Around the Nest: Pantry Organization

$1 each at the dollar store! Score!

I have mentioned before that I have OCD and you know since I am pregnant and all nesting has definitely set in so the other day when I walked into my pantry and saw how terribly unorganized, cluttered, junky, and messy it was I decided it was time to get to work!  I went to the dollar store and got a few bins to organize some of the loose items and headed in.  Tyler was nice enough to entertain Everett so I was able to knock it out in one evening! 

I had a few "goals" in mind: 

• Items that we use frequently needed to be easily accessible  
• Items that we do not use frequently need to be put up higher
• Items that were similar should be grouped together (laundry items, games, canned goods, breakfast items, etc.) 
• Items in front of the shelves should be put away, relocated, or thrown away. 

Before

After (Notice my little helper!)

Before: Above the washer/dryer

After: Above the washer/dryer

Before: Pantry area

After: Pantry area

So... what do you think? Does it seem like I made any improvements?  Have you been organizing anything around your house? 

Around the Nest: Clean Up Clean Up Everybody Everywhere

Now that I have that song stuck in your head hopefully it will get out of mine! :)  We have been doing some serious spring winter cleaning around our house this past week and it makes me all warm and fuzzy!  I love to organize things and get them all nice and neat. Blame it on the pregnancy, my OCD, or my type A personality, whatever you want!  

This all started because I could not figure out how I wanted to organize the kids clothes. Silly right?  Most people would say, "put them in their closet."  Well it's not that simple because we room share.  Everett has been sharing the large closet in our room with me and while that has been working for just him, it wouldn't be big enough for two kids. As things were, his dresser (which was only three drawers) was in his closet and his shirts were hanging on the bar above the dresser.  I figured that if I moved him to one of the other closets in our room I could fit his clothes and the baby's clothes in together.  I had my mom look for a larger dresser that could house two children's clothes.  She luckily found a very nice one which fit (like a glove) into a different closet in our room.  

So once I got all of Everett's clothes into the new dresser and the new closet I needed something to do with the old dresser.  I decided that three drawers in a dresser are better than two shelves on a changing table so I took out the changing table and am now using the dresser as a changing table.  The pad fits almost perfectly on top of the dresser and the drawers provide plenty of space for his cloth diapers and other diapering accessories. Winning! 

Are you following? Here's a breakdown... 

So after all was said and done I ended up with a bigger closet, the boys have more space, the changing table has more space, and everything was organized! Winning! 

I also moved all of my jackets, dresses, and sweatshirts into the "new" section of my closet so that everything was more spread out and this freed up more space in the closet in the foyer (aka coat closet.)  I did leave my heavy "outter" coats in the coat closet but brought all of the ones that could be used in an outfit into my new closet.  Additionally, I went through all of the junk that had been piling up in the coat closet and organized that as well. 

So that was the beginning of our winter cleaning... I still have plans for my "office" area (which is located in our kitchen) as well as the laundry room/pantry.  Have any of you been up to winter cleanning?

Around the Nest: Christmas Time at the Thompson's House

Welcome to our Christmas wonderland here at Casa de Thompson!  To be honest, it has been "Christmas" over here since the day after Thanksgiving.  I couldn't wait to get the decorations out and get our house and us in the holiday mood! So here is a little preview of what our house is looking like these days! 

And the stockings were hung by the chimney wood stove with care...

The Santa in the lower right hand section is Tyler's from when he was a kid! 

Even the cut out got a little holiday sprucing! 

This is a hard area to photograph because of all the natural light- it is right when you walk in the front door. 

Bernard, the elf guards our front table! 

Naked tree!

All dolled up! 

So there you have it! Come back this week and read about a few of my favorite Christmas traditions! Do you have any favorite traditions? I would love to share some here on the blog! 

Around the Nest: Family Bedroom: About 95% Complete

Looking for Mouth Watering Wednesday?  Not to worry! I am switching things up a bit and alternating Mouth Watering Wednesdays and Nifty Thrifty Friday/Nap Time Craft Time from week to week! I will be back next week with a delicious recipe for you to try! 

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As promised (a while ago) I am finally getting around to posting about our house updates! I am trying to post about one room at a time and keep y'all updated! :) 

Here is what the family bedroom looked like when the previous owner lived here.  They used it as a master bedroom with a sitting area.  The bathroom is through the doorway on the right side of that white television. 

Here are a few photos of what the room looked like the day that we closed on the house.  It was pretty much a blank canvas.  We did end up taking down the two wall lamps and we replaced the carpet that was in there.  It was definitely getting a little dingy and I think that there may have been a dog or two to "mark their territory" in there! 

Here are a few pictures of the bathroom from closing day.  It is hard to get good pictures of that room! 

 

Here are the photos you've been anticipating! :)  Our newly redone and definitely improved family bedroom! You may notice my little helper in a picture or two!  

This first photo is taken from the same place as the photo from the previous owner.  As you can see we use the space a lot differently than they did. We still have some things that need to be hung on the wall.  We have a large mirror that will go on the back teal wall and we haven't decided what will go above the changing table.  The problem with hanging something over the changing table is that if it is low enough, Everett with most certainly mess with it! 

Now you can see why we call it our family bedroom.  This set up works for our family and that's all we are concerned about! 

One of my favorite parts of our room is that I have a great space to display my cross collection (above the dressers.)  They are not only beautiful but help to remind Tyler and I to keep Christ at the center of our relationship.  And yes, that is a Big Bird book in the middle of the floor! Thanks Everett! 

Here's the bathroom.  Not a lot of changes going on in here, mostly just adding our own stuff.  I still need to hang something on that back wall. 

Eventually the window from our old bathroom will hang on this wall above the toilet. It is going to look great in this bathroom, especially since all the tile is pink! 

So that's it! We still have a few things left to do in this room but we are pretty much done! 

Here's our to do list:

• New carpet
• Take down wall lamps
• Paint
• Move in furnitrue
• Hang crosses
• Hang pictures

Around the Nest: Playroom- It's Done!

Looking for Nifty Thrifty Friday/Nap Time Craft Time?  Don't fret, come back next Friday for a fun and exciting craft project! 

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Well the first room to be completely done in our new house is, of course the playroom! A lot of work has gone into this room and I can't wait to share the final product with the world! 

So here is the blank canvas that we started out with. 

Here's the room with the landscaping added...

So we have been working on getting all of Everett's toys and fun stuff in there and having a great friend of mine, Lisa come and paint Dr. Seuss characters on the wall.  She did an AMAZING job and if anyone in the Fredericksburg area needs a mural painted please contact me and I will get you her info. Without further ado, here it is folks! :)

  

  

We LOVE how it turned out and Everett really enjoys playing in there! 

Around the Nest: Playroom- Paint's Going Up!

Welcome to the new playroom... errr well the in progress playroom! I have big plans for this room and we are hoping to get most of the to-do list crossed off before we move in. 

Here is what the playroom looked like before any changes or improvements were done: 

Here is the to-do list for the playroom: 

• Dr. Seuss mural
• Paint the background
• Paint the characters 
• Create a book nook out of the closet
• Take the closet door off the hinges
• Add "bookshelves" 
• Add curtain and tie back
• Add some sort of seating (bean bag chair, etc)
• Move in all the "stuff"
• Futon
• Changing table
• Organizing shelf
• Toys
• Rugs

Not a large to-do list but it will take some effort to get it all done before the move in date. Today while Everett was playing at a friends house (thanks again Jana) I painted the background of the playroom.  I can't wait to see all of the characters up on the wall, my good friend Lisa is coming over tomorrow to paint them! 

Here's what the playroom looks like with the background (note: I didn't cut in the ceiling or around the tops of the windows because I forgot to bring a ladder!) 

Stay tuned for more fun! 

Secret, Secret, I Got a Secret!

Tyler and I have been keeping a little secret!  We didn't want to post anything on the blog until everything was final because we didn't want to jinx anything BUT... we bought a house!  We are really excited and have already started making it ours.  

Tyler signing the paperwork

We are currently living in the basement apartment of my parents house (which we love) but over the summer we realized that it was time to start looking for a house of our own.  Interest rates are at an all time low right now and thanks to Mr. Dave Ramsey, we have been preparing ourselves financially for the past four years (yes FOUR years) to buy a house.  We have been scrimping and saving and paying off debt to get to this point and it has paid off!  Trust me, we still have a good ways to go to be truly financially free. 

Me signing the paperwork.. look at Tyler's face!

So we started searching for homes in our desired area and found a few that we liked, loved, and had to have but one home stuck out above the rest.  We went to settlement on the house yesterday and we are now proud homeowners! 

Here is our new home!

It definitely a turn-key house and we could have moved in yesterday if we wanted to however, we are planning on doing some "fixing up" before we fully move everything over.  We plan on painting every wall in the house, taking down some outdated spindles, possibly adding a "pass through" (aka whole in the wall), and doing some good cleaning.  So we headed over to the new house yesterday to get started! 

Everett exploring around the house

We ate our first "meal" at the house yesterday... Chipotle!  Everett loves it! 

Tyler worked outside on the driveway, pulling up weeds and prepping it for sealing (which he and my dad will be doing on Sunday.)  It was so nice outside so we opened all the windows up, it seemed like some of them hadn't been opened in a looooong time.  After we got them open it was apparent that they needed a good cleaning so I grabbed a sponge and some warm water and got to work.  

Everett looking outside! "Daddy!"

Stay tuned for a full walk through of the new house complete with our "to-do" list for each room!  Can't wait to share all the pictures!

Even Mowgli loves the new house!