Project Simplify and Organize - Main Bathroom

Hi Everyone,

As promised in my last post, I have completed, and am sharing, my first home organization project - our family bathroom! We have been in our home for almost three years now and have had several different roommates. That, coupled with the fact that I am somewhat of a beauty- product addict, equals A LOT of stuff in the bathroom that never gets used. So let's get started.

Here is the view looking in our bathroom door:

I will start with the two large cupboards on the left, which have five shelves.

The first/top shelf used to hold a random assortment of stuff, including extra shaving accessories, toothbrushes and toothpaste, body products, the list goes on. I decided to make the top shelf our "hair" shelf. It holds all of my styling tools like my straightener, curling iron, and blow dryer. I hardly ever actually "do" my hair anymore so it was OK to have this stuff out of the way. The little black bag in the front is a hair clipper/buzzer set, and I've also put all of the hair products Mike and I actually use on this shelf.

The second shelf used to hold all of our most-used items, including toothbrushes, toothpaste, Q-tips and Mike's toiletry bag. The first thing I noticed about this messy area was the huge gaping hole of wasted space. So, I decided to put our bath towels on this shelf. (Who-da thunk it? Bath towels in the bathroom!)  This frees up some valuable space in our hall closet.

The third shelf used to hold all of Lily's products, and mouthwash apparently.  I have changed this shelf to be our now most-used items. Biggest pet peeve - we only have one outlet in the bathroom, and its on the wall with the light switch, so you have to have the cord across the cabinets to plug anything in. Oh well, what can you do, right?

The fourth shelf was another random assortment of bath and body products, with some hair products mixed in as well. That shelf is now our "first aid"area and also holds some back-up bath/body products.

The bottom shelf was where we used to have the first aid kit and all of our dog grooming accessories and products. Now, my little one isn't crawling yet but I know that soon enough she will be trying to get into EVERYTHING, so I didn't want to have any sharp objects on the bottom shelf where little fingers can reach them.  Since we don't use them very often, I moved all of the pet stuff to our downstairs bathroom, moved the first aid stuff up one shelf, and filled the bottom shelf with Lily's bath toys, hooded towels and face cloths. She can play with that stuff all she likes. I moved her shampoo, baby toothpaste, soaps, etc, to a drawer in the vanity and will put a child lock on it.

We have a little cabinet that goes around/over our toilet that was, again, full of bath and body products that were never being used. I cleaned out the products that had expired and that I can get rid of, and organized the rest. The bottom shelf now holds our extra hand towels and face cloths as well. On the open area right above the toilet I have put some products that I want to try and use on a more regular basis. If I see it right there, I will be more inclined to use it (Hello, Mary Kay Satin Hands!)

The best addition to my bathroom? A few Lush bath bombs that my awesome Hubby surprised me with one day. He knows how much I love them and how they are such a special treat to have in a bath at the end of a tough day. They also make my bathroom smell sooo yummy! If you want to check them out, go to www.lush.ca 

And that's all folks! I shall leave you with this photo of my waving to you in the mirror :)

Stay tuned for a few projects for our bedroom makeover! SO excited!

~ Shannon

Project Simplify and Organize - Master Bedroom Part 1

Welcome back everyone!

Way back in the spring I decided to continue my mega organization project in my bedroom. I thought it would be easiest to go through my own clothes and makeup first, and that I could do this and entertain the little one at the same time (imagine dancing around and throwing clothes while making funny noises and singing Disney songs).

The goals for this room:

- Sort, purge and organize: my clothes, Mike's clothes, my makeup and nail polish collection (I admit, I have a problem)

- Replace two old and mismatched dressers with one nice one

- Find bedside tables that will actually fit with our bed, and perhaps matching lamps or wall sconces 

- Find a bed frame and create under-bed storage

- Finish hanging pictures on the walls 

Let's see some before pictures shall we:

This is the view when you look into our bedroom door. Our room is small and the king-sized bed pretty much takes up the whole space. I have more room on my side of the bed because I had the bassinet squished in there when Lily was smaller. We can't even walk on Mike's side (have to crawl over the bed) and that's where the closet is, so it would be nice if we could access it. Also we have our bed right on the floor, and I would like to raise it up in an actual bed frame so that we could utilize the space underneath. In the right-hand corner of the picture you are seeing my vanity, which was also a huge mess of cosmetics, as well as a sort-of catch all for any random things that find their way into our pockets every day.

This is the view when I sit up in my bed - the two dressers that I want to replace with one. I use the term "dressers" lightly as the big black one is actually a TV entertainment unit. Mike's clothes currently live in that unit and the white dresser is empty except for the top drawer which is FULL of his socks, and the bottom drawer which has our bathing suits. Wedged between the two is one of Mike's gun sleeves, because all girls like having camouflage gun-sleeves in their bedrooms..... The next picture is a close-up of the little shelf in the TV unit where some of his hats, cologne, and other toiletries are currently housed. I want to find some nice way of organizing all of this for him as well.

As mentioned my makeup vanity is a sort of catch-all. This is my little cosmetics container (from Ikea) that holds my most-used makeup products. I also have ceramic jars holding my larger makeup brushes and cotton pads.

Underneath my vanity is actually semi-organized right now. The black case on the far left holds the rest of my makeup collection. The basket holds makeup bags that I use for travel, nail polish remover, dry shampoo and a couple body lotions. The first purple tote holds all of my nail polishes and utensils (clippers, files, etc.). The last tote holds most of my hair products like elastics, clips, etc. as well as some spare makeup items like foundation sponges and cotton pads. Then we have a plain old garbage can and my beautiful Nike Free Runs. They are stored here simply because I had to take them off in a rush last time I worked out. (Had to shower fast because the screaming, starving infant doesn't like when Mommy is smelly and sweaty - oh the joys!) They will eventually find a home near the front door with the rest of my shoes.

I actually forgot to take a before photo of the closet, which is OK because honestly I was a little embarrassed at how awful it was.

I got my butt in gear and started working on this project, but partway through I discovered something I hadn't noticed before... that our "spare" bedroom was actually bigger than our "master" bedroom. Can you guess what I decided?  Well, I am going to be a HUGE meanie and make you wait until the next post to see the finished room! Muah-ha-ha-ha-ha (said in low-pitch semi-evil voice).

Until next time...

~ Shannon

Where Have I Been?!

Hello friends!

Yes, I am alive, and I do sincerely apologize for my absence these last several months. 

I was all set to publish posts about my bedroom makeover and some other projects I had been working on, when my computer basically died. I was devastated to discover that we had lost everything that was on our old hard drive - all of my photos and videos of our precious baby, not to mention countless memories over the last several years. Not gonna lie, I cried! 

As a result of that, I wasn't able to create before and after photos of my makeovers and projects, and to be totally honest, I lost my motivation completely. Then of course life starts to get in the way as well. We've had birthdays, weddings, baby showers, BBQs, weekends with grandparents and of course the inevitable teething issues! But I am back, determined to continue on with this little project of mine, and I hope you will all forgive my absence.

We've been enjoying our summer so far, trying to get out in the sunshine and soak up the warmth and that glorious vitamin D! We had a little photo shoot outside in June and here are a few of my faves:

We have taken Lily swimming in both heated and non-heated pools, and in the lake - and she LOVES all of them. She's way tougher, at 8 months, than her mom, at a few years older ;)  She just splashes and plays with her water toys, we only take her out when her lips start to turn blue, but still no complaints from her.

I have a lot of new posts coming in the next few weeks so please stick with me. I hope you're having a fantastic summer so far!

~ Shannon

Oh Technology!

Hi Everyone,

It's just "one of those days" it seems. My daughter Lily is being oddly fussy, perhaps teething? Who ever knows really?  Spilled my first coffee of the day, the dog was running around and woke Lily up from her nap (too early), and now I am battling with technology like there is no tomorrow!

Since I started this blog, and hopefully will someday have a YouTube channel to go along with it, I wanted the entire "Random Shannonigans" world to be separate from my own personal information on the internet. Well that is way easier said than done my friends! 

My iPhone is also so full that I cannot take any more pictures or download the new update, so I wanted to back everything up to iCloud, but it's also apparently full. So then I try and backup my iPhone to my laptop and it will apparently take 15 hours! I mean, REALLY!?!?   Add to this the fact that my laptop will not run on battery power alone anymore, and it freezes when you try and do too many things at once... man oh man!

I'm sure I will figure it all out but geez, why must everything be so tricky?! If you are computer savvy and would like to help a girl out, please let me know!

I think the best idea for this Mama would be to abandon the computer for awhile, get Lily up since she refuses to nap anyway, and go for a walk in the sunshine. Yes, you heard me, the sunshine! It is 6 degrees and the view out my window looks like this:

Stay tuned for my completed "Project Simply and Organize - Bathroom" post coming this week. :)  I promise it will be a much happier post.

~Shannon

Spring Cleaning

Hey Everyone!

Happy first day of Spring!  

Wait a minute... spring, spring... nope, I have no clue what that word means! As I type this post THIS is the view out my front door:

Yes, that is a massive snowbank... and it is still snowing! Oh how we love Canadian winters, am I right? (Did you catch that bit of sarcasm?) 

Despite the weather, my brain has gone into full out spring cleaning mode. We don't own our home unfortunately, but have been here for almost three years and are encouraged by the landlords to think of it as our own and change things as we see fit. For example, when they found out that we were expecting a baby they told us to buy whatever kind of paint, new electrical outlets, light switches, etc. that we wanted for the nursery and they would reimburse us. Then they still made a point to come over and bring us a gift after she was born! Seriously, amazing landlords!

Since I have the OK to change some things, I have been scouring the internet looking for inspiration and ideas on how to fix the unruly and honestly ugly-looking areas of our home. I am thinking shelving, totes, drawer dividers... I really wish we had a Container Store here in Ottawa. Although I do know that we have a "Solutions" which I think is similar. If you have gone there and had any luck please leave me  a comment letting me know.

I took a notepad and pen and did a full walk-through of my house and made a list of the projects I would like to tackle and hopefully complete while I am off on maternity leave (I go back to work in October). After sitting down with a coffee and reviewing my list, its basically my whole house! I am calling it "Project: Simplify and Organize"  - basically get rid of the crap you don't use or need, and make everything else easy to see and access.

I plan to go room by room, and have decided to take you guys on this organizing journey with me, if you're interested. I have started a few things here and there, and so far have one full garbage bag of clothes and two boxes of knick-knacks and dishes to be donated, not a bad start!

Keep checking back for new posts on my various little projects and I would definitely appreciate suggestions as we go along. I will also be posting non-organizational stuff as well, not everyone is thrilled by cleaning (myself least of all). 

~ Shannon

My Very First Blog Post!

Hey Everyone,

Welcome to my little corner of the internet!

If you don't know me, or would like to know more, please check out the "About Me" section. 

I had been toying with the idea of starting a blog for quite some time. I was nervous, of course, you just never know how people are going to react, what they will say, do, etc.,  because this can be an awfully cruel world. After discussing the idea with my husband, mom, and some friends I decided "Why not? What have I got to lose?"

Next question, how do I create a blog? I received some great advice from my friend Kristen at Three Monkeys' Mommy, checked out some of my favorite blogs and how they were run, and also turned to Google (who wouldn't?).  I read tons of information about the process of actually creating a blog, and it seemed simple enough. Choose a theme, choose a name, create your blog, personalize it to your liking and start writing. Sounds simple, right?

My issue? All of those instructions told me to decide on a theme for my blog, to decide on what specifically I want to write about, but I want to write about a LOT of different things! I have varied interests and want to share bits of everything with all of you.

So I decided to do exactly that, and create a random blog about all the aspects of my life, hence my blog name.  You can expect posts on topics including children and family, friends and activities, parties, beauty products, cosmetics, health/fitness, food, photography, books, music, TV shows, movies, crafts, home projects and organization, and really anything else that pops into my brain. I really hope you like it, and leave me lots of comments and lots of love.

Check back for more posts soon,

~ Shannon