Thess Socety Blog

Last year I reworked my laundry room for what I thought was the last time... then Izzy came along and suddenly I needed to make some changes. Izzy will NOT LEAVE THE LITTER BOX ALONE! I also needed to finish painting the laundry since I had done the job in dribs and drabs as I renovated it so moving things around to better suit the dog situation wasn't an issue.  Time to get this laundry done once and for all (yeah, yeah I know, it will never be finished for good). She's just pretending to be good here. Read more »

With my small house I'm always looking to incorporate more storage and to organize things better.  My tiny front entry has no closet and neither does my mudroom.  Here are some of the ways I organized those spaces and maximized the storage potential.  1. Closet Organizer Did you know that a closet organizer can double or triple the storage space of a closet?  And you don't even need a closet to install one!  Finding the right configuration is the key to success.  The best closet organizers are easy to assemble and switch around as your needs or the seasons change.   You can double your hanging space and incorporate shelves or drawers for things that can’t be hung up.  The organizer shown below is a Martha Stewart organizer.     Read more »

I recently scored several louvered bi-fold doors at a flea market. I love the way they look like shutters (and I adore shutters!!!) I decided to take one set apart and add them to my laundry storage cupboard to hide all the junk  supplies. These doors were unpainted, unvarnished and unstained when I picked them up.  I had painted a single coat of white paint on them to brighten them up.  I used one set to hide the stacked washer and dryer.  I stuck a pipe insulator (pipe wrap) onto the back of them to keep them from banging when the laundry was running (makes it MUCH QUIETER).  I hung one of my paintings on them with an S hook to dress them up a bit. My two Ikea kitchen trolleys got moved here when I renovated the kitchen last year.  Put together, they make a nice little work station and storage space.  The smaller set of bifolds were dismantled. Read more »

My broom closet is stolen space. There was no broom closet in this house. No broom closet, no linen closet, no entry closet, no mudroom closet - not much storage space to speak of at all! My house is a 1930s build with a 2009 addition that houses 3 bedrooms and a bathroom.  The old part of the house was basically a 1 bedroom apartment in size.  The original bedroom is now my formal dining room and the original bedroom closet has become my broom closet / storage closet. When I moved in, that closet reeked of old.  You know that smell?  That awful, no-oxygen-smells-like-death odor that you sometimes find in really old furniture and old houses.  That's how it smelled.  Ewww.  Not putting MY clothes in there!  It looked like this after I ripped the clothes rod out. Read more »

Kitty litter boxes are not one of my favourite things. My home is a single level bungalow with a trap door to the mechanical room in my crawlspace. My only option is to have the litter box located somewhere on the main floor. Ever since I remodeled my mudroom and laundry room, the litter box has been tucked away behind my washer and dryer. You can't see it from the entrance to the room, but you can from every other angle. UGH. I've been searching for a cheap and easy solution for a while but only this past week did I come up with something that works beautifully! Read more »

I love shelves!  In my small kitchen, I don't have enough cupboards so I use whatever I can find to add extra storage.  I've built a tiny pantry cabinet, added a sideboard for extra counterspace and storage and now I've found a free hutch top that I hung on the wall.  I LOVE it!!! Check out my latest project and the tutorial! Read more »