Featured – Page 6 – Unlikely Martha

2015 in review | home projects and organization

2015 was a decent year. This time last year I vowed to get every space in my home organized and while I didn’t complete that resolution in its entirety, I learned a lot from the projects I did complete and I am holding onto my resolve to live a well organized life. In 2016 I’m taking you with me on the journey, we’re going to get our spaces together and not go crazy in the process, I promise!

One step at a time, we will do this in 2016! Make sure you are signed up for my newsletter. You will surely not want to miss out on the fun we’re going to have. There will be challenges and giveaways to help, and no you won’t need to have a blog to participate

My major home projects for 2016 include:

Repainting the accent wall in the kitchen
A master bathroom renovation
Carpet removal and replacement
Organization of every closet, drawer and hidden space
Laundry room floor makeover
His/Hers home office makeovers
Boys Room Makeover
DIY Farmtable

Seeing that we can’t move forward without acknowledging where we’ve been here are the top 4 home projects that I completed this year

Pantry Makeover

Started off 2015 with a much needed pantry makeover. Honestly, this is one of the only spaces that stayed organized the entire year. I know it was because of the time and effort I put in there to make sure there was sufficient storage for all of my essential items

Daughter’s Room Makeover

When we moved into this house her room was beige with black trim. We conquered painting it in 2014 but I didn’t finish up the majority of the decorating until 2015. I still have a ways to go but progress is good.

Son’s Room Paint Makeover

I’ll be the first to say I haven’t done such a great job of putting as much effort into my son’s room as I have my daughter’s. I have purchased quite a few things for his room that need to be put up. First things first I got rid of that ugly wall color and painted some pretty cool stripes on his wall. Finishing up his room will be one of my first projects in the new year.

A photo posted by M I M I (@unlikelymartha) on Dec 15, 2015 at 10:40am PST

Daughter’s Closet Makeover

My daughter’s closet was a hot mess. Not functional at all. Before school started I decided to go in and give her new elementary school wardrobe a nice place to live.

I even spray painted her hangers gold. Tutorial here. For those wondering the hangers are still looking good.

So excited for 2016 and all of the home projects we have in store. I am looking forward to sharing them with you.

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See you tomorrow when I recap my top recipes from 2015!

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Featured• Holidays• Living

holiday décor and ramblings

If we are judging by the weather solely, in Atlanta where a slight chill on the wind this time of year makes seasonal sense to light a fireplace, indulge in a TV show and a mug of hot chocolate, this year it is beginning to NOT look a lot like Christmas.

The weather has been so warm that I am really having a difficult time getting into the Christmas spirit. The elves have moved all of maybe 10 times total and within the same 5 feet radius. I’m pretty over them at this point.

I’ve managed to sprinkle a few Christmas decorations about here and there.

I’ve visited homes this season that put my meager decorations to shame. I’m okay with it, because I’m planning to hit up the after Christmas sales and pick up some good ornaments and other decor for next year. I’ll refrain from showing you a photo of the tree because well frankly it looks like it belongs in a Kindergarten class

I let Addison decorate the tree this year, and it is full of her handmade decorations. Each child got two years and this is her last. Next year I see visions of a beautiful well coordinated pre lit false tree with cascading ribbons and glass ornaments. I’ll get them individual tress for their rooms next year that they can decorate.

A few touches here and there have given our home some Christmas cheer

On this 22nd day of December I’m happy to say all of my Christmas shopping is done. I know I said I wasn’t a fan of online shopping. I lied.

I did everything online and it was the best thing EVER.

We refrained from going overboard this year. Each child was granted three things that they really wanted. Two of the items my son wanted still needs to be purchased from the store and we’ll grab those items today.

We’ve gotten a plethora of Christmas cards over the past few days. My stepdaughter wasn’t with us over Thanksgiving and I didn’t feel comfortable sending out a photo card without her in it. I’ll set up my tripod over the next few days and capture a photo of all of us and send out New Years cards instead.

About Christmas dinner? I’m not cooking.

I’m sure we’ll have people over but that job will be on my husband this year. He might want to get out to the grocery store because if I had my way we would be putting our legs up under another family’s table in exchange for washing the dishes and bringing a dessert.

How are your last few days of Christmas prep going? Are you done shopping? Are you just getting started?

What’s for dinner? I might fall through!

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Featured• Organization

cleaning out the laundry closet

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Goodwill of North Georgia. All opinions are 100% mine.

This time of year I get really intentional about decluttering. Like really intentional, if only that intention lasted throughout the year. In this post where I talked about the mudroom closet, I gave you a sneak peek at the other travesty of a closet in our laundry room.

Well here it is in all of it’s messy glory. Y’all want transparency? Here it is.

Not really sure how this closet got like this. Well yes I do. I’ve cleaned this closet out multiple times but the issue is I never put any effective solutions in there to ensure it stayed that way. Effective storage and getting rid of clutter is what makes these catchall spaces stay neat.

Initially I stored food items in here but I have more than enough cabinets in the kitchen, so I moved all of the food items into the kitchen and have decided to use this space to house crafting and decor items and laundry that I am not currently washing.

After much deliberation I decided on this storage solution to help people in my house assist me in keeping laundry together. One drawer will be for lights and whites and another for dark and denim. I’ll be back to update how it is working and how it looks all put together once I paint the closet and look at a few other storage solutions.

Looking at my pantry as an example, storage bins that work for your lifestyle are key to keeping these spaces together.

Coming up with storage solutions takes time and thought. Where to send your clutter/things you no longer need is a non issue. Hello Goodwill of North Georgia.

Goodwill is a household name in the thrifting community when it comes to finding amazing deals on clothing and other items but don’t forget the main mission of Goodwill is to put people to work.

Your donations and purchase of items will help educate and put people in your community to work. Here in North Georgia, Goodwill is celebrating its 90th birthday of helping people find employment and this year alone they have helped 20,000 people find jobs.

Another tip for keeping clutter to a minimum is when you are done cleaning, load your things up right then and take them to the Goodwill. Otherwise they will just sit and then children will catch a glimpse of old toys and its just easier to pull up and have them off load what will become someone else’s treasure.

In this season of giving donating to the Goodwill is the gift that will keep on giving. Donating goods helps you declutter your spaces, offers you last minute tax write offs for 2015 and ultimately helps put people to work.

Have you started getting your closets and hidden spaces decluttered for the new year?

Here are their Donation Locations

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Featured• Home

a vintage school desk

A few weeks ago I announced that I would be converting the playroom into my office. Well an update on that is I am actually moving into my husband’s office because it is bigger as I will need to make a space for them in MY space because…you know, kids follow their mother.

I’ll update more on that later.

Anyway, when I decided to relocate their work spaces to their rooms I immediately started thinking of putting a vintage school desk in my daughter’s room because the doll house that I almost drop kicked last Christmas takes up quite a bit of space in her room so I needed something compact.

My neighborhood has a FB page and as I was scrolling to keep up with the drama that is why we need to ditch one of the trash companies because their trucks are leaking hydraulic oil on the streets I came across a pink painted vintage desk for $15.

Yasssss!

In order to make it work I had to switch a few things around in her room. The doll house got moved to the wall adjacent to the foot of her bed and I removed her name sign for now and put the desk in that corner.

It’s a little tight but she can easily maneuver in and out of the desk and the closet door can still open.

I have convinced myself to leave the desk as it is, but I’m still thinking of maybe adding a monogram to it or something.

What do you think? You ever come across an invaluable find for the low?

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