Making Good Use of Space

So, it's the new year and for many of us it means time to organize. Why bother? Because we seem to get a boatload of stuff every holiday season. If Christmas isn't enough, we also have multiple birthdays in December which makes for even more stuff. This combined with the fact that our house is quite small makes purging and organizing an imperative.

Two of my favorite sites when it comes to design and living in small spaces are Loving Living Small and Beach Bungalow 8. They keep me thinking about how to use every square foot of space in my house.

When we got pregnant we decided to turn the office into Maddie's room. Because of this it forced me to purge a lot, and I mean a lot of stuff (I even went through all the files from our home sales and purchases and took out the duplicates and unnecessary paperwork). I was left with the question of "what do I do with my office essentials, e.g., tape dispenser, envelopes, stamps, pens, etc." I realized I was going to have to store these things somewhere in the house -- but didn't want a shelf full of this stuff out in the open. I ended up turning my living room bookcase into my office storage space.

I bought these pretty blue linen-covered storage boxes from West Elm, and set of small black drawers from Pottery Barn and they now hide all of my office supplies making for a non-offense looking (at least to me) bookcase when I sit in my living room.

Happy New Year, and happy organizing!