Using vertical Space with built-ins

When we looked at what would become our house 5 years ago this is the living room we saw!  Striped walls, wallpaper boarder, an awkward layout with furniture too large for the space.  It looks cute and cozy in the pic but we new we would have to change a couple of things.  

First things first -  We removed the wallpaper and painted over the stripes.  The mantle was next to go.  My awesome Father in law salvaged one from a demo house down the road from his house and we got a beautiful solid piece mantle (below).  With the removal of a pellet stove (because they are dirty and unsafe with kids around), a little molding and a new granite hearth we had what is pictured below.

And this is how it sat for almost 3 years!!  Last summer hubby and I finally got our act together and tackled the long planned project of the built-ins surrounding our fireplace.  The building itself only took about 3 weekends but the planning, researching and budgeting took several years.
As with many of our projects I start by thinking "how much would I pay someone to do this?"  I was thinking I would put $1000 into it so I got an estimate.  $2200 per built in because it was an extra wide width.We basically needed 2 "boxes" in each opening.  NO WAY!!!.  

Side note:  I HATE bringing contractors into my house to do construction because we rarely see eye to eye on design and they don't live the space nor care how we use the space to listen to my opinion.  That is why we end up doing everything ourselves.

I drew out the design, came up with a cut list and voila!  Our vertical office space.  Each side is actually a hutch on top of a desk for "easy" installation.

I wish I had photos from during the project but I am still fairly new to this blogging stuff and I didn't have the foresight to take the pics.  Sorry!

Look at all the stuff we can display and store.  Now I just have to focus on not OVERstuffing the shelves.  Just because you have the space doesn't mean you HAVE to use it.

Cleaning can be part of organizing

Ok, so most of you know my obsession with organizing and some of you know my obsession with searching you tube for quick tips and tricks for organizing, cleaning and design.  I used to watch a lot of HGTV but since we cancelled cable and time is at a premium 5-10 min you tube clips are actually more effective and efficient at telling me what I need to know.

Today's blog is more about cleaning than organizing (though I must admit I have done clients' dishes before).  I follow several organizing "vlogs" and these following tips have significantly reduced the amount of time I spend cleaning.  YAY! more time to organize!

1. Tip:  Use baking soda and vinegar to whiten your whites.  Bleach is SO last decade.  I found that if you put a half cup of baking soda directly into the washer drum with your whites and a half to a cup of vinegar into the fabric softener dispenser and put the wash on warm/cold soak you can eliminate dingy staining and stinky body smell from sheets, pillows, undershirts and sometimes even socks and underwear   (Some of you know that I can't smell so you are wondering "how does she know!" Since I started using this method I haven't heard a peep from hubby who used to complain his shirts smelled rotten after they came out of the wash.)  After a good soak put the load through a regular wash on warm or cold water only. 
1. Bonus: No more need for HOT water for your sheets. All yuckies are taken out by the vinegar and baking soda. 
2. Bonus:  This is how you would clean your washing machine.  Now the machine is getting cleaned WHILE my laundry is getting clean!!  Gotta love the 2 birds thing.
   
   
2. Tip:  Use microfiber cloths with only water to clean your windows in NO time flat.  I used to toil away at cleaning my windows (inside and out) and it would take so much time just to do one that I saved it for when I did deep cleaning in each individual room.  As a result I never had a full house of clean windows.  Only one room's worth or a couple of windows would be clean at a time.  NO MORE!  I can clean all of the windows (inside and out) in just over 30 min with a bucket of warm water, a little vinegar and a clean microfiber cloth.  I used to use Windex and paper towels and I'm pretty sure at one point I used a whole roll for my living room widows. Gross and wasteful.  That is when I was introduced the microfiber cloth.  I LOVE IT for all kinds of cleaning.  Counters, windows, dusting.  Anyway, without sounding like a microfiber ad. the cloth is easy to rinse and wring out until almost dry, just wipe and repeat.  No more wasteful paper towel or ammonia smell in the house (heh, just vinegar smell)  Doesn't bother me though.  Super fast and effective that I find I do it more often and the job gets easier each time because the windows don't get as grimy.
   
   
3. Tip:  Clean your microwave and sponges with no effort, in 5 min.  So I have to admit I don't clean these items on a regular basis as you can see from the before pic I took.  I just throw away grungy sponges and the microwave is SO easy to ignore with the door closed that I just don't do it.  But I'm always embarrassed if a guest goes to use the microwave.  NOT ANYMORE!  Tonight I cleaned my microwave.  I had heard of microwaving lemon and its juice on high for 5 min and I had heard of disinfecting your sponge in a similar way so I combined the two.  You know, 2 birds like!  And it worked!! Give your microwave a lemon spa treatment. (the hardest part was remembering to pick up a lemon at the grocery store)

This microwave has been splattered like this for over 2 months.  Gross!

                  
1. Cut a lemon in half and juice it into a bowl with a couple cups of water in it. 
2. Throw your sponge in with the water juice mix and the juiced lemon halves.
3. Run your microwave on high for five minutes
4. Be careful everything will be REALLY HOT so use oven mitts to remove the bowl.  After cooling the sponge under running water (I never touch the sponge until it has been thoroughly cooled. Remember water IN the sponge will remain hot so be careful when you squeeze the excess water out)
5. Simply wipe (no elbow grease needed) the grime away.  I did wipe the dish in the sink but no scrubbing was required.



VOILA!  A sparkling microwave (and germ free sponge, not pictured)





I hope these tips help you to get your cleaning done faster so you can have more time to do what you enjoy (whether that is organizing or not).    If you have any blog requests or ideas.  Spread the knowledge and post in the comments below.




Thanks for your interest in my blog.

Julie, Little Yellow Ranch 

Laundry Room Redo - Get it all off the floor!

Ok, I know ANOTHER laundry make over.  Well here it is.  It has taken me many hours of painting, cleaning, clearing, selling, and donating and my unfinished basement laundry room went from storage nightmare (below) to a dedicated laundry/cleaning area.

Of course these pictures don't do the doom and gloom justice but you get the idea. Stuff, Stuff, and more Stuff!  I had to work around pipes, bare rafters and a gross utility sink.  At least I was able to start off with an AWESOME new washer and dryer (funny that you can barely see them in this mess).  

So I got to clearing out.  Big time!  And I found that there is absolute truth to the observation that things in the basement are just delayed decisions.  I probably brought 3 car loads to the dump. Freecycled a ton of items and put, in a neighborhood tag sale, all of the small items I thought were worth something (basically all of the baby items).  All that, a coat of paint and a weekend project laundry sorter brought to life by my handy hubby and VOILA!

The first thing I did was paint.  Using an old can of yellow paint that I no longer have in any rooms upstairs I was able to eliminate the nasty cement/drippy, basement feel to the walls and use up a gallon of paint I no longer needed to store..  Yes the walls are still cement and they are gross but at least it isn't the first thing you notice.The final part of the laundry room, the part that pulled it all together is the build my husband did for my 'sorter'.  

I was using 2 of the 3 sectioned laundry sorters (one of them similar to pictured below and one of them had a hanging rod and upper shelf.  They were visually imposing and I found I never used the upper shelf or hanging rod.  I have a drying rack I use for air drying already.

I drew out a design for my husband to engineer and for less than $90 ($60 for the baskets and less than $30 for the lumber) this is what he built.  I added a metal shelf to the right for extra storage and small sorting bins.  One for my microfiber clothes (a load that needs to be done seperate from all others) and my rags/ old towels.

The labels I designed.  I love the shape and color!

I was also thinking ahead to when the kids (and maybe husband) would be doing the laundry.  

SO... 

... I wrote instructions for what clothing items fit into the category and what setting to dry the load on.  Now anyone who can read can do the laundry!

By the way.  I still have space for my folded up air dryer and my extra sorting bins if needed.  When not needed they take up VERY little space.

What laundry room isn't complete without a folding table?  I just used a small folding table and put shelving above it for dryer items (dryer sheets, tennisballs, and clothespins), overflow cleaning supplies and an iron. Everything fit perfectly.  I was even able to fit all of our luggage under the table for easy grab and go access.

For a final touch I hung a framed poster I had, but didn't fit anywhere else, up from the rafters.  It's the perfect final touch to cover up a large eyesore of cables and ducts.  And, almost like I planned it, it matches the yellow walls.

Again ...

Before

After

If you have any tips or tricks as to how you keep your laundry room in order please comment below or tag me in your blog.  Thanks from The Little Yellow Ranch!

Zero footprint little girls vanity

Before

If you know my daughter you know that she is a girly girl.  At age 3 she fully accessories outfits that she puts together with whatever and however she wants.  She has her own style and as someone with very little style I love it.  I can't shop without her because if she doesn't let me know what I should buy for her I will end up returning everything or spending a ton of money on stuff she won't wear. Not economical! 

Anyway, I knew that I wanted her to have a little girls vanity but all the "toy" vanity I saw were crazy expensive AND had all kind of bells and whistles I knew she didn't need.  I really feel that the simpler the toy the more imagination a child can add to it.  

At first I found this little gem at our transfer station in the plastics area. FREE is always best! It didn't make noise and the small accessory pieces were missing but I put that in the positive column.  So I picked it up and scrubbed it sparkling clean.  She LOVED it but I hated the HUGE foot print for not a lot of function.  YES, even kids toys should have function.  Every time I cleaned her room it was ANOTHER bulky item I would have to lift onto the bed so i could clean the floor. A couple months later I need to find another solution.  My husband wanted me to keep it so I put up with if for a little while longer but I knew that I could do something for cheap that she could grow with.  Something she would enjoy even after the princess phase was long gone. 

I observed that she was only really using the mirror part of it.  She had too many accessories to hold IN the vanity so the 3 little drawers were basically going unused.  At a trip to KMart (the only store in our town and that isn't a 40 min drive away, otherwise I would have gone to target) I found their "dorm style" accessories on deep discount.  School had already started so everything was 75% off.  I picked up a small mirror and 2 floating shelves for less than $5 TOTAL!  I pulled out my cricut (a black friday deal from last year that I've barely used), some vynal self adhesive paper from Stampin' Up that I never put to use and my KMart purchases.  

The Result!

My daughter is currently obsessed with dance so I wanted to use that theme on the mirror.  Now she has a mirror and several shelf spaces for display or whatever she wants.  Having her name on the one shelf has helped her to learn how to spell her name and the lower shelf gives her a place to put her water cup at night.  Her bed is low and I didn't want something as deep as a night stand where she might hit her head on it rolling out of bed to come into our room lat at night.

I am so proud of this project.  It is everything I envisioned.  The best part is I used 3M stickys to adhere everything to the wall so I can move it every couple of years as she grows or the bed is raised.  My next project for her:  a ballet bar with mirror wall.  All I have to do is find the wall space, heh.

Why start a blog?

Wow, this is harder than I thought!  I have been wanting to start a blog for about 2 years and for some reason I never went with it.  I thought a Vlog would be fun but I never find myself camera ready or in the mood to get "camera ready".  Tonight I forget about the video and just TYPE! 

This blog is not about introducing ME it's about introducing MY BLOG!  I'm sure you will learn more about me as I continue to write but for now I want to tell you my ideas for this blog.  About a year ago I started  a residential organizing business and called it Little Yellow Ranch Residential Organizing (or LYRRO as my husband and I refer to it).  After bringing the ideas for my business to my friends it was clear how many people could benefit from what I do.  When you have small children, as I and most of my friends do, it is difficult to find the time to keep up with all of the stuff you accumulate and clear out the unused items on a regular basis.  Throw on top of that a SMALL house and you have a recipe for disaster.

Recently I have discovered the motto:  The fewer items you have the fewer items you have to clean

We moved into the house (the Little Yellow Ranch) in late 2007.  That's right the market was about half way tanked and we bought a house.  I wanted so badly to expand our family of 3 and for that we needed another bedroom.  SO we moved from our 2 bed/1 bath apt with no yard to this 3 bed/1 bath house.  Important note: Square footage of both places is the SAME (without the basement we later finished).

The next couple of years are what I will be writing about in this blog.  After having that second child (who, by the way, comes with all her own clothes, toys and opinions for how things are done) I have had to get creative in how we "set up" our home.  Between pairing down both in scale and amount of stuff AND finding storage anywhere you can get it I have been having fun with the challenge.

Between the closets, empty spaces, "finished" unfinished basement, kitchen, sun room, garage, etc in this house there is A LOT to write about.  I hope to incorporate my personal projects and business projects into this blog.  This blog is not just about organizing its about improving your lifestyle and surrounding by fitting your home and finding time for you family.  The less stuff you have the less time you have to spend cleaning it!

'Til Next time

Julie