house projects 2021

Aside: it turns out blogging solely from my phone is a little annoying and difficult, I’m starting to think I should have spent the insurance money from my computer being stolen on… a computer. Maybe that can be the 2022 house project (provided I accomplish everything on the 2021 list).

the all-new bedroom set up

I think every year I come up with a big list of projects I want to do around the house. In the last few years I’ve gotten a lot done, like painting or repainting almost every single room, as well as adding proper curtains and blinds to most of the windows. What’s left now is mostly just organizational and decorative stuff.

Entry
•paint walls and bench
acrylic bins for reusable bags
•organize shelves
•storage hooks for wagon & stroller
•umbrella stand?
•replace/refinish ugly boot shelves

This was the first room that Taylor and I painted in this apartment way back and I guess 2007, so it’s definitely overdue to be repainted! It’s also perpetually disorganized. Between all my family’s shoes, boots, coats, and sports equipment and all the daycare kids’ shoes, boots, coats, and miscellaneous I need a lot of places to hang stuff, stack stuff, and store stuff in here.

Office
•file boxes for work & personal files
•organize cabinet

This place doesn’t need a lot done to it as I just put a large cabinet on the side of the office where my desk used to be. One of the cupboards in it is supposed to be for my work files, etc., and that’s really the only space that still needs to be addressed.

Playroom
•curtains?
move 3rd crib to kids room closet
•bins for toy shelf
•bins for toy closet  
organize bedding baskets

The playroom is another space that doesn’t need a lot done to it, mostly I just need to come up with a more organized storage solution for the closet that has all the extra toys that aren’t currently out.    

Dining Room
attach camera cable to wall with cable clips
•build height chart

The only thing I want to do in the dining room this year is build a height chart. We’ve been tracking our kids heights on the door frame of the powder room door (which is right beside the dining room, hence why this project is in this list) and I just want to make something that I can attach to the wall to mark and record these things instead of on the door frame which I couldn’t take with me if we ever moved (not that we ever will lol).

Kitchen
•paint walls
•build window shelf
•clean & organize lazy susan
organize herbs & spices
(still need 12 matching jars for remaining herbs and spices)
•new fridge & freezer bins
•new curtain/Roman blinds?

I’m currently holding off on things like painting and building shelves in the kitchen because there was a leak in the ceiling this week that dumped water all over one side of the room. It well and truly fucked up some of the cabinets, so I’m kind of hoping to get a full kitchen reno out of it (fingers crossed my landlord feels the same way).

Pantry
•paint interior
•build shelves
•cohesive bins to optimize storage

I have the pantry seperate from the kitchen because I have specific plans for it. The pantry is a shallow closet between the kitchen proper and the powder room, and right now there is only one shelf built in, up at the top. It’s one of those wire shelves that stuff topples over on all the time which is super annoying. Other than that I have two metal Ikea shelf units in there which are okay, but I would really love to maximize the available storage by building wooden shelves wall to wall and front to back. I’d also LOVE to put a mini upright freezer in there but that’s a big We’ll See at the moment.


Powder Room
•attach shelf to wall
•hanging plant
•bins for extra diapers & toilet paper
This is where I have all the diapering, hand washing and cleaning supplies for the daycare kids so I need plenty of storage in here, which previously the room had none. I recently got a new tall metal shelf and I just need to figure out some way to attach the wall.

Hallway
•replace shelf brackets
•organize craft cabinets
•build shelves in linen closet

The linen closet has the same kind of annoying wire shelves as the top of the pantry, just more of them, so I want to build in similar wooden shelves as I’m planning for the pantry.

Bedroom
finish emptying narrow dresser/clearing dresser tops
move furniture: dressers to west wall, bed to south wall
•paint east wall
•get double curtain rod & blackout curtains
•put up art
•shades for hanging lights

This room was the biggest change because even though I’ve gotten new furniture over the years I’ve basically always had it in the same configuration, especially the bed which has always been under the window (despite Taylor’s insistence that I once had it in the southwest corner of the room). There was a lot of furniture in there and a lot of things inside of and under that furniture, plus due to daycare regulations anything over 3 ft tall has to be attached to the walls so moving things around was kind of a huge production.

Taylor and I got it done over the long weekend and in the end we changed our original plan and put the dressers on the (still unpainted, but there’s curtains across the whole wall so it’s fine) east wall underneath of the window. We also came up with a lot of interesting ideas involving replacing the bed frame with one with storage and replacing the dressers with smaller dressers or cupboards, or, depending on how much storage we end up needing, a nice little accent chair and side table. We took out one whole dresser and a large storage bench that was at the end of the bed and there is so much more space in there now (who knew, right?)! There’s also room now for both Taylor and myself to have proper nightstands, before I only had a tiny little shelf on the wall so that’s pretty great for me!

Kids Room
move toy shelf out of closet
put small shelf up
•organize toys & books
•put up more art?
•pink curtain for closet
put up pom pom garland with command clips

A few months ago I moved to the kids toy shelf into the closet to make space for a third daycare crib but I really hated how the room was that way so I decided to move it back out. The biggest challenge in this room is that I put up pink curtains on the window so now I need to get a pink curtain for the closet doorway. I got the pink curtains of Facebook Marketplace for super cheap, and at one point I was going to go pick up a third one from someone across town but it was rainy and I didn’t want to so I cancelled, and I haven’t been able to find another one for a good price yet. I’m full of regrets about that one.

So they’re it is, all the stuff I want to get done around the house this year. Mostly, kind of, because I keep adding more stuff to the list! But hopefully putting this here will keep me accountable and on track.

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