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This Grover Beach Client has a small room between the garage and kitchen which is intended to be a game room but often serves as the laundry drying area and the dumping zone as well. This was a quick declutter that involved moving some furniture out and rehoming items that didn’t belong. The result: an open space that can still be used to house the drying rack without feeling overly cluttered. One thing that I advocate is getting rid of furniture that you don’t truly need. By reducing the surfaces on which you have to put things, you reduce the risk for clutter building up and you also save yourself time dusting! 

This Grover Beach client had me in to help organize her kids’ playroom and game/laundry room. Those projects resulted in a furniture shuffle (as they sometimes do!). We moved several items around and I ended up doing a mini-makeover in the entry with a piece of furniture that wasn’t being used in the two other rooms. I absolutely love moving furniture around in a home to give the space a fresh look without spending any money on buying new pieces. The client was very pleased with the new, streamlined look of the entryway. Shoes are contained and easy for the kids to find and put away. There is also enough space on the seat to sit, even if there is a purse or diaper bag sitting on it. 

This Grover Beach Client was my first Kid-Client. I loved working with the almost-5-year-old big sister. She wanted to transform her long, narrow play closet into a space for play for both herself and her little brother (baby sister isn’t quite playing yet!). It was already a pretty fun spot but being a slightly odd shape, it was too cluttered to allow a lot of creativity. The Kid-Client’s willingness to let things go to create space for the things she loves most was impressive! We left the larger play stations in the closet, separating the space into three sections as if it was a house. All the smaller items were rehoused to just outside the two closet doors. Using a cubed shelving unit from another room, we designated a different spot for each type of toy. This system is child-friendly. Things are easily found, used, and returned. Because the toys are in obvious groups (dolls, doll clothes, trucks, etc) kids can keep it tidy even though they can’t read yet. I am actually not a huge fan of labelling things. I find it becomes a hindrance when you want to repurpose containers-often the label doesn’t get changed or even removed which just adds to more overwhelm when you are looking for an item. Also, having to take a quick peak into a container is a good way to keep in mind what items you have stored away. This helps you locate them when you need them and helps prevent buying something you already have down the road. 

This Arroyo Grande Client was very motivated to finally tackle her laundry/office/utility room. It had been the neglected dumping ground since they had moved in to the house 5 years prior. When I came in she had already decluttered most of the space herself. In her words: She was totally capable of doing the whole thing herself, it just made it happen so much quicker to have my extra set of hands and organizing expertise! In just a few hours we were able to organize the space! 

A huge improvement was actually achieved by ADDING stuff to the room. The Client wanted to relocate her 3 kids’ arts and crafts from the dining room where it had become a nuisance! I love making kids’ work zones easy. Let them spend time creating rather than setting up and cleaning up. If kids can get what they need in one move and then similarly put it away in one move, they are more likely to clean up after themselves. What do I mean by “one move”? In this space, I put all the crayons loose in one drawer of the plastic storage unit. The kids can open the drawer to use the crayons and easily toss them back in when it’s time to put them away. On the contrary, I often see “over organized” kid spaces. Crayons are in the original box, in a larger art box, in a drawer, in a closet. Who wants to deal with that?! No wonder kids groan when they have to clean up! 

My goal is always to make a space functional and easily maintainable. Homes are for living, after all! 

This Grover Beach Client has a pantry and utility closet in the same hallway off the kitchen. The utility closet was being underutilized and the pantry was home to several non-food items. I installed two shelving units in the utility closet the Client had on hand that were not being used. All non-food items (towels, table cloths, humidifier, small travel accessories, etc) were either relocated to other areas in the house that made sense (for example the humidifier which is used primarily in bedrooms was moved to the upstairs bathroom to be more readily available when needed and the travel accessories were stashed in suitcases) or moved into the utility closet. This not only freed up more shelving space in the small pantry, but it created a system where not often used items are stored in a place that makes sense so time won’t be wasted searching for the items when they are needed. The final result is a functional utility closet whose small space is maximized. I love that the Client was able to use shelves she already had and nothing new was purchased for this transformation. 

This under-stair closet in Arroyo Grande was very memorable (I accidentally discharged some pepper spray thinking it was a laser pointer and trying to check the battery! But that is not what this is about!). This client has an awesome closet under a stair case that is between the kitchen/breakfast and dining/living room areas. It was being used to store some home office/garage type items like staplers, tape, spare lightbulbs, etc as well as the kids arts and crafts, project kits, sporting equipment, outdoor chalk and bubbles, and coats, hats, bags. I removed all the items from the space, organized them by type, and re-homed lots of things: some less-used sporting goods to the garage, toys to the kids’ rooms, and lots of unwanted items to the thrift store. I used the rolling carts for school supplies and arts and crafts so they can be rolled out to the table when they are being used. The items for the household I moved to the upper shelves and the lower shelves became the home for the kids’ art books and projects. Overall, the space’s purpose remained the same, albeit a far more functional version. 

Yes, a closet office in Arroyo Grande. I love a hidden little nook that can be turned into something special. This Arroyo Grande client had a closet that was jam-packed with everything from sewing supplies, photography gear, arts and crafts, gift wrapping, party/holiday supplies, shipping supplies, paperwork, home-office essentials, entrepreneurial items, and more. I nicknamed it “Mary Poppins’s Closet”! I kept removing items and it seemed endless. This little closet really had potential to be something cool and, more importantly, functional! The space had been designed to be used as a sewing closet and had a desk area and lots of small shelves. Such a cool little space! The client wanted to keep the multi-use nature but make it functional as a work space as well. After removing everything, sorting items by type, and decluttering, I was able to create a streamlined, albeit maximized, space. I put less-used items on the upper shelves, grab-and-go photography gear underneath, and all the bits and bobs for arts and crafts and home-office on the small, easy to access shelves. This project perfectly reflects how I like to make spaces work for my clients. How do you use the space? How do you WANT to use the space? We can think outside the box and get creative with storage solutions for your every day life. It doesn’t have to make sense to everyone. It just has to make sense to you!

This playroom redo in Arroyo Grande was a lot of work…and a big change! The space was overflowing with toys, arts and crafts, school supplies, video games, puzzles, dress-up clothes, LEGO, and more. I worked with the client to clear out all the unwanted items and then rearranged the room into sections that made sense. This is so important when it comes to maintaining the room! We were going to leave the top of the cabinet open but needed it to store all the empty storage containers we had left over (for future projects). Lesson 1: Don’t feel like you have to fill every space. Lesson 2: Never buy storage containers until you have decluttered. You may be surprised that you have too many already.

This chest was left untouched during the Garage|Gym project above. It contained tools, hardware, manuals, spare parts, and other items. The client wanted to clear out the area and reuse the chest inside the home. After decluttering duplicate tools and unneeded items, the remaining items were integrated into the already established tool storage area or into the home where like-items where already being stored. 

This craft room before and after in Grover Beach was so fun! The Client needed help decluttering and then organizing this craft room which needed to also function as a guest room. After downsizing a ton of unwanted crafting supplies and other items that had piled up over the years, the bookshelves were used to make a library space in the master bedroom and the remaining items were rearranged to create a more open and functional space. By minimizing the visual clutter (moving the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves), it was possible to achieve a peaceful space for guests that still functioned as a craft room. Additionally, the “Library” in the master bedroom adds interest to what were formerly blank walls.