Effectively Organized: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up - Home Tour of Bedroom, Laundry, and Kitchen

Continuing the home tour of my very organized home, I have to say having my home organized this way makes it so much more efficient and easy to find stuff. 

Although Marie advocates getting rid of stuff and promotes a more minimalist mindset and I did get rid of a lot of stuff, she also advocates keeping only things you love. In my case, I brought in things I loved - like art and useful pieces of furniture. I wanted my home to feel cozy warm and inviting... and my guests that I've had since I put my home together this way have all said it is very inviting and relaxing... just want I want for my guests to feel. I didn't get any more than I needed, to make my home feel this way and almost everything is second hand. Very little is brand new. 

Laundry Room / Utility Room

I have a little snap of my laundry room. In those cabinets are where I store most of the things I need in my house that are utilitarian: paints, paint supplies, light bulbs, towels, kitchen towels, cleaning rags, cleaning supplies, laundry supplies, and tools. I have always had trouble finding what I needed of these types of items when I needed it. By storing this all in one place, I now can find things I usually can't. It's uh-may-zing.

Entry Way

A useful table and place for keys, functional wall art to hold sticky notes for my chores and home things I need, plus art from Australia and Hong Kong, and a wall hook for coats, scarves and dog leashes. I'm actually getting very consistent about leaving my keys in the same spot, hanging up my coat and putting Trixie's leash away in the same place.

Kitchen

One major thing I did for my kitchen was get rid of all the junky pots and pans that I didn't like or care for and then I invested in good pots and pans that I love love love to cook with and also happen to make my kitchen a happy, inspiring place to good healthy good food. My only mild complaint with the layout of my kitchen is the very, very limited counter space. It's very equivalent to the counter space I had in my Hong Kong kitchen...it's slightly more, but not much. I love a big giant island. But, other than that, I love this kitchen for having a gas stove. That is something I learned to love living in Hong Kong - gas stoves. My pantry and cabinets are very organized and I have dishes and pots and pans and cutlery that make spending time in this kitchen really pleasant.

Power Room

Some art and misc. flea market / online finds that make it a little more interesting and less bland.

Master Bedroom

This is how my master bedroom was last year. Very simple, minimalist, and neat. But it didn't seem "right." And then I realized the scale was off. This is a very large bedroom. The furniture I had was designed more for a regular size bedroom. I had been wanting to find a white farm house bed, but couldn't find what I liked.

Then I found a bedroom set at a re-sale shop that had a look that was close to what I originally had in mind. I set it up even though I still had my queen size mattress. :-) I know it looked silly, but I loved having the headboard and side tables. I tend to stack my night stands high with books and ideas and projects. These 3 drawer stands were perfect for me.

I finally got my king mattress and set it up.

The huge benefit of all of this organization is that it's now much easier for me to find things, put things away consistently, keep it neat, tidy, and clean. For the first time in my life, I've been able to be consistent with this even though my home is relatively large for me and keep up with it fairly well. I credit the KonMari method for helping me refine my own methods of organization.