Are you a list maker? I am! I use the Reminders app on my iPhone to make lists for everything in my life, from shopping lists and general to dos, to lists of future projects and plans for each room of our home.
We spent last week enjoying lots of family time in the mountains, and on the way home we got stuck in traffic. Rather than being frustrated by the delay, Scott and I used the time {while the kids gloriously slept in the backseat} to review our project lists for each room of our house – checking off items that we completed this last year {is there any better feeling?!} and, of course, adding new items. These lists are LONG and realistically it will take years to complete all those projects {if we ever do}, but the new year seems like the perfect time to prioritize those lists and set some goals for projects we hope to complete in 2015. And for some added accountability, I thought I’d share that list here! Come year end, I’ll take a look back and see how much we managed to accomplish.
But First… Celebating Our 2014 Accomplishments! But before embarking on my master list of projects I hope to accomplish in 2015, I thought I’d take a moment to celebrate just a few of the major projects that we completed in 2014. At the top of that list, we created an uber cool, menswear inspired “little gentleman’s lounge” bedroom for our now three year old son, and gave our master bedroom a modern metro makeover. On the organizing side of things, I finally, finally, got our pantry in order and shared the reveal photos as a guest post on another blog. After almost a year, the pantry system is still working just as well as on day one, so I’ll be sharing the full pantry tour and my top pantry tips on this blog very soon! I also managed to tackle one of the most neglected spots in our home – under our kitchen sink. That space went from a black hole to a space that is both functional and pretty, and it’s really improved our lives so much!
On the personal side, in 2014 we celebrated Beckett’s second birthday with a big Sesame Street party {which went off without a hitch the on the second try after a lot of drama the first time around}, and we celebrated Cooper’s first birthday with a fun Mustache Bash! Not one, but two of Scott’s brothers got married in the month of August, and I had the honor of hosting a fun Stock the Kitchen themed wedding shower for one of my new sister-in-laws. And last, but certainly not least, Scott and I checked a huge trip off of our bucket list – an African safari! I shared a few details about that trip here and here, but we still need to make time to go through all of our photos from that trip, and once we do I’ll share a full trip report here!
And Now… Let’s Talk Plans for 2015! I have a lot planned for 2015 in every area of my life, from personal and family to this blog – but for now, let’s just talk about the major decorating and organizing projects on my list.
Decorating Projects & Updates
- Sewing Room{ish} – Ok, so calling it a sewing “room” is probably an overstatement, but I do plan to create a sewing station. My mom gave me a sewing machine for my birthday last year, and my goal is to have a dedicated place to keep my sewing machine set up for easy access before my birthday rolls around again this March… Uh oh, that’s right around the corner, so I’d better get busy! This one moves to the top of the list!
- Playroom – Our boys have a large play space at one end of our basement family room, but we have plans to create another, very special, play space just for them! I don’t want to say too much yet, but this is going to be a really fun project that I hope to complete in time for Cooper’s second birthday this summer!
- Guest Bedroom & Bathroom Updates – Our guest suite is one of my favorite spaces in our house. The design of both the guest bedroom and bathroom were inspired by our honeymoon travels in Greece, and just walking in to the guest room makes me smile! BUT, when we designed Beckett’s new “big boy” room this past spring, we lost our exercise room, and some of the workout equipment ended up in the corner of the guest room. Now that the guest room is serving a dual purpose, it needs a few updates to create a more functional {and better looking} space for working out. And I have plans to make a few updates in the guest bathroom as well.
- Master Bathroom Updates – Our master bedroom got a full makeover this past fall, and now our master bathroom is feeling left out. It’s got great space and great finishes, but it’s lacking on style. I have a lot of plans to bring it up to the new standard set by the bedroom, and hope to at least get started on those updates before the end of the year.
- Basement Updates – Our basement is where we spend most our family time, and while it actually looks pretty complete {I’ll give you a tour soon}, I have a long list of decorating and DIY projects that I want to complete to make the space even better! A special gift I bought my husband for Christmas {I’ll share soon} is motivating me to prioritize some of these decorating projects in 2015!
- Den Updates – The basement bedroom that we use as an home office is the one space in our home that just doesn’t feel like us. I’ve never shared photos of the den because, while the space looks pretty good, it doens’t look the way I want it to. I recently started brainstorming how to update the space to better fit the our style. The den has a marsala colored chair that I wanted to replace, but once I learned marsala was named the 2015 Pantone color of the year, I decided to try to embrace it and I’ve been finding inspiration for ways to make marsala modern!
Major Organizing Projects
- Garage – My number one priority for 2015 is reclaiming our garage! Pre-kids, it was actually a pretty organized space, but with the addition of mutiple strollers, wagons, bikes, scooters, and all the baby gear that our kids are starting to outgrow that we’ve moved out of the house and into the garage – the garage is now packed to the gills! All the organization that once existed has unraveled because we can’t easily get to things, and can’t easily put things away. Our garage is detached and COLD, so while I’d like to tackle this project now, it will have to wait for a couple of warm weekends. But it will happen because it has to happen for my sanity!
- 1st Floor Hall Closet – This space is another of my top priorities for 2015 because it’s a catch all for everything! I organized it last year, but never shared any photos because I knew it wasn’t working quite right. This year, I am going to fix its failures and make it work for our family for the long run!
- Master Bathroom – I need to reoganize under the sinks to better use the space around and behind the pipes. Additionally, I need to add more storage for “extras” – you know, all those extra bottles of shampoo, bottles of contact solution, and tubes of toothpaste. I plan to create storage in a space that is currently completely unused… and that makes the organizing nerd in me really excited!
- 3rd Floor Hall Closet – We are fortunate to have a closet in the hall outside of our master bedroom. My original organization plan for this closet served us well the last six years, but I have plans to rellocate some items, freeing up space in this closet for new purposes.
- Guest Room Closet – Right before the holidays I organized one half of the guest room walk-in closet to store all of my wrapping paper {I’ll be sharing that reveal soon}, but the other half of the closet remains a disaster, and I intend to fix that! I have big plans to create storage for items that currently don’t have a home and always end up cluttering up all of our other closets.
- Kids Toy Closet in Basement – We have a large closet in the basement that stores all of our board games, but since our kids are not yet old enough for most of those games, I need to make better use of this space to organize toys that get played with every day.
- Den Closet – The bedroom in our basement serves as both a home office and a craft room – which means the closet has to do double duty! It had a great organizational system years ago, but that system has slowly become overwhelmed as my craft supplies keep multiplying {I don’t know how that happens?!} The closet isn’t a disaster yet, but it’s headed that way, so I hope to tweak the current organization and add more storage before it gets out of hand.
- Digital Files & Photos – This is a long, long overdue project! Last year I consolidated the files from three different computers on to my one new laptop, but they all just got dumped onto the desktop, where they have remained. Fortunately we do use a cloud-based backup system, so I am not worried about losing any files or photos, but I must to get everything integrated into one digital filing system so that I can actually find what I need when I need it! I really want to start creating yearly photo books, but I can’t even think about that project until our photos are better organized…so that step one is on the list for 2015!
- Coat Closet – We are fortunate to have a rather large coat closet, and it worked great for just Scott and I, but now that we have two toddlers with their own collections of coats, hats, gloves and scarves, I would love to redesign this closet to function better for our family of four. I put this last of the list because the plans I have in mind just aren’t in the budget right now…but I hope to find a way to make this happen in 2015. If not, it will be high on the list for the next year!
Phew! Those are long lists…and they don’t even begin to address all of the craft and DIY projects I’ve been dreaming up. The year always feels long in January, but I know it will fly by. I realize that life may get in the way of accomplishing all of these projects as the months go on, but it helps me to have a list to come back to set priorities and track my progress. What projects are top on your list for 2015?
