Quick Fixes

I have been on an organizing binge the past week due to a little inspiration from a recent renovation in our apartment. For those who have visited, you have probably noticed {or heard me constantly complain about} our bathroom. It's been "under construction" for the last three years, and we have FINALLY completed the work!! We now have a bathroom without leaking ceilings and we no longer have to shower in a hall of shower curtains. For those of you who may not have witnessed the torment of the last three years, you're not missing anything, however you can join in on my excitement, YAY!!! 

With this recent change came so much motivation for me to tackle other areas of our home. We had to do some significant cleaning {on a Friday night! Ugh} because of all of the dust that accumulated with the work on the ceiling. During this clean sweep, I noticed several little areas in our apartment that needed a touch with the organizing wand!

{Three organizing projects, two hours, one happy Stefanie :) }

Our bathroom cabinets were the first place to address. Brit and I have three mirrored cabinets that we share. One is strictly his, one is strictly mine, and then we have one that we share {and use most often}. As surprising as it was to me, mine was the one that needed the most work! I had significantly neglected some areas, such as where I keep my hair "things" and lip "stuff". 

{This was just inexcusable on my part}

I was using a tupperware container to store my lip-glosses and lipsticks, as well as hair clips and barrettes. It wasn't ideal, but realistically, it worked. However, in my quick organizing binge, I replaced the tupperware with some clear containers I had around the apartment. I love the "new", clear, containers because they allow me to see what I have and keep the area organized. 

{All the hair supplies are stored nicely, and my lip supplies fit snugly in their new home.}

Happy and satisfied with my quick reorganization, I went to return my tupperware containers to the tupperware drawer. I was shocked to find this!!!

{Tupperware Catastrophe!}

Now I could blame all of this on Brit, since he unloads the dishwasher a lot of the time {I know, my beau is amazing} but, I had just as much to do with this as he did. Sometimes I just don't feel like taking the extra 2 seconds to put things away correctly in the drawer {is that so wrong?}. However, I hated seeing this when I opened the drawer, so I took 6 minutes {yes I timed it}, unloaded everything from the drawer and stacked it up nicely, again. 

{Ahhh, that's better! I stack some lids on top of the tupperware and some underneath. This makes it easy for all of them to fit nicely in the drawer.}

Side note: I used to store my tupperware in my cabinet but it got out of control so easily and it would try to attack me every time I would open the cabinet door. So, it has been banished to the lowest drawer in our kitchen. I didn't want to spend money on all new tupperware {you know the ones with the click lid that advertise how easy they are to store?} Therefore, this was the cheapest solution I could come up with. Do you have any creative, successful ways to store tupperware {without having to purchase all new, fancy stuff?}

After sorting out the tupperware drawer I went back to finish with the bathroom work. There were a few left over supplies and things we didn't use that needed to either be stored or trashed. I went to our "end of the hall" closet, or what some non-city living folk might refer to as a garage or shed. This is where we keep all of the manly things. As well as our laundry soaps {that way we can grab them while running out the door to do laundry} and my winter coats, random yes, but in NYC, you have to get creative. 

{Can you see why this is a space I have avoided for so long?}

This is a closet I have wanted to tackle for some time now but since I don't go into it very much {the top shelf especially} I neglect it and push it off for a "rainy day" {which usually turns into Bravo Marathon Day}. But on this particular day, I was super motivated and on an organizing spree so I decided to take on this closet once and for all {hopefully}. 

We use the space to store our paint supplies, extra paint {for touch ups}, extra tiles from the bathroom and the kitchen, tools and our tool kit, as well as our extra hangers. Just going through and relocating items into a more convenient space made a huge difference and didn't take long at all! 

{Our rarely used supplies are up and out of the way, except the laundry supplies and cooler, which is easy to grab now}

We also had a bunch of little supplies and tools that were difficult to store in such a large space. Then, I got this crazy idea. Instead of returning an unwanted shower caddy that was purchased for our new bathroom, I found a different use for it. 

{Repurposed shower caddy used to store our DIY supplies} 

We have a hook on the side of the closet and this fit perfectly! It easily holds all the miscellaneous DIY things while allowing us to easily see and grab whatever we would need. 

So in just a few short hours, I was able to make a significant difference in three spaces in our apartment. And it was all done for free!! It's amazing what can be done with a little time and some motivation. Have you had any recent organizing inspiration? Have you repurposed anything for organizing? I love to hear about your organizing adventures as well, so please, keep the stories coming! 

Thanks for visiting!