Big Brother labeler giveaway and decorative storage tutorial

Attention all (non-medical) OCD friends. January is National Get Organized Month and Brother is giving away a label maker every day along with a $2,000 grand prize package. Enter here.

If you haven't fallen in love with the coolness of owning a label maker, here's an idea to get you inspired. One of my favorite organizing tips is to hide storage in open sight by making it "pretty." So I'l show you how to make decorative silver storage cans, which you can see above in my fabulous closet.

I created this tutorial as part of a paid campaign with Brother and Blueprint Social. The opinions in this post are my own.

First you'll need a label maker. Brother gave me the PT-D200 to try, which has extra decorative text features. You can check out the full line here.

You'll also need a couple of small plain paint cans, which I picked up at a hardware store for $1.50 each.

Make a label "ribbon"  by repeating the text of your label over and over until you get the message that the text capacity is full. Optional: I put a space between each letter and two spaces between each word to air out my font.

Fortunately, the maximum label length fits exactly around my small paint can. You'll need four or five labels per can.

Then peel and stick your labels on the cans as seen below. Start on the back seam of the can and work your way around.  Slightly stagger your starting point so that the text is staggered from line to line.

Then take the contents of your junk drawer and put it in your pretty cans..

The cans look nice enough that you can leave them out on a desk or tray.

Here are more organizing projects using Brother label makers.

An InLinkz Link-up

My DIY closet makeover

Here are few closet cleaning tips that worked for me. And photographic evidence that it looked good for even a minute.

As mentioned earlier, my goal this year was to get real with my closet - in other words to think about what I really tend to wear.

Belts are one thing I have a lot of. But I hardly ever wear a belt. So I threw out belts by the handful. Above are the freshly organized survivors.

Clothes are no longer crammed like the 2 train at rush hour. I came to the conclusion that I rarely wear red, purple, lavender, or pink. So I got rid of that whole end of the rainbow, except for a couple of items in coral and yellow.

This has done miracles for me. If everything you've got is either blue or green or a neutral - then everything goes with everything. Close your eyes and grab any top and any bottom and they will be pretty much fine together.

Jackets have been cut back to four and probably could be further reduced to one or two. Shirts and blouses are also blue, green or neutral.

Then there are the shoes and jewelry. Two purges and still out of control. It's OK. I'm auditioning for The Coveteur.

Spring cleaning - shoes and accessories

Above is a small fraction of my Shoemageddon. At last count I had 26 pairs on active rotation and probably just as many stashed in tote bags in the bottom of my closet.

Shoes get out of control because they are so easy to try on and look interesting even when not actually being worn. If the shoe fits, take it home and store it.

If one is feeling down about personal excess of any sort, one can always turn to celebrities to feel better. Take a stroll through The Coveteur and various other blogs and your own shoe issues will dwindle to a single shelving unit.

 

 

So, gotta ask - does anybody out there not have enough shoes for a centipede with a personal stylist? 

Spring cleaning - getting real with your closet

Have you started spring cleaning yet? Here are some tips and inspiration to get you started or keep you going.

First I'd advise a spring cleaning mantra. My friend Katie's mantra for 2013 was "space not stuff." Mine has been "get real."

'Get real' means to sit down and make a list of what you really never wear.

I did this and came up with the following:

• wrap skirts
• short fat furs

Since I don't own any this was not helping.

So I tried a list of "things I tend not to wear."

I tend not to wear:

• red, pink, lavender or purple
• pants
• non-neutral shoes
• jackets

I'm not sure how far this will get me in eliminating half my closet.

How about you? Are there broad categories you know you really don't wear?

Closets via The Coveteur and Domaine.

Closet of dreams and IKEA hacks

So many projects and things I wanted to post about and so little time.

In the meantime here's a little inspiration if you're cleaning closets this weekend. Interior designer Saudah Saleem turned one whole room of her brownstone into a closet. (Although really it's a home office and sitting room accented with shoes.) She used IKEA's Pax and Billy storage. From House of Fifty.

Speaking of IKEA, two Lack side table hacks, one from Little Green Notebook, the other from Clementine and Olive.

And Jackie at Teal and Lime pulled off an IKEA hack of that Design Within Reach chandelier I walk by once a week and always think I'll try to do some day.

And totally unrelated, but this made my day. Watch it to the end and learn a new word.

Closets: Accept your craving for novelty

I'm a bit late wrapping up the April/May closet theme. It's June and way too hot to be fussing around with closets.

So I'll keep my last bit of advice simple - accept your craving for novelty.

You know how you keep great clothes because there is nothing wrong with them and you used to love them? But they just sit there, unworn?

You got bored. It's OK. It's one of those things that separates you from the animals. Animals vary their look from season to season but never from year to year.

You're dealing with a basic human trait that has kept the fashion industry afloat year after year. Get rid of the stuff that bores you and make way for something exciting and new.

It also explains why the coral snake can be happy in his own skin for a lifetime, but I require at least three.

Closets: Front and center

Following up my previous advice to wear your stuff until you hate it, I've been trying different methods of making myself wear seldom used items.

I started with jewelry, sorting it all out and separating jewelry I liked and couldn't seem to give up but never wore.

I put some of said items in a bowl front and center in my closet. (The bowl is a recent thrift find, btw.)

And I did indeed wear this blue-beaded necklace. For about 10 minutes. A strand broke, scattering dozens of little beads.

See how easy that was?

Wear it. Break it. Problem solved.

How do you make yourself wear things?

Closets: Crush your crush

As many organizers will tell you, you ought to get rid of things not worn in a year. But, I can tell you that things not worn in a year are impossible to get rid of. Infatuation can continue indefinitely when one is not required to deal with the dream on a daily basis.

So, really, don't get rid of things not worn in a year, which causes emotional upheaval. Simply wear it. Get to know its flaws. See what it looks like when it first gets up in the morning. Take off those rose-colored glasses (unless it is a pair of rose-colored glasses that you are trying to get rid of). Then you will not able to wait to ditch it.

Case in point - my crush shoes.

These shoes are impractical in every way for any girl from middle America over the age of 40 who is occasionally required to crawl on the floor for work, unless that girl is Kelly Wearstler.

But look. They are metallic and shimmery on the inside.

And they have these awesome zippers and tassels.

Soooooo cute.

Because I'm not wearing them, I'm keeping them. As paperweights.

What kooky closet crush do you cling to?

Closets: Follow your mood

Looking forward to staying home a little bit this weekend and doing one of my favorite things - sorting my closet - which my bloggie friend Mise calls "pottering." (She's Irish.)

My first bit of advice when it comes to tackling your closet or your stuff in general is to embrace your current mood - either to purge or to hoarde.

The purge mood is pretty self explanatory. The hoarde state of mind, which I'm in right now, can be OK, too. This means you love your stuff. And isn't that the point of having a closet in the first place - to fill it with things you love?

The trick is you have to wear it. Wear everything. Everything. Make yourself do it. We don't do theoretical outfits when we live in tiny spaces.

Fortunately, there's lots of inspiration out there. Carly at Chic Steals made a whole month of outfits just out of things she never wore.

If you need to figure out how to get your pleats to go with your prints, there are plenty of high-style "outfit" blogs out there.

For example, for West Coast style, there's Atlantic Pacific.

For East Coast style, there's The Glamourai.

Then there's the uber-outfit blog, The Sartorialist.

All are lovely to look upon and hard to pull off.

For the average girl, there's always the "looks we love" section of your favorite clothing retailer's web site. You don't have to buy all their stuff, but you can figure out what goes with what. And then spice it up by wearing it backwards or something.

Where do you find inspiration for reinventing your wardrobe?

DIY acrylic storage trays

As mentioned yesterday, I've been craving lucite storage. This is because lucite or acrylic allows you to see through the storage and examine your loot. This is also because I'm a 70s child who loves shiny plastic things.

Acrylic storage doesn't cost much, but I challenged myself to find acrylic storage that costs nothing at all, and I succeeded. Can you guess what my stacking trays are made from?

In its former life, my big tray was the World's Ugliest Artwork (I may like 70s plastic but I do not care for 70s photography). This plastic box frame shown above was being tossed.

I pulled the photo and cardboard filler out of the back and had myself a tray.

The two small trays started out as a candy box. Someone ate the candy without sharing and tossed the box, which I pulled from the recycle bin. I peeled off the label and had what you see above.

The big tray became home to some of my favorite necklaces and pins.

The two smaller trays display some of my massive pin collection, organized by color.

Stacked, they still reveal what lies beneath.

Have you upcycled anything good lately?