Laundry Room Redo

More organizing and purging.  I spent some time organizing and redecorating my laundry area.  I purged my animal planter collection and sold some on Ebay.  I kept my most favorite ones.  I also gave away 4 large plants to my fellow Master Gardeners and the window area where I kept them really brightened up.  I only kept a few plants to put on the window ledge.  I hung up 2 of my favorite farm paintings so that I could see them daily while doing laundry.  I am happy with the result.  The room really brightened up.  It's amazing how some small changes can really make a room look different.  Another example:  I used a metal bread basket in Austin's room to hold his rock collection that was all over his dresser.  You can see each rock and it's easier to move to dust the dresser.  I had the bread basket for years and never really used it.  With all of the organizing and purging that I'm doing, I'm getting more creative with the stuff that I have.

I was at Interiors Anew today and bought the best concrete Santa.  I could hardly lift him, but for $12, he was a steal.  I can't wait for next Christmas to put him on my front porch.  The trick now is to find a place in the garage to store him until then. 

Is Spring Here Yet?

I was shopping at the Goodwill in Huntley today since it was in the 50's and felt like Spring.  It was good to get out of the house; snow is forecast for tomorrow.  Anyway, I found a great birdbath for $3.99.  It still had the Homegoods sticker on it for $14.99.  It is a nice green color with 2 birds on it.  I also found some pink flower fabric.  Awesome!  I put the birdbath on top of a green iron stand that I had bought for $5 at a garage sale last summer.  It looks great together, for now.  A lady that was also shopping at the Goodwill today found an awesome Murano glass basket for 99 cents.  Boy do I love the Goodwill!   

Now is the time to shop at the outlets in Huntley.  Tommy Hilfiger and Bass have a great sale going on. Winter clearance has begun!  I bought a lavendar sweater at Tommy Hilfiger for $15 plus I had a 15% off coupon which brought it down to $12.75.  It was originally $49.99.   I may need to go back this weekend.

Organizing My Vintage Linen Closet

I have spent days organizing my vintage linen closet.  It all started this summer when I organized my fabric collection.  I really paired it down and sold off alot of it.  Next, I worked on vintage tablecloths and sold most of the embroided ones on Ebay.  I was happy with the selling prices.  I had to keep the vintage Christmas tablecloths since they are my favorites.  I also kept my ultimate favorite embroided ones. 

So, I finally decided that I needed to do some organizing with the vintage doilies, aprons and other items I couldn't remember what.  I spent 2 days going through each item and deciding what goes on Ebay, what goes in the garage sale pile and what is thrown away.  I'm happy to say that not many things got thrown away.  Since alot of people use torn crochet or embroidered doilies for other things, I put them together in a bag for my garage sale.  I found quite alot of table napkins and tablecloths that I didn't remember having.  (I sent my mom some items too).  So, the tablecloths went up on Ebay today and the other items will go up in a few days.  I found alot of crochet pot holders that I will be selling.  I am keeping the vintage aprons, for now.  I seem to change my mind every year.  My collecting goes into different directions.  I also went through my yarn stash and cleared that out. 

I am happy with the result!  I am once again organized.  Like items are grouped together.  I am an extremely organized person and I like to know where everything is.  It is so nice to have my vintage linen closet like that again.  Now I can begin to add to it.  I'm on the lookout for more linens.  I found a few at the Savers in Crystal Lake last week.  I have gotten more selective though since I have so many. 

More and More Nutcrackers

I was shopping at the Target in McHenry where they had 90% off of the Christmas items.  I couldn't believe the amount of nutcrackers!  So, I restrained myself and only bought 3 for Austin.  They were originally $12.99, but I got them for $1.29.  How could anyone resist?  I bought him a karate guy, basketball guy and a surfer dude.  He doesn't have any of them.  I will save them for the upcoming holidays like Valentine's Day, Easter and his birthday.  Target was also having a big sale on women's clothes.  I finally found a black wool coat that I have been looking all over for.  It was originally $60.00, but I got it for $29.98.  Not too bad.  This is definitely the time to shop for women's clothes.  They didn't have any good sales for men's clothes yet.  They did have alot of toys on clearance also.  I'll keep checking back.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  I always love to bring in the New Year by doing a major cleaning/organizing in my house.  It took 4 days to organize and clean up Austin's room.  He is a packrat, but I'm proud of what he let go.  His room looks amazing.  I used a Wendell August Forge large aluminum tray to organize his Pokemon cards on top of a small dresser in his room.  It worked perfectly.  I did the same thing in Ethan's room and boy what a difference a tray makes.  Dusting is alot easier now. 

I did buy a white bookcase for $15.00 from the Sparrows Nest in Woodstock before Christmas to hold Austin's growing collection of nutcrackers.  He was getting 20 nutcrackers at Christmas and he needed the room.  Not all of the large ones fit on the bookcase, but we made room on another case and put the larger ones on that and on the windowsill.  I put the plant stand, that we were using for his nutcrackers, in his closet to hold his video game guides and Lego magazines.  The smaller stand that was being used in his closet moved to my bedroom to hold books.  Nothing goes to waste and there is a place for everything.  Ethan's room only took 1 hour to clean up and to organize.  At least he can get to the books now in his bookcase. 

We cleaned up the basement and priced a box full for our annual garage sale.  We even put the duplicate Nintendo 64 games up for auction on Ebay.  I have spent alot of time putting up auctions on Ebay the last few weeks.  I have sold alot of stuff.  That's good incentive to keep cleaning up my house!

I have just started making the thrift store rounds.  People seem to be making alot of donations at them recently.  I found some items and already put them up for auction on Ebay.  It's been fun.