Notes On A Visual Life: Organization

Showing posts with label Organization. Show all posts

7/05/2011

Simple

My interior design principles usually consist of two quotes. "Simplicity is the key to successful living." and "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." The second is from William Morris...wise words. In the past three years of my life, I have done some major downsizing. I went from a storage-abundant apartment with a closet the size of a Manhattan bedroom to a 1920s apartment with 29" of closet rod space and NO other storage besides kitchen cabinets. Yeah, I had to get inventive and I had to make some epic trips to Goodwill. I donated boxes of books, 70% of my shoes, and bags and bags of clothing and various other bits and pieces. Yes, it helped that I was on a major minimalist kick (and still am just not to the same extent). I've been very happy with the reductions and I don't miss anything that I've given away. I'd like to take it even further when the time is right. So, yes, I guess I'm a rational, soft core minimalist at heart? I like it that way. I also like (ok, love) clean, simple, living spaces with clear surfaces, and concealed storage. Ahh, calm. I tend to get very uncomfortable and depressed in cluttered areas so these spaces are a true breath of fresh air. Many people may think these interiors are too cold or stark or bland but I would move in faster than you could bat an eye. Enjoy the breathing room.

1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, Unknown, 7, 8 and 9

7/06/2010

To-Do List Tuesdays over at Bneato!

Hi friends! I hope the folks in the US had a pleasant 4th of July weekend! I'm back to the blogosphere with a feature on Bneato! The lovely Beth asked me to dish the details on my To-Do list for her weekly feature To-Do List Tuesdays! You should also check out her Mac Monday series as well for some AWESOME Mac shortcuts and secret tricks. Yep, Beth is an organizer after my own heart (and a kickin' drummer too)! So, if you're interested in how I deal with my days or how I can ramble on about Ricky Gervais, stuff that's framed in my kitchen, and dirty British TV shows, head on over to Bneato and enjoy some great organizing gold from Beth while you're there!

5/28/2010

Big Surprise.

So, this morning when I checked out my site meter, I was blown away by the numbers! I started looking into it and I found that I've been featured on Unclutterer.com! I made the Workspace of the Week with my desk drawer that I uploaded on Flickr and posted about a few days ago! I was totally shocked and completely honored. Wow. What a great way to mark the first month of my blog's existence!

5/25/2010

Whatever you do, don't open that drawer!

After getting moved in awhile ago, I realized that there were a few areas that I'd sort of dumped and jumped. Two of the messy crime scenes: tiny item desk drawer and random item kitchen drawer. I think we've all got an infamous random item kitchen drawer. Yes? Well, these boys were in seriously bad shape. I think this clip expresses my feelings upon opening either of these drawers...

Now that that's out of my system. Here are my improvements...
BEFORE

and AFTER

Kitchen Drawer Explosion
BEFORE

and AFTER

4/30/2010

Organization Inspiration (I)

I've been trying to get motivated to clean the apartment today and it hasn't really been working out too well (with the exception of a quick vacuum). Whenever I need a bit of a kick in the pants in this department, I head over to my Flickr groups to get whipped up into a cleaning/organizing frenzy. Not only are these images real motivators but they're also just plain nice to look at when everything around you feels a bit chaotic and out of control. So, feast your eyes (and if this doesn't make you want to clean out a drawer or two I don't know what will)! Also, I like to see images of real people's spaces not pages from a catalog. Of course the CB2 catalog's office spread looks organized and perfect...no one lives there! I'll thrown in a few "staged" images but other than that, it's all the real deal.