"Closety"

I started this blog to discuss topics that I found interesting, like gardening, cooking, and kids. I understand that these topics automatically turn off a large portion of my potential readership (including most of my close friends) because they can be considered "boring." I think this post might make my posts about grass look downright thrilling to that demographic.

We're talking closets today, folks. As part of my New Year's resolutions, I swore to get organized because we've lived in this house for over a year and a half and still had unpacked boxes stashed in the closets. Now that Joe is getting older (read: has more stuff) and I'm exploring this whole homemaking arena, we need to actually use our closets for closety purposes.

I hit up 2 separate Bed, Bath & Beyonds and 2 Targets (otherwise known as The Greatest Store Ever) and stocked up on coated wire "organizers," plastic storage bins, and some cute canvas box-like thingies. I want to point out that while we actually have a lot of storage space in our house (the master closet is bigger than my office), the builder didn't really consider usage while designing the house. For example, all of our cabinet shelves are SUPER tall and really deep, which makes it impossible to access stuff that isn't right up front on the lower shelves without monkeying up on the counters. What's the point of that? But that's for another post.

Anyway, I know that I'm a giant dork for being so happy about this, but I FINALLY organized our master closet, previously known as The Pile With a Door:

Now, this is a big deal because we are currently living without dressers (we've picked them out, but are financing other home projects first. Plus, hello, our master closet is gigantic, why buy furniture?). You can't see around the corner where all of Bill's stuff is, but the point of the pic is to show that we've finally found a use for the upper 2 shelves (the many boxes of holiday gear). You see those 2 big tubs on the floor? One of those was OVERFILLED with my clothes that I packed up in MD and HADN'T TOUCHED until last week. Needless to say, there are many bags of stuff sitting in my car waiting to be dropped off at the women's shelter.

Ah. Cathartic.

Now, as a response to this post from my partner-in-gardening-crime, I'd like to share my cleaned-up pantry:

Look at all the organizers! Again, this pantry is poorly designed for a myriad of reasons, but we've found a configuration that will work for now. It's actually looking downright bare at the moment, thanks to a frenzy of holiday baking and tossing out ingredients that were way past their prime. I'm excited about the home-canned jars on the middle shelf and I hope that next year I can dedicate a whole shelf to homegrown, home-canned goodies.

In my dream kitchen, I'd have one of those appliance garages, but this hall closet across from the pantry is the next best thing, considering my growing collection of bulky kitchen gear:

I know, I know. BOOOOOORING!! But look, it's literally 0 degrees outside, the holidays are over, my stuff is rarely organized, and this blog is supposed document how I spend my days, regardless of how mind-numbingly uninteresting they may be.