Cleaning Tips - The Idea Room

Hair Tool Storage Cabinet

I FINALLY got a second to sit down and write up this post. Sorry to leave you hanging about what exactly was hidden behind this Bathroom Towel Rack Cabinet door. Many of you guessed there was a laundry chute inside. Oh how awesome that would be…I had one growing up in my parents house and though we DID use it for laundry, it was also used by us kids for many other devious purposes…hehe! But, unfortunately my laundry room is on the opposite end of the house so it would have to be quite the chute to get the laundry to the laundry room and I am sure that more than just a sock might get lost in there.

So, the next best option for me was to create my very own personal Hair tool Storage Cabinet. I do love my curling iron…when I actually don’t have my hair in a pony tail *ahem*! And…I have three girls…enough said!

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So that means I spend a little bit of time doing hair on Sunday mornings and before school (when they cooperate). And even though my girls have THEIR OWN bathroom, they tend to gather in our Master Bathroom. Can any of you relate?

We simply made a “box” that contained three sides. We left one side off the back so that we could tuck all the cords behind it to keep them from being seen all strewn about in the cabinet. We also left a small gap in the back so that the cords could fall down behind the box shelf.

Then we placed the box into the bottom of the cabinet. This becomes the base that we screwed the hair tool station onto.

We ordered this hair organizing station online.

Directly behind our customized towel rack, was an electrical outlet. We wanted to be able to utilize this without having the electrical cords showing so we did what any normal person would do…

We took (and by we…I mean “the hunky Mr. Idea Room”) drilled some holes in the back of the cabinet so that we could cut out the cabinet directly where the electrical outlet was.

After the 4 “pilot” holes were drilled Mr. Idea Room took his jigsaw and cut out a small rectangle to expose the outlet to the inside of the cabinet. Then we placed our electrical strip inside so we had plenty of spots for all of our hair appliances.

I LOVE it! I love being able to turn on the curling iron or flat iron and let them heat up and not be cluttering up the counter top. They are hidden AND out of the way. Just the way this momma likes to have things that she uses on a daily basis.

Maybe it will help with the clutter…Haha…Here’s to hoping!

And…to answer your questions…you can find all of the following here:

Update Builder Grade Cabinets with finial feet.

Painting Bathroom cabinets white tutorial.

The yellow rug was painted by me…Painted Rug tutorial!

DIY Trumeau Mirror (not pictured)

Framed in Builder’s Grade Mirror

Original Customized Towel Rack post.

Towels are from Anhropologie.

Hair Appliance Tool Holder purchased here.

What do you think? If you had a cabinet like this what would you like to store in there?

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March 6, 2012 · Filed under: Cleaning Tips, DIY Tutorials, Home Decor, Home Remodeling, Moms, Organization Tips, Tutorials Tagged with curling iron holder, hair appliance holder, hair appliance storage, hair appliance tools, hair dryer holder, hair tool cabinet, hair tool organization, Home Tour--Master Bedroom, professional hair tool

Ending the Mud Room Mayhem

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Hi Idea Room readers – it’s Becky from the Clean Mama Blog and Clean Mama Printables! I’m excited to be here today sharing a little organizational tip or two about mud room mayhem (or any place the coats, boots, cleaning supplies, mops, brooms, etc. collect). Every home has a place where stuff gets stashed, coats are dropped and supplies are hidden. This may be in several areas of your home or you may have a mud room as your go-to place for these items. Regardless, adding a little organization to the general area(s) is always helpful. This week I’m going to show you how I organized the closet portion of my mud room.

Our mud room has a closet with double doors – it’s not as functional as it might sound because there’s a dog kennel in front of one of the doors, but there’s a lot of room to store mud room-type stuff.

Here are a couple ideas for getting and keeping the stuff organized:

group like items together – in baskets, bins, boxes…

I put all the weird household stuff (legs for the washing machine, cabinet knobs, door stops, etc.) in Ziploc bags and then put all those bags in a bin labeled miscellaneous

Plastic shoe boxes are great for storing smaller items like batteries and electrical cords. I put the batteries in individual Ziploc bags by type/size inside the box for easy access.

hang what you can off the floor to maximize your space

label, label, label

I printed my labels on cardstock, cut them out and laminated them

I attached them to my containers with stick-on velcro so I could move them around and change if needed

overview of the mudroom closet

Do you have a mud room that needs some identification?

Go here to get some specific mud room labels like the ones that I used.

You can go here if you want some blank labels like these.

Thanks for having me, Amy – Happy Organizing!

February 3, 2011 · Filed under: Clean Mama--Organizational Tip Series, Cleaning Tips, Moms, Organization Tips Tagged with

Taming the Clutter

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Every year when the kids go back to school I get in the mood to ORGANIZE my home. I usually spend the first couple of weeks going through closets and cupboards and dejunkifying and taming the clutter. I actually find it very relaxing…I know…I have a sickness! (When I was growing up I used to rearrange my room by myself and deep clean it every few months…but I digress!)

So one of the first things I tackled is this cupboard (in the kitchen) above the “business center” in our home. It houses our office supplies, electronic cords, mail, items to be filed (the file cabinet is actually upstairs in my “craft/office/computer” room), kids paints, play dough, etc. Do you see my calendar planner and notebooks on top of the drawers? Love those!

I really like having these small drawers to hold the markers, crayons and colored pencils, etc. When the kids need them, they can just pull out the whole drawer and then (in theory…) replace the drawer when they are finished.

I also have a couple drawers dedicated to “cards”. These include thank you notes, blank note cards, birthday cards, get well cards, etc. That way I am always prepared for any occasion. You know those birthdays that sneak up on you. This way you LOOK like you were prepared all along and you don’t have to make a last minute dash to the store to get something.

I also have a phone number list taped to the cupboard door. This includes phone numbers of people we call frequently and the kids friends. It also has emergency phone numbers so they are right at hand. This list also comes in handy when we have a babysitter over tending the children when the hubs and I have our “date nights”. We also tape up soccer schedules and important dates for the kids schools.

I love having everything in one place. It makes homework time a lot smoother because everything they need can be found quickly. (We usually do homework on the kitchen counter when the kids get home from school after they have a healthy snack).

I have a few more organization projects I have been working on that I will share with you soon. I also have finally finished some home remodeling projects that are also on tap to share!

What about you? Have you been organizing something in your home? Do share! I love hearing what my readers are up to!

★Amy

August 31, 2010 · Filed under: Back To School, Cleaning Tips, Organization Tips, Parenting Help Tagged with