Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Susie Homemaker

Today I felt the itch of spring cleaning and organizing. Yesterday's post had me thinking about our bedroom armoire, specifically its disheveled and unappealing contents. Yeeshk! I did not feel like capturing that before...
Phase one only had two goals: 1. Prevent antique shelving from staining or snagging vintage and antique linen and 2. Be easy enough to achieve without major time or financial commitment.
{before}
I dumped out the contents of the most offending shelves (the top shelf currently houses plastic and tissue paper wrapped needlepoint and seasonal cushions, which don't need further protecting for now) and went to get some contact paper. Of course,contact paper is not a long term solution, being that it is cheap, ugly, plastic-y and not in keeping with this armoir at all. I want to eventually line this armoire completely with thin cedar lining, so I can throw out all the lavender sachets, moth balls and cloves everywhere (I have become as moth prevention obsessed as my late mother, unfortunately only after the moth-fatality of a Burberry cashmere scarf...sigh).
Snip snip, stick stick and voila! somewhat improved surface for storing linen. I only removed a thin strip of the backing on each side, to avoid unnecessary (possibly damaging) adhesive to stick to the shelves when I want to go on to phase 2 (cedar lining).
{half-way} 
Although my contact-papering skills leave much to be desired, I did try to redeem myself in Martha Stewart's eyes, by stacking my bed linen according to size and type inside old/no longer used pillowcases. I'm also happily recycling the million plastic baggies from my LP deliveries and Ralph Lauren sheets. Zippered, clear storage pouches? Please, people pay money for those....
{still not quite perfect}
I delivered the final Susie Homemaker coup de grace, thanks to some packing-paper-on-index-cards-cut-out-with pinking-sheers-and-attached-with-jute-cord labels. Yessir. I is crafty.

{after}
Is there anything a pretty label doesn't improve?

Now the inside of the armoire will make me as happy as the outside! The drawers house fabric napkins, my zodiac crystal Val St. Lambert coasters and napkin rings.
Just to round out my feel-good Tuesday, I did my good Samaritan deed of the day by helping an octogenarian lady reach a bag of frozen Broccoli florets at the grocery store. That's what it's all about, isn't it?

2 comments:

  1. Looks so pretty and organized!
    xoxo
    SC

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very nice--organizing things like that make me feel so much more peaceful and gives me a little control over my world, hehe!

    ReplyDelete

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