client purchased from Target. It can either be horizontal or vertical. I believe they are the rubbermaid brand. Ikea also sells a larger version of this that can be both horizontal or vertical. Hope that helps.