Mrs. Furious ... Recipes, Rants & Reality: Clutter Control

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Clutter Control

The Long Awaited Before and Afters.

From This...

To this...

19 comments:

Deb said...: NICE! I particularly like the ever-vigilant Canine Furious keeping watch on the 'hood and protecting the toys.; December 29, 2007 at 2:52 PM
Mrs Furious said...: Yeah... you can't get away from that asshole!; December 29, 2007 at 3:01 PM
Danielle said...: Very nice. Can you and Mr F make a trip to CA? There is an Ikea fairly close by...; December 29, 2007 at 3:12 PM
Anonymous said...: Nice!

I have an Ikea right down the road! Wanna come to MD when you're done with CA?; December 29, 2007 at 3:21 PM
Mrs Furious said...: lol... I'm not sure we are in your price range!
But I will tell you this is the TRABY system... it actually looks pretty nice, even close up ;); December 29, 2007 at 3:21 PM
Mrs Furious said...: tina,
for large amounts of cash we might be able to work something out....
our travel expenses would be a little less pricey than the CA trip; December 29, 2007 at 3:25 PM
Mr Furious said...: Wrong. Traby is what we set out to buy, we ended up going with BESTÅ.

I'm very pleased with our decision and the results. As Mrs F mentioned last night, I made a dash back to IKEA to get another unit, and we used every square inch...

Thank god Kid slept until 10:30 today, and Baby and the Mrs longer than that. Cuts down significantly on the zombie factor—5-6 hours sleep is pretty standard for me.; December 29, 2007 at 3:46 PM
MommyTime said...: I dig the organizational system, which looks far more civilized than the plastic toy bins ranged across the hearth at our house. Sadly, we have no wall space for such shelves between the oversized fireplace and larger than anyone needs sliding glass doors. But if you want to come play interior designer in my basement once you're done consulting in CA and MD, please let me know!; December 29, 2007 at 5:15 PM
Mrs Furious said...: mommytime,
oh we have tried many many organizational systems before finally arriving at this. This might actually work... but only time will tell. We started with 2 of those Battat (bought at Target) bin slanted shelving systems... those never worked for us and now we just use all the bins. It might actually have been worth the $60 each for those just to get the bins out of it! Then we decided to use Mr F's office furniture for the bins and it was genius... the IKEA shelves perfectly hold the bins without it looking like complete kid crap overload. This unit is pretty similar (maybe even nicer) and you can add doors to cover the shelves (could be good!) plus it repurposes much more easily once the kids don't play with quite so many toys! I definitely recommend going the shelving unit route over kid's furniture. With the 4 units we ended up with it was $300... which certainly isn't cheap but if we had just taken that step initially we would have saved our selves plenty in wasted $$.; December 29, 2007 at 6:15 PM
emmyjw said...: Looks great! My hubby has ADD...maybe if I could redirect him...Anyways, that is the best Christmas present ever-no clutter!I am so with you on the Michigan winter blues, looking out the window as it rains on top of the ice and snow and creates a slushy mess is just not doin anything for my mood.; December 29, 2007 at 6:54 PM
Mrs Furious said...: emmy,
I think we all feel much better now that all the new stuff has a place. And I feel better that it is so much more attractive than our old system... seriously Oprah is right about that!
I looked for the full spectrum bulbs at Target but I couldn't tell if they were the real deal so I didn't buy any. I figure if I have one at my desk by my computer I'd be getting several hours of "sunlight" ;); December 29, 2007 at 7:07 PM
Anonymous said...: Hey, it all looks amazing, you know I love the organization. I even love the process of weeding out the old, integrating the new, a little redesign here and there. Voila!! I do have more space which makes all that a little easier. We just got all full spectrum lights in our basement fluorescent fixtures (i'm sure i spelled that wrong) its amazing, and that is in a dark basement, the whole feeling has changed, the light is actually delightful!

Love,
ML; December 29, 2007 at 8:44 PM
Mrs Furious said...: ML,
shoot I should have gotten them! I couldn't remember the wattage of my lamps. I'll get them next time I'm out though... it is so dark in here!; December 29, 2007 at 8:55 PM
Anonymous said...: BIG difference for me in the basement, where most FL UO. lights actually bother my eyes and can give me a headache. There is no natural light down there. I was actually shocked at how it changed the color and look of the whole space, not kidding! ML; December 29, 2007 at 9:12 PM
Mrs Furious said...: ML,
tell me what brand you got. Did you get them at Home Depot?; December 29, 2007 at 9:49 PM
Anonymous said...: Well, I don't know the brand. We had an electrician do it, because we also had to have each light fixtures balasts changed. I have no idea. But, when I talked to him and told him how totally happy I was, all he said was Full Spectrum. Maybe the brand isn't too crucial?? Don't know for sure. ML; December 29, 2007 at 9:59 PM
Mrs Furious said...: ML,
well I'll just take my existing bulb with me and then I'll see what I can get. Maybe there aren't different brands?; December 29, 2007 at 11:03 PM
Robin said...: Wow! It looks great Mrs. F. It makes me wish I had a playroom. We have our stuff in our living room. Fortunately it is a large living room and the play part is separate from the living part, but still, I would love for it to be in a completely different room.

You inspired me to start getting our toys in order. I took before's and after's too. I may post them in the next few days. I bought a bookshelf from Target and was able to move some stuff to that one and get the others less cluttered.; January 2, 2008 at 11:42 AM
Mrs Furious said...: Robin,

we've had a playroom (was Mr F's office.. he used to work exculsively from home) since Kid's toys were taking over too much (18 months!). But it has had many incarnations. We've had a sofa in there... play table... portable shelves.... no rug.... a rug... and now this final arrangement. Up to this point Kid didn't really play in there. But maybe we are finally on to something since both girls are in there all the time now. Definitely recommend having as much open floor space as possible (since that is where they play) and they are digging having there own cd player and mood lighting!; January 2, 2008 at 12:41 PM