I'm in Love With my Spice Cupboard

I've been on a mason jar buying binge recently. I bought several boxes full for the mason jar picnic (which you can see here) and when we were home and had everything cleaned up I realized that I should put all of these different size jars to good use.  So I did!  Not before buying some more that is.

One of the things that has been bothering me for quite awhile was our spice cupboard - it was a hot mess!  I couldn't seem to figure out what kind of jars I wanted to store all the spices in.  Since I needed quite a few jars, I felt that it was a big commitment and I could never decide if I wanted IKEA jars or dollar store jars or mason jars or something else.  Well I looked at the counter crowded with mason jars and my decision was made.
I took everything down, wiped down the shelves, threw out old spices, recycled containers, filled containers, and wrote the name of the spices on the lids.  I was a whirling dervish - and finished everything in about an hour. 

And then I was in love.  I made everyone admire the cupboard - several times - and I couldn't stop admiring its gorgeousness. Why didn't I do it years ago?  I know lots of people have used mason jars to store their spices ... but not in my kitchen.  Until now that is!

Linked to Home Decor and Organizing Link Party at Organize and Decorate Everything

Organizing the Front Hall Closet

Our front hall closet was a bit of a dark hole.  It still had the original builder's paint from when the house was built fifteen years ago and it was not well organized (as opposed to the rest of the house that works like a well-oiled machine - haha).  Since we are hoping to sell our house and move to a farm next year I thought it was time to start the ball rolling on the primping and preening that happens before one sells a home.  I realize that the front hall closet is not going to make or break selling the house, but I figure baby steps, baby steps ...

I started by taking everything out of the closet and giving the walls a good scrubbing.   They were actually pretty horrifying given that there had been fifteen years of shoes and things being tossed against builder's paint.  I painted the closet with some leftover semi-gloss (aka scrubbable) paint.  It looked so pretty with the fresh paint that I really hated to mess it up with coats and things, but I did anyway since the pile of coats on the hall floor was getting in our way.

I also sorted and decluttered the wall pockets that we have hanging on the back of the closet door.   If you don't have one of these for your closet, I would highly recommend it.  I found one with mesh pockets so you can see the contents which helps when you are looking for something.

I also removed an old IKEA dresser that we had at the bottom of the closet from the days when everyone lived at home and we needed lots and lots of places for mitts and hats.  I replaced it with a shoe rack that I got curbside - thanks neighbours!  It fits perfectly and now our shoes look all organized. So I hung the coats back up and put the baskets in that I had recently bought for the upper shelf to store our mitts and hats and scarves. I chose houndstooth baskets to add a little interest to the closet and I labelled them with yellow tags.  Do you want to see a before photo?  Sure you do - so then you can see how wonderful the after is.

The only thing I have left to do is to find a tall narrow wicker basket to put in beside the shoe rack for the paper recycling.

A Tip to Help You Edit Your Craft Supplies

A few weeks ago I sorted, edited, and organized all my craft supplies.  I had tried many times over the past few years to tackle this project, but always without success.  Several times I have taken out the craft things, but not known what to get rid of and what to keep.  I have even gone so far as to buy plastic containers thinking that would be the magic bullet, but nothing worked.  Finally this time I realized how to tackle the sorting and editing and make the project work and that is why I'm sharing this with you.  It isn't a post full of pretty pictures, but rather just a useful tip in case you also suffer from editing paralysis and might benefit from my idea.

Before I started I sat down with a piece of paper and thought about what crafts I'm likely to do over the next few years.  As I sorted and edited the craft supplies, if they were things that I would need for something on my craft list then they stayed and if not they went.  It made it much easier to decide.  I sorted everything into KEEP, GIVE AWAY, and GARBAGE piles.  Then I was able to divide up my KEEP pile into containers and label them so the craft supplies would be easy to access.  

I was able to eliminate about half our craft supplies and the rest are all neatly stored away.  The funny thing was, that once I had this plan of action it really only took me a few hours to do the sorting and then a few more to get everything labelled and organized for the shelves.  


It was also good timing to edit my craft supplies because a good friend of mine is starting an art school and I was able to give her all the supplies I didn't want to keep.  It always feels better when you have a good place to donate your cast-offs, don't you think?


The photos below are the before photos - all those containers on the three shelves were full of craft things 

along with a trunk full of craft supplies upstairs under the sideboard.

Now the trunk is empty and the craft things take up only two shelves in the basement.  We even have room to store our coolers on the bottom shelf now - wahoo!

How do you decide what to keep and what to get rid of?  Do you have a separate craft room?  As you can see I just store mine on the storage shelves in the basement, but given the size of our house and the number of times I do craft projects it makes perfect sense.  Although it would be much nicer to have a gorgeous craft room like the one I showed you here.

******************************************

Also I want to remind you that today is the last day to enter to win the copy of the Canadian House and Home magazine (see here for details).  I have a fab giveaway coming up next week - stay tuned for details.

Linked to Home Decor and Organizing Link Party at Organize and Decorate Everything,
Link it up Thursday at These Peas Taste Funny