Before & After Photos :: Organizing Wonders

Archive for Before & After Photos

Get Rid of the Kitchen Table

By Tanya Whitford, CPO® on January 28, 2016 No Comments

Recently I worked on a small kitchen with someone who loves to cook. The only problem was there was less and less room to do the actual cooking as counters and spaces filled up with different foods, cooking utensils, and books. For most people who love to cook, getting rid of beloved kitchen items, even if only used once a year, is near impossible. I knew that would be the case here.

Before

After

What we needed in this kitchen was better storage. Underneath a large pile of food and serving dishes was a small table and chairs that had been there for years. It had only been used to pile things on top of or hide things under. The dining table, where everyone actually ate, was in the next room and not even 10 steps away rendering a 2nd table so close unnecessary. I suggested we get rid of the kitchen table and get a storage closet with doors to create the storage we needed. Despite not having used the table in years, there was still some hesitation about getting rid of it. Everyone needs a kitchen table- right? But unless some serious purging happened, there simply would not be room in this small kicthen to keep the things they wanted and still have counter space.

So, we found the perfect size storage unit with doors at the nearby Lowes and put it together. We marveled at all the new possibilities we had as we filled up the unit, using the shelves to group like items together with large spaces to put things like crock pots and lunch coolers. We straightened up the bookshelves which gave them new life and more space. We made sure all the food was still fresh and worth saving. In the end, we unearthed counter space and cleared off a small cutting board island that had also been covered and unusable.

In an afternoon, we were able to create the space needed so this cook could get back to cooking! If you have small spaces and big passions, you sometimes need to look at things a different way. You may never have a completely empty counter like you see in magazines. Bringing a garage storage unit into your kitchen and getting rid of your kitchen table might not sound like a good idea- but in this case, it was the perfect solution!

After

Before

Categories : Before & After Photos, Kitchen

From Newlyweds to Expecting

By Tanya Whitford, CPO® on August 4, 2014 No Comments

Before- Newlywed Nook

By the time I celebrated my one year anniversary- I was 4 months pregnant. My life as a newlywed ended before we ever used most of the stuff we got for our wedding. I had so carefully utilized this wonderful built in bookshelf in our small apartment. It had all the things people joining their lives together might have- photo albums, yearbooks, CD collections, games, pictures, and liquor leftover from our wedding.

Once I was pregnant, a lot of things had to change. There was no room in our apartment for a nursery. The crib would have to be at the foot of our bed. The stroller would have to be in our living room. And the wonderful built in shelves would have to become “the baby nook”.

In order to make room for baby, we had to deal with our own stuff. Yearbooks and never looked at photo albums were boxed up to store in the closet. Cds collections were wittled down. Liquor was given to friends. Things we no longer used were given away. It was a lot of work, but soon I had a blank canvas to create the baby nook!

After- Baby Nook

What fun I had! I got an assortment of bins from Target, Lowes, and The Container Store to meet my needs.

I used big pull out cube drawers along the top row for things like sheets, extra toiletries, 6-9 month clothes and 12 month clothes.
Medium pull out drawers for towels and washcloths and breast pump supplies.
Bins for bibs & burp cloths, toys, teethers and blankets.
Small baskets for diapers & wipes and lotions & soaps.
Little drawers for grooming, hair accessories, medical necessities.
Shelf space for pregnancy books, picture books, diaper bags, slings, extra diapers, and wipes.

To complete the nook, we bought a white dresser from IKEA that was the perfect height and size for a changing table and we securely attached a baby changing pad to the top. The drawers were divided with IKEA Skubb boxes which are great inexpensive drawer organizers. I labeled them with things like “short sleeve onesies”, “long sleeve onesies”, and “pjs”.

The baby nook worked out really well. Everything was labeled making it easy for other people to help with the baby. My husband, who was new to the whole world of organizing, had to admit that this really made things a lot easier as we learned to be new parents. We have moved on to a bigger space and a bigger family, but that baby nook proved that small spaces can be highly efficient when properly organized.

Categories : Before & After Photos, Helpful Products, Kids

School Year Paper Purge

By Tanya Whitford, CPO® on June 16, 2014 No Comments

My first year with a child in elementary school is over and all I can say is- what a lot of paper!! My memories of kindergarten include learning to spell “cat” and nap time. Things have really changed since then. I was surprised by the sheer volume of paper that came home. My daughter had a lot of homework which she thankfully enjoys. (Sure hope that lasts for the next 16 years!) And there were tons of flyers for activities and fundraisers all year long. So that you don’t drown in a sea of papers by the time your child reaches third grade, you need to purge. And right after school gets out is a great time to do it!

I purged the school flyers during the year as the activities passed, but stored all her school work in a drawer in my office. We pulled the tower of papers out and set up some sorting space in the living room. We decided on 3 piles: To Keep, Send to Grandma, and Recycle. We talked about how to decide what went where. She liked Presidents and wanted to keep all papers on them. I suggested we keep any home work where she was writing her own sentences. We decided together that we didn’t need to keep basic worksheets or projects that weren’t special. Then the sorting began!

Half way though the pile, after learning what things she liked to keep and didn’t like to keep, I asked her if she wanted me to help her and she did. I pulled out all the homework and scanned them for the pages wher After e she wrote sentences and we let the rest go. She focused on the art work and what she wanted to send to grandma. She even said that this was fun. (She is an organizer’s daughter after all =) The sort pile dwindled and we were done in 45 minutes. We ended up with a small envelope of memories, an envelope to mail to grandma, and a big pile of paper to recycle.

You could certainly purge your child’s homework yourself, but then you miss the opportunity to teach a very valuable life skill and learn what is important to them. The ability to sort through your papers and belongings and decide what is important to you and what you can let go of is a skill that helps people through all stages of life.

Categories : Before & After Photos, Kids, Paper

The Dumping Shelves

By Tanya Whitford, CPO® on May 5, 2014 No Comments

Before

On the way out the back door, we have some great shelves to store all kinds of stuff. They hold everything from cat supplies to bubbles, extra food, beach towels, computer bags, and linens- all out of view behind curtains. It is the ultimate catch all. It started out so nicely organized. And then life got busy, things got crammed in, and it became a humungous junk drawer. I thought the shelves would soon buckle from the weight. I longed for the day when I would have time to re-do the whole thing.

Finally- I found the time. Well, more like I was avoiding doing something else! Luckily the skeleton of the previously organized closet re-emerged once all the excess was purged. Why am I saving all these lunch boxes when the lunch boxes I actually do use are in the kitchen? Maybe all the things in the “Take to Garage” bucket should actually make it to the garage. I don’t even like candles. Why do I have so many and thank goodness my mom wants them and will take them! Are these little drawers still full of crap from my refrigerator door 5 years ago when we moved?! Somehow the new refrigerator got its own set of magnets and photos and left the old stuff in the dust.

After

Every once in awhile, we need to revisit our things and lighten the load. It felt so good to finally go through an area that had been driving me crazy. Some things were donated and given away. Some things were returned to their proper homes. And some new ideas emerged. Why not use an empty tissue box to drop all the E-waste, like batteries and cords, until I am ready to recycle them properly. The little box I had before was just too small. Now I have a lot of extra space- almost an entire shelf! It feels really good every time at look at it which is the complete opposite of how it used to feel. We all have some area of our homes that become a dumping ground. Take that time to undo it, organize it, and lighten your load both physically and mentally. It is so worth it!

Categories : Before & After Photos, Simple and Organized

Organizing the Desk Junk Drawer

By Tanya Whitford, CPO® on December 2, 2013 No Comments

Before

Just for fun, I thought I’d organize the junk drawer in my husband’s desk with my 5 1/2 year old daughter. These are the crazy things organizers do for fun! When a desk drawer is jammed full of seemingly random items, the drawer loses all functionality. Searching for items lost in the drawer just makes it more of a mess- and you probably won’t even find what you thought was in there.

My daughter and I pulled out the desk drawer and put it on the floor. Then we quickly got to work. Here is what you should do:

Empty the drawer putting everything in groups of like items. All the pens together, receipts, coins, etc.
Throw out/recycle any broken or no longer useful items. (Donating useable items if possible of course!)
Purge or at least organize your business card collection into a more useable system- even if that just means putting all the restaurants in one pile and colleagues in another.
Relocate any items that don’t belong in the desk drawer.
Use small baskets, check boxes, extra food storage containers, ziploc bags- whatever you have on hand- to separate and store each grouping of items.
Like a puzzle, fit all the small storage pieces you are using back into the drawer with things used most in the front and things used least in the back.

After

My daughter enjoyed sorting things and figuring out what would be best to store each category. In less than 10 minutes, we had a beautiful looking desk drawer, my daughter learned some valuable organizing skills while having fun with mommy, and my husband got a desk drawer he can actually find things in!

Categories : Before & After Photos, Kids, Simple and Organized