Organization Puts a Mind at Ease

Maybe it's just me but does anyone else feel like their life is out of control when things are unorganized? Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those that labels every single thing and has it all in it's perfect spot. I mean don't even think about opening up some of my dresser drawers because you could get lost in that chaos, never to return. But in general, I like everything to have it's place. I've lived in a smaller home for the better part of 10 years now so it helps with the clutter if everything has a relatively good place to go. 

So this weekend, I had plans to rearrange our living room. It has never really felt right to me. Just average. And who wants to be average? {cue my favorite commercial right now}

More on that next week once I figure out a few things. It's a process for sure. But one that will not defeat me. 

So after I felt completely deflated and like nothing was accomplished other than cleaning the house, I decided to tackle a smaller, perhaps more satisfying project: cleaning out the art armoire. 

This used to be where I worked in our last house because I needed the ability to close it off. Since moving in to Schrallville, we've moved it in to the living room and I use it for storage, specifically for art supplies, painting supplies and sewing. It's a great way to organize all of our "arts and crafts" as Charlie likes to call them. I keep the kid's puzzles, crayons, markers, play doh, sidewalk chalk, coloring books, etc. in here.   

It was organized at one point and I used tension curtain rods to store my ribbons. But then it turned into this...

Better known as chaos. 

The tension rods were a good idea in theory but they wouldn't stay as well as hoped and were knocked down frequently. Plus they got in the way. Perhaps I have too much ribbon? Nah. No such thing. We'll blame it on the rods and location. 

I decided to move the ribbon to the laundry room. I had this space below our shelf and behind the washer/dryer that was empty. We thought about putting another shelf there but haven't really gotten around to it. 

So that big blank space was perfect real estate for the ribbon. I bought eye hooks to hang from the wooden shelf, which just screwed in. 

Once I put up the eye hooks, I used zip ties and dowels to hang the ribbon. 

I actually tiered down the dowels so I could have access to all of them at one time. This was easy because I just used extra zip ties to make it longer. I love a zip tie. I could technically use string or ribbon but the zip ties hold the dowels better in my opinion. 

So now the laundry closet looks like this...

And my Art Armoire looks like this...

And the best part? The project was CHEAP! 

$1.57 per dowel ($4.71)
$1.18 eye hooks
$7:35 zip ties (but it's a HUGE bag because I was out)
$13.24 Grand Total (assuming you don't have zip ties)

Not bad for an hour of work. Seriously, it really helped me feel like order was placed back in my life and I could proceed with the holiday weekend. 

The laundry closet still has tons of real estate I can use with additional shelving but I'll get around to that later this summer. In the meantime, anyone need a bow or a present wrapped? 

P.S. yes, I totally organized most of it by good 'ol ROY G BIV (the top two rods)