Our home re-haul and reorganization project is almost done. Our living room and basement storage is repainted and we're sticking with neutrals! I don't think we're going to experiment with bold color again unless we're hardcore about matching all of our furniture and refurnishing. Like I mentioned, here are some tips and tricks that helped us re-paint, reorganize and still function daily in our home:

Repainting

We tried using the two in one primer and paint by Sico. They have a new line called Evolution that promises the sun and the moon.

It's advantages are that there is practically zero smell which is great. Especially for me because of my pregnancy so that was a super plus. It also covers super well. HOWEVER. It's been 3 weeks already and the damn paint still hasn't cured fully ! I leaned on the wall the other day and stuck my thumb hard into the wall and a bubble immersed ! I had to pat it down gently and hope that nobody would notice the slight smudge. Some websites say it can take up to 4 weeks for standard paint to fully cure but like I said Sico Evolution promises the sun and the moon and it has not lived up to expectations. Not to mention that when we used primer and paint, everything was pretty rock solid by two weeks end. So if you really want a well cured paint job and you can afford to air out your painted place for a week, stick with separate primer and paint. Otherwise, I guess you're stuck with the primer and paint combo in which case, be really careful after painting about scratching it up ! 

Reorganizing

I was not using my closet space efficiently. I also did not feel like buying more 'things' so that all my other 'things' can be better organized. So in the cheapest fashion possible, these are the tips and tricks that helped us most,

- hammering nails all across the backs of my closets to hang knick-knacks that I wanted in plain view for easier access, ex. bras, small clutches, hats ...

- reusing all my shoe boxes and labeling them really well to organize my 'things' and stack them to take advantage of the height factor of space. Thus, I did not have to buy new shelving units to stick into my closet with the current shelving units. 

- obviously, less used items go higher up and the constantly used items go in easier to access spots. 

- REALLY BOLD and DETAILED labeling on EVERY box that can be EASILY VIEWED simply from standing in front of your closet and looking around. 

- because I'm short, sometimes, I can be so lazy that I simply won't bother grabbing a chair to get something from my closet top shelf. I'll just live without it or assume that it's not there and .... BUY IT AGAIN. HORRIBLE!!!! To counter this, I strategically placed a foldable round chair into the corner of my closet. Easy access and no excuse to just pull it out, climb on it and take a peek at the top shelf.

- THROW OUT YOUR JUNK. You can start by taking every thing out and splitting them into the three categories: shoot, keep, donate. You should try to get all your piles done in one day. The shoot pile goes straight in the garbage and the donate pile, shove into garbage bags and place immediately at the front door or into your car trunk so that it's the first thing you deal with when you leave your house. Then voila! You just have one pile to organize and this can be split into multiple days if simply categorizing everything is too much of a brain drain!

- when placing our 'things' into shoe boxes or existing plastic bins or our book shelves or the closet, this time I AVOIDED the mistake of packing any storage unit to the max. If you end up doing that, you need a bigger container or you need keep throwing/donating 'things'. You want extra space because you're bound to accumulate more 'things' in the future and you want space to put them (if they are really worth the value) or you'll remember the pain you went through to get that perfectly efficient closet and decide to not keep it afterall to avoid disturbing your closet zen. 

And.................. that's about it :) Remember to eat well and stay hydrated. You wouldn't think it but if you have a lot of junk, de-cluttering and reorganizing is seriously a big effort. Also keep in mind that you likely won't get your house de-cluttered in one single day so it's best to set a time limit per day so that this project doesn't consume you which ends up sucking your motivation dry for the next time you need to do this again. Just remember to try your best to get the shoot-keep-donate piles done in one sitting so that you can clear two thirds of your 'stuff' from your brain straight away. 

Conclusion

Following the above rules, I went through all of our bedroom closets, the shoe closet in the hallway and a room in the basement that we were basically using as another closet. I had a truck full of bags to donate after every weekend for a month. Our recycling bin was also packed to the brim every Tuesday but thankfully, we didn't exceed the city weight limit. Fortunately for the environment, we actually didn't throw much out! Most of our things could be donated or reused properly somewhere in the house. 

Some items that I did end up buying were,

- these awesome bins from Canadian Tire that roll and open from two sides and fit right under your bed if you have bed space. I got two for myself and two for my husband. These are perfect for putting away winter clothing. They were on sale at 12$ each, woot! My family gave us a hard time when we moved in together for not getting a full bedroom set. We went with a bed that we liked from Structube and then night dresser/tables and ONE dresser from IKEA and an ottoman. Our room is actually pretty minimalist and zen and we just didn't want a big bedroom set with all the pieces. So when I ran out of space for our winter clothes, I was starting to hear the "I told you so's" in my head soooo...... yay for Canadian Tire and cheap storage solutions!

- a sturdy plastic storage rack meant for the garage at 20$ from Reno Depot to stick into our basement 'closet' room. 

C'est tout! For the rest, I was able to reuse old shoe boxes, Ikea boxes and shelving space because we were able to get rid of so much of our 'things' that we just no longer needed. 

If you're embarking on your own de-cluttering adventure, good luck and may the force be with you.