Ick Factor

I have a relatively high tolerance for "ick," but I totally discovered my limit last night.  In a surprising bout of after-work motivation, I decided to get started on my basement organization project (that I embarrassingly shared with you here). I was an organizing ninja....

until...

...under a pile of wrapping paper, I discovered a dead mouse.  But, like I said, I have a high tolerance for "ick," so that barely phased me.  We've found one other dead mouse in the house, and a few dead ones outside, but no live ones thankfully.  I think our 2 killer kittens would promptly make them sorry.  What really icked me out, though, was when I tried to dispose of said mouse.  I covered my hand with an inside out plastic bag and several sheets of paper towel and picked up the not so dearly departed.  Well, he left me a gift... of his fur stuck to the concrete floor.  ICK ICK ICK ICK ICK.  I know, not the image you want, so I'm sorry, but I had to vent.  Bleach to the rescue thankfully, but I may be scarred for life.  And I may be a wee bit melodramatic, but at the very least, I was scarred for the rest of the night.

It was a traumatic house evening all around.  When I emerged from the depths of the basement to announce our 'furry' friend to Hubby, the smoke alarm started going off.  On Chopped, they always make the error of not heating up the grill pan enough, so Hubby overcompensated.  Our steak dinner that Hubby was cooking got a little too seared on one side.  In his defense, the inside was cooked to perfection, but it took a while for the smoke to clear.

The last semi-traumatic event involved my jewelry.  Somehow the Hubs walked into the small chest in the bedroom where my throngs of jewelry live while they eagerly await pretty frames to live in.  Well, the jewelry and the dishes and holders and a leaning frame acted like dominoes and all went a-toppling.  Must be a sign- I guess I need to get moving on those frames.

To cleanse your mind of any unpleasant images I may have caused, I'll leave you with a few images of organizational prowess.

via 1,2,3

You Will Not Win, Winter!!

I am solar powered.  Warm sunny days motivate me to get sh*t done (like yesterday- yay!). Can you imagine what dark cold days do to me?  Yup, I hibernate.  By the end of winter, there's usually a butt print on the sofa and I've caught up on all the reruns of my favorite shows (twice).  Every year I vow "not this year!" but I REALLY mean it this winter!!  I have a list of projects 5 miles long and a hubby who's getting sick of my 5 mile long project list taking up room in the dining room and basement. (Sorry Babe!)

The way I figure it, if I vow to you that this winter will be different, then I have you guys to be accountable to.  So here goes!

I have 2 rooms in my sights currently: my bedroom and my basement.  I already mentioned my bedroom in this post , but the basement has been my deep dark secret (pun intended).... until now.

Brace yourself, it ain't pretty:

I'm a gal who always has at least 1 project going on.  Now that we have a house, my projects are bigger, messier, and take up much more room.  oops.  The dining room has been the work room up till now, but that makes it tough to have guests over for dinner.  If you're anything like me, not having guests over, means that the house doesn't get as clean as it probably should...... "Who, me?" Yes, you.  Well, I miss having friends over for dinner and I miss having the house ready to show off to guests (I'm an interior designer here, I see my house as a living 3d portfolio).  So what's the solution to my woes and what does it have to do with the horrific basement shown above?

I'll give you a hint- it involves a LOT of organizing, and some craigslist shopping.

I'm tackling my basement once and for all!  First and foremost, there will be a work/project area with all my tools organized (lets pause for a sec and appreciate those 2 beautiful words: organized tools.... ).  There will also be a dedicated, organized storage area, and a totally reorganized laundry area.  Do you see a trend?  ORGANIZED!!  IF I'm feeling really ambitious, I might actually make the random toilet in our basement feel less random, although I really have no idea how yet.

The first step is the toughest though... purging and organizing.  I forced myself to get this started last weekend and donated about 10 tons of clothes to Savers (like GoodWill or Salvation army).  When we moved, we got rid of a lot (believe it or not), but we still have stuff that we kept 'in case we needed it' that we haven't used in a year.  If I don't remember you exist, you don't need to take up space in my basement.

Once I do a major purge and get started on the organizing, craigslist is going to help me find some pieces to organize and maybe give a little pizazz to my work area.  My dad mentioned that my Grandpa used to use old dressers to hold his tools and such- I love this idea!  Power tools stored in a cool old dresser, maybe painted an awesome color?  Doesn't sound like me at all.

If I'm cooped in the house all winter, I might as well make it productive.  Now I just have to force myself to dig in and do it!

Do you have any cold weather projects planned?

Shedding

At long last, our small shed has become an organizational masterpiece.  Ok, so I may be exaggerating a TOUCH... but it's looking good.

Here was it's pseudo-starting point (I say pseudo because the shed got worse in the time span between these pictures and finally starting the organizational process... oops):

The shed only had 2 steps worth of clear floor space.  Totally functional, right?  Well, that's why I fixed it.

My organizational tools for this project were:

• Peg board and pegs (CAUTION: these are located in separate sections of your friendly local hardware warehouse store.  Peg board can be found with the decorative moulding, and the pegs hang out in the section with the closet organizers.)
• Rake/shovel holder
• Wooden shelf and brackets from my childhood bedroom.

You got a sneak peak of the peg board here, but it's about time to check out the full outcome.

I decided not to repaint the shelves and left them the original purple of my childhood bedroom.  The 2 shelves were once upon a time a single shelf that spanned the length of my bedroom about a foot and a half from the ceiling and was home to my stuffed animal collection.  I was cool like that.

After suffering through the abuse of a child/teenager's room, then getting chopped in half and transported to Massachusetts, the shelves were a little worse for wear.  Sandpaper to the rescue!  I roughed up the edges a bit and made the scratches blend in.

Well, what do you think?