Now that we are about 2/3 of the way through summer, I’m thinking ahead to the school year and fall projects. While I’m still itching to do more planting, the heat and my schedule haven’t been very conducive to digging in the dirt, even though I am very excited to share some of my fruit and veggie harvests with you once I start reaping them.  Despite the fact that our house is essentially done – or perhaps because it is done – clutter has been gradually making its way onto bookshelves, into closets and pantries other collecting places.  I call this crap creep.  Granted, some of this existed before, since my focus prior to now was mainly on getting things looking good and not on the contents behind door or drawer fronts.  And I’ve done several cleanouts but with a new baby and all her accompanying accoutrement and other folks around who don’t put things back where they came from (ehem…), it’s hard to keep things organized. 

SO…. late summer and fall are going to be focused on organizing around Chez Davis.  Here is the state of affairs and my thoughts:

There is so much stuff shoved in here. And we have an excess of dried fruit and nut snacks (although not nearly as many boxes of pasta as my friend Leda over at Hipster Hausfrau).  I’m thinking just some simple organization, backstocking elsewhere, and labeling will do the trick. Really any chance to use my label maker is most welcome and I think this will solve the problem of people putting things back in the wrong places.

This area was not intended to be storage but the ledge on the left side was the perfect spot so it just sort of happened naturally.  But the paper bags hanging over into the stair can be super annoying. I’m thinking some narrow DIY shelving, cubbies and baskets for extra foodstuff would really clean up this area and make it more useful.

We have two of these closets – one on either side of our living room built-ins. This is the left side and it houses a lot of off season stuff.  This photo was taken before I jammed a giant pack of toilet paper and paper towels in the top.  I think adding a temporary shelf to the top area would help a lot and maybe going through the coats and getting them to an attic wardrobe would help as well.

I’ve blogged about updating our linen closet before but still haven’t gotten around to it. It’s not horrible but updating the organization a little bit, adding a little paint, new drawer bottoms and some new hardware will take this pretty far (and how about some hooks or a little bulletin board on the inside of the door?)

Finally, the master closet. Again, not horrible. Scott needs to go through his clothes and do a Goodwill run.  And I need to figure out how to get lighting into this cave. That would do wonders.

Updates coming as I tackle each space – be patient with me though. I’m always over ambitious. 

What projects do you have planned for the rest of the year?