Organization

Home Trends | Kitchen Space Savers

ONE | TWO | THREE | FOUR | FIVE | SIX | SEVEN | EIGHT | NINE | TEN | ELEVEN | TWELVE | THIRTEEN | FOURTEEN | FIFTEEN | SIXTEEN

Let’s talk tiny kitchens. I see you, fellow apartment dwellers. If there’s one thing that drives me crazy about my NYC apartment it’s the lack of storage and counter space in my kitchen. I love to cook but it can be frustrating in such a small space. Luckily, I’ve found a few tricks along the way to maximize square footage.

If there is a collapsible version of anything, that’s the one I choose. I rely on a dish rack since my tiny kitchen doesn’t have a dishwasher, but I hate seeing it out in the open when it’s not in use. I love that this one pops into a smaller size to store under the sink when I need to free up space or have guests over.

Anything that nests is also your friend. My nesting bowls and glasses save a ton of precious cabinet space.

Don’t be afraid to use verticle space as well. Pots and pans are convenient to reach, yet out of the way, when they’re on a pot rack instead of in a cabinet. Magnetic organizers for things like spices or knives help make full use of wall space and are great when you’re low on drawer space.

I also look for things that are multipurpose. Instead of a toaster, I have this mini smart oven that I’m obsessed with. It toasts, bakes, broils, and roasts, all without taking up much space. It’s also a great alternative to turning on the oven when I’m just making something small.

My final tips apply to any small space: stay organized (this will help!) and stick to a color palette. It’s easy to acquire a lot of random kitchen things that don’t necessarily look good together, but this can be avoided by keeping one or two colors/finishes in mind.

Whew, that was a lot! Any tips/tricks I missed? Let us know your favorite kitchen space savers in the comments!

This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission if you make a purchase after clicking on a link. To see more of our Home Trends click here! Thank you for supporting copycatchic!

New year, old news and our 10th Blogiversary!

We’re already over halfway through January and I’m still trying to gear up for the year to come! The blog is 10 years old this month, can you believe it?! It’s been a long and super fun road, let me tell you. Before I talk about my goals and resolutions for this year though, I’d like to go back and talk about a couple of changes that happened on the blog front first.

If you visit the blog much, you’ll have noticed the redesign that happened a few months back. I hope you all enjoy the new look and feel. Here’s the old one for reference, not too different visually, but most of the changes were on the back end. I worked with one of my favorite design team, Bloom. I’d bought ready-made templates from them in the past and loved their modern and minimalist philosophy. So when it came for a more customized design they were my go-to. Every detail has been thought over and designed for ease of use and aesthetics.

We reorganized the navigation as well – with the addition of the shop and well as our design services, the navigation needed a major overhaul. And speaking of the shop, Bloom designed that from top to bottom as well. I barely know how to write a post on WordPress let alone format the site 😉 Thankfully I found a great design team to do it for me, right?

You’ll notice that in addition to the search bar on the righthand side, we also added some additional search functionality on the daily finds and room redo pages. You can now search for finds by item and retailer. And you can also find room redos by specific rooms and styles. Pretty cool huh?

If you’re an email subscriber you also noticed a format change. Instead of showing the whole post, you now see only the featured image. The change was a mandatory one, unfortunately. The reasoning? The emails you receive are automated and affiliate linking in emails is prohibited by most advertisers. My blog is mostly supported by affiliate sales, so in order to be able to keep the blog running it’s a necessary evil. As a result, I had to stop all links from being sent out in my newsletters. The easiest way to guarantee that, was to cut text all-together. Hence the new email format.

I personally like the look of the new newsletter much, much better. But a bunch of you are unhappy with the new look. You guys miss seeing the comparisons in email format, without having to click over. I totally understand. So what I’m thinking is this…instead of the featured image or inspirational image shown in the newsletter, I’ll show the product comparison image. What do you guys think? A better compromise? That way you can see the products and click over only if you want more info. Sounds good?

And while I’m at it, I figured it was the perfect time to do a reader survey! Yay! It’s been awhile since we’ve had one of these and I’d love some feedback from you all! So go ahead, weigh in:

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Minimalist Home Office Organization

This post is in partnership with PayPal.

I’ve been working from home exclusively since 2009. You may be shocked to hear that I just recently created myself a home office. Before, I used to use my laptop while sitting on the couch. I’ve come to the realization that when working, I always want to be where the action is, in the heart of the home, aka the living room. Problem is, that doesn’t always lend itself to efficient home office organization!

When I upgraded from a laptop to my new iMac, I needed a dedicated desk. So I set out to create an office space that I would actually use – in a corner of our living room. Now, for most people, this spot wouldn’t be their first choice for an office location. I can’t blame them! Who wants a bunch of tech sitting as a focal point in their living room? Far be it for me to pass up a challenge! So, after a ton of internet scouring (you know me) and trial and error, I’m proud to share my best finds, tips and tricks for home office organization that keeps the clutter at bay and functions just as well as it looks!

My Home | Mudroom Organization with OSH

This post is sponsored by orchard supply hardware.

If you haven’t noticed yet, I’ve been on a home decorating kick lately. It’s funny, but it always seems to take about a year of living in a house for me to really get inspired on how to furnish and decorate the space. I really like to get to know a house and how we live in it before I know what the home needs, in terms of furniture, changes or decor. Today I’m going to show you our mudroom. It’s a small room right off the entryway and open to the kitchen. When we first moved in, I had grand plans of making it a breakfast nook, but that changed pretty fast. It’s now a major workhorse in our home. One side serves as an extension to our kitchen and the other serves as our mudroom.

Home Trends | Stylish Organizers

A chic home office with a standing desk from Hayneedle | copycatchic luxe living for less budget home decor and design — via

Our favorite ways to organize your home from wine holders to jewelry boxes. Chic, modern and stylish home organization for everyone. copycatchic luxe living

After you’ve given your home the life-changing-magic-of-tidying-up routine, it’s time to bring in some gorgeous accessories to show off the things you truly cherish. Getting organized doesn’t have to mean an expensive trip to the Container Store (heaven, admittedly) for a bunch of plastic bins. As these pretty finds prove, you can decorate with pieces that are as functional as they are stylish. No need to banish these beauties to your cabinets and drawers!

This post may contain affiliate links. Thanks for supporting Copy Cat Chic.

Minimalist Kitchen Clean Up Tips with Method Home

This post is sponsored by method home.

Even though I didn’t make any formal resolutions for the new year, I think my unofficial motto has been to “simplify”. That goes for my life AND home. It definitely goes along with my whole minimalist vibe. On that front, I’ve been on a huge declutter and organizing kick over here at the copycatchic household.

My first project for 2017? The kitchen sink area. No, it’s not glamorous, but under the sink was dark, cluttered and just a complete disaster. I collaborated with method to show you their newest spring limited edition collection and share my minimalist kitchen clean up tips. I thought it was the perfect partnership as their newest collection is based on simplicity, function, and minimalism. Right up my alley!

Spring Organization with Ross Dress For Less

Happy first day of Spring! What comes to your mind when you think of Spring? Green plants, April showers, birds chirping? Ah, yes, don’t forget Spring CLEANING. Time to open the windows and let the fresh air and light in. Time to prepare the house for the lighter months and get rid of all the Winter gloom.

I love a good, deep cleaning. Who wouldn’t? And while you’re cleaning? Time for some organization as well. The two go hand-in-hand. Get rid of the things you never use and clean up the things you do! Simple, right? Well, it can be if you have the right tools for the job.

I figured I’d start my “tool” shopping at an old favorite: Ross. While there, I focused on the perfect combination of chic and workhorse. For an item to work in my home it has to have a purpose and it has to look pretty doing it.

I found this galvanized metal drawer organizer ($7.99) which really helps whips the junk drawer into shape. It has a burlap bottom too, so it doesn’t scrape up the bottom of the drawer. Very nice.

I came home with a collection of these black and natural woven baskets. I heart them so much. This smaller sized one ($4.99) works perfectly as a mail, magazine and catalog catch-all.

Now when it comes time to actually do some cleaning, here are my tools. Usually piled under the sink willy-nilly. Can you tell I love my Method?

I found these handy little handled bins (3.99) for toting around all my cleaning supplies. And keeping them ready to go, under the sink. Perfect and easy.

So easy that I had to get one for my bathroom clean up team too.

When I saw this hamper basket ($24.99), I knew I had to buy it. Black stripes? Come on, it was a given. We’re using it as our dirty laundry hamper since the one we used before (a plastic laundry basket) wasn’t so pretty.

Speaking of laundry hampers ($12.99), these two pretties are now in the kid’s closet. Conrad is now officially sharing a room with his big sister (yay!). Those two needed separate bins – there’s only so many dirty diapers and pee-pee panties one bin can take 😉 Oh the joys of newborns and potty-training.

And last but not least, this gorgeous thing ($9.99). We keep her in the living room to store all of our cozy throw blankets. During the winter most of these throws stay draped on our various sofas, at the ready. But when Spring rolls around they need to be stored. I like to wash all of them and then store them away. This basket is perfect because they’re still readily accessible if, by chance, we encounter a chilly Spring evening.

Do you guys look forward to Spring cleaning as much as I do? What are some of your favorite organization tips and tricks?

*I was not compensated for writing this post, but I was provided with a Ross gift card to buy the products pictured.*

Ranch House Redo | A Pantry Update

A little pantry update was long overdue in this house. The kitchen pantry was a mish-mash of mismatching shelving and no organization whatsoever. When we moved in I just shoved things into the pantry and never looked back. Not a good system for finding things that’s for sure.My Lowe’s Creative Ideas mission for November was to organize and update your kitchen or panty. I was happy to hop on the pantry bandwagon. Here is the pantry before in all of its awfulness….scary I know.

BEFORE

Now for some fun after pictures….

AFTER

I painted the whole pantry a fun shade of teal using some mis-tints from the paint at Lowe’s. I love buying mis-tints, I usually hit that area up first every time I visit Lowe’s. You never know what goodies you’ll find. And what’s great is the blue teal color tied into the blue mason jars I already had. I love when things fall into place like that!

I also lined the shelves with brand new bright white shelving liner to freshen it up a bit. I also did some reorganizing. I moved coffee and tea over to the top shelf. Before it was in a cabinet right above the oven and every time we used the oven everything above it would get baked. Now we just store mugs and travel mugs in that space, so no harm no foul.

I bought some great reusable jars and containers for our usual suspect pantry items like nuts, grains, rice, flour, sugar etc. I used black contact paper and cut out round circles to use as labels. I just label things with a white chalkboard pen. *Whoops, just realized that my cornflakes are labeled “Fruity O’s”! Ha! Oh well, not everything is fail-safe, huh? 😉

I also moved the “snack” shelf down to the 2nd to bottom shelf so that way Arden can access it whenever she wants to. I bought easy to open plastic containers for things like cookies, crackers, etc. She loves being able to open the cabinet by herself and see what food is available for her to munch on. And it makes Momma’s life a little easier too 😉

I bought a clipboard and painted it with chalkboard paint so I could keep track of what I bought at the grocery store for the week. It’s mounted to the inside of the pantry door. After we’ve eaten something I just do a quick swipe and erase that item. It helps the Mr know what’s available too, since I’m usually the one doing the grocery shopping. The clipboard part is great too, because I can use it to hold any coupons that I might want to use.

And there you go! My fun LCI project for November. It didn’t take a lot time to do and it was 100x worth the effort! The only thing I need now is a great basket for the bottom shelf to store my potatoes and squash and the like. Then the pantry will be 100% done. Yay 🙂

^{This post was brought to you by the Lowe’s Creative Ideas Network, which I’m so happy to be a part of along with a crew of other really creative bloggers, you can check out all of our fun projects on the Lowe’s Creative Ideas Blog. As a part of the LCI Network, I’ve received compensation in the form of Lowe’s credit to help with my projects above.}

Lowe’s Creative Ideas

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Lowe’s Creative Ideas Blog (featuring yours truly!)

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This post may contain affiliate links.

Time for some organization and a Giveaway

January – the beginning of a brand new year. And the best way to start the new year? Out with the old and in with the new…well, mostly out with the old 😉 January is traditionally my clean out time, forget spring time, January is where it’s at! So I decided that it was time to clear out the closets and drawers and get rid of old, worn out clothes or in Arden’s case, *outgrown*.

Being a part of the Lowe’s Creative Ideas network definitely helped.Their closet organization section in the store is pretty inspiring. So many tools to choose from. In the end though, I kept it pretty simple and flexible, so I could rearrange things a bit later on and I’d still be able to use everything.

As you can see my closet was in major need of an overhaul. My sweaters were piled up on the top shelf like there was no tomorrow. Let’s not even talk about the ground floor: shoe & bag overload. With some handy organizational products from Lowe’s things are looking a whole lot better.

I used a closet shelf turned on it’s side to keep my sweaters in line on the top shelf. I also bought a double shoe hanger to store all of my smaller shoes, similar to this one, but mine has a double row of show compartments. The boots stayed on the floor. I used rolled up magazines to keep them standing at attention. I forget where I learned that tip from, but I love it. I also bought some handy fabric bins (like these) to store things like gloves, scarves, purses, etc when they’re not in use. Oh and I’m almost forgot, I bought some wooden hangers to replace most of my plastic ones. I just need a few wooden pant/skirt hangers and then I’ll be all set! And maybe another closet shelf to add to the other one and that way they can run the entire length of the top shelf. Doesn’t it look sooo much better? It definitely helped when I got rid of all of the shoes I haven’t worn in over a year and the bags that have been sitting on the floor collecting dust. Now the only things in my closet are things I actually use. Great concept, huh? 😉

Now moving onto Arden’s closet.

Can you see the HUGE pile of outgrown clothing on the left side of that top shelf? Scary I know, extreme earthquake hazard 😉 Not to mention the wine racks…somehow those don’t strike me as being “child-friendly”. So it was finally time to clear out Arden’s closet so she could use it for all of her new things. I have another one of those shoe racks handy for all of the cute shoes she’ll be getting, once she’s a little older. I’m thinking she also needs closet shelves running the length on the top. I can then slip those bins into the “cubbies” for a even better, streamlined look.

Now it’s time to tackle Arden’s dresser…eep! Her clothing drawer was a complete mess. I had a system down when she was born: I used these compartment trays to organize her folded clothes. But now that she’s bigger, so is her clothing. And they no longer fit into those compartments. I decided to take the trays out and there was much more space to fold and stack. I also moved a compartment tray over to the diaper drawer. Just look at how organized it is. Love it!

Now it’s your turn! Lowe’s has offered to gift one lucky reader with a $100 gift card. What’s your most useful organizational trick? Just leave me a comment about it and you can enter for a chance to win $100 to Lowe’s!

Prize

One $100 gift card to Lowe’s

3 Ways To Enter

1. Leave a comment on this blog post (not on Facebook or by email) telling us what your favorite organizational tip is!

2. Head on over to Facebook and “Like” the Lowe’s Creative Ideas fan page and leave a comment here about it.

3. Like the Copy Cat Chic Facebook page and then come on back and leave a comment.

4. Follow Copy Cat Chic on twitter, and just like above, leave me a comment so I know!

Giveaway ends

Thursday, January 26th, 2012.

Winner Announced

Friday, January 27th, 2012.