Organization for Steam Cleaning accessories

As a HomeRight expert, I get to try all of the products that they carry. I love using the HomeRight Steam Machine to clean around my house and the shop, and I love the idea of organization for the steam cleaning accessories that come with it, especially since I am feeling the itch to start some spring cleaning. I loved how the SteamMachine cleans not only my bathroom faucets, but also cleans my tile floors.

(This post contains affiliate links)

One product I was able to try out recently was the Homeright Steammachine Storage Organizer.

I have to admit. I’ve been keeping all of my parts in a box. I know it’s not the prettiest storage for my steam cleaning accessories, and I’ve been toting my cleaner and the parts to and from the shop. The box isn’t really the easiest thing to carry around.

The SteamMachine Storage Organizer was the perfect thing for all of my accessories. I was able to fit everything inside of the pouches, and it hangs on the back of a door too for easy storage. The only thing I don’t put in my storage bag is the cup to measure my water for my SteamMachine. I like to keep that next to the laundry tub, so that freed up a pouch for the funnel.

I also like that it has vented pouches, so if something gets put away and it’s not completely dry, it can still dry out and not get completely gross.

It’s also nice that it can hang on the back of a door for easy and out of the way storage. We have limited space in our home, so every square inch counts, and anything that can tuck away is  a bonus. It’s perfect for all of my SteamMachine accessories! I was actually thinking about getting one for my vacuum attachments as well!

Love to organize? Check out how I organized my art supplies,

and make a fun DIY jewelry holder. And, if you’re tripping over shoes when you come in the door, here’s a way to organize a small front entry.

This post is sponsored by HomeRight. I was compensated for this post, but opinions are entirely my own.

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Finally! A beautiful nightstand makeover.

Hey there!! I'm SO excited about this project my friends! It's been so very long since I've been able to focus on a DIY anything since my back injury. And this one has been such a long time coming -- I finally finished this up with the help of Minwax. I work with throughout the year and their stain made this project shine!

We've had these nightstands for years! Goodness. I mean...this is one of my biggest procrastinations ever. :) Here's a reminder of the Tarva dressers (from IKEA) I started with:

These are small dressers but were the perfect size for a nightstand as well. I really wanted something with storage. 👍 When I put them together years ago I cut down the legs with my saw. It makes them the perfect height for by the bed and I just prefer the shorter look.

I went back and forth on a look for these forEVER. Here's a reminder of how they looked in our old master: 

I replaced the wood knobs with random IKEA ones we already had -- not sure why cause it didn't do a whole lot to help it out. ;) 

I always knew I'd use stain somehow and add some trim. The exact details I wasn't sure of. But when we moved into this house it all fell into place. My inspiration is a project for our master I haven't even started yet -- I'll share with you (hopefully) soon!

I wanted to use a deep blue color and a dark stain. I went back and forth on whether I should stain the front of the drawers or stain the trim and top. I decided on the latter mostly because the pine these are made of isn't necessarily the best. Lots of knots I didn't want to accentuate. 

So I started painting with no primer. I'm a total rebel! I knew I was going to have to do multiple coats no matter what. After the first coat it's important to do a light sanding to knock down the texture that pops up with paint:

You'll have to do that with primer as well. No need to go crazy with it -- just a light going over is fine. Wipe it down with a rag or tack cloth before moving on to your next coat! (This pretty blue is called Gale Force.)

What a difference another coat makes! The grain becomes less and less noticeable:

I started on the stain while I waited on the paint to dry. I wanted to go darker this time and went for an old favorite, Jacobean by Minwax:

It's just a yummy color! I used it on our hardwoods in the old house and it's a beautiful dark brown without any red tones. 

I use gloves and a rag to stain. Makes it super easy to apply and I find it quicker than using a brush:  

It really gets the stain into the wood too -- you're really rubbing it in. 

I only do one coat of stain but if you want to deepen the color you can do one or two more. Do be sure to wait till it's dry in between coats or you'll have a gummy mess. 

Make sure your stain is dry before starting the protective coat as well. I used their fast-drying semi-gloss polyurethane because I have absolutely zero patience. 😂 Never shake your poly -- it will create bubbles and bubbles are the enemy of a beautiful, smooth finish. Always stir:

Staining is my favorite because it's immediate gratification, but poly is a close second because it really brings out the beauty of the wood:

You want to smooth out that finish as much as possible. It's helpful to use your light source and look at the item from the side to see what needs touching up. I find a few lighter coats work much better than one heavy-handed coat. 

It already looked SO good! But I knew the final addition would make it even better. I used this inexpensive lattice wood trim I've shown you a million times to trim out each drawer front. I stained the pieces first and then cut them down to the correct size:

A nail gun makes for quick work (I used very short nails -- make sure they won't go through the back!) but you could absolutely use glue too!

You're going to have a rough edge if you trim them out like I did. I could have mitered the edges but I'm still using my handheld saw and miter box. (You can (affiliate) get your own here!) I knew the mitered cuts would take little more finesse. Turns out our saw was lost in the move and I need to get that figured out with the movers. 

I preferred to have my rough edges facing to the side of the drawers, so I did a long piece along the top and bottom. A bit of stain covered them right up!:

And then when dry, it was time to poly these as well. See how using the light helps?:

I'm absolutely THRILLED with how this came together! Gah! I love it!

The top of the dressers stained up much prettier than I thought it would!:

I'm impressed because we've been using these for years without any protection. I tried to stay on top of any spills and avoided leaving drinks on them, but still, I was surprised. 

I used pine trim to match the top. Different woods will stain up differently and even the same will have small differences. Pine is definitely a more rustic look, so plan accordingly: 

I got the hardware half off at Hobby Lobby weeks ago and just LOVE them on here! My whole plan for this space is kind of a rustic elegance design and the nightstands fit that perfectly:

The blue looks navy sometimes, sometimes a blue green. I like them both. :) 

I don't know if it's just because I've been looking at the pine dressers for so long or what, but I'm smitten. They're just so pretty and...finished. ;) 

I still have to finish up my husband's side though -- so close to having these done after years! Sometimes it's a good thing that I procrastinate. I didn't have a great vision of what I wanted until we moved into this house.

I had the lamps -- I thought I had returned them and went to the basement looking for something else and there they were! I must have known they'd work perfectly!:

Of course, like usual, one finished project starts a series of changes. I plan to change out the bedskirt eventually. It looked great with our old wall color but I don't like it in here with the drapes and dresser color: 

But that I can deal with! 

That photo above makes the dresser look really navy, but this one is the more true color. I am obsessed with it! It's such a pretty blue: 

Because you know I have to do it...here's the before of this dresser:

And this is the after, with some paint, stain and beautiful hardware!:

YAY!! I'm not going to celebrate too much till I finish the other one -- but YAY. ;) 

If you have any questions about this project let me know! It feels so very good to get things done again after nearly six weeks!!

This post is sponsored by Minwax. I only work with and share brands I know and love!

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Weekend at Dallas Market 2018

Autumn and I took off for a weekend to The Dallas Market 2018 to shop for the store , and find new vendors and products. It was my first market out of town, and a great learning experience. While the Chicago Market is a lot of walking, we weren’t quite prepared for how much more the Dallas Market was. When we walked in the building, we were slightly overwhelmed by how many floors there were, plus multiple buildings. Everyone is telling me that the Atlanta market  is even bigger. I can’t even imagine.

We tried to map out somewhat of a strategy, by hitting the Temporary Exhibits since we arrived on the last day. The Temps are a great place to get handmade items, and learn about and connect with smaller vendors. We found a lot of great items there, and beautiful handmade jewelry and lotions for the store, plus beautiful vintage  and one of a kind items. We learned the hard way we should have packed an extra suitcase.

 The next two days, we hit the larger vendors to place our Christmas orders, and buy things we could get multiples of. The nice thing about shopping those vendors is most of them have snacks and wine, which is super important for every shopping experience. It’s makes things go so much easier. At one of the showrooms, they had eclairs and pour over coffee. I was sold.

At night, we pretty much collapsed into our beds after dinner. We were totally wiped. The first day alone we walked three miles in four hours. The Dallas Market 2018 could really make a lot of money offering foot massages. I would have totally paid for one, or two. Or four.

Even though it was a lot of walking, it was really great to be able to see all of the new trends for the upcoming year, and see and touch the product we are going to be buying up-close. We did eat at a couple of amazing restaurants, one was called Public School. We need one of those in our town!

Honestly though, I don’t know how people do multiple shows in a row. Those vendors and reps are real rock stars. We were exhausted when we got back. I can’t imagine  going right from Atlanta, to Dallas to Vegas. We got back late Tuesday night, and have spent the rest of the week just catching up! We’ve finally recovered, but I still might treat myself to a massage here.

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DIY projects I'm repeating (and a few I'm NOT)

Hello there! I'm starting to feel more like myself, finally! After months of back pain and then some intense disc and nerve issues, I'm definitely on the mend and not living with pain everyday for the first time since September. I'm SO thrilled.

I'm trying to ease into projects slowly. I'm still doing things like hanging curtains to get us just at ground zero as far as basic stuff I want to have done before I tackle projects. But I'm about there and getting really excited about using my tools again!

I've been thinking a lot about what projects I want to repeat from our old house in this one. I've mentioned a few times that I want a simpler look and feel in this one, and I've purposely held off on doing anything up till now. (The back stuff kind of helped that along). I've already incorporated a couple things into this house -- one being a huge DIY blackboard in the mud room:

And the open shelves in the kitchen of course!:

If you missed the kitchen tour earlier this week check it out here!

One project that will definitely show up in this house is adding wall treatments with molding -- of course! You know me, it WILL happen. I'm still a fan of board and batten and it will look fantastic in this house:

I also know I'll add some planked walls (or shiplap thanks to Joanna) somewhere -- just not sure where just yet:

I'll always love the crisp white look against the wall color. It makes me happy. (You can see how to add this look to your house here.)

I DO know where I'll add another stained wall like this one on our old basement landing:

This time it will be a little different but I'm so ready to get it started! Can't wait! 

I've already told you I'll be recreating our DIY built ins: 

I'm adding them to a wall in my office but this time I plan to go with color instead of white. I do plan to add them in our basement as well, but the design will be a lot different. 

When we were building I moved the light in our kitchen dining area over a bit just so I could add another window seat like this one day:

I had dreamed of a window seat for most of my adult life so I was thrilled when we added it in the kitchen! The new one will be much longer and the added storage never sucks. ;) 

Speaking of storage -- one project I'm already piecing together in my mind is some kind of closed storage in our closets. I loved that all of our clothes were in our master closet before and that they were tucked away behind doors:

This is one thing that will take some time to figure out. I want to make sure we use the space well. It will involve taking down the current wire shelving and cutting it down so it will be a big project. 

Those are the biggies that I know we'll repeat here -- but there are a couple you probably won't see as much of (or none). Now I never say never, so don't yell at me if I change my mind one day. 😁 

One is a specific wall treatment:

Goodness, I LOVE beadboard. I look a this photo and just adore it. But it doesn't seem like it would fit in this house quite as well. And man oh man, it is such a pain to paint. Easy to install -- a pain to paint! 

I know I said I plan to add built ins in this house, but on the flip side, I won't be adding as much. At least that's the plan now. They served us beautifully in the old house because they just felt meant to be where I added them. 

But in our son's room it really limited the placement of his bed and furniture. We're going for a similar look but without the permanent-ness in his new room. (Hope to work on that next month.) And we just don't need the storage like we did for his toys in the basement: 

We will have some in the basement but it won't span the whole wall. And overall, this house is more open so there's not as many spots that built ins would fit well. 

One more that may surprise you! I don't plan to add hardwoods all over the house like we did before. This is one I can see changing my mind on, but so far we're quite enjoying the comfy feel of carpet in some spaces. I think if anything we may add it to my office, but that would be it. 

Again, I may go back on every one of these! Who knows? But this is how I'm feeling at this point. We all know it's a woman's prerogative to change her mind. ;) 

Are there certain aspects of your house that you would definitely repeat in another? Some things you'd leave in the past? I'm sure I'll come up with more as time goes on. It's part of the fun of a new house!

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A tour of our (new) kitchen

Well hello! How was your weekend? It felt like spring around here so that was a bonus. I'm back today with another room reveal in the new house! 

If you've missed any of the room tours so far, here's a list:

• Powder room
• Mud room/laundry combo
• Foyer
• My office
• Morning room (saw a similar room called that the other day and fell in love with it!)
• Basement family room

I've shared bits and pieces of our kitchen but wanted to get a few projects finished up before I showed you the whole space. I laugh when friends ask what I'll do with all my time in a new house -- I have SO many projects in mind I can't even tell you. It's a blank canvas and I'm so excited! That being said, the kitchen is the most "done" by far -- I focused on it first.

I've wanted these pendant lights for years and when I discovered we had an allowance for our light fixtures in the house I knew I'd skimp on most of the others. I made it work! Most of the rooms have $20 lights I'll change out eventually (or no light at all for now) just so I could get these beauties:

I absolutely adore them! (I'll link to all items in the room at the bottom of the post!)

Overall I wanted a lighter feel in this house -- I went a little softer with the colors compared to our old kitchen. I went back and forth on whether or not we should do the two toned cabinets (gray on bottom) like I did in our last house but ultimately decided on classic white and a light gray island. 

I pulled in the gray island by doing a light gray grout on the backsplash:

Of course I had to add my IKEA bar over the stovetop again! I was terrified to drill into that tile! I mean, literally sweating. 😂 I figured out that I could drill into the grout instead (this doesn't hold a ton of weight) and it worked perfectly! Much easier to fix if I ever need to do so. 

I also added this one to the side of the island. I had one on the old island and liked that little detail:

As you can see -- this room has stainless, black and brass finishes and they work together well. Don't be afraid to do the same! 

I showed you how I stained and treated the kitchen island here. I knew any forever kitchen of mine would have to have butcher block -- I love the warmth it brings to the space! It's the one thing that EVERY single visitor comments on (even kids, ha!). We just love it:

We had a braided jute rug from the old kitchen but it was starting to wear out. AND it was too tall -- we couldn't open the trash compactor. So I was on the lookout for a new one for a couple months. I found this one on Rugs USA and loved it (I wanted some color!) but it was on backorder. Thankfully it came in a good week before they said it would:

Overall it's a blue/gray, but it has tons of color in it -- navy, pink, red, orange. Love it! 

You can see how I hung the shelves in this post. Those are another thing I knew I'd want in this kitchen and I love them!:

Overall we're thrilled with how this room functions. The best part of the kitchen is the pantry, which is still a total disaster. I left the light off in there on purpose. ;) 

That pantry has so much storage (will have even more when I get it organized), we keep most of our small appliances in there. I had them add an outlet and I have a plan to make that even more functional -- stay tuned! But I absolutely love that I'm able to keep the counters cleared off. 

I just finished decorating the upper cabinets this morning. When I built them in our last house I just had baskets up there to keep things simple. The decor may change over time but for now I'm calling this kitchen done:

I'm still considering adding wood hood over the vent hood but we'll decide that in time. I quite like the way this one looks (I didn't think I'd like it this much):

I hope you enjoyed the tour! A few years ago I completely transformed our old kitchen and was able to add everything I loved -- I pulled so many of those details into this one and we love how it's come together. 

I like this room even more at night, so sometime I'll take pics at dusk and share them with you. We have cabinet lighting (like I did in our old house) and it's so perfect in the evenings. I want to add dimmers to everything in here as well -- there is a LONG list of lights that will get them eventually. 

Here's a list of the projects and items in this room! (Affiliate links added for your convenience.) If I forgot anything let me know!: 

• How to hang open shelves in the kitchen
• How to stain and treat wood countertops
• Island stools, soap dispensers -- Target
• Towel rods with hooks -- IKEA
• Island pendants -- Wayfair (not our source but they seem to be identical)
• Two-tiered stand on counter -- World Market
• Large baking jars -- Walmart or Target
• Chroma Faded Medallion rug -- Rugs USA
• Swing arm sconce over shelves -- Wayfair

This content is property of Thrifty Decor Chick LLC. If you are reading this on any other site other than www.thriftydecorchick.com or one of her social media platforms, please contact her immediately (thriftydecorchick at gmail dot com). Any other use of this content is strictly forbidden.

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The best closet ever.

Well hello there! Ready for the weekend? We have some fun plans. The snow started melting today and should throughout the weekend so that's an extra bonus. We saw The Greatest Showman today and it was fantastic. We've heard so much about it and it exceeded my expectations. 

I mentioned earlier this week that I've been an organizing fool lately. It's been fun to figure out how our spaces work and what functions best. I purposefully waited to do this because I didn't want to put in all this work to find out later we didn't use the everything like I thought. Of course it will still change over time, but for now I'm thrilled with how it's coming together!

This closet was a doozy. It's my favorite in the house. (Do normal people have a favorite closet?)When I shared our mud room/laundry a couple months ago, I told you I was most excited about the closet we added in the room. A closet JUST for cleaning crap. Hello! 

But it quickly became our dumping ground, which I was OK with knowing I'd get to it eventually. Here's how it looked the night I started:

It held tons of stuff but wasn't functional at all. You can see one of the vacuums (I keep the other one in the basement where we have more carpet) lived outside the closet which isn't dreamy at all. 😂 There was obviously no room for it. We had quite a few things I wanted to fit in this closet:

• utility stuff like batteries and light bulbs
• cleaning rags, sponges and the like
• cleaning supplies
• vacuum, brooms, swiffers, etc. (we have a lot of these because I use one for different needs)
• ironing stuff -- boards, (we have large and small ones) and iron
• wrapping items like paper, bags, ribbon, etc.
• carpet cleaner machine

I quickly realized not all of this was going to fit, more on that in a minute. 

Here's another look at what we were dealing with:

Good times!!

As I do anytime I start an organizing project, I took every single thing out of the closet. First goal is to purge what we don't need anymore. 

This is where it got hard for me. I mention the Konmari method every time I organize something, because it changed my life for the better. I've gotten VERY good at letting go of things. Very good. But I discovered I have a weird thing with cleaning supplies. I couldn't let go of them!

And look how much we had!:

What in the world? Here's one thing I've learned since moving in this house -- from this point on like items will live together. At the last house I had a cabinet I built in our laundry room that held all of our extra cleaning supplies and paper items. 

When we moved I was appalled at how many cleaning supplies we had, because they were out of site, out of mind. Keeping them down in the basement in a cabinet I rarely opened didn't work. We bought more of stuff not knowing what we had. 

I used to use mainly one cleaning brand exclusively around the house -- I have concentrate I would mix up. I don't know why I got away from that and we ended up with so many bottles of stuff, but I know a big part of it was not having it all in one spot. 

I've learned people! No more. But I stood there literally frozen in front of it all, having a hard time letting it go. I kind of smacked myself out of it (figuratively) and went back to what I learned with the Konmari method -- do I LOVE the product and (my addition) does it work well? 

I was able to start going through items and first decided what I didn't even like. I had a lot of carpet cleaning stuff and I've only found a couple that really work well. The rest went away. I had three cans of a cleaner that were filled in various amounts. I kept the one that was the most full and donated the rest. If I never used it -- it was in the donate pile. I was able to whittle it down to a third and stuff we actually USE. Actually a third of that is just empty bottles I plan to use for the concentrate.

Another item I struggled to let go of (and it is so silly) were cleaning rags. We had WAY too many. They multiply in dark closets. And again it was hard for me to let go of them, which is just weird. I stood there thinking, "Why are you being weird about this? They're rags!" Again, I got myself in gear and sorted through them: 

Overall I didn't get rid of much other than rags and cleaning stuff. One thing I easily put in the donate pile was the bag of vacuum attachments that I've kept for eight years and never used one time. Gone!

It was more about figuring out the space than anything. I started on the side where I hung the ironing boards and iron:

The little board on the bottom is for shirt sleeves. It's awesome. The smaller one is a favorite and I use it more than the large board. It's from IKEA and is great for quick items. I also use it when I'm hemming drapes with fusable webbing. 

One of the biggies in here was the wrapping stuff. I really wanted it to live in this room because I'm usually running out the door with a gift and needing a bag or tissue paper. More often than not I'd stop and buy something. I thought about organizing it out in the open (we have a large wall over the folding table I could have used for this). But I really didn't want to have it out -- I want to keep the room clean and streamlined so I preferred it tucked away. I looked into all kinds of ways to do this (I was out of floor space) and then came across this pegboard and components at IKEA:

It fit perfectly on the wall and it holds a ton! I have gift bags of all sizes, tons of tissue, tags and banners, tape and then ribbon and pens and random stuff in the hanging bag. LOVE this thing!! It is great:

And it's completely out of the way. I wanted to keep my wrapping paper in here as well but was out wall and floor space. So I grabbed a couple of these plastic jobbies from IKEA as well (we use one in the pantry for plastic grocery bags) and hung them on the back of the door. Not gonna lie, it pained me to put holes in the door. But they are solid wood so I can (fairly) easily fill them if I ever decide to move these:

You can see how I built the big blackboard here! Those are only two bucks each, but if you don't have a store near you, they're available here too. 

There were a couple things I didn't end up putting in here and those were light bulbs and batteries. I put the extra metal shelf (also from IKEA -- bought them when we moved in for $13) in the garage by the door. So we can easily access them when needed. I was thinking of what we reach for most -- I grab cleaning supplies way more than light bulbs. 

Here's how it came together:

Everything has a place and I love it!! And I'm loving the double doors. It's so nice to be able to open them both up and have full view of the closet. We have them in a bedroom upstairs too and although they take up floor space, I really like them. 

Do you spy the outlet? I had one added so I can charge that little vacuum. It's great for little messes and quick cleaning in the kitchen. I just have to find the charger now. ;) 

Here's what this side was pared down to:

I use (affiliate) those Sterilite bins everywhere. (You can see them in the linen closet here.)

Not bad considering this is where I started (I had two shelves on that side before)!: 

It is such a lovely feeling to open a closet and find exactly what I want! AND it's even nicer to have a place for items we used to just throw in there. ;) 

These are my two biggest tips when purging and organizing -- even though it's a pain sometimes, taking everything to ONE location really does help. You see the multiples you have and it's easier to let things go. And think hard about what you love and use. It helps me focus! 

Have you been working on closets? Cabinets? Under the sink? Tis the season! 

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This content is property of Thrifty Decor Chick LLC. If you are reading this on any other site other than www.thriftydecorchick.com or one of her social media platforms, please contact her immediately (thriftydecorchick at gmail dot com). Any other use of this content is strictly forbidden.

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