Wait-No-More Challenge: Breakfast Nook Edition

Hey, Friends! Hope you all are doing well and have some fun plans for this weekend! We are planning to use the long weekend to tackle a big project. I'll post some sneak peeks on Instagram. Wish us luck! I say "we" loosely considering I have shingles and am laid up on the couch. So "we" is more like "he". ;) Thankful for my awesome hubby! Now, onto some organizing fun!

The next space I tackled for the Wait-No-More Organizing Challenge is the breakfast nook. Let me tell you, this space has driven me bananas since we moved into this house 3 years ago. We come in and out of the house through this room, so for three years, it has been covered in shoes, mail, papers, tools, and other miscellaneous junk. Makes me crazy!

I don't have a before picture because I've been reorganizing it in phases. But, just imagine a paperwork and shoe mess and you'll have an accurate before picture. Ha! Here is what it looked like a couple years ago after we bought a new table, in case you are wondering about the layout. Obviously, I moved the papers for the picture. #trickytricky

I actually completed the first phase of reorganization in May by tackling the shoe mess. The shoe cabinet has been amazing at keeping the floors clutter free! The basket on top has been a great landing spot for things like keys, sunglasses, and sunscreen that used to clutter up the kitchen countertop. You can read more about the shoe organization here.

For the Wait-No-More Challenge, I decided to finish organizing the space. The main remaining trouble spots were my pile of papers, planner, and mail pile on the counter, the soaps near the sink, and the mail sorter on the side of the kitchen cabinet. It was way too much clutter!

First, I tackled my pile of papers that need attention and my planner. They have never really had a designated spot, so have ended up on the corner of the countertop. I was afraid if I put it in our big mail sorter, it would be out of sight, out of mind for me. The bins are really deep and little papers get hidden easily. I need lots of reminders, so I wanted to walk by and see what I needed to do.

I decided to purchase a small mail sorter for my urgent papers and my planner. The compartments are shallow enough that nothing is hidden. This way, I can see what needs to be done at a glance, but it looks way neater than a pile on the counter!

I found the mail sorter at TJ Maxx for only $6.99! Score! Home Goods has the same ones, so between the two stores, there are lots of color options. This blue/green one goes perfectly in my kitchen!

The next trouble spot was the big mail sorter. The previous owners graciously left it behind when they moved, which I'm thankful for. It goes perfectly in the kitchen! It had accumulated a lot of papers, though, so I sorted through everything and got it all back in order.

The bottom slot is for mail and the next one up is for Jeremy's paperwork. The third bin contains three folders for me-- one for school paperwork, one for coupons, and one for my important papers. The top bin is where I keep my stationary.

The last trouble area was the kitchen counter near the sink. I have been buying and replacing pretty soap pumps since we moved in! They all break so easily! And I really hated our scrub brush either sitting on the counter or buried under the dishes in the sink.

My friend Cary has a pretty tray near her sink that she keeps her dish soaps on. I've always thought it looked really nice, so decided to copy her. I haven't even told her, yet. Ha! (Thanks for the idea, Cary!)

I found this pretty turquoise tray at World Market to corral the soaps and found the white dish at Target to set my brush in. My dish soap and brush just happened to match. Happy accident! Doesn't it look so tidy?! By the way, Jeremy gave me the automatic soap dispenser for Christmas and it is awesome! No more raw meat or egg on the soap pump!

Now when I walk in the door, I no longer see a pile of shoes and papers all over the counter. I couldn't be more thrilled! I mean, HELLO clutter free counter! Love!

Happy 4th! 

Linking up with Jen at IHeart Organizing!

A Place for the Shoes

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Mine was delightful! As my Mother's Day gift, Jeremy cleaned the house while I was out drinking Starbucks and wandering around Target! He also assembled a piece of furniture and ordered pizza for dinner. Pretty much a perfect day in my book! :)

Want to see what he was assembling? A new shoe cabinet for the breakfast nook!

Our poor breakfast nook never actually sees a breakfast. I can't tell you the last time we ate in here. The breakfast nook serves as our mudroom. We pass through it a million times a day and everything gets dropped in here. It drives me batty!

The previous home owners built awesome coat hooks that we love and provide great storage for jackets and backpacks. But, while the backpacks and jackets may have a home, the shoes have overtaken the room. Our coat closet is down the hall and is the size of a bread box, so trying to store the shoes in there just hasn't worked. We do not wear shoes in the house, so the second we walk through the door, the shoes end up getting kicked off behind the door. Like so...

And this is a good day. Add a couple more pairs of shoes, a sprinkling of socks, and a bunch of tracked in leaves and dirt and you have it on a bad day. :/

via Ikea

A couple years ago, I found these shoe cabinets at Ikea and knew it was the solution to our shoe problem! They are only about 8 1/2" deep, so they don't take up much room. But, they pack a ton of storage! Bonus points--they're cute!

It may have taken two years to work this purchase up to the top of the budget priority list, but it's finally here and I love, love, love it!

We also purchased a runner for in here to catch the dirt on the way to the cabinet. I found it on sale for 20% off + an additional 5% off! I love the way the colors in the runner marry the cool tones from the living room/dining room and the warm tones from the kitchen/breakfast nook!

We eventually want to build a banquette in here to provide more storage and function, but in the meantime, I'm super happy with this new found function. Maybe I'll celebrate by actually eating breakfast in here? ;)


Linking up to Savvy Southern Style and many other awesome blogs!

Banquette Inspiration

With all of our living room projects going on, our big organizing project has had to take a back seat for a while. But, we've recently picked up some steam, which I'll update you on soon!

There are a couple trouble spots in our house that we are trying to find creative solutions to organize. One of those trouble spots is our breakfast nook. We come in and out of the house through this room all the time, so it becomes the drop zone. I so wish we had a mud room to go through before you hit the breakfast nook, but no such luck. Tools, shoes, mail, returns, library books all end up in here. We hardly ever eat at this table, but we do use the table frequently to paint, play board games, play with play-dough, color, etc. So, we are working on ways to help our breakfast nook serve dual purposes and act as a combined mudroom and eating area. Here's a reminder of how the room looks now. Excuse the bad, old picture. ;)

Jeremy had a great idea to put in banquette seating with lids that flipped up and have built in storage underneath. We could use it to store our shoes, frequently used tools, kids bags, and even board games! We've been discussing how we would build it and have been planning it all out. Mad props to my hubby for coming up with a great storage solution!

I've been scouring the web for some inspiration, specifically looking for banquettes that do not have a back, instead have low windows behind them like ours will have. Enjoy a few of my favorites!

Images via Cococozy

Can't wait to get to work on this project! But, gotta save up the cash first! :)

Saturday Finds

This is technically a couple Saturday's old, but had to share our recent find. :) In our previous home, we used our breakfast nook as a play area for Little One and our dining room as our main eating area. In our new home, we have a bedroom downstairs that we made into a playroom, so we kept our breakfast nook and dining room for their intended purposes. Hooray! We only owned one table, though, so we removed the leaf from our dining room table and put it in the breakfast nook and bought a new table for our dining room. Confused yet? Haha

Anyway, we have not been 100% satisfied with how the table looked or fit in our breakfast nook. Because of its oblong shape, the person sitting in the back always ended up slamming the chair into the plantation shutters when they got up. Not cool. And, let's be honest...I'm not a fan of the style of the table. Cute in the 90's, not my style now. Danny Tanner called and wants his table back.

Here's a phone shot of the old gal.

Our original plan was to save up and purchase a new, round table that fit the breakfast nook better. But, with our long home to-do list, the breakfast nook table kept getting pushed to the very bottom. We decided to try and find a table on Craigslist for the same price or less than what we could sell our existing table for to save money and get this item marked off our to-do list.

I'll admit, I HATE buying things on Craigslist. I have terrible, terrible luck. I contacted 2-3 sellers within a couple hours of their listing going up, and they would either not bother responding, or their table was already sold. Another seller went as far as scheduling a time for us to come get the table, then mysteriously wouldn't give us their address and then told us the table was sold. What happened to honesty? Rant over.

Thankfully, on attempt #5 or 6, we found a round table that was in perfect condition for $200 AND were able to purchase it from a really nice woman without any drama. Hooray!

Here's our new little table!

It fits the space SO much better than the other table did! We gained a ton of space in the breakfast nook and were able to position the chairs so that no one would back up into the shutters. LOVE IT!

We were able to sell our old table for $220 on Craigslist, so we ended up with a table that we loved and $20 in our pockets! Woot woot!

Have you swapped anything out recently that just wasn't working in your home? Do you have better Craigslist luck than I do?! Hope so!