A Very Fine House: May 2010

Wardrobe Organisation

How did you go with your kitchen organising from last week? I had lots of emails and tweets letting me know you were inspired!

This week I thought we could talk about wardrobes (or closets). Hand up if you are guilty of mess behind closed doors? ME! ME! ME! I am good at making the most obvious areas of my home clean, but I am shocking at shoving things into cupboards willy nilly.

Following the principles of last week about sorting and deciding what is needed and not needed (go back to last week if you didn't get to follow it) the same applies here.

Wardrobe organisation is serious stuff for some people. I have seen some of my friends cupboards and they love sorting and organising! Puts me to shame.

So what I want to know is:

Do you colour coordinate your clothes?

Do you hang or fold?

Do you have a spot for your shoes? Are they in boxes?

Do you have somewhere for your jewellery, scarves, belts etc?

Where do you put your socks and undies?

Where do you put your pj's?

Do you have an organised system for your kids?

Do your kids robes hold their clothes and toys?

Here are some pictures to help get you in the mood.

Decide on the purpose and function of that cupboard/robe/closet.

You will need some things to help you:

Think about your hangers. Do you have some for shirts, skirts, pants, heavy jackets? Do you need more? Do you want them to match?

Your shoes, where are they? Are they sitting neatly, or thrown in the cupboard (mine are!)? Can you put them in boxes?

Is your wardrobe hosting other items? Examples: suitcases, toys, paintings, photo albums? Mine do.... Are they grouped together? Do you need some storage tubs? Can you put colourful ones in the kids rooms?

Do you need more shelving? Can you easily add some? Can you double hang some clothes to minimise space? I find the kids clothes are so small that a double hung area is the best! I also asked my husband to put an extra shelf in their wardrobes recently and it was so easy to do - made a world of difference.

Small spaces can look just as good. It's just being sure that nothing is in the space that is not needed or could go elsewhere.

What do you think? Could you give it a go?

Join us on The Decorating Forum today as we are always talking about organisation. Kids rooms seem to be the biggest battle. Do you have this struggle?

Ready, Set, Dissect!

Go here if you are new to the game.

We're back this week with a Clive Christian Kitchen. Whatcha think about this one? Love to hear your comments! Click to enlarge.

Next week we have a giveaway lined up so please pop back.

If you are bored over the weekend joins us for a chat at The Decorating Forum.

Wednesday's Walk-through

Today we are having a look at a lovely twitter friend/boss of Katrina's, Peter Brewer. Peter is an Inline Media Manager for the Professional's Real Estate Group based in Brisbane, Australia. Peter is also one of our lovely advertising friend's with a great free offer - click on his ad on the sidebar.

He showed us a few pictures of his lovely home and we thought this was a great feature to share with you because it's much different to what we have seen thus far on the blog.

Peter says:

Michelle and I are in our 50's living in Manly Brisbane with 2 kids still at home aged 16 and 19.

It was designed by Michelle and I with Architect Philip Gough. We went for a beachy earthy feel and an open plan style for easy family gatherings. Wanted to have the kids close by as they grew (not so much now!)...

Benches are Stone Italiana. We went with a Smeg Oven as a piece of furniture plus I love cooking!

Ritek roof makes for a trendy feel plus is low maintenance.

Built in 2004. House is on 638 sqm.

Enjoy the tour!

Hope you got to see our post on Monday about Organising YOUR Kitchen.

Julie-Ann has been busy chatting about Laundry Organisation on The Decorating Forum if you need some inspiration on that one.

Back Friday with our Ready, Set, Dissect Posts. Thanks for your comments! It keeps us motivated!

Organise YOUR Kitchen

All of this week there has been so much talk of organisation.... on Katrina's blog and The Decorating Forum. So we thought it fitting to give you a few tips on how to get your kitchen (the hub of the home) sorted.

5 tips before you start:

1. Do you have 1 hour or 4 hours to spare? This is important as you need to think about what you can achieve in that time. No good starting something as big as sorting your kitchen if you can't get close to finishing it. You may need to break up over a couple of days.

2. Garbage bags in hand. There will ultimately be 2 piles - give away or throw. You need to have the bags accessible before you starting pulling things out. Things you keep can go straight back into your kitchen.

3. Are you likely to be disrupted? If you have kiddies, do you have activities ready for them?

4. Do you get emotional about detaching yourself from items? If yes, get over it (mean aren't I? But I promise I am only helping you!). If no, you are ready to do this.

5. Are you serious about achieving this? If yes, get to it!

The aim:

The aim is to have a kitchen (pantry, drawers, shelves... the lot) that ONLY houses things you will use. If you didn't use it recently, then it has to go.

You do not need 4 egg lifters. You do not need 5 mixed herb spices. You do not need 8 casserole dishes (and probably half of them are chipped). Do you ever use the yoghurt makers?

You are going to remove things from the shelf 1 by 1.

Throw?

Keep?

Give Away?

At this point I highly recommend you have a sponge ready to wipe the shelves and drawers as you go.

The KEEP items:

I cannot stress enough how important it is to ensure the items you are keeping go back into the drawers or onto the shelves in an orderly manner.

Examples - all tins together, all coffee mugs together etc etc.

If you get this right, you won't have to do it ever again!

The best places for things?

Here are some ideas for drawers - they are great for crockery (including maybe your better dinner set), saucepans and frypans, casserole dishes and roasting dishes, tupperware, and recently Julie-Ann put her slow cooker in one because she wanted it very handy. We wouldn't suggest glasses or cups unless the drawer isn't very deep.
Glasses are good near the dishwasher as it makes it easier to unstack them.
Saucepans and frying pans near the hotplate.
Crockery is best near where you would plate up.
Narrow side cabinets are fantastic for trays and cutting boards.

Definitions:

Give away - to friends, family, or charity.

Throw - in the bin, not move it to another spot!

Keep - are you sure about that item? Yep? Then keep. If unsure... it has to go.

Organisation Tools:

We have sourced some bits for you that can help keep the organisation in tact. Don't feel like you have to have these. Like Katrina has been saying on her blog "you don't have to spend money to be organised".These are just ideas.

We enjoy some of the products and would love to hear if you have any of them, or can recommend any more?

Katrina's pantry a few years ago.

Containers all stacked together. Lids on! No floating and missing lids!

Sorting food as you put it into the fridge helps you keep track of what you have. No lingering plastic cold meat bags in the back of the fridge.

Tea towel hooks - these can go inside or outside the door.

Pull out spice rack.

Another variation of an easily mountable spice rack.

Extra shelf for pantry so you can stack food. From Howards Storage World.

Pockets are excellent for packet soups, gravey, packet pasta. Can stack them all in together and they won't float through your pantry. From Howards Storage World.

Slide and stack basket (sorry about the quality). Great for in the pantry and under the sink for cleaning bottles. From Howards Storage World.

Utensil trays are a must! From Howards Storage World.

Grip mat for inside drawers so items don't slip around.

And to finish the post off we thought we would give you some organised kitchens for inspiration!

We would love your feedback. Your comments keep us motivated to keep producing fun posts for you to read.

Katrina & Julie-Ann.

Ready, Set, Dissect

Ready for another week? Go here if you are new to the game.

Tell us what you love about this room? I know you love to tell us what you hate, but thought it would be fun to also see what you love.

Pic here.

PS. Did you miss yesterday's post? Have something to giveaway? Free advertising on offer.

Just a quick one

Do you like giveaways? Do you have something we could giveaway here at A Very Fine House?

In return we will offer a months free advertising in the sidebar plus free plugs to yourself as the gift-giver.

Email us if you have something to offer and let's get this party started.

Katrina & Julie-Ann.

Eye candy picture via Marley&Lockyer

Wednesday's Walk-through

Welcome Leanne!

About:

Mother, Wife, Lifestyle Photographer, Cook, Cleaner, Cat and Guinea Pig owner

Mum of two boys aged 6 and 2, wife of a good bloke who works very long hours and will still come home and paint for me.

Lives: Inner South-East ( Melbourne ) - close to the city, close to the beach, love it.

Site: www.hbfotografic.com

Blog: www.hbfotografic.com/blog

What else?

Hmm - love a project, love a reno. This is our 3rd house and our 2nd renovation project. I bought my 2nd house site unseen off a website when I was laid-up in hospital after birthing my first child. I SOLD my first house 2 weeks home from hospital - I had a baby on the boob as I completed those odd jobs we hadn't got around to .. like painting the fireplace surround, and ensuring the place was spotless. I remember a troop of R/E agents inspecting the place and they wanted to see the bedroom and I was propped up in bed feeding the baby. It was MADNESS. We bought our current home for it's big backyard and luckily just before the market turned. Our house has doubled in price ( land value alone ) in 4years, and we could no longer afford to buy here if we were looking today.

Personally, i've just turned 40, and in my time have lived in 24 different houses, 3 different countries, and 2 different states.

Since arriving in Melbourne at age 21, I have lived in 8 different suburbs. I believe home is where you make it, and as long as I have an abundance of natural light, I am happy.

THE BATHROOM RENO....

This was the original sleepout on my original 1930's home. I really loved the sloping roof and wanted to make that a feature of the bathroom, rather than making life easier for the builders ( oh, but they tried ) by putting in a false ceiling. I also wanted the whole bathroom to be a wet area - tiles from ceiling to floor - no paint, except for the ceiling!

Previous to us buying this house, it was owned by a physiotherapist who worked from home. You could smell rubbing oils in the old lino, and the old fashioned light feature was on a spring, whcih pulled down from the ceiling. I quite liked that light actually - people were always fascinated in it when they came over. There was also a small sink and electric handdrier in there, which I sold for great profit on ebay ( who would have thought!).

So for 4years, this was my makeup and craft room.

The original 1930's bathroom at the front of the house had/has no electrical outlets for my hairdrier, so i'd come into my craft room to fix my hair and face. I also kept all the kid's craft stuff and my giftwrapping supplies etc in here.

DURING....

In fact, if we keep renovating each room, I'll have nowhere else to go (I'm hoping to go UP! ). I had to get rid of the craft stuff, and my photographic studio and camera/lighting equipment live in the old dining room now. It's pretty cramped :/

Another essential of the new bathroom was dual sinks - I'm sick of arguing over toothpaste dribbles and shaving cream drips that are definitely NOT mine. Now there's no argument - my sink is spotless, and his is sloppy. He tries to blame the kids now - *sigh*

There are no nooks and crannies in this bathroom. After years of old houses with dirty little spots behind the toilet etc, I wasn't going to have that again. Big broad tiles, less grout, a toilet flush to the wall with no visible pipes, sinks flush to the tiles with clean lines.

I don't have time to spend hours cleaning, nor do I have the money for a cleaner. I have to work smarter, not harder.

AFTER....

Thanks Leanne!

Hope you enjoyed today's post.

More over here at The Decorating Forum.

And don't forget to email me if you think you might like to be a part of our advertising offer.

Advertise with us?

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The Decorating Forum has been ranked by Google as number 1 on several searches for Australian based Decorating Forums.

The forum regularly has 9000+ pages viewed a week by Australians who want to talk and read about decorating, renovating and building their homes.

It is unique in that it has many members who are experienced Interior Designers willing to assist those who are looking to improve their home.

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We would relish the opportunity to discuss with you the opportunity to advertise with us.

Please email us for enquiries and rates.

Can you grow your business through us? We think so.

Katrina & Julie-Ann.

Before & After

Sandy from Sandy's Place was kind enough to share with us some of her amazing before and after transformations. I am sure she sleeps with paintbrush in hand!