‘Been sifting thru rooms, drawers, boxes, bins, and the like. To clean-out, organize and re-group. Working intentionally towards a well organized home that holds a business within 1300 square feet.

Also needing to lessen the load since the closing of the Shop.

It is digging deep into what to keep, toss, give or donate. Asking myself ‘do I use it?’, ‘will I use it?’, ‘do I have plans for this?’, ‘you need to keep this why????‘, and so on. Some decisions tougher than others.

Sifting thru Sock & T-shirt drawers, closets, a hope chest, small appliances, basket collections, linens such as tablecloths and bedding (read here), the pantry items, cleaning and laundry shelving, the attic, 30+ years of home paperwork such as taxes and medical, business papers, a studio closet, and even the freezer.

Some areas need a little more refining and some need labeling ~ but there is light at the end. The ‘keep’ piles are cleaned and neatly placed. The ‘toss’ items are already tossed. The ‘give’ piles have been given, and the ‘donate’ piles have been donated. All the parts and pieces are in there right locations…..now just a little refining will finish the job.

It is now time for the Dining Room Hutch Organization

It is a cluster of dishes from the Shop, from photo shoots, from 30 years of collecting and heirloom pieces too, all crammed into a small space.

It became a catch all for ‘anything-dish-related’

Such as my Great-Grandmothers clown cookie jar, my Grandmothers cake stand and bowl, a cake stand and cover from my Mother-in-law, a snowman cookie jar from my Sister, ribbon plates from a dear Friend and a vase from my Hubby. They had to be keepers.

There are collections such as ‘the cow’ collection of celluloid and cast iron figurines from my Friend Tracy.

There are dishes collected from antiquing trips and vacations.

There is milk glass, ironstone, hand-painted pedestals, vintage jelly jars and wicker.

There are syrup containers used for a Christmas snow globe display.

Everything needed to be sorted thru and either kept, tossed, donated or given.

If kept, the piece needed a new place for enjoyment, to be boxed up for later or placed back into the hutch with purpose….and of course, goes without saying, ‘to look pretty too’.

We’re getting there.

A few more cabinets to sort~ like my cookbook cabinet and then lots of refining and labeling of each room, shelf and closet. And a few errands to run to donate or sell goods should finish it off.

We have also been working on DIY projects thru-out our home. Having a re-organized home makes it easier to work on, especially when you can see what you have.

This is how our Dining Room looks now…..kinda boring wouldn’t you say?

Time to schedule in some creative playtime and DIY’s.

The table and chairs are from our previous home. The wagon-wheel chairs gotta-go.

The window is not centered to the room or the lighting, the table is not centered in the room or with the right hand wall, the built-in- hutch is not centered with either wall or with-in the room.

The room has two entry points (not shown), and is open to the living space, a definite walk thru area.

Here are my thoughts to create a cozy, charming ‘blue jean’ cottage style dining room

• Updating the hutch hardware to antique gold (I have had waiting for years)
• Adding a fun vintage piece to the front corner by the hutch (I will leave this a surprise!)
• Selling the chairs and swapping out to a fun new school-house choice ~ painted of course, I have them waiting!
• Painting the Dining Room table – Boxwood Green (my Sister suggested anything but Blue), this will keep the floor and table from looking matched
• A totally new look for the curtains….Tweed in Blue! …with green trim and possibly cafe’ style linen on bottom 3/4. (adding the white curtains to living space)
• On right wall adding wainscotting (to continue from adjoining kitchen) and a mural above it or a large painting in an antique gold frame (from basement stash)
• Moving the antique mirror to bedroom for another DIY project
• Adding a plant stand to left side of window by chair
• Adding upholstery with tacking to chair under clock
• Refreshing the paint on the built-in-hutch

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A mood-board will be a good starting point

Collecting paint and fabric swatches, along with Pinterest and magazine ideas sounds like a good idea to lay it all out first…..getting a visual.

I would love for the room to be inviting, charming and a little un-expected! A play on color and texture. I think all the quirky ‘not-so-centered’ pieces will add to the charm too.

Not spending a lot of money, but spending a lot of time. Remembering Money does not equal Style.

So much fun ahead…..creatively speaking!

Gosh…Do I have a thing with cake pedestals?

What you find out about yourself when you start digging!

Enjoy!

~*~

Coming Soon ~ organizing a day planner, menu and meal planning, a new dry-sink, sewing corner make-over, New Classic Cling Rubber Stamps, Introducing a Ghost Stamper, ToleTown Mousie Macrons, Delicious Spells comes to Zoom, Mrs Claus Gingerbread Countdown, Shiny Red Nose Pull Toy, Elfie Selfie’s, and The Toymaker and Gingerbread Baker!