Nursery and Garage Organization–Month 5 OPO

Contrary to how the title is read, we are NOT creating a nursery from the garage….we are however transforming two great spaces. Jenny will be organizing her garage for more storage space and Stephanie will be organizing and re-decorating her daughter’s nursery. It’s going to be a great month!

Stephanie’s Nursery Project

This month I chose to focus on my daughter’s nursery, since I don’t have a garage in my home. She will be 17 months this month and she still has a drab, gender neutral, no decorations nursery.

When I was pregnant, we decided to not find out the gender before delivery. I know it is rare these days, but we really wanted a surprise. The room was already painted a grey we loved, so we went with a grey and yellow theme. We didn't put much up on the walls because we didn't want to decorate to gender specific.

Fast forward 17 months later and the room is still very much how it was when she was born. We added a mobile above her crib for her to look at when she was small and hung a mirror and frames for a gallery wall. {there are no pictures in the frames…sigh}.



See this play area? That 2x2 IKEA KALLAX cube we moved down into the family room for her toy storage back in Month 3.

Project Nursery Plan:

- Deep clean the room before I even start decorating or moving things around.
- New girly color theme: I want to make this room more suited for a girl. I will be introducing bright colors in the wall decorations and the gallery wall and in the curtains as well {stay tuned for an easy DIY}.
- Create a reading nook: This little girl LOVES her books, so I want to create a nice reading/play area for her to enjoy. Picture a tent, lots of pillows and tons of books!

Jenny’s Garage Project

Remember in this post HERE when I said that this was going to be the most embarrassing post ever. Well. I didn't lie did I? So, want to take a tour with me? Just be careful so you don't trip and fall over all of the crap I have stored shoved in here! This is the way that my family enters into our home daily. This is the teeny tiny path that we have to walk through. (The cute turquoise door is the entrance into the mudroom and you can read more about HERE .)

 

When you open the garage door, to the right is our trash & recycle cans. Behind them hangs our brooms and shovel. In front is furniture and boxes of who knows what? The mostly open shelves are supposed to store paper goods that we buy in bulk - they are mostly open because we can't get to them right now.

As you come down the path of destruction, we have black shelving. It holds more crap. In the fall, I actually had these organized. What the hell happened you may wonder? WE HAPPENED! When someone doesn't know where to put something - this is easiest dumping ground since we don't have a basement. So this is where it gets dumped. So, my dear friends and loyal readers - welcome to our dump! This is the last time you will see it looking like this. Well, it is the part of the dumping ground - you will see more as you continue to read. Also, minus the 2 organized shelves on the bottom left rack. The bottom is paint for the house. (Which I keep separate from paint that I use on furniture.) The second shelf is for cleaning supplies. Both are necessities and get used often. If you are asking how or why paint gets used often - if a ding or scuff happens on one of the walls - I patch, repair and paint as soon as I can. (My children may disagree with this statement as their bedroom's and bathroom need touch-ups - but I dislike going to those 3 places, so we won't discuss that... at least not THIS month.)

 

The white laundry baskets are used to hold sports equipment and the other is for paper recycling. I recycle every single piece of paper that comes into our home. I do it separately to ensure that it is recycled properly. Above that is our bulk food items and extra booze/serving stuff. Marco insists on putting lunch bags there too (I promise you - they do NOT belong there. It has been an on-going 3 year battle. So, currently, lunch bags have 3 spots in our home. Eventually, they will have 1 spot and I will win, but that is for another post.) I hate to shop. Grocery shop. Clothes shop. Anything shop. The one nice thing about having Renovar is I don't shop much anymore. I send him to do that chore now. I have never bought Pringles in the history of ever. I didn't even know that there were 31 flavors of Pringles. It is something I could have died and never needed to know. (DISCLOSURE: truth be told I don't really have any clue how many flavors of Pringles actually exist. It is merely an exaggeration. He just buys interesting varieties of Pringles that nobody will eat - except him.)

Then we have the door and a closet that you can't see. It is where we have our hot water heater and furnace. It is also where we keep our garbage bags and extra filters. I don't think we could get there if we wanted to. (More in that exciting news in a second.) Then, you see the other path down there? Look closely. It is kinda there. This is part 2 of the great big dumping ground. This part takes up more than 1.5 carports though. It is comprised of 3 workbench areas. Workbenches? You don't see them? Be patient, it is only the beginning of the month. You will see them by May 31st!

Back to the path. The path takes us to the the tool bench! The tool box. His my beloved tools! The paint that is separate for Renovar Furniture. A radio system so I can have music - LOUD MUSIC when I am being creative. Well, when I have space to work in here and not in the middle of my living room floor. 

Remember a few paragraphs back when I said we had more exciting news? Well, guess what??!! You know how life is a mystery? How everything happens for a reason? How things fall into place without rhyme or reason? How I said I couldn't get to my water heater if I tried or wanted to? I NEEDED to!! It died today. Probably has been dying a very slow death over the course of 2 weeks or so as we have have been noticing that our hot water wasn't lasting as it normally was. When I was sweeping part of the floor I had noticed a wet spot. Wet spots in a dry garage mean trouble. Trouble it is! When Marco investigated - it was a piece that was corroded and couldn't be repaired. Good news, by the time you are reading this, the good people at Lowe's should have a new one installed for us!

YAY US! Better news, we are a lot farther along in the first weekend of the this month then we ever anticipated! YAY US - AGAIN! :)

Week 1 (IDENTIFICATION)

**with free printables!!**

1. Identify what your project is this month.
2. Identify what is and isn’t working.  Use the printable below to help make sure that EVERYONE is on board.

Download Here

     3. Develop a plan.

     4. Create a shopping list and shop. Use this to do and shopping list to help you. We have our work          cut out for us! Remember to get EVERYONE who will be impacted by the changes involved –            comments, critiques and inputs. Now onto the planning! 

Download Here

Don’t forget to let us know how you are doing and follow our Operation: Project Organize Pinterest Board for inspiration and tips!