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Un-Clutter It Thursday #12 - Still In The Family Room

Welcome to another week of Un-Clutter It Thursday.

Some highlights from last week.

Lorraine at Miss. Flibbertigibbet (I love saying her blog name, flib-ber-ti-gib-bet. LOL. There's something wrong me) gave us a tour of some of her storage spaces. Most of them had a vintage twist to them! You know me, I'm all about having storage with a vintage twist. I love this cabinet that her husband built, to her specifications, to house her microwave and silverware.

Christina at Controlling Craziness organized her son's extensive collection of legos.

This week I'm still plugging away in the Family Room. Working on organizing the photo craziness that we had, well... everywhere. Funny thing, we had some friends over for the first time this past Sunday and the first thing the wife asked was, "Do you have some pictures I can look at?" Me, "Uhhhhh, (long pause) I guess." Then I hesitantly handed over my new photo storage box. Insert sad face here. In that moment I made a internal agreement with myself to never have that feeling again. (Have you ever had those moments? You already knew a certain thing needed to be address or maybe you were already working on it. But then someone asks to use it, see it, borrow it... or whatever it and instantly you get the kick in the pants that you need to get the project done. No, I'm alone on this?) Well in that moment, I knew I had to get. it. together. Iesha!

This week I've been getting it together. With most of our recent photos are stored on CDs by year I could focus all my efforts on the printed photos. Remember this pile from last week?

All together the collection is quite extensive and meant more to me than keeping in an old printer paper box. Not that you could tell by looking at the last picture. So this past week I did some research into creating a successful photo organization and storage system.

Believe it or not, it was not as simple as just moving the pile to a photo storage box, which is why it's taking a little longer than I anticipated. It turns out, I had to decide where I wanted the end before I could begin... go figure. I found a site that help me come to that realization. Here are some great questions to start with to get the photo organizing juices flowing.

Once I went through every photo and freed all the duplicates it was time to go supply shopping, the best part of course. Speaking of duplicates, I have a question for you. Do you think its wrong to toss all the duplicate school portraits of the kids? You know the ones that you bought in a package every year the boy was in school. Do we really need to keep the 11x14, 8x10, twenty-seven 5x7s, annnnd one hundred wallets? I know after looking at the 11x14 that my son is cute, do I need to keep the other 128 copies to confirm? The hubby says yes, I say no. What do you say? Do you think my extended family would wonder why I'm mailing them 10+ year old pictures of the boy? But I digress... on to the supplies.

- Photo storage boxes. If you would like to preserve your photos for a decent amount of time remember whatever you store the photos in must be acid free.... No Shoe Boxes Ladies! I found some at Hobby Lobby for $3.99.

- Photo albums. I had to get knew ones. The ones that we had were from 15 years ago and were yellowing, very bad sign.

- Slide sleeves. We have slides from my father-in-law that we will eventually mail off to get scanned. But that's down the line.

- Scrapbook paper. For divider in photo box. Has to be acid free

Next we'll definitely go on a tour of the new system. This week I'd love to see what you've been up to.

- Please link up your organizing/un-cluttering post(s) and not just your blog home page.
- Please put a visible link or my party button in your post so others can find it and join in.

- If you're new to The Uncluttered Lifestyle I hope you will become a follower.
- And of course, take some time to visit a few other participants and maybe find some new blogs to enjoy.

- No link parties added to this party, please.
- No advertising, please.

Bringing In More Spring

Can we talk for a moment? Just between bloggers... amiga y amiga (or amigo, if you're out there.)Yes. Ok, thanks!

I have to tell to you something that comes from deep within... something that has been on my mind a lot as of late. I guess you could call it a confession of sorts. I'm fighting a bout of .... jealousy. Yes, its true! I'm ashamed to admit it, but I can not hold it in any longer.

I'm jealous of all the mantels I'm seeing lately in blogland. Everyone is nesting and prettify their mantels and joining the tons of spring mantel parties being hosted. I want a mantel! I want to join the spring mantel parties too!

Ok, I was being a little dramatic in the beginning. I have a tendency to do that from time to time. Buuuuuut, I do really wish I had a mantel do decorate. So I'm going to pretend that this space above a bookcase in our family room is a mantel. You don't mind do you? After all, it is flat and rectangular just like a mantel.

The dark strip above the bookcase is picture molding. It's a tall bookcase... I'm trying to bring symmetry to this wall... more on that at another time.

After shopping the house, my faux-mantel looks like this.

Gorgeous detail on the antique frame and mirror is in pristine condition.

The daffodils have yet to open. I looked high and low for some open ones, but to no avail.

When I thought about styling the top of the bookcase I knew I want a spring poem to add some colors. I found one by Archie Greenidge to be so true.

Spring is life.
Spring is hope.
So is love and happiness.
Spring renews.
Without spring life is forlorn.
Spring is nostalgia after bitter storm.
Put spring in your heart.

Till next time...

You can find me partying here:

Spring Flowers... Copy Cat Challenge

Well my people, I've searched high and low annnd far and wide to find a picture to copy cat. I dog-eared about 45,000 pictures. I hemmed (maybe heeing )and hawed, went back and forth, changed my mind 44,999 times before settling on this simple photo from this book. It fit in with my decor, I could move it around, or I could dismantle it and still use the box later. In my book, that's a win/win and win situation.

Here is my interpretation.

With less green and facing the opposite direction in the family room. Oh, and less dreamy looking.

The materials and assembly was pretty straight forward. All you need is...

1. One bunch of these

2. A few of these

3. One of these

4. A couple of pages from this

5. A few of these to cover

6. A little spritz of this

And

7. A roll of this

You mix it all up and come out with this

Side By Side

Till next time:

You can find me partying here:

Un-Clutter It Thursday Party #11 - The Family Room

Hey, hey, hey, we're back for another round of partying!

Thanks to all those that turned out last week and linked up some stinking awesome projects. It was more than I expected to link up for the first party! Can I get a BOOM! for meeting and surpassing a goal! Shall we have a few highlights.

Lani showed a Pretty Little Organizer (aka IKEA hack) she did. I just love the new green color and the fabulous usage of Martha Stewart organizer tools.

Danielle gave us a glimpse into how she organizes her household with her Homekeeping Binder. Let me tell ya, if you don't have one these binders... you need one. I use mine everyday. Danielle also has links to some free printables.

And the most clicked was...

Bliss. She shared her Devil Drawer makeover. The after is superb, but.... let's just say there was a... uh... unique makeup tool discovered along the way that gives a new meaning to "apply gently with index finger".

And last but not least the winner of the giveaway is... K Coake. K. Coake contact me via email for more details!!!

Now, let's get this party started!

This week I'm still in the family room... all 144 sq. ft of it! The family room in our house is a high traffic area. We normally start our day with watching the news and drinking coffee, then end our day with Mr. Uncluttered watching TV, while I'm reading a decorating magazine. Not to mention we are movie buffs, so lots of DVDs watching and most of our entertaining happens in this room too. So as you can imagine, this room attracts a lot of clutter. And since space is at a premium, I'm having to pull out all of my tricks to manage the clutter.

One of my latest tricks involves a roadside rescue that Mr. Uncluttered brought home last week. Thank you honey! Its an Elfa Storage Drawer System from The Container Store. The frame alone is $47,and three of the drawers are $16 and the narrow one is $14... for a total of $109! Can you even imagine someone leaving this on the curb as garbage?! Yoo-hoo...there is nothing wrong with it... not one thing! A little scrub, scrub to get the cobwebs off and it was good as new. Check out all the storage potential! Let me stop drooling. More on this new week.

This week I wanted to give you a peek into the Media Dresser. Remember this project?

Lets take a closer look inside the drawers. The top drawers holds what's left of our music cds (most have been converted to MP3s and tossed) and workout DVDs. (Sidenote: I love Jillian Michaels and stopped watching Biggest Loser when she left.) In the basket are extra cords for all Mr. Uncluttered's audio components. I think I'm going to leave that drawer specifically for him. I'm constantly hearing, "Babe, do you know where my coaxial cable is?" Umm... how 'bout we start with, "Do I know what a coaxial cable is and then I'll tell you if I saw it."

In the next drawer we house all of our Wii accouterments.

The boxes are from a CD organizer drawer that looked kinda like the one below, but brown ultrasuede.

Do you have one those sitting around your house too?

Why spend money when you can repurpose? I always shop the house first! I simply pulled out the drawers and used them.

That's all for today because I have to get back to this mess! Yikes! Photo organizing... sigh.

Your turn. So what did you do tackle this week?