Organizing with Antonius!

Heya Nesters!

I'm sure the post title made you think of some fabulous local TV show that provides tutorials on organizing in a Roman fashion.  {No? Just me? Anyone?.... Anyone? ...Bueller?}  But really I'm talking "IKEA language."

via

Last week Matt and I trekked South to IKEA when it was just too hot to go to the beach.  We thought, "Overly air conditioned home improvement shopping? Don't mind if I do!" While we were there we had a few main goals:

1) Mirror for the Master bedroom.
2) Peruse options for benches for the end of our bed.
3) Peruse options for shoe organizers
4) Organization systems for our bizarre closet in the hallway.



Bizarre Hallway closet.

While we did go home with the Songe Mirror for our bedroom. {Item #1- CHECK!}

We specked out 2 decisions for List Items number 2 and 3.

After we repaint the Master, we will get the white Hemnes TV unit as our bench for the end of our bed. I will probably make a cushion for the top as well. {Or perhaps just put a doggy bed on top....  If we ever get a 4-legged friend. *sigh*} We could have gone with the black/brown finish to match our bed and dressers but I wanted to bring a little more white into the room, to tie in the mismatched nightstands.

And we will also stick with the large white Hemnes Shoe Cabinet.  This will help Matt avoid breaking his ankle.  While I like to think I'm fairly maniacal about my tidiness- my weakness is leaving pairs of shoes around.  It isn't unusual for me to leave 4 to 5 pairs of shoes around the living room under furniture.  Out of sight out of mind harms way... right?  Well this should be a great resolution for me.  Instead of leaving shoes around willy-nilly, I'll just pop them into the shoe cabinet! BAM!  Hazard removed!

 

Now, as I mentioned, I'm pretty tidy.  I like things organized and put away.  I live by the motto, "A place for everything and everything in it's place." Well that big ol' cavernous closet in the hallway we discussed?



Bizarre Hallway closet.

Yep, that one.  Looks nice and empty here. Before we moved in.  And then it took on a life of its own.  It was the Doesn't-fit-in-the-kitchen-cabinets-just-throw-it-in-the-hall-closet Closet. And because there are no shelves, the use of space was poor to say the least.  I will not be showing you a picture of the real "before" because it is too embarrassing. You would never speak to me again. {Ready from me again?} But I CAN show you Antonius, who saved us.



We grabbed 3 of the Antonius frames with 6 wire baskets. We wanted two small wire baskets on top and one large Drawer on the bottom of each frame. We didn't like the look of the "Drawer" that came with the set...

So instead we grabbed 3 Algot Large Wire Baskets.  Bad move, Muchachos.

You're a disappointment Algot. A disappointment.

After I got the first frame assembled, I realized that the Algot does not fit the Antonius. As you can see above, its about 2" too narrow to fit in the runners.  So, I just moved one of the Antonius baskets down to the bottom runner, allowing the height for taller items.

The set up all organized.  Like I said, not super pretty.  But a huge improvement over the previous situation!

After getting two assembled, I figured out that all three we bought will not fit in the center in order to pull the drawers out.  I suppose measuring before we left would have been smart. Are you noticing the list of product mounting that we will need to return? I pulled everything out of the closet and separated them into piles:  pantry items, spare toiletries, décor, home improvement, spare cleaning products and Ziploc bags.  That's right- we keep getting more boxes from Matt's Mom {who has a backlog as well} because they would get lost in the black abyss that was this closet, and we always thought we were out!  Now we have an entire drawer worth. Anyone need any freezer bags? Anyone?

You're only seeing the top layer!

The left is stacked TP and paper towels, as well as any waters or dog food. {Left from the incident}

And the right has hanging third shift bedsheets and vases and glassware that are fragile and/or too large for the drawers. 

Voila! It's not as pretty as I had originally imagined in my head. But hey, its better than it was before. I can assure you of that!

Ok I want to hear from you, Nesters! Does anyone else have a strange little nook like this that you've attempted to organize? Or better yet, have you ever had such a big return list like our failures on this post?  IKEA once is a trek... IKEA twice is a pain in the neck! 

xoxo

Gina