Basement Tidying

Not all projects are glamorous. Along with the fun of choosing paint colors and scouring TJ Maxx for that perfect turquoise vase comes stink bug eradication, washing the windows, sweeping, vacuuming, swiffering (is that a word?), laundry, dishes, taking out the trash... and lately, cleaning the cave in the basement.

Our basement is finished except for one room, which holds the washer and dryer, HVAC unit, hot water heater, and a whole bunch of stuff that we don't really want to look at on a daily basis. My husband, while I love him dearly, is of the "close the door and forget it" mentality, while I (as you should have guessed by now) am of the lying in bed and thinking of new ways to organize things variety. The basement has been bothering me for a while, and a few weeks ago I took the time to organize it. Here are the before shots:

And after:

I actually only threw away two grocery bags full of trash - everything else has been rearranged (I always was pretty good at Tetris). I know, not super exciting... but still super satisfying.

Home Improvement: Bathroom

Has anyone read this article? {LINK} What do you think? I read a lot of decorating and so-called "lifestyle" blogs myself, but I don't let myself feel bad about my house not being "perfect." As Sadie says toward the end of the article, blogs are not a true representation of reality. Before I take pictures of finished rooms, I always clean them up. To illustrate, here are pictures of the upstairs bathroom that I've been working on over the past few months.

Before, it was painted a color I can only describe as flesh tone. Plus, there were weird unpainted stripes near the ceiling and near the floor, which were probably intended to be artsy, but just left me confused.

Once we moved in, the bathroom started looking sad and lonely.

I painted the walls "Silver Drop", and Jason and I put up the train rack. The plate, candle, and lantern were TJ Maxx finds, and the print on the wall is from this great Etsy seller.

To illustrate my point above about blogs being an inaccurate representation of reality, here's what the bathroom really looks like, cat litter box and overflowing trash can in all their glory: