Tidying up

Last week this book popped up in my feed on Facebook. "The life-changing magic of tidying up" by Marie Kondo.

I clicked the link which directed me to a book review by a mom/author. I liked what I read and the pictures of origami like neatly folded and color graduated clothing in drawers totally hooked me. 

Like a baited fish, I quickly went to Amazon and ordered the book. On Saturday, the family was gone. Ah, solitude.  Deciding to skip my studio, I  ploppped on the couch with this book and a cup of tea. 4 hours later I was done with the book. Grabbing a pad and pen, I did what Marie recommended; writing what I envisioned my ideal home life to encompass and what I hoped to gain by putting my household in order. 

Now, I am and have always been a regular "cleaner outer" of drawers, closets, etc. having raised three boys in an 1100 sq ft, two bedroom condo for several years, helped me with organizing and cleaning things out regularly. But I still believed there was a better way. Like, who ever thought stacking clothes in a drawer was a good idea? I know I've questioned it over the years. How many times forgetting what articles of clothing were at the very bottom and back of a drawer. I swear this is what always lead to messy drawers as a teen, digging for something at the bottom. 

By 2:30, I dug into my room. Here are a few before and afters...(no pride here in showing my messy drawer!) ;-)

Before of tank top drawer above, which always ended up being my most disastrous drawer. Here is the after...

 I particularly love my organized vintage lace slips that I wear...

I really had to laugh, Marie says in her book that in many clients homes they find the most random stuff in a bedroom drawer and coins are always spread all over the house in odd places. When I started in my first drawer (the catch all drawer of my dresser) I had to laugh... 

In her book she says, how many of the "extra buttons" you save from new clothing, do you just collect. Then when you look at them, you often have zero idea of what they go to or if you even own the article of clothing any more. Wow, truth in this! 

Why oh, WHY is this stuff in a dresser  drawer? Little memorabilia from deceased family members. Sheesh, put it somewhere else where it makes sense...like with the other family memorabilia.  

When Rob came home, he dug my new way of folding so much that he cleaned out his drawers, pitched old stuff, added to my thrift store donation bags and re folded his clothes as I had. Even my daughter decided to read the book and wants to try to apply it to her messy teenage room. 

Hey, this might work after all. Wouldn't it be great to get all three of us on board the tidying train?

Sunday, it was time to tackle the bathrooms. Overall, I didn't have much to go through. But, along with popcorn ceilings, my second least favorite household thing is the UGLY metal medicine cabinets. Circa 1978. Ugh. How could I improve this eyesore and make me actually enjoy using it???

Pinterest to the rescue! All the cool medicine cabinets were either high end modern ones or cool old wood cabinets you see in vintage homes. With wood shelves and beveled glass wood trimmed doors. (Sigh) People often lined them with cute paper and did some decorative painting.  I did like the ones that used chalkboard paint on the inner door. So I thought....how about spray painting the metal, painting flowers and doing the chalkboard paint on mine? So I did...

It was really super fun to do. Really loose flower painting using Martha Stewart multi surface paint. Here it is filled...

Then I did Emily's bathroom...

The family approves and now I don't want to shut the medicine cabinets I use to despise looking inside!

Of course, Marie Kondo might scold me for getting off my tidying track, but a bit of home improvement mixed in was good. 

Next up is my kitchen and hall linen closet...goodness knows what trouble I will get into there...😊