Clean And Organized: Downstairs Visit

I got our command's monthly news letter last week and the ombudsman. The ombudsman, from my very limited understanding of Navy things, is the appointed spouse that conveys messages to the ship, has direct contact with the ship's command, and deals with issues relating to ship families while the ship is both in port and on deployment and generally is just a helpful authority for families. She wrote:

What I have learned is that everyone has their own way of coping with deployment. Personally, I ate junk food for two weeks. I also spent quite a bit of money on furniture. (Which seems to be a common deployment purchase. If anyone figures out why spouses seem to always redecorate the house, let me know.)

And I kinda laughed because that's exactly what I've done! (Minus the junk food part, I've actually been pretty good!) 

I've gone through everything in the downstairs part of the house which is basically all of Russ' and my things. We squeezed everything we had in our apartment into a large great room and a bedroom with a tiny closet. I don't really have anything upstairs besides some kitchen items. So essentially, I've went through everything we own since he left. 

It's been nice cleaning, organizing, and getting rid of things! The whole downstairs has managed to stay clean since Russ has been gone and I've arranged everything. That is not to say that Russ is at all messy. I, seriously, am the messy one. He keeps his mess contained to receipts and plastic bags he seemingly needs to hold onto- but that's it. 

Anyway, this was a long intro. Here's about what the room looked like just a few weeks ago:

The three shelves we bought at Big Lots about three years ago for $39 each. I still think they're really cute but the weight of our stuff was starting to bow the shelves. When we decided to have a yard sale, I thought it would be the perfect time to change them out for something more substantial. 

I searched Ikea, Amazon, Target, Walmart... for something that I liked that wasn't too expensive that would be a little more durable than our shelves we had now. I've always liked the Ikea Expedit, but for $199 it was difficult to pull the trigger on it. I've heard rumors that Ikea is phasing out the Expedit so I decided to jump before I'd regret it (and we hadn't bought anything for the tax return so...). 

But. I'm not gonna lie. Getting this home was a bitch. There's no other word to describe it. Me, Brayt and Mom barely fit with this monstrosity in my Jeep. I had four, 5' boxes crammed in there so tightly, Brayt's leg went numb from being wedged in the seat very uncomfortably. This beast is also very heavy. The box said to put this together with a buddy and since my buddy is out to sea, it was all me. I did it, obviously, but OMG I wanted to burn Ikea to the ground and dance on its ashes during assembly. 

Isn't that always the case with Ikea stuff though? At least... that's my experience with it anyway. 

And all the cardboard left over. :(

I got the boxes at the bottom for $6.99 for a two pack. I really love the extra storage they give me. There's extra video games, an entire box just for card games, Russ' spiral bound Navy books, and other things that needed storage. I absolutely love it. I think it really makes the room look more 'grown up'- just ignore the various stuffed animals, please.  

I got this cute basket at Ross for $11.99 and I love it so so much. Our Ross always has awesome baskets for really cheap. The next door over at HomeGoods this basket would have been almost $20. 

I used our other cube shelf, that had previously housed sewing machine crap and some of Russ' work clothes in fabric bins, to put our books on. 

Below is Russ' wardrobe and some random shelves that house some craft supplies and a lot of Russ' computer/tech stuff. 

I'm really planning on getting a dresser to up our clothing storage capabilities. I've been considering either of these Tarva unfinished dressers from Ikea and refinishing them in the same or similar style of our nightstands.

Source $149

Source $99

Sorry for the poorly-lit photos...

After buying the first basket, I decided the next day to go back to Ross and pick up its mate. It's slightly bigger and was priced at $13.99. I placed our board games in there mainly because I had to find someway to use it after I bought it (that's what you're NOT supposed to do, right?). I usually try to only buy something if I know its purpose immediately but I knew I'd regret it and most likely would get a lot of use out of it. Plus, it's cute and now they match. 

That concludes our little tour- WOW was this long-winded. Maybe I should put a disclaimer at the top that you should only look at the pictures because this. was. wordy.