Getting Organized for Fire Prevention & Giveaway

This is a sponsored post on behalf of First Alert. All opinions are my own.

October is "Fire Prevention" month and I have been preparing for disasters now even more because of how many I have been watching all around our country. I have personally had family effected by the natural disasters and it has made me more aware of how lacking our household is in terms of preparation. 

Welcome to my Organized, Colorful Home

I haven't updated my home tour in awhile so I thought it would be fun to share how my house looks right now, since doing my new kitchen and a few other areas this year. So, I'm going to walk you through the house! If you want to now specifics about that room, just click on the link I provide for each room. 

Welcome to our home!

Our front yard got overhauled last year and is now completely drought tolerant and all native. Go HERE to read more about it. 

12 Ways to Organize with Command Hooks

There are some things in life that are just begging for me to share - those fun little "guess what I did with this?" kind of things. That's how I feel about command hooks - they have so many fun uses. I wanted to share 15 ways to organize with command hooks, so the next time you're looking for an easy and cheap organizing solution, you can pin these and save for later when you're trying to find new ideas!

Organizing an Upright Freezer {Garage Freezer}

Right as we were getting into our kitchen renovation, while my husband was away on a business trip for a week, our downstairs fridge/freezer died! We have a lot of people over and feed a lot of people, plus I like to buy in bulk, so our downstairs freezer is vitally important. I knew it could go anytime, as we had problems with it. It was "only" 15 years old but we loved it as it had a TOP fridge and BOTTOM freezer and they don't make those anymore, sadly. So, we had to explore some new options, and fast. 

Emergency Preparedness in Your Home - Being Prepared for a Natural Disaster

A little over 21 1/2 years ago, in January 1994, I was sound asleep in my third story apartment that I shared with my roommate. Suddenly, at 4:30 in the morning, I was thrown out of bed and our apartment was jumping up and down and things were flying through the air and falling all over the floor. It was like nothing I had ever experienced - I am a native Californian and have been through many earthquakes. But, this one was different. It was like someone picked up a salt shaker and shook it straight up and down. It was terrifying!! My finance, John, was across town and was at my door within half hour of the huge earthquake. His apartment was completely trashed and the whole drive to my apartment he said that every window in the city was broken and the tragedy was only beginning. Have you ever been in a situation like that? 

11 Ways to organize under your stairs

If you have any kind of stairs in your home, you know that under those stairs is a lot of wasted space! Right? Or, if you have a closet under there, how in the world do you organize it to make useable space? 

It's all about the little things! Gadgets and such!

I love small, modern conveniences. You know, those little things that just make life easier. Since we haven't done many projects lately here, I thought I'd take the time out to show you some of the little things that have made my life just a little happier. Some things may seem expensive or insignificant, but they've become important to me. 

Reminiscing...projects I've done!

So, I was looking back at some of the projects I've done this last year. I thought I'd share a few with you, remind you of what has gone on. Here is one I did in May 2010 updating a pretty ugly place - looking out my window in the basement.  It is MUCH better since doing this last year:







How is it holding up? Not bad.  Some of the paint is chipping and the plant has grown a lot.  It's been quite a task to keep the spiders from taking over, though!



Or how about the cute skirt for the laundry sink I designed and my sweet Mom sewed?






Or how about tearing down our kitchen wall in July of 2010?

Oh, and my vintage oven?

That was quite a mess to clean and move in!

Then by September we were nearly finished and I painted our old buffet and turned it into a beautiful, additional counter-top area.

I planned a huge FREE Ladies' Clothing Boutique at my house in September...and I've got some ideas for this year, too!











So, hang on...there are more projects and organizing events coming, once this fun summer is over!! I will never run out of projects - and I never tire of organizing!

How I organize: My overflow pantry

Down in my basement, I have an overflow pantry.  This one is different from my regular pantry in the kitchen. 

I am not into Extreme Couponing or anything to necessitate an entire wing of my home for extra items. My hubby just likes me to have stuff "at the ready" anytime so we can have company over anytime! My kitchen pantry can't hold everything so between this and my basement freezer, we can have extra stuff here to feed anyone at any time!

 I keep lots and lots of drinks stocked for both my kids' lunches, afternoon snacks - we often travel to therapists offices right after school or to have packed up for them to drink while I'm teaching piano lessons after school.  These coffee cups {got them at Costco} with lids are especially nice to have when we have a smaller group of friends over so the adults can take their coffee to go or inside for our Bible Study time.  I also keep my roasting pan in there - since I pull it out only a few times a year - along with some soft-sided coolers for picnics or taking along lunch/dinner/snacks when we watch a baseball game or other sport.

I have lots of table cloths that I bought pretty cheap - both cloth and vinyl - to use for throwing a quick tablescape and if they get dirty I'm okay with it! They are long and rectangular so I can make them fit just about any table size.

I keep the regular overstock of foods and cleaners and paper goods down there, too.  One thing that I keep is lots and lots of extra "disposable" containers.  We have many needs in our church body for meals.  So, I bring a meal to one family a month {this is my limit, but I love to do it}.  So, I always bring the meal in disposable containers - butter tubs, restaurant take-out containers, jars - so that they don't have to wash OR return any dishes to me! I wash and stack them down here to use. How do you store overflow stuff?  


 

How I organize: Wrapping paper

I would love to have this wrapping station...it's lovely, isn't it?

Source

But, I don't. I used to have it in a coat closet at our old house - in a rolling bin.  But, this house has no coat closet. For awhile I kept it under my folding table in the the basement laundry room.  My sweet hubby decided to give me a cupboard in his workshop, near the laundry area, for my wrapping station! It looks like this:

Don't be jealous! I know it's prime location right above the clothes' dryer is to die for!  Ha, ha...hey, it's what I have to work with so it's what I use!  Here is where I keep all my wrapping paper:

Why, yes it IS wedged between the clothes' dryer and the work bench!  Again, I worked with what I had.  What IS great is just keeping things organized and labeled.  My daughter LOVES to wrap so she knows how to put everything back - pretty much without making a mess. 

Avoiding any massive difficulties:

Figuring out what goes where:

Or what goes there:

But, if you want fancy, here are some more great inspirations I have found with beautiful wrapping stations!

Source

It's the little things...small project!

If you remember my post on the skirted sink that I did last month, 

Weekend Project: Laundry Room Skirted sink

Here is a great project that I did on our ugly basement utility sink.  I was inspired recently by THIS blog on laundry room inspirations and noticed all the sinks with their pretty skirts!  This was my laundry room sink - pretty ugly!  I have to be careful because my husband's workshop is in this basement along with my laundry area - and it's not quite as beautiful as the laundry rooms in that blog, but I'm working on getting it looking a little more pleasant to do my laundry down there. 

Sink before

Looking out to see what's there...a small project

We are one of a handful of southern Californian's that actually have a basement, not a cellar, but a real basement.  Now, it's probably not a basement like the rest of the country has, but we have one nonetheless!  I love having it as it has afforded us a lot of extra space to store things -things that we mostly use for all the many events and guests that we have here at our house.  It also has my laundry "room" and my husband's work shop down there.  It's only about 300 square feet, but it's wonderful!  However, I have to look out my laundry room window and see this awful view every time I do the laundry.