So happy!

I would love a dedicated mud room. Until then, we use the garage to organize our shoes in a nice, neat line when we aren't using them. HA! The nice, neat line stays for about 2 days and then it's back to a big pile. We trip over them and the old wardrobe/shoe bench was just not big enough and it became a catch all for all sorts of stuff. Since my ONLY 2011 resolution is to organize my office and my garage, I knew I had to start with the shoe conundrum.

And sticking to my track record, I didn't get any pictures of the "before" which is really too bad since the transformation is SO great! Just imagine (if you live in my neighborhood you've probably seen the mess) coats stuffed in one side of this too small piece of furniture that was supposed to corral shoes and give you a place to sit whilst putting them on your feet. Oh...and lots of other crap piled on top and on the bench.

After 4 hours of sweeping, going through a lot of stuff, throwing out a lot of stuff, and then putting together two pieces of IKEA furniture...the problem is fixed! I'm so happy! Now everyone has a bench to sit on and everybody has their own big, blue, bin to stash their stinky shoes (there is a slight odor as you walk by...I am not sure exactly who's blue bucket is the culprit...I'm not going to investigate further.)

I put a shoe rack for wet boots.

Smaller bins for hats, scarves, and gloves...and bicycle locks, and pump.

I love my label maker.

A good place to stash my decorating bags. They are heavy! Especially when I carry around my drill!
My bag was in the back of my car the other day and we had to pull over because we heard a strange whirring sound. It was my drill.

As I was cleaning I noticed one dusty little guy that is going to have to go. We hung this cute snowman on the wall when we first moved here. I am not kidding when I say he was the very first thing hung anywhere in our house. My wonderful friend, Christine, used to think of the cutest crafts for the kids to do when they played at her home. Max was only 2 when we left Connecticut and he wanted that snowman sitting next to him on the long move out to Utah. Those stick arms are from Christine's yard. It makes me smile to think of our beloved Connecticut and all those lovely trees.

You can't tell in the photo but those 7 year old cotton balls are covered in dust!
(And yes, I helped Max make this snowman. He was not a crafty savant at 2...just a normal, put-the-cotton-balls-in-your-mouth sorta kid.