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| I've been very grumpy lately, so I thought I would make a list of a few of the things in the house we're buying (closing next Thursday, did I mention that? LOL) that I am going to WELCOME, organizationally and spatially speaking, because our previous house didn't have them.
1. COAT CLOSETS - oh my gosh, in our previous home the coats always ended up in a HUGE pile on a rocking chair in the living room. NOT the decorating theme I was going for, certainly, but there literally was no place else to put them. 2. LINEN CLOSETS - again, there was no such thing as "storing the seasonal stuff" in our house. I will finally have shelving to store blankets, and a devoted space for sheet sets (which previously lived in the armoire in our bedroom). 3. FAMILY ROOM - our new house has three bedrooms, plus bath, kitchen, dining and living rooms upstairs. AND it has a finished family/rec room downstairs. In our old house, if DD wanted to play a video game using the television, DH and I were quite literally banished to the dining room table because there was no place else for us to go. 4. LAZY SUSAN Cabinet - I will finally be able to reach all my canned goods :) 5. KITCHEN STORAGE - I will finally get to house my pots 'n pans somewhere besides in the oven. 6. SPARE BEDROOM - A permanent home for my crafty/genealogy stuff, extra closet space for seasonals, and charging stations for two laptop computers plus the printer. These things do not have to be on the dining room table and "TV trays" anymore! 7. KITCHEN 'OFFICE' NOOK - a place where the mail can get sorted and stacked, besides the poor dining room table! 8. LIVING ROOM SEATING - We'll finally have room for more than just a couch and entertainment center in the living room, which means more than three people can sit around the television/DVD player at one time! (Plus, with the rec room downstairs, the video games will also have their own space!) 9. ROOM TO ENTERTAIN - the previous owner is leaving us a billiard table in the rec room, and we are adding a tv/gaming area and a bar. Stuff to do with guests besides sit around the (you guessed it) dining room table! And 10. HOSTING THE HOLIDAYS - because of all of the above, I will finally have enough room to host family members during the holidays! I feel better now. (I really do, I had no idea this exercise would make me smile so much!!!) Now your turn - share something about your home/apartment that you LOVE because of the way it organizes your stuff! Janet |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by lynninnewmexico (My Page) on Thu, Sep 4, 08 at 19:51
| Janet, you have so much to be happy about now! With all the wonderful changes coming with your new home, you'll be one organized woman! The first thing that comes to mind with my own home, is the super-fantastic prep area I got with my new kitchen reno. I worked on the planning of it for years and it turned out even better than I'd hoped. Our kitchen opens into our family room, so I wanted an organized prep area where I could work while talking to family or company . . . or watch a show on tv. ~In the peninsula facing the family room, I had a microwave drawer with a drawer to hold my MW cookware right below it. ~Next to that is a bank of 4 prep drawers. They hold all my prep tools, various-sized prep dishes, measuring spoons and cups, mezzaluna, salad spinner, vegetable peeler, colanders, etc., etc. There's one entire shallow drawer in the stack for all my ziploc bags, plastic wrap, aluminum foil, waxed paper, etc. ~Next to that is my Supersusan in the corner that holds all my everyday small appliances, mixing bowls, etc. ~Next to this is my double pull-out trash cab. Love, love, love it because I can chop, peel or whatever and don't have to move a step. ~Above that is my knife drawer. (Very handy so close to the main prep area!) ~Next in line is my dishwasher, which is halfway between my main prep area and the sink. We've been in the new kitchen now for nine months and not a day goes by that I don't think about how great my new prep area (and all my kitchen) is working out. I love to be organized and this new kitchen is very! Lynn   |
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| I had to laugh at Number 5, storing pots and pans in the oven. My mother , who is 85, still does that! I remember once when I was still living home, I decided to bake a cake and turned on the oven to pre-heat it. A few minutes later, clouds of black smoke filled the air. I had melted the handles on the pots she kept in there! It was a miracle I doidn't start a fire! Anyhow, enjoy your new organized home. Think long and hard when you put something away, because that will certainly become its "permanent" home! |
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| Congrats on your new home. Yes it is so nice for a place for everything. Lynn, pretty kitchen. Glad it turned out the way you wanted and I love drawers and most kitchens don't have enough. |
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- Posted by justgotabme (My Page) on Fri, Sep 5, 08 at 16:07
| YAY Janet! I'm thrilled you got the home you wanted! Lynn, how do you like having a microwave in drawer form? I think the favorite thing in our home is the laundry on the second level with the bedrooms. I have a few more things to do to it before I take pix to share how I've organized it's space. The only way it could be better was if empty hangers appeared magically when I needed them. I also love having a walk in pantry for storing all our food and larger season pans, crock pots and toaster oven. Another part of our kitchen I love is that on one side of the cabinets are to the counter. Two having outlets in them. One has the coffee pot and blender. The other has the toaster and mini food processor. We also have a huge attic for storage. Right now we are using the basement since we've not finished the flooring in the attic yet. With the cooler weather coming we'll be doing that soon. Then we'll be able to spread out our wood work shop that's in the basement. Our garage is six foot deeper than a standard two car garage giving hubby room for a workbench, four large storage cabinet, two smaller ones and room to store our rider mower and huge snow blower you need out in the country. Oh, and each bedroom has it's own bathroom with vanity for storage (ours has twelve drawers) and their own walk in closet. Weird as this sounds, there's no linen closet. For some reason when I was making changes to the plans to make it fit our lifestyle more I never noticed until it was too late. I found a solution that I like even better though. I store each rooms linens in an under the bed roll out storage container. |
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| Or you could store towels in the bathroom on an overhead shelf. I have one in my bathroom, about a foot over the regular towel rack. It's called a "train rack", like they have on commuter trains. Only when I say it, it sounds like "train wreck". HAHA. |
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- Posted by lynninnewmexico (My Page) on Fri, Sep 5, 08 at 19:09
| Jannie, I was thinking the same thing about #5. I almost did that to my parents' pots and pans when I was there on vacation! BTW, can you show us pics of your "train wreck" ;^P ?? I really do love those metal shelves for bathrooms. Justgota2bme: we love the microwave drawer. Easy to use. Easy to clean up. Soft open & close (kind of like BluMotion) so there's no spills. Here's mine:  |
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- Posted by justgotabme (My Page) on Fri, Sep 5, 08 at 19:50
| Thanks for the picture Lynn. I really like that idea. I've seen so many microwaves under islands over the years and thought I wouldn't want one that low. I wonder if they too were drawer ones. Do you know how long they've made them? Ofcourse it's too late for our kitchen. It's above the wall oven. It's very handy there too and also takes up no counter space. We keep our towels in a cabinet in the master bath or on heated racks. |
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| REally neat to read about everyone's favorite organizational features, I will have to start an idea notebook! Becky, I LOVE that bathroom cabinet - it's beautiful! I have never heard of a microwave drawer... very cool space-saving idea! Something I figured out over the weekend (watching tv commercials on HGTV - LOL) ... this thing I saw at sears for the washing machine called a "pedestal" - I couldn't imagine what it was for, but on television it says it's to hold months' worth of liquid laundry soap! I couldn't help but laugh... if I'd just filled the pedestal in OUR house and then it flooded, we'd have been full of soap suds! I wonder if that would've actually CLEANED the house as the water receded??? Janet |
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| I never saw a micro drawer. It is pretty cool. I have seen them low and wonder if they were micro drawers. Learn something new every day. The pedestals are to make the washer and dryers higher so you don't have to bend as much. They are not cheap. |
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