Guest Bedroom Tour

Not every home provides the luxury of having a spare room you can turn into an inviting guest bedroom. Many would even find that having guests only sporadically over the course of a year does not justify blocking a room just for that purpose and that is understandable. With all the things we tend to accumulate in a lifetime, any space in our home becomes prime real estate and a guest bedroom is not necessarily a priority for every household.

That said, we are fortunate enough to have a 4 bedroom home and the ability to secure a space for our yearly guests. Do I use the room for other purposes throughout the year? Sure I do,  but I limit its storage capacity to a minimum, in order to quickly set up whenever guests arrive.

When preparing a room (or space) for guests, there are a few things I find need to be kept in mind:

• Though this is your home, remember that your decorating style is not necessarily that of your guest: maybe you want to re-consider that poster of Mr. July. 
• A guest room should be cozy, inviting and make a guest feel welcome: remove and relocate your unsightly storage bins and other miscellanies, no one wants to feel as though sleeping in your attic storage.
• Provide as many amenities as possible to ensure your guest does not have to continuously ask for things throughout his or her stay.
• Regardless of how long your guest is staying in your home, always prepare as though this was an extended (over three days) affair.

Today, I am showcasing my guest bedroom. It has not evolved much over the years as I have stayed true to my original concept which was to create a Bed & Breakfast room where guests can relax and feel catered to. I do have a theme room though (and it may seem silly).  We have two dogs, one from the Sports group (English Pointer mix) and one from the Hound group (Beagle), so I wanted my guest room to offer a glimpse into hunting, without offending those guests who may not be involved or are opposed to it.

This is how I set up my guest room (this is entirely done on a budget and also over a period of two years):

First, let me show you the before picture, when we  first purchased our home in 2010:

And the after...

The room has now  two twin size beds. These were actually pretty cheap since they came from Wal-Mart. I bought the linen on sale and online. These are Bed-in-A-Bag which came with the sheets, skirt, conforter, sham and two accent pillows each.

Providing comfortable linen is a must when you want to make your guests feel right at home (or in my case, at a Bed & Breakfast). Preferably choose quality 100% cotton with a high thread count for your sheets. Not every guest will be comfortable in cotton blends as they may overheat and sweat. The curtains are faux Dupioni panels I found on sale at Home Goods and so are the green ruffle pillows. 

Guests should not have to figure out how to make their bed in the morning, so limit the amount of extra pillows you provide. Here I keep two standard pillows to provide support for reading, there is a long rectangular pillow should a guest wish to rest/elevate his or her knees and a square pillow which can be used for reading and neck support. Technically only the ruffle pillows are decorative ones.
Linen should be washed and pressed. I also use Linen fragrance when I iron the sheets and pillowcases by spraying the fragrance onto the linen before ironing and rolling them into a ball for a few minutes, I then iron and let the heat dry and spread the fragrance. I would not recommend you use perfume as it may stain your linen nor a strong scent that may become overpowering. I use a simple solution of rose petal essence and mineral water instead of Febreeze.

Though they are not featured here, I do have various sets of Guest Towels which I usually place inside the dresser or on top of the beds ready for use. I like to keep towels for guests only and have dedicated a space for them in my linen closet. 

Each bed has its own bedside table with a good reading lamp and a few amenities. I also added this round table (also a Home Goods find) to provide a transition between the beds. Because the table had a slight damage I asked for a discount and was able to secure it for only $35! All I do is place my decoration right on top of the scratch and voila - gone!
Providing fresh flowers (unless you know your guest is allergic) is always a nice touch. I do not care for structured bouquets and always opt for arrangements that look as though someone had simply picked the flowers from the side of the road. These are inexpensive supermarket flowers. I did split the bouquets and only used a few of them in this room, spreading the leftover flowers in smaller vases throughout the house.

                   

This space between the beds also allows me to place a basket with light reading material (magazines and catalogs). 

This statue of a Pointer was also a Home Goods find under $15.

Your guest room should provide a clock (though most everyone has a cellphone these days). It does not have to be fancy but it sure can look it! This one was under $10 at Home Goods. I am also an eBay shopper and found this cute little antique nut dish which I use for an assortment of chocolate treats. I am also providing my guests with a magnifier to assist with browsing magazines.

   
On the bedside table, I always remember to provide tissues and mineral water (with a glass). This time around, I also added a coffee cup and saucer (more on this below). I am looking for a glass carafe with matching tumbler to replace the plastic bottle.

Underneath the bedside table there is a storage area where I keep a spare bottle of water and a few books that are easy to read and do not require commitment on the part of the reader, an example would be a collection of Andy Rooney's "60 minutes" segments (short stories that are easy and fun to read).

Inside the drawer, I keep a notepad and a pen in case my guest would need to write something down such as a reference from a magazine and such. There is also a book about the history of our town and surroundings...Just in case someone was interested in finding out more about our local history.




On the other side of the room, I have repurposed our old nursery dresser by painting it white and making it the central focus for that wall.

The curio cabinet is a garage sale find for $10!  It contains my collection of Nippon tea sets (I have no other room in the house for them). I do plan on finding a better room for my tea sets as I would like to add an armchair and ottoman to that corner instead.  Until then, guests can enjoy viewing a few of my showcase pieces.

Though the dresser is used  for displaying cute decorative items it also has a function of it own (other than storing clothes): I use it as a coffee station!

I go by the assumption that everyone is like me and needs to start the day with coffee. Not everyone is comfortable helping themselves to the coffee pot in your kitchen and may not care to be seen in pajamas either, disheveled and all. So why not provide that first cup of Joe to your guests and allow them to keep some additional privacy. Here, I have a $16 Black & Decker Coffee maker (5 cups) and a basket filled with goodies.

My coffee station offers everything one needs to enjoy an early morning coffee: three types of sugars, Coffee Mate Creamer (non refrigerated kind), more chocolates and some Belvita Breakfast biscuits. Not sure if you can see but I used my label maker to mask the Black & Decker Logo and wrote "House of Strong" (our last name) instead.

Next to the coffee station, I provide my guest with a new bar of soap on its own dish. This allows my guest to bring the soap back to the room, should he or she choose to, as our guest bathroom is also shared with our two boys.
For this visit, my mother was the guest, so I added a vintage picture of her shooting a riffle back in the days as well as myself and her grandchildren. This soap from TJ-Maxx was under $5 and has a very strong scent therefore it is also perfectly fine as a room fragrance.

Always provide a robe for your guest. I keep mine behind the door so that my guest can readily see it, and grab it whenever he or she needs it. I do keep a spare and more masculine one in the guest closet.

For decoration - true to my theme - I found this awesome looking red fox at Home Goods. At $14.99, it was a find!

Artwork does not have to be expensive to be appealing and fitting your decor. In this room I use vintage advertisement found on eBay, all casting a hunting dog, such as this one:

You can find these ads on eBay for under $5 each, all you need is an assortment of frames (but these can be costly so I always wait for a Michael's or JoAnn coupon).

This year, I also added this 1850's French  hand painted engraving (also an eBay find for under $40)! It reads "Diane and Blonde, hunting dogs of Louis XIV" - how cool is this for such a low price?

Luckily, we have a closet in this room, it does not remain empty throughout the year but is easy to set up for guests.

In my guest closet I keep a few blankets and wooden hangers. Since my mother is visiting right now, I added a few items of clothing she had left last year as they did not fit in her suitcase.

Do provide your guests with a laundry basket. Again, it does not have to be fancy, this one is a K-Mart find for $4. I used my Sharpie to write "La Lessive" on one side and its English translation "Laundry" on the other side.

In the top drawer of the dresser, I keep a basket of product samples and hotel size shampoos, conditioners etc. just in case my guest may have forgotten a specific item. Again, I am trying to make guests comfortable and avoid for them to have to ask for anything.

On the side of the dresser I keep this chair so that guests can sit when removing shoes or have a place for their purse. This chair is a street find I painted and reupholstered using a spare fat quarter.

So there you have it, my Guest Bedroom Tour is over. I do have more things in mind for the room other than moving the curio and replacing it with an armchair. I have to add a few more prints and perhaps some more hunting memorabilia and artifacts. I would also like to build two benches to place in front of the beds to provide a rest for suitcases and room underneath for additional baskets, kind of a his and hers collections of reading material. I am still going back and forth over the idea of adding a TV. For one, I am not sure whether the few occasions we have guests will warrant the additional cost of a cable box. I also do not know where to put it in the room, regardless of size.

So these are a few things to consider when preparing a room for guests. I am hoping you have enjoyed this blog post and picked up a few ideas here and there on how to make your loved ones comfortable and feel like royalty when visiting you for the holidays.

Thank you for liking and sharing my blog. You can find me and become a fan of My Great Challenge on Facebook.

Sophia, NJ.

How to organize your purse?

Woo hoo! You can now pin individual pictures from my blog by simply hovering over the picture you want to pin and clicking the Pinterest button, or when using a tablet, you can tap the picture (once) to make the button appear at the bottom of the picture you want to pin. Happy pinning!

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 My work requires that we carry transparent plastic totes when checking in.  Though they are great for security reasons, they do not offer much for privacy. If you are like me, you probably carry a ton of stuff with you at all times, some of which you may use often, other things you may carry around for those "just in case" moments, whether they did occur in the past or not. In any event, us ladies are always prepared! 

I found myself tired of moving endless junk from one purse to the other, never mind fumbling around to look for keys or that one lip balm that fell at the bottom. After much youtube research (there appears to be a large demand for that type of videos) and consideration, I did come up with a system that allows me to cover all the basic needs, while maintaining order.  The best, of course, is my ability to switch bag, regardless of size in less than one, yes one, minute!

Keep reading if you want to unburden your life!

This is the purse I carry during the Fall and Winter seasons (alas I do not own a lot of purses, so I do care for the ones I have). I love this purse because it comes with feet at the bottom, it is large enough inside to carry all my stuff, and  has handles that have great shoulder length but are not so long that I cannot hand carry it. It was a Christmas gift from my husband, some three years ago, and I think it was a QVC purchase. 

I do not care for purses that have a lot of pockets and zippers. I never find what I am looking for because I can never remember which pocket holds what. They also tend to look bulky and  to me that is just neither attractive, nor functional. So a tote style with only one zipped pocket for keys inside, is all I need.  Of course you can adapt whatever organizational system I keep to your purse style since I keep everything compartmentalized. Here is the inside of my purse with all the stuff I carry on a daily basis (in my clear plastic tote, it would fit just the same, only security checks do not get to see all my personal belongings unless they request I open things for them).

I keep my keys in the zipper pocket and the phone in the little pouch on the side so that not only can I reach for it easily, I can actually hear it too!

I do not keep anything loose in my purse, everything is either an individual item (wallet , etc.) or contained in one of the two pouches. Here is the content of my purse:

I am going to go through each individual item to show you how I organize things and why I am doing it this way. let's start with the wallet which is the first item on the bottom left.

I used to carry around one of those wallets that had two sides, one zipped side for cash and coins and another one which would carry a ton of cards, the checkbook , etc. It was so big it almost looked like a clutch. Half of the time I was not able to close it completely and there were so many reward and bank cards that the card slots had become loose and cards would slide out. It also took too long to open, put stuff back in, not to mention all the receipts popping out from the sides. So I switched to a slim profile wallet. This one is from Target (I think it was under $15). I like it because it has a turn key which makes it more secure. Everything I need is in there. To reduce bulk, I moved reward cards to another location, and only keep a few detached checks instead of the entire checkbook. (BTW, I blurred or removed the private information in this picture.)

From the sides it is very slim. I also no longer keep change over two dollars in coins in this wallet, mainly because I keep them in my car instead (for the tolls) - No need for a coin purse.

I switched to a slim profile wallet instead of the old two zipper/flaps wallet.

Since I removed all my store cards and reward cards from my old wallet, I needed a new place for them. So I found this business card holder:

There is no reason for me to carry all my store reward or store cards in my wallet. If we go to dinner for instance and only need my wallet, why would I want to carry all that junk with me? The card carrier is slim enough that it does not take much room in my bag, I chose to leave it standing but I could also lay it flat at the bottom of my purse. Either way, when I go to a store and need their card, I can easily retrieve it from this holder rather than pulling out one card at a time from my old wallet until I find the right one. I also organized the cards by frequency of use, Barnes and Noble taking the front seat here!

The next item is my personal planner. I used to carry a size A5, which is more like a 8.5 x 6 in. While it allowed for more writing space, it became very bulky as well and not easily transferable to a smaller purse. So while I was purging the office some time ago, I came across Scott's old Filofax which is a "personal" size (3 3/4 x 6 3/4). I did have to adjust to the smaller size (I tend to write in big letters) but overall, this is actually making a big difference, both in weight and in bulk.

On the front, I keep a plastic pouch with small sticky page markers. These are my "school is closed" markers. It allows me to remember those days when childcare is needed. (Leave a comment at the end of this post if you want to find out more about planner organization).

Next, is my coupon and receipt file. This one is the best I could find. It is from the Martha Stewart Avery Collection (Staples). I love this coupon file because it is actually smaller than the other kinds and has this built in large elastic ribbon to keep it compact inside my purse. Though I am big on using coupons, I do not keep grocery coupons here (I have a binder for that). Instead, I use this coupon file for store coupons in the like of a 40% off one item at Michael's , etc. Most of the coupons I keep here are from the school's Kids Stuff and Entertainment Coupon Books. But whenever I find a store coupon, it goes in here and there is a reason for that:

Martha Stewart's Coupon file has a built in large elastic to keep the file
compact and easier to carry inside your purse.

I never remembered what store coupons I had nor did I have a good place for them to go (my coupon binder is way too big to carry around every time we go shopping). There have been countless times when we purchased something only to return home and find a coupon we could have used. So now, my store coupons travel with me. I keep them in the back of the file but in the front, I place all my receipts. At the end of the week, I empty the front pockets and go over the budget. No more receipts all over the place, if I want to return something that same week, for whatever reason, I can find the receipt right away too!

On to the pouches. I purchased a set of three cosmetic pouches from TJ-Maxx. I think they were $9.99 for the pack of three. Though it may seem  that I carry only two, the third and smaller one is actually inside the larger pouch (more on that later).

Pouch #1 (Medium Size) is my Walking Pharmacy:

I do not need to carry my Walking Pharmacy at all times but it does come to work with me. Otherwise, if I am simply on quick errands and not far from home, I can easily leave this pouch at home and put it back inside my purse at a later time.

Here is what I carry in my Walking Pharmacy (these are all travel sizes when applicable):

• Dental Hygiene: Oral B Glide (best floss on the market), Scope mouth wash, Wisp one use toothbrushes (great in a pinch) they come in packs of four and have the toothpaste already pre loaded. Since I coupon, this was all free stuff!
• Medicine/First Aid: I keep a travel size Advil for headaches, when it is empty or near empty I simply refill it from the larger bottle I keep home. Alka Seltzer Cold & Cough (I keep two single packs), Some Band Aids, my rescue inhaler (I keep another one in the car), a small container of Prid Drawing Salve (in case I have a cut), some throat and cold homeopathy granules, Tissues and Q tips.
• Others: I keep a bottle of hand sanitizer (this one is from CVS in Pomegranate and Apple scent, probably the one that smells the least like alcohol), Shout wipes in case of an explosive bottle of Ketchup and a box of small Altoids mints.

Again, because I keep all of this in a separate pouch I can decide whether to take it with me or leave it home, I do not have to pare down nor reconsider anything as I am heading out the door.

Pouch #2 - The large Pouch:

This one contains items I probably would use everyday on the go, and it also includes Pouch #3: my cosmetics pouch.

Inside my large pouch, aside from my small cosmetic pouch, I keep various cosmetic and miscellaneous items:

• Simple face wipes, which I also use for my hands. 
• More Kleenex, in case the Walking Pharmacy was left home.
• Burt's Bee Cuticle cream in the travel size tin (awesome product).
• A mini lint roller/remover (two dogs, one cat)
• Pack of gum (if I do not have the Altoids from the Walking Pharmacy).
• Hand Lotion (Carmex - my favorite) and instead of a scent spray, I use this sample of Calvin Klein Euphoria lotion, it smells great and acts just like perfume.
• A manicure kit.
• A retractable makeup brush and a folding hair brush by Conair.
• Post it pads and a pen.
• And of course the smaller pouch with my makeup stuff.

I found this manicure case at Harmon Cosmetics for under $5.  It is small, slim and takes little room inside the pouch. Better yet, it has all the essential for grooming.

This below is an awesome find! Post-It makes these plastic envelopes (they come in a pack of two) that have an adhesive back and a small velcro flap on the front. I use the envelope for a large post it memo pad and a pen. The envelope has a stick back that can peel off easily so what I do is stick the entire envelope to the inner lining of the large pouch, it is not in the way and stays put. When I need to write something and I do not have my planner with me, I simply open this envelope and grab a sticky note!

In Pouch #3, I keep my essential makeup touch up. Some girls keep a lot of makeup with them, I really do not care for that but since I do have to attend meetings and what not, I need to at least appear refreshed after lunch hours. This is what I keep in this small pouch, small enough to fit in the large one:

Small cosmetic pouch fits inside the large one.

This is all I need:

• Mary Kay blotting tissues.
• Estee Lauder Face Powder - great coverage (I use the retractable brush to reapply instead of the sponge thing that came with it).
• One eye Liner and one lip liner (these are Mary Kay and pretty small in size)
• I keep two lip products, not lipsticks, only tinted lip balms, one is a Mary Kay tinted lip balm in Rose and if I need something a bit darker I keep a Sally Hansen Collagen treatment in Toffee.
• I have a mini blush from Cover Girl (blush does not stay very long on me, so I need to reapply throughout the day otherwise I look like death).
• I also keep one concealer in buff (CoverGirl) and one small tube of Mary Kay Yellow concealer in case of a blemish alert.
• Mascara (also a Mary kay).

So, this is what I keep in my purse, it is a lot of stuff but again, because it is compartmentalized everything is easy to find, retrieve and transfer.

If we go out for dinner, all I would need is my wallet and small makeup pouch (less than 30 seconds to grab). If we go to the mall, I would probably remove the walking pharmacy and planner, again less than 30 seconds. For a quick run for milk, all I need is my wallet. There is no looking for stuff, emptying the entire content of the purse on a chair or at a restaurant table to find that one card at the bottom. I also keep everything discreetly out of sight so no one can see what's in my purse, another bonus!

This is how I organize my purse, it took me years to figure this out, I guess it is never too late. I am hoping I offered a few valuable hints and tools in this post. As always, feedback is welcome, you can comment below or join my page on FACEBOOK and feel free to ask, request or comment just as well.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog.

Sophia, NJ.

Craft closet - How I organize scrapbooking supplies

I have been an avid scrapbooker for many years. Sadly, since we have moved to our new home and having more pressing things to take care of, I have to admit that my hobby has been put on the back burner. It does not help that priorities always seem to change!
That said, I have felt the creative bug tugging at me for quite a few months now and it was time for me to create a "my space" of sorts, where I could go to and lock myself again into a world filled with papers, pretty ribbons and digital goodies!

Originally I was hoping to create a scrapbooking studio in our finished basement...That was until I opted for a food and household supplies stockpile instead (it;s a coupon thing)!
As I mentioned in my previous post on Office Organization, our office closet had remained an unfinished project. It basically stood there, doorless (the door was removed in order to fit more stuff in it), without much attention paid to it. Since the basement was pretty much out of the question, I have decided that this closet would be my new prime real estate in the house!

Here is the closet, in its awful BEFORE state, though partially empty. I believe that we all have one of those closets in our home where stuff simply gets shoved in. I realize that this mess is the result of unmade decisions and My Great Challenge is all about changing the "I'll do it later" habit. Later is NOW (or else the stuff will spread to other areas of your home).

A pretty sorry closet filled with unsorted junk — the result
of unmade decisions.

Here, we have all manner of unsightly, useless stuff we all tend to accumulate. You can barely spot our two-drawer file cabinet which, believe it or not, is amazingly well organized inside!

My goal was to maximize the closet space by adding full length shelves. I had planned however, on keeping the filing cabinet inside, only because there is nowhere else for it to go.

Here is the closet, once it was completely emptied out of its junk! The unpainted door you see on the left is the office door, that too will be painted, but not this time around.

For STEP ONE, I installed new shelves using leftover wood from my Lego Table project. I had some 1x3 laying around the garage and used that for shelf stops or rests (whatever they are called). Here I am making sure the stops are leveled before nailing them down.

Here it is once the whole shelf was installed.

The closet already had two shelves installed and I opted for adding an additional two underneath them.

Since I had run out of 1x3, I used leftover crown molding that was thick
enough to rest the shelves on top. You can see that on the left and
it worked just fine.

Having made the decision to leave the closet open (no door), I wanted to make sure it would be pleasing to look at. So for STEP TWO I fetched some left over crown molding from our guest bedroom and nailed it to the front of each shelf to add a pretty "skirt." Actually, this turned out to look quite nice!

Here are the four shelves completely assembled.

Time for some paint! In STEP THREE, which turned out to be pretty long, I painted the entire closet, shelves included, with some Valspar Interior Paint in bright white (satin finish).

I guess I got carried away and decided to paint the file cabinet as well! Here it is in its before picture. I cannot remember for the life of me where or when we obtained this cabinet but all I can say is that everyone should have one in their home. This is where all our personal documents are stashed, it locks and keeps everything safe and easy to find.

This file cabinet is at least 15 years old!

Paint job completed, it took two coats (three for the file cabinet).

So now it is time to organize my supplies...That job was left for Day Two!

STEP FOUR - ORGANIZING EMBELLISHMENTS

Like many crafters, I have a lot of embellishments. These can be quite expensive and I dare say that moving to partial Digital Scrapbooking has seriously cut down on the expenses. Whatever I have for embellishment right now is all my leftover from previous years. Nevertheless, I had to figure out an inexpensive way (always on a budget here) to store them. First, I found these colorful bins at the Dollar Store.

I then organized my embellishments using medium size Zipploc bags and used common file folder labels to categorize them.

Here they are, along with a bin of chipboard letters.

Armed with my awesome and always handy Label Maker, I labeled each bin accordingly using some Martha Stewart Avery Collection (available at Staples) for label holders. These are great, the adhesive is very strong so make sure you place them exactly where you need them to go since they will stick to the surface immediately and are not that easy to remove in case of a mishap.

Everyone who wants to be and stay organize should
have a label maker. It makes a huge difference when
everything is labeled!

In STEP FOUR, I had to find a way to organize my stamps collection. I have a LOT and most were gifts from my Mother-in-Law. Stamps are tricky to organize, I find that you never remember what stamp you have or when you remember, you simply spend too much time looking for it, it cuts the fun out of any craft project. So this is what I did and I believe this to be an awesome tip!

First, I brought all the stamps back from the basement....

I then categorized them using plastic shoe boxes from the Dollar Store...

Here are my categories:

• Flowers
• Animals & Things
• Travel
• Christmas
• Sentiments
• Thank You
• Baby & Hearts

Once I had each box organized, I needed a way to quickly find any stamp quickly and effortlessly.  Behold, the Stamp Collection Catalog:

First, I took an actual  picture of my stamps (per category) by simply laying them flat on a piece of 8 1/2 x 10 printing paper. I then printed each page (low ink/draft setting), named the category on top of the page and inserted each page into a plastic sheet protector. Here are members of the Flowers Category:

For those very old (1930s) stamps that do not have a picture on top, I quickly stamped them on the same kind of paper...Here are members of the Animals and Things Category:

I used a single binder ring to attach all the sheet protectors together and used one of the closet nails as a hook to hang the catalog where I can easily find it, voila!

In STEP FIVE I took on the grueling task of finding a home for my very large collection of paper supplies.
Here, I have some standard papers, mostly 12x12 since it is my preferred size, and some small stacks.

I found a white plastic crate in the basement and placed most of my paper in it. However, I do have some specialty or high end papers that I want to protect as much as I can. These are mostly Basic Grey and Cosmo Cricket paper collections.
I used these storage containers specifically designed for 12x12 paper. These are pretty old so I am not sure whether they still make them, that said, they are clear and rather sturdy, perfect for storing paper.

The bottom one contains all my brads and eyelets, I did not take a picture of that but they are stored and neatly separated inside a tackle box.

In STEP SIX, it was time to attack the ribbons! Originally I wanted to hang a rod across the closet and have all my spools stored there. However, I felt it would actually look messy and block access to other bins, so instead, I neatly rolled my ribbons and stashed them inside a large box.

Here are the ribbons in their pathetic before state:

For those that were still rolled on a spool, I did combine them and looped them through a longer piece of leftover ribbon to ensure they would all stay together.

As mentioned above, all other ribbons were neatly rolled and tied with a piece of tape.

Are you ready for the big reveal?

This project took two days, so I feel it necessary to showcase yet again the horrible before picture for the sake of contrast and compare!

Here you have it, the before:

And the AFTER picture:

I do have two unrelated bins at the bottom marked with either my or my husband's name.
These are miscellaneous stuff we need to keep but can't really be filed or categorized.

The top shelf is not easy to reach for without a stool, so I basically stashed things that are office related but not necessarily needed all the time such as the attachments to my scanner, photo paper and CD binders.

Quick tour:

In this picture, you can see what the stamps collection looks like once categorized. I also
purchased the lazy Susan pen holder for under $17 at Home Goods. It contains all my
special ink markers, mostly the kind one uses for stamping projects. The robin blue boxes
on the top left contain either tools or rubber stamping ink pads.

I had these fabric boxes for a long time and used them for more specialty tools and all
our software.

A MGC reader asked me whether there was any update on the office organization and sure enough there is! Since I have created this closet, I felt it was a good idea to move my desk around so it is now facing the wall instead of the window. This allowed me to add one more shelf and bring all my scrapbooking reference guides from the basement along with other organized items. On top I keep all my blogging and Digital Scrapbooking reference guides, there are a few go-to psych books like my old college DSM-IV and what not.

In this cute little suitcase, I keep my current Thank You cards so I don't have to rummage through my large stationary and greeting cards container in the basement. Having different Thank You card designs around is a good thing (my own opinion). People have lost the art of saying Thank You - not me!

On the middle shelf I have another one of those three-drawer container and also labeled the drawers to quickly find what I need such as ink for fountain pens, my label maker or the small digital cameras with their chargers and respective SD cards.

You can see my reference binders there too (on the right). Instead of keeping entire craft magazines, I pull out whatever article, layout or advertisement I am interested in and insert it into a sheet protector. Currently I have 4 reference guides:

• Color & Pattern Designs I
• Color & Pattern Designs II
• Inspiring Layout Designs
• Digital Layouts How-To

This is what it looks like inside one of my  inspiring Layout Designs reference binder:

So again, I created a special space just for me and I am really enjoying the direct daylight from the window, this is MY SPACE! What do you think?

I hope you have enjoyed the tour and found a few hints and tips to help you stay organized. Though this was a long project, I have to say that all the effort paid off. Not only did I manage yet another round of purging, I also found some "long time no see" items which quickly were relocated to their rightful home, because after all, the secret of staying organized is to have a designated place for all your things, and if you can label it too, all the better!

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Sophia, NJ.