an organized {laundry room}

We're a little behind on the ABFOL 14 week organizing challenge but I promise this before and after will not disappoint.  Our laundry room was an absolute disaster.  I kept the door shut tight as often as possible and the chore of laundry was made even more painful by the cluttered mess that was our laundry room.  We knocked this out in a weekend during "nap time and night time".  And when I say "we", I mean I supervised while Ben turned my design into reality.  I say it over and over again but we really are a great team because without him all these creative ideas would just be floating around in my head not getting executed.  I'm pretty embarrassed to show the "before" but here it goes......

BEFORE

Our laundry room is a pretty narrow space.  If feels crowded if there is more than one person in there but the storage "bones" were already in place; just not being utilized well at all.

 AFTER

What?!?!? Is this the same space? 

My jumping off point for this space was the fabric I found for the roll up shades on the window, I'll post a DIY on that later.

The wall across from the washer and dryer was a blank slate.  We painted 5 inch wide stripes and below that we added a 4ft X 8ft sheet of bead board.  Just because it's a laundry room doesn't mean it has to be boring, right?

3 hooks on the wall for extra storage.  As it gets cooler I see winter coats hanging here.  Its also an extra space to "line dry" things that don't need to be laid flat.

We added another shelf right above the washer and dryer for easy access to detergent and bleach

Another place where I couldn't live without my Fridge Coasters.  Sorry, shameless plug, but its better than scrubbing that sticky mess the detergent drips leave behind.

Clothes pins right at my finger tips.  Stored in a thrift store find margarita glass.

We threw away a lot of miscellaneous, random items that somehow made their way into the laundry room cabinets to collect dust.  Everything we kept has its own space and is visible without having to dig for it.

Ta-da! Hope you like the results as much as we do!

the heart of any home

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Chocolate chip cookies {gluten free}

Whether you need to eat gluten free or not, these are some of the best chocolate chip cookies!  

This is my favorite pantry must have for gluten free baking.  I use it as a base for pretty much everything, cookies, muffins, pie crust, breads ect.

Chocolate Chip {flax seed} cookies:

Start by pre-heating the oven to 350

Here's what you'll need:

8 Tablespoons of butter softened {yes, a whole stick}

1 teaspoon Vanilla

2 eggs, room temperature

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 Tablespoons white sugar

1/3 cup honey

2 cups Pamela's baking mix

2 Tablespoons ground flax seed

1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugars together.  Add vanilla, eggs and honey, mix.  Add Pamela's mix and flax seed, mix.  Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop scoops of dough on greased cookie sheet and bake about 15 minutes.

Add flax seed whenever you can to recipes.  I put it in the boys pancakes, waffles, muffins, cookies and bread.  It does not alter the taste at all and its so good for you.  

Check out these nutrition facts.  Who doesn't need a little bit of this in their life?

Enjoy!!

an organized {office}

Well, week 4 of the 14 week organizing challenge is your home office space.  Our home office is in our bonus room which we share with our boys playroom.  This project is such an undertaking that we are waiting to do the big reveal for week 11, the bonus room.  There is just no way we could complete a complete office overhaul in just a week.

With that being said, I didn't want to leave y'all hanging.  I'm sharing my sisters super cute organized office that she just finished.

Open bookshelf from here

Storage boxes from here

Hanging file wire storage baskets from Homegoods, she picked up a couple for me too :)

Trough buckets and rod from here

The finishing touches......

She ordered this mason jar pendant off here

This chair she just finished reupholstering.  Similar fabric here

We're headed down there next weekend and I can't wait to see it in person!

Want to see other organized offices? Click the button below.

happy fall y'all

Fall is my absolute FAVORITE season.  I mean what's not to like?  Boots, football, crisp air, pumpkin pie, hot chocolate, apple picking.  I could go on for days!

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What are you plans for this first weekend of fall? I'd love to know. Ours will go a little something like this, good friends, football and maybe a little Fall planting if we get around to it.  Happy Fall y'all.

An organized {pantry}

Week 3: The Pantry

Here is the step by step process that we took to get our pantry organized!

Step 1.  Empty out completely and scrub the shelves and floor.  I had some syrup and honey drips so things were a little sticky, yuck!  As I was taking things out I categorized them on the island so I could see how much I had of what. i.e. baking stuff, kids snacks, pasta/rice ect.

Step 2.  I installed Fridge Coasters to 4 out 5 of my wire racks.  This will prevent my canned goods from tipping over AND will absorb those honey and syrup drips so I won't have to scrub next time.  Our wire shelves are 12" deep so I broke off the 1" perforation line on the large bin coaster for a perfect fit.

 Step 3. re-load the pantry and categorize each shelf.

Instead of storing chip clips in a kitchen drawer, clip them to the rack for easy access.  I started doing this a couple of weeks ago and it's just so much more convenient.  Even the dog treats have a spot now.

Step 4.  Utilize the inside of the pantry door.  We used Command hooks to hang a family calendar and Becketts lunch box.