An Epiphany About Reorganizing

If you've been paying attention to my weekly to-do lists lately, you've noticed that I've been on something of an organization kick. So far, I've been working my way through our bookshelves, our built-in cabinets, the freezer, my closet, and my nightstand. 

It's my natural tendency to love organization and for everything to have its place. There's something soothing about knowing where things are when you need them. So when Michael and I first moved into this little apartment of ours, I took my time trying to think through the process of where each piece belonged, grouping like items together, finding apt-sized containers to corral smaller items, trying to think ahead about where I might look for a certain object.

And for the past year, the organization has worked. When Michael asks where something is, I can usually tell him within one or two guesses—it's either here or there.

But lately, I've started looking at this humble abode of ours with new eyes. I've started to think, "Now what if I rearranged that?" "Is there a way I could make this arrangement even better, even more practical?" "Where is space being wasted?"

And as I've asked myself these questions, I've started getting new ideas, seeing new solutions and fine-tuning the layout and structure to make something that worked well to work even better. The lights click on and keep clicking as I make my way through our cupboard and shelves and drawers.

It's been an epiphany to realize that I don't have to wait until something needs to be fixed, but I can be preemptive and bring improvement now. Normally, if something is working well, I leave it as is and don't mess with it until need be. But over the course of a year, things that I thought would work inevitably show less practicality or stumble slowly into disarray. 

And so I'm discovering and relishing the opportunity to, slowly but surely, look at this little realm of ours and find little ways to make it work better for us. Which goes to show that it's never too late or too early for a little change.

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A mini-tour of our apartment: Getting creative with storage

 
Continuing the mini-tour of our apartment I wanted to share a vignette from our hallway and some more makeshift answers to our lack of storage. As I mentioned before, our apartment has a great amount of living space, but not much storage. This has caused us to have to get creative.

Our bathroom in particular offers little storage room, except for under the sink and a basket we've placed over the toilet. But with boxes of toiletries and stacks of towels and washcloths, we needed more than that provided.

We ended up placing an extra bookshelf in the hall outside the bathroom and turning into a storage station. After buying a few packages of white, cardboard boxes from IKEA (originally intended for coralling CDs), I was able to label each box and organize our toiletries: One box holds all our medicines and first-aid type needs; another hides toothbrushes, toothpaste and floss; another is for shower gels and soaps; another for haircare; and a last one for miscellaneous goods.

Over the bookshelf and our stack of clean towels, I put up a hodge podge of thriftstore-find paintings and framed photographs in a gallery-type arrangement. For a long time, I'd wanted to try something like this, and I like how it gives place and purpose to the bookcase, sitting randomly in our hallway.

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A mini-tour of our new home: The built-in cabinets in the office

Michael and I have lived in Apt #10 for over 3 months now. There are still a number of things on my to-do list (namely, add some artistry to our living room and kitchen), but in the meantime, we're mostly settled in our "home sweet home."

In celebration, thought I'd share a little bit about our place, and a couple photos of one of my favorite unexpected gems in our apartment: the built in cabinetry in our office. Evidently, our building is from the 1920s, and this seems to be one of the sole survivors of that time period. I love the extra amount of storage it provides (because otherwise, we only have one non-bedroom closet to hide our stuff).

My desk is set up across from the hutch, so these cabinets stash all my work goodies as well as  office and craft supplies. To mask the mess that my piles of paper can sometimes morph into, I bought a couple rolls of pretty damask-patterned wrapping paper from Michael's and taped them to the insides of the glass doors, which I like because it brings a little panache to the place.

Finally, the 4 paintings displayed on the shelf were a wedding present from my dear friend Mallory who handpainted the canvases for us with my favorite verse: "He makes all things beautiful..." (Ecc. 3:11). What a good friend, huh? And ever-fitting.

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