Under a Blue Moon

There is something about January that makes me want to organize and clean.  My Expedit (old version of the Ikea Kallax) was looking a bit haphazard and disorganized.  There wasn’t much I could really pare down but I did get new storage boxes (Bigso boxes from The Container Store) to replace the Ikea boxes I have been using for well over a decade.  They were looking a bit worse for wear.

Not to mention I lost the lid to one of them behind the shelving and there is no way I can retrieve it.  We’ll get it if/when we move…

Here’s a before.  I tried to keep the lighting the same because nothing irritates me more than before and after pictures where the after has been edited and filtered to save its life.  It’s hardly a fair comparison.

Yikes.

I’ve toyed with the idea of getting the Ikea Billy cabinets with glass doors because I really like the look but I don’t think I would get the same level of organization that I do with my Expedit unit.  Those drawer inserts are fabulous.

I love the new storage boxes.  I was fully intending to get white but when I went into The Container Store the pink jumped into my cart.   They are a neutral blush color.

I think switching up the storage containers by moving the green bins to the top row makes it all look less cluttered.  I did remove some of the decor type stuff but left all my jars of buttons and other notions and my collection of Eiffel Towers.

I tried to pare down some of the books but had a hard time getting rid of much.  I do have two copies of Trish Foley’s “The Natural Home” so I removed one (if anyone wants it let me know by commenting.  First come first served).

I’m going to have to get rid of a few more if I want to add any new books.  These are all my decorating, gardening and craft related books.

The rest of the office still needs attention.  I don’t even want to talk about the closet in here.  When we first moved in I had Rick install deep shelves for me but I can never keep them organized.  Anytime I want anything I have to pull out half the stuff to get to it.  It’s a weird shape.  It’s basically a four foot by four foot square that was added to one corner of the room and then the corner that sticks into the room was lopped off and a door put in.

I’ve seriously considered enlisting the help of a professional organizer to make some sense of it.

Come to think of it, our guest room closet is also a hot mess and could use some professional help.  Has anyone ever used a professional organizer?  Is it horribly expensive?

For now I’ll just tackle the areas I can manage on my own.

It’s been a minute.

I stumbled across some gorgeous stationery bits that thrilled my minimalist planner heart and wanted to share in case anyone else loves that particular aesthetic.

They are from the online store Cloth & Paper.

I’ve settled into a hybrid bullet journal/planner system that works for me and the bits I ordered work well with it.

I shared the planner I am using (and still very much loving) which I ordered off of Amazon.  The cover is faux leather and cleans up like a dream.  It has held up so well and still looks brand new.  I bought the inserts from Michaels and while I like the design and the tabs, I think I’ll ditch the pre-printed weekly pages and design my own.  Or get dot grid paper and use that.  I have a paper punch that lines up with the rings in the planner so I can make any type of page I like.

So what did I get from Cloth & Paper?  I bough a set of  minimal shapes stickers.  If you bullet journal you can use them in place of drawing squares and circles.  The set comes with dots, squares, hexagons, triangles and strips.  They are translucent.  I bought the color Cotton which is a pale greyish pink.   They look more pink in the photo but are a little ashier in real life.

I also bought some transparent page flags.  The color is also called Cotton but they are a brighter, truer pink.  I wish the minimal shapes were actually this color.

I bought some transparent sticky notes in two sizes.  I think this thrills me the most.  No more neon sticky notes!  One complaint I have about them is the sticky part sometimes leaves a bit of residue on the note below it.  It rubs off easily but is annoying.  Another thing to note about them (and the minimal shapes) is they are a bit like writing on vellum and ink can smear, depending on the type of pen you use.  My beloved Pentel EngerGel needle point smears like mad.  I have a Faber-Castell Pitt Artist pen that doesn’t smear at all.  I may look into getting some finer point versions to see if they might replace (GASP!) the Pentels.

And finally, I bought a white fountain pen.  I fully admit I bought it for prop purposes.  I can’t get it to work.  I don’t think it’s the pen, I think it is me.  I can never get fountain pens to work.  I put in the ink cartridge and nothing happens.  No ink will come out.  I don’t know if you are supposed to condition fountain pens or what.  I may have to do some research.

My order arrived quickly and was beautifully packaged.  Granted it was a bit extravagant for office supplies but I’m enjoying it all.