"C" is for Compulsive

It started in the garage and ended in the kitchen.  My OCD has completely taken over!  Before Tully was born we started reorganizing the garage.  We've been a little preoccupied since his birth, but this was still on my to-do list.  I asked my parents to watch Tully one Saturday while John and I got things in order.  It ended up that everyone in the family pitched in, and we traded shifts with one person inside with Tully.  The previous owners of our house installed these great shelves, so all we had to do was add the bins and put things in the right place.  The before pic below is really more like a half-way done pic, since we started this in March.  We were doing good to put things on the shelves, but the stuff on the floor had completely taken over, and John was having to park outside.   No bueno.  Also, take note of the pile of stuff on the black storage unit on the far left side.  Junk heaven.

Before

The biggest disorganization pitfall in our entire garage was the black storage unit.  This is an old pic when it was cleaned off.  It looked nothing like this when we started clearing the garage.

This storage unit was left by the previous owners, though I wish they had taken it with them.  All we did was pile stuff on here.  There was about one foot of space for John to open his car door and walk to the house door.  So he would park as far away from possible from it, which meant he was halfway on my side of the garage.  I griped about this stupid black storage thing all the time.  So we decided we would give it away on Craigslist for free the weekend we tackled the garage.  We put it at the end of the driveway, and before I could even create the post, a kid rang my doorbell and asked if we were looking for someone to haul it off.  I told him he could take it.  Good riddance!

After

After adjusting the shelves (multiple times...don't even get me started) to fit everything we needed, the pic above was the final result.  The left side looks a little more chaotic than the right.  Everything on the shelves on the far left is for a future garage sale.  Since we don't need access to those items, I slid John's golf organizer in front of them to make more room along the wall to walk.  The golf stuff may need to eventually go back on the left wall though.  For now, I like the extra walking space.  We'll see.  We also managed to move all chemicals, hardware, and tools to middle/upper shelves, so anything Tully can access in his toddler years will be paper or plastic.  The most important thing is that we can fit both cars with PLENTY of room between them in the garage.  That is what the garage is for after all!


I may have gotten a little over ambitious with the label maker, but at least I'll know where everything is.

Also, I think I put this on a previous post, but I'm adding it here for good measure.  We have two bins (plastic tackle boxes) full of hardware, and I love how easy it is to find everything.  Here is a pic of one of the hardware bins.

Speaking of tackle boxes, I saw a battery storage idea on Pinterest, and knew I had to do this.  The box on Pinterest was deeper, but ours works even though most of the batteries have to lay down.

still label-making happy

Lastly, we move on to the kitchen.  I got this idea for pan organization on Pinterest as well.  Of course, John gets sucked into all of these projects with me.  He joined me on trips to Wal-Mart and Bed Bath and Beyond, so I could finish this one.  I don't have any before shots, but try to picture only the pots, pans and lids spread out (no nesting) throughout the entire cabinet.  After buying two types of pan storage organizers and a dish drying rack, I was able to add my baking tins.

ta da!

Here are better pics of the racks I used.

Top left (muffin tins): Bed Bath and Beyond Organizer Rack

Top Right and Bottom Left (baking tins, skillets): Rubbermaid #1H42 Pan Organizer

Neither of the above racks did a good job holding the lids for the pots and pans (the handles kept getting stuck), so we improvised and bought a dish drying rack at Bed Bath and Beyond.  They fit perfectly.  (You bet I'll be pinning THAT.)

I also moved things around in another cabinet and added a couple organizers.  This is how it turned out.

Pyrex baking dishes behind the mixer

If you notice in the top picture with the mixer, there's a colander folded up in the same rack with the cutting boards.  This is probably one of my most-used and favorite kitchen items.  It totally does the job of draining foods, fits in the sink on two legs, and folds up nice and tidy in my cabinet.  I did away with all of our bulky bowl-like colanders.  I bought it at Bed Bath and Beyond.

Thanks for tuning in for my OCD post, and if you want an invite to Pinterest, let me know!  You can see my pins here.

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