Family Chaos = A New Chair for the Livingroom?!

I must say that I am very fortunate to come from a large family, and have friends that are like family.  I also am blessed to have married a man with an equally large family.  This does, however, create some weekends when we are not home and have to juggle seeing multiple sides of the family.  That is what happened this weekend, so there was no time for home projects because we weren't there.

BUT we did end up with a new chair!  Turns out that Melissa's new house is 6 minutes away from IKEA!  Now I am sure you have heard of Ikea, but the nearest Ikea from our house is in either NJ or LI both of which are about an 1 hour and 30 minutes away from our house, so we have only been there once about 11 years ago.  Well, HOLY MOLY, was I excited the Sunday morning when Mel suggested we go.  I felt like I was at an amusement park.  Even my husband and kids enjoyed it!!!!!!! 

I will have pictures up soon of the new space :)

Linen Closet Chaos

This weekend I decided it was time to tackle the linen closet.

Here is our linen closet:

Honestly, I thought it was organized.  If I had to find sheets or towels, I knew where they were. Then I saw this Iheartorganizing.blogspot.com:

 and I knew that I was organized but not pretty.  So I decided this was my next project. 

I made a list of what this closet had that I wanted.

1. Paint, I love the blue back drop.

2. A shelf for each room. 

3. Nicely folded sheets

4. Labels

5. Extra space for over flow.

So I emptied the closet, sorted and purged.  The usual organizing 101 steps :)

I went to Lowes and bought some paint and BOOM!

Jack painted the inside of the closet.  Someone had to make dinner ;)

I am loving the blue!!!!!  It is so bright and cheery, I enjoyed putting the linens back in :)

Here is the after, isn't she lovely.

In a perfect world all my sheets and towels would be white but this is the real world, and most of our sheets were gifts :) 

So back to my list:

1. Paint, I love the blue back drop.

2. A shelf for each room. Starting at the top shelf: Guest sheets, table linens, towels, our room, kids rooms, extra space.  YAY!

3. Nicely folded sheets

4. Labels - I have to find or make some. :)

5. Extra space for over flow.The lower shelf.  That pillow is getting a cover and moving downstairs to the sofa.  One of the bins on the second shelf is empty !!!!!

Not bad for weekend project.

In case your are wondering I only kept the sheets that had ALL their pieces.  Then I folded them using the "envelope method"  ( not sure if that is what it is called but that's what I call it :)   Basically, I put the pillow case, flat sheet and fitted sheet and put it in the pillow case.  I like it because it keeps everything together .

I've joined the linking party at myuncommonsliceofsuburbia.com and www.abowlfulloflemons.net

Bathroom Towel Chaos

Towel, towels, everywhere.  

It seems like everywhere I look there is a towel.  

They are on chairs, doors, and floors.  I have even found towels hanging on the mirrors.  

Crazy, I tell you.

Enough is enough.  I have decided to get this taken care of and create a towel system. 

( Ok, so I am a little bit of a nut about this )

First, I started by collecting the towels from around the house.

I purchased this peg hanger at the Container Store for about $12.   

Then I, I mean Jack attached it under the existing towel rack. 

( Why is there only one towel rack in a house with four people, I 'll never know ) 

Then, I color coded the towels.  Each family member now has a towel color.  

They know which towel to use and I know who didn't hang up their towel {evil grin}. WIN WIN !!!!!

A couple of labels and Voila!!!!! 

I gave Alex a mini version of my loofah, she loves it :)

 Organized chaos.  There is a place for towel, wash clothes, and loofahs. 

 We'll see how long it lasts :)