Beautiful Organizing #2

My first tackle in getting organized was my home office. And, the best way to organize, is to pick an area and go with it. Don't try and organize a whole room you will get burned out and overwhelmed. The first area I choose is the desk.

When I tackle a desk or anything with drawers, I take everything out of them. This is the best way to clean out the clutter and put back just what you want to keep.

It's amazing the crap that accumulates in a drawer. Another thing I do is keep all "like" items together. My stapler, staple remover, and staples are all in one area. Believe me I learned this the hard way. Have you ever had to look in 20 different places for one thing and wonder why it wasn't with the rest of "it's group"? 

Ummm, Yeahhh! I have...Can you say frustrating!!!

I also use a lot of containers especially in areas that have a lot of wasted space. If you have space, then utilize it. And, another thing I do is make labels. Especially for containers or drawers. Then I can see what's in them. So much easier, especially for those of us getting older and can't remember where are glasses are. Oh! they are on our head!! (Yep! I've done that)

I don't keep a lot of files anymore. Just important things like taxes, insurance, owner's manuals, etc. All my bills and banking stuff is paperless. And, I toss receipts once they clear unless it was something expensive and paid with cash. Look how I shrunk this file drawer down. I'd say I have more room for bloggy notes ;-)

The most used drawer in my desk....

I took everything out and measured the drawer for dividers. These file boxes fit perfect.

Oh the feeling of opening something up and being able to see everything. 

Now that the desk was cleaned. I decided to hook up my new printer and clean the little space next to the desk. I knew it wouldn't take long and then I would be done with this whole side of the office.

If you don't know what to do with extra paper that won't fit in your printer. File holders are PERFECT.

Well, isn't that better.

I will blog about my desk accessories in another post. But, here's where I sit to hang with all my bloggy friends :-)

When you are organizing you need to set priorities.

• Set goals
• Establish balance in your life
• Don't be afraid to say "no"
• Prioritize
• Remember that 80% of the time is spent doing 20% of the work
• Schedule tasks ~ Resist surfing the Internet or constantly checking e-mail, Facebook  etc. I know believe me, easier said then done. 
• Make to-do lists. 
• Spend your time wisely

I will be tackling more of my office, and there may be a BIG announcement soon!!

Now it's time to get....

Have a CRAZY BEAUTIFUL week!

Dressed up bookshelves...

Now that it's the new year one of my goals is to finally get some projects done that I've had on the back burner. And, one of these projects was these bookshelves in my office.

I have been wanting to re-do them for awhile and since I just couldn't figure it out it became a catch all. I knew I didn't want to paint them...Love the black! The decision was to paint the back, wall paper, scrapbook paper, stencil...so many options.

The decision I made was to cover it with fabric. I didn't do the back of the shelves on all three bookcases I changed it up. That's how I roll. I like to be different. 

Since I'm always changing things around here I didn't want to do anything permanent. So I went to my favorite craft store....Big shout out to HOBBY LOBBY!! And, bought some foam board. I measured the shelves and the back of the shelves and sketched out the measurements on to the foam board.

Next step was to cut them out. Easy enough, right? NOT!! Do not use scissors they don't work well cutting foam boards.

The best thing to use is a utility knife. I had to enlist the help of hubby because I don't have much strength in my right arm and hand. And, for other reason's he doesn't like me to play with knives. 

And, this is why he doesn't let me play with knives. All I had to do was cut the corners out and if that knife would have slipped it would have been a bloody disaster.

 I'm a hair stylist and cut my hands all the time....I'm not scared!!!!

And, here's where me being different comes in. I'm covering the actual shelves on the two end units. And, the boards fit perfect.

Now that I have them all cut, it's time to add some fabric.

I use spray adhesive and I can tell you this is the best stuff, EVER!! Just don't be like me and spray it working on your floor. I now have tacky carpet. It's OK, we are moving AGAIN in a couple months.

I measured and cut the fabric.

Sprayed adhesive lightly on the foam board.

Laid the fabric over the foam board and smooth it out.

Then I flipped over the foam board and sprayed the edges and corners. Pretty perfect if I do say so myself.

All done...

Now let's see how they look...

I am jumping up and down doing the happy dance...I love them...love, love, love!!

I did the same thing to the center shelf, I just made boards for the back instead of the actual shelves. I did not have to tack anything down. The fit was nice and snug. 

Here's some before and afters of my finished bookshelves...

The shelves are in my office and I'm doing the room with French Vintage, Burgundy and Aqua accents. So I do have a few things to still do but I SOOOOO love my book shelves.

Sorry for the long post. But, I hope you enjoyed it as my as I enjoyed this transformation.

{sorry for blurry photo...I'm working on my photography skills -promise}

Oh yeah...I almost forgot a big one...I'm a new, regular guest contributor over at The Taylor-House . I'm really excited about it and want to give a big "THANK YOU" to Chrissy for having me. 

Hop on over and read about the Dresser that I Dressed Up!!

~Have a CRAZY BEAUTIFUL week~

My Trashy lil Treasure...

A big downfall to downsizing to a tiny lil house (temporary move) is that there is no room for anything. One lil bag can clutter it in no time. And, the worse part is there is no garage. So, everything I do has to be done in the house or on the porch on a nice day and those days are far and few between this time of year. 

So my recent trip to Goodwill sent me into depression :-(

 I will not be re-doing any furniture anytime soon and this makes me sad because I really wanted to buy this beautiful piece of furniture and re-do it. 

Oh how the visions were dancing in my head.

I opted for something smaller...Now don't get too excited!

I spent a whopping 1.50. I have a plan for this little piece of trash treasure.

All I need is a piece of newspaper, tape, spray paint, etching cream and a sponge. 

I plan on using this little treasure in my office and I am going for a French Vintage decor and every thing is off white and black. I haven't figured out the "POP" of color I'm going to use yet. I'm willing to hear any suggestions on a third and maybe fourth color for this room. 

I wiped everything down and let it dry and taped off the flowers. I like the color that they are.

Thank goodness it was a beautiful day and I took full advantage of it by getting the spray painting done.

While I was letting that dry it was time to etch the glasses. I wanted to do a Fleur de lis design on the glasses to match the room. I made my own template. I just found a design online and printed it on a piece of paper and cut it out. 

It was the perfect size for the glasses. I just held it up and it was time to sponge on the etching creme.

I will have to come up with a better template idea the next time. Paper was a little flimsy and stuck to the class when it got wet but overall it did the trick.

It's really hard to take photos by yourself when you are working on a project. I had to do magic tricks to get action photos...LOL

I did have some smears of etching cream but nothing a razor blade didn't scrape off easily. The glasses turned out perfect...OK, maybe not perfect but it works!

Here's my lil trashy treasure...

Now I am able to incorporate my paint brushes into the decor in the room. It keeps them at arms reach and organizes them in a decorative kind of way.

Overall, this was a simple re-do that turned out to be a beautiful piece of my new room decor. 

Isn't it amazing what a lil spray paint and etching cream can do to a lil piece of trash treasure.

And, the total cost was around $7...even better yet!!

My room is getting done one piece at a time (Boy, could this take awhile). 

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN WORKING ON LATELY?

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