Hexagon Shelving - Nursery Organization & Decor

A baby enters the world weighing so very little (on average - we won't discuss these outliers that make pregnant women cringe) but has so much stuff. I read about and prepped to be a minimalist parent. But baby still needs stuff. And that stuff needs to go somewhere.

We didn't know if baby was a boy or a girl - which was super exciting. Maybe I will write about what made us decide to keep the gender a surprise one day. but that is not the point of today's post. Today, I am sharing one of the ways The Mister and I decided to organize baby's things. Keeping a nursery gender neutral, minimalist-ish, match the rest of my house, but still fit for a baby was a puzzle. Match the rest of your house? you ask... Yes - that is one of the major ways I decorate. I want to be able to shuffle decor and furniture (for the most part) from room to room and have it make sense. 

But the nursery. My baby's first bedroom. I had fun designing it. The place that my little one would play and dream dreams, where we read and giggle and cuddle together. It felt like a holy task - something I was entrusted to take part in.

So I wanted a fun shelving system to hang about the dresser. Something white and a bit whimsical. Before baby was born, Chris cratfted these beautiful hexagon shelves. The math worked out to 33 degree cuts for the shapes. Then we worked together to come up with a grouping that made the shelves just the right amount of spread out on the wall.

We painted them white because it is me and I like white paint. The white matches the moldings in the room, and what we decided to paint the baby's dresser we bought off of Craigslist. That dresser was taken completely apart and rebuilt with better hardware and put together more securely. It is solid. Add a changing pad, a basket for diapers, a few practical things and a few fun things. Ready for baby!

Basket Case



As renters, The Mister and I are limited in many changed we can make in areas that can easily become trashed. This makes me gravitate towards baskets and bins and boxes and other organizational tools.

 

Enter our closet. It's huge and I don't have tons of clothes. You can't really see it in the picture below, but the baskets I had on the shelf stuck out about an inch. And they held all of our hats, scarves, and belts. So there was much digging to find what we were looking for.

 



Just for kicks, here is the other side where the rest of our shoes are held. I'm still trying to figure out ways to organize them. Any tips?

So, we went to The Container Store and sought out baskets that would fit the shelves better and came across these beauties.

The Marche Baskets are wavy wired baskets (and from the pictures it seems that they would be good for the kitchen... but I'm not one for following the suggested uses) and they are awesome. They fit the dimensions of the shelf perfectly. We snagged three of them- one for belts, one for scarves, one for hats.

What do ya think?

Yes, the top shelf is still a bit of a mess and my shoes are stacked on top of each other. But the baskets are great, right? Right....?? I know it may be hard to see past the stuff, but I promise they are much better and much more functional. And they are just plain cool.

Obviously, there is much more organizing to do. And we are working on it. Not only in our closet, but in other parts of the apartment, as well! What sorts of things are you sorting and stacking and shoving in baskets?

Discovered Treasures - Berloy Army Box

Over Easter weekend, The Mister and I traveled to our hometown to spend time with our families. Any time we head back home, we spend time in my dads garage. This trip, it was being cleaned out and reorganized. We have found some pretty cool things before, but this time we stumble across an old Army supply box, manufactured by Berloy.



There were only some spots that were rusted or had paint flaking. The metal container had been retrofitted with the additional lock enclosure. I loved this piece, and all it really needed was a little cleaning up. So, we got to work removing the hardware. Or, Chris because I got frustrated after about 5 minutes of the old screws not cooperating and handed off the tools.

 So, with a little heavy duty cleaner and some elbow grease, this beauty became a place that now holds my envelopes! See that shine?? I debated filling it with other things, but for some reason, I have 6 different boxes of envelopes and all of them are different sizes. Now it sits in our utility room/office on the shelf. My favorite part of this unique piece is that is was FREE.

Any one else find a treasure that just needed a little cleaning up? Or does anyone else have a cute bear that sits beside their desk, guarding their envelopes?

Spring Cleaning - The Closet

My spring cleaning endeavor began during my Spring Break. My biggest (and most obvious) beast to conquer was our closet. Shoes, clothing, bags, and even my jewelry box were sorted through this year.

We needed to get rid of things we don't like/use/want this year mostly because we are moving. I don't really care about some things hanging around that I don't love until I'm throwing them in boxes and huffing them down stairs to move them somewhere else.

So, we got two big bags full o' stuff. I'm not even sure how some of it lasted so long! I went through our closet twice, my bags twice, and my jewelry twice. Here are the guidelines I used to pick and choose what should stay and what should go:

1. Do I like it? I was surprised at the amount of stuff I had that I didn't even like (or that The Mister had that I did not EVER want to see him in - ever).
2. Do I like how I look in it? It's amazing how we keep things in our closets that we don't think we look good in. I had to get that stuff O-U-T.
3. Have I worn it in the last year? This one was a bit tougher to stick to for everything because we didn't have as severe a winter this year as we did last year, so some stuff stayed even though I haven't worn it in the last year because it met all the other criteria.
4. Does it match my style now?
5. If it needs a little loving repair, am I willing to put in the effort now to fix it?

What area had the most casualties? Why, that would be my jewelry box. I had tons of crap in there that I just gathered over the years. I even had The Mister go back through some things after me and give me his opinion, too.

When we had finished, we took our bags to Plato's Closet and Buffalo Exchange to sell what we could and donated the rest.

But, there will definitely be more sorting as we pack up our apartment near the end of this month to move. Anyone else surprised by just how much stuff you kept around for comfort and familiarity, even though you didn't plan on using it or wearing it ever again?

Ice Cream Container Turned Freezer Storage

I use to not be this way. I was totally ok with throwing away anything. But since we started saving jars of all kinds, shapes, and sizes for our wedding, I just. Can't. Stop.

And it seems to have gone beyond jars, now. I dug out the last scoop of vanilla ice cream that we had been working on for a while. I didn't even hesitate when I put the container in the dishwasher instead of our recycling bin. Then I went to dreaming up the possibilities.

This hand container can hold loads of different things - different bags of opened veggies, the pot pies I make for quick lunches for The Mister, our quick smoothie packs... So, I decided to jazz it up a bit.

My go to jazzer-upper these days is a trust container of chalkboard paint. Because this is on plastic, I knew doing several coats would be important. I wasn't interested in painting the whole container - just cover up the words.

Some trusty painters tape was applied. And the coats went on.

It flakes up a bit, which is ok for me right now. But I would recommend anyone doing this to either go the spray paint method or add a base coat down first. I am happy with our new freezer storage container and it is quite useful.

Anyone find a way to use things normally thrown out to organize your home?