For months I have been alluding to reorganizing my home office. Here is the first installment!

It’s taken me forever to get to a point where I feel comfortable to start showing the world my folly. AND I will only show you what I am finished with so you don’t get overwhelmed as I was.

I followed these steps to get it all done:

1. Assess the Situation

I took stock of what was really needed in the office and what I could store somewhere else (or better yet, toss!). I made special note of things that were elsewhere in the house (like books in the basement) that I wanted in the office – so I knew exactly what I had and what I wanted to accomplish. I had a picture in my mind of what I wanted the office to look like when I was done.

2. Make a Plan

I then planned out everything that needed to be done, by area and made a checklist. As I accomplished a task, I checked it off. I loved checking things off! The list included things I needed to buy, like storage boxes, and a larger bookcase. IKEA was a great resource – I shopped around and this was the best deal.

3. Make Time to Finish

This is my biggest weakness – getting something past the “almost” finished point to the “finished” point. While I still tweak and rearrange, I consider this part of the office DONE! I had to make time during my day and in the evening to concentrate on getting everything into organized and label the storage containers – but I love the results. I can find anything. AND I followed our recent article 3 easy ways to organize a book shelf by Mary Kate Frank, to try and make the bookcase look better. I’m still tweaking and having fun doing it!

What do you think? Let me know if you see how I can make it even better!

The before:

The After:

I had quite a task ahead of me when I moved into my new room a couple weeks ago. First, to give you a little background, I went from living in a 2 BR apartment with my own walk-in closet to a 4 BR house with a very tiny closet (see new tiny closet below).

I’m the type of person who likes to have practically ALL my clothes hung up. I don’t like to have my clothes folded and stuffed in drawers (except for pajamas and sweatshirts), because 1) my clothes tend to get wrinkled that way and 2) I like to be able to easily sift through my clothes when deciding what to wear. So I needed to put my thinking cap on and come up with a solution. My new room is pretty spacious so I had a couple options:

1. I could get an armoire,

3. I could install supports into one of the walls and hang a clothing rod from it

I decided against the armoire because it seemed like it would just take up space and still not hold enough clothes. Same with the free-standing clothing rack. Option #3 seemed like the best bet. So off to Home Depot I went!

I was lucky enough to have my handy sister help me out with this project. We got everything we needed and went to work. If you want to learn how to install a closet rod, click here.

Prior to getting this clothing rod up and working, my room was an absolute disaster.

Clothes everywhere, boxes everywhere…I was paralyzed because I felt I needed to get my clothes organized before I could do anything else. Once I was able to hang up my clothes, everything else started to fall into place. Check out the before and after pictures below!

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

I still have a ways to go (I’d like to decorate a little differently and drape off the open closet area), but it’s a start! What do you all think? Any other suggestions?

My desk at home has been a disaster ever since my second son, Lachlan, was born in August. Well, ok, maybe a little longer than that. My desk is my organizational Achilles heel (one of them anyway, my other one is the kitchen counter). I hate filing papers and I need things like my Synonym Finder and research papers close at hand when I work. So stuff piles up. I tend to ignore it and work around it at home because it’s not my ‘real’ office. But since I’m working from home while the peanut is little, it IS my real office. My husband’s favorite refrain whenever he looks over at my side of the home office is: “honey, when are we going to get Buttoned Up?” Very funny. Well, there’s no time like the present!

The following is a little video I took to show you how you can transform something that is truly a mess in a very short amount of time by simply focusing your efforts on the 2 or 3 things that are really going to have the biggest impact.

It is the day before the audience taping and the Buttoned Up crew arrives in front of the apartment of Jennifer ready to help her surprise her fiancé, Rocky, with a clean, clutter free house.

There are a bunch of us: me, Nancy, Ash, Fran, Lauren, Marissa, and Leah….the whole gang out in the West. It is a strange feeling entering someone’s home that you have just met and digging right in to get them organized. But that is just what we did. With a simple hello and handshakes, we were set off to review the closets and drop spot we were tasked with organizing.

We came equipped with about 10 bags of organizing items from linen bins, to our Mail.sorter to even plenty of garbage bags. We were ready to get going.

Lauren headed up the hall closet and in no time had it cleared out and began sorting things into piles. She put items not belonging in the closet in one pile so they could find another home and before long was setting up the organizing accessories and putting things back. A job well done and done in about an hour.

Nancy was in charge of going through and then folding the linens and towels. Except for struggling with how to fold a Snuggie (you know that backward bathrobe thing), she was unstoppable and did a great job.

Ash and her team headed to the other closet which did require a bit more work and patience. Perhaps the most challenging task here was convincing Jennifer to donate or toss items she just didn’t need any more. Not easy work but one they handled skillfully and with great patience.

Finally, I started on the junk pile in the kitchen with Nancy. We sorted and put together piles and along with setting the family up with things like a Mail.sorter and Life.doc, we had the area tidied up and looking great in less than two hours.

Before I know it, 3 hours have passed and we are saying goodbye and admiring our work. What fun to organize someone and see the immediate results. And it was a fun Buttoned Up team activity as well!

Have any questions about the makeover? Email us at info@getbuttonedup.com

Where to start? Any time I do TV, I feel as though I am having an out of body experience. There is a rush of nervousness and adrenaline. I keep repeating to myself about the key points I need to make in the limited time I have on camera. Getting ready for Wedlock and Deadlock was no different.

We arrived around 2 ½ hours before show time. It was me, Ashleigh, Lauren and Charly Rok, who drove onto the lot in Hollywood and made our way along the long hallway to one of the small green rooms (which are not green, by the way). We have with us our products (life.doc and mail.sorter) and are ready to get started.

But there is so much to do first. I make my way into makeup sitting next to 2 other ‘maybe brides to be’ for the show. My makeup is done and I must say I look pretty good. I wish this woman could come home with me and be around each morning. I then head over to hair and promptly announce how my hair is ‘awful to deal with. So thin! So sorry about that!’ They tease it up, roll it up in curlers and somehow make it look like I have 5 times as much hair as I really do. Love it!

We head back to the green room to wait some more. One of the grooms has taken ill so there is a short delay. No one is sure what the issue is but most people are guessing it is nerves.

They call us down. Here we go. I get mic’ed up and we are escorted into the front row and briefed about when Dr. Michelle will call on us and how it will all go. With that, the show starts. Lots of energy and clapping. When it is our turn, I talk to Dr. Michelle about how getting organized is so important in any successful partnership (and it is!). Before I know it, our great couple is married and we are backstage eating wedding cake with the family and getting in the photos.

I love days like today. I feel like the Buttoned Up team has really helped jump start a couple who needed our help and that just puts a smile on all of our faces! Have any questions about the taping or the show? Email us at info@getbuttonedup.com.