Buying Sanity

I recently dropped a lot of bank at the Container Store.  Somehow, our walk-in pantry had gotten to a point where you could no longer walk in, and I had had it.  I was tired of the mismatched containers and the confusion of pearl barley in an old couscous bottle and the bags of pasta that seemed to slip and slide everywhere.  Tired of digging out a snack for my kids from behind, well, from behind whatever.

I did a test run with the dried fruits and nuts shelf and liked the result so much I went back for more.  As the check out guy rang up my dozens of plastic boxes (BPA free!)  we got to talking.  When I mentioned that my husband was not particularly happy about the price tag for this little project, he said two things that interested me.  First, that there is usually a less enthusiastic party in any organization project, but they always, always come around to the "after."  And second, that what I was buying was sanity.

You work in the right place, I said.

But I think there is some truth to this.  My husband has already admitted that the pantry is better.  And when I watch my 5 year old help herself to some pistachios, and then return the container to the shelf, I do feel a little more sane.

I will admit, it can be hard to divert a portion of your home budget to the "boring" functional stuff, but in the end the right storage solutions mean that clutter is held at bay, and everyone can function just a little bit better.

What do you think:  are you a Container Store junkie?  Or do you go for more of a catch as catch can approach?

Teensy Nursery

The family with this boys room and this girls room has an unexpected guest coming their way: baby number three, due in September!  Eventually two of the kids will share the map room, but for now, they're turning a small office in to the nursery.

The room is maybe 6x9 feet, teeny indeed, with a weird niche that is too small for a crib.  Taking inspiration from all the recent crib-in-the-closet design, we're talking about building a custom platform and storage right in to the niche, in lieu of a traditional crib.

Here's some inspiration.

via apartment therapy

Love the drawers below and shelf above; we would just add a rail of some kind to the front for now, leaving a little reading nook later

One Little Minute Blog

There's a simple example of a rail.  And space for baskets below may be easier than drawers.  Stripes are cute, too, but I love the solid color of this next one.

via Daddy Types

If you really wanted to get creative, you could create cutouts for crawl spaces (for a toddler)

Or build a playhouse underneath

Or keep it simple, and build a curved rail instead of a slatted one.

via Oh Happy Day

What do you think: would you put the baby in the closet?

I think this is such a smart solution to open up a small room!

"Senegalese Storage" the Ikea way

Everyone is going ga ga for Serena and Lily's Senegalese storage baskets, and I will admit, I'm joining the hype.  After the prevalence of African stools and textiles such as kuba cloth over recent years, African baskets seem like a natural trend, especially when done up in such fun colors.




Available here.  Only problem (can you guess?)  The price tag.

Amber over at Amber interiors took matters into her own hands when she found a similarly-shaped basket at Home Goods, and improvised with tape and spraypaint.



Pretty cute, right?  (Tutorial, here.)

When I first saw the Serena and Lily version, I was immediately reminded of the Asunden collection at Ikea.


While they don't come in a large storage size, the type of weaving and the shape of the lidded bins gives the same feeling.  I bought the group of three (above) back in the fall, and have been using the smaller ones to hold toilet paper in two of our bathrooms (there's no closed storage), and the lidded one for trash in our master bath--love that it's covered!  There are also these bath accessories:



And this individual lidded basket


The best part?  The set of 3 is $34.99, the pair of bath accessories is $9.99, and the lidded basket is just $6.99.

Sold.

Simple Storage Solution

When I re-did the girls' room, there were storage implications. Bringing in a dresser displaced the tiered toy bin, but it also freed up some plastic drawers in the closet. (In Boulder, there was no room for a dresser, so we got these green plastic drawers from Target to hide in the closet.)

Because the girls mostly play with toys made up of smaller pieces when they are in their room, the little drawers were just the right size for some carefully chosen toys. Only problem: while the drawers are plastic, they aren't totally clear, and the girls are used to having their toys where they can see them.

So I took pictures of the items that belong in each drawer, laid out on a white surface. I printed them on my home computer and taped then to the drawers.


Because Clio is learning to read, I also made labels for each drawer. I wrote them in cursive because in Montessori, kids learn their cursive letters first. I just taped those right on, too.


I thought about creating little frames on the computer, or at the very least "designing" the labels, with borders and a cute font, but in the end I decided not to over think it, and to go with something functional and educational for the girls, rather than something all design-y for me. It is all inside a closet, after all, and, perhaps this is sacrilege, but I do think the world has gone a bit overboard in insisting that every last item be adorable, stylish, or both.

What I DID do was make sure the bins were all coordinated, and mixed it up with the green-and-white woven ones on the top of the drawers. Luckily, they also coordinate with the dominant color in the rooms' overall design: green.


And you know what? The system works like a charm. The girls are able to put their toys away where they belong and, miracle of miracles, they actually do.

Craigslist Find

I've been searching for a dresser for the guest room on a very tight budget, and when I stumbled upon this dresser and hutch combo for a mere $75, my jaw dropped for all of it's cuteness. The faux bamboo! The brass hardware! The little finials on the top of the hutch!


I mean, right? Makes me want to scrap the girls room and start over, building around this. I won't, but I'm tempted.

It reminded me of this awesome piece in designer Celerie Kemble's office.

[via Domino]

Love the turquoise color. MN folks, someone should really, truly, snap this piece up!