Clutter.

That's definitely one of the dirtiest words in our house. Pun intended. For those of you who know me, you know I pride myself in being organized. Nothing gets me as excited as new opportunities to clean out, weed out, and organize because I believe that everything should have it's own place. Now don't get me wrong, since having Harper, I've changed...slightly. Things aren't always in order here in the Holt household, but you can find them semi-straight and semi-where-they-should-be. When things are neat and orderly, my soul is at rest. But here lately, our house has not been free of it's clutter and chaos. Along with the mess, it's brought about one stressed out mama and wife. So it should come as no surprise that my personal goal for this summer is to rid our home of all the excess.

Since moving into our home, there are a few areas that tend to remain cluttered. Our garage being the number one. We still have boxes sitting in our garage that have remained untouched since moving in nearly five years ago. Last year we had shelves added to our outdoor closet so that all of those boxes could be sorted and weeded through and then organized on those shelves. Yet, those shelves still sit empty and those boxes are still lining the walls of our garage. Among our garage, our closets and drawers are overflowing with clothes and shoes that neither Kevin nor I ever wear anymore. And don't even get me started on our guest room closet and hallway closet. Both are filled to the brim with leftover wedding decorations, wedding and baby gifts we received duplicates of and couldn't return , gifts we've been given that we didn't need or necessarily like, things we've been holding onto just because, etc. But this summer, all of that is going to change!

I'm determined to tackle the clutter in our home and get organized so that I can fully appreciate, enjoy, and relax in our home. So here's my game plan:
Step 1: To Keep or Donate?  My biggest downfall when trying to tackle the clutter in our home is that as I clean out, I want to start organizing right away. But then I run into a problem. I slowly start to accumulate piles of stuff here and there that I've set out to go in this space or that space. Eventually I get so many piles I tire of seeing them so I just shove them in a closed space and forget about them. But not this time. This time I plan to tackle each individual space in our house before ever organizing. My goal is to go through each space and ask myself, Do I love it? Does it hold personal value? Would I buy it right now? Does it have a purpose? If the answers are no, then it'll be heading to Goodwill. If the answer is yes, it'll stay in it's place until step 2. Side note: I see several trips to Goodwill over the next couple of weeks! 
Step 2: Designate  After getting rid of all the things we no longer want or need, I'll decide where I want everything to go. Fortunately for us, we have tons of storage space in our home. Lots of cabinets, several walk in closets, etc. So upon seeing what's left, I plan to designate certain drawers, cabinets, and closets for specific things. For example, in our laundry room, I already know I'll designate one cabinet for cleaning supplies, one for toilet paper and paper towels, etc. Our hallway's closet will be used for home decor items. And Harper's playroom closet will be used to store more toys. 
Step 3: Relocate After designating where I want things to go, I'll round up the items throughout the house and put them in the space I intend for them to go. For example, we have cleaning supplies in our upstairs bathroom, under our kitchen sink, and in two cabinets in the laundry room. In an effort to keep them in their designated space, I'll be collecting them all and going on and putting them in the cabinet I want them to be held in the laundry room. 
Step 4: Evaluate + Purchase Once I have everything where it needs to go, I'll evaluate each space and see if I need to purchase items to keep them organized. For example, will I need containers, jars, more shelving, etc to keep it better organized and easy to maintain? If the answer is yes, then I'll be heading to Lowes, Ikea, Target, etc to gather up the supplies I'll be needing. 
Step 5: Organize Now comes the fun part! Once I have everything where I want it and have all the necessary supplies, I'll be getting to work and organizing a space I can live with! 
Fingers crossed this project can be tackled within the next month! And of course, as always, if you have any suggestions that may help, I am all ears!

{Porch Makeover} The Reveal

Happy Wednesday, girls! Today I want to share our patio reveal with you ladies. If you didn't catch the before pictures and the plans for this space, you can view them both here. Decorating this space has been a dream. It's a project I've been wanting to accomplish since moving into our home nearly five years ago. But as with most dreams, needs tend to overshadow wants and it was a project placed on the back burner until now. But it makes me appreciate this little space that much more. So without further ado, here's our new and improved outdoor oasis.

And just because it's even prettier at night...

There are still a few loose ends we have to tie up in this space. The fire table we picked out to go in front of our couch is still out of stock. If it isn't restocked by fall, we've chosen another option from Lowes that we'll purchase. We're going to change out that little brass lantern with a larger lantern from Lowes. I'm just waiting on my electrician (my brother) to find a free moment to make the swap. And I'm still searching for a few throw blankets for that bottom shelf of our accent table that we can keep outdoors throughout the year for those chilly nights. Like all projects, it's a work in progress but I'm loving the result so far!
..............................................................................

Porch Source List Couch, Club Chairs, Accent Table: Target (found here, here, and here) Pillows: Target (found here, here, and here) Rug: Target (found here) String Lights: Target (found here; green string sold out) Tiki Torches: Lowes (similar here) Galvanized Metal Clock: Target (found here) Metal H: Hobby Lobby (found here) Metal & Rope Lantern: At Home Store (similar here) Glass & Rope Lantern: Christmas Tree Shop (similar here) Mercury H candle holder: At Home Store (similar here) Patio table, chairs, umbrella: Walmart (similar here) Milk jug: Recycled from my parents' house years ago Plants: Lowes

{Home Tour} Dining Room

As promised, I'm here today with a reveal of our dining room. At the beginning of the year, Kevin and I decided that this would be the year for renovations and redecorating our home. At the top of our list was redecorating our living room and master bedroom as these are the two most commonly used spaces in our home. While purchasing items for both of these spaces, I came across these beautiful tufted chairs at Target on super sale and couldn't pass them up. So along with those spaces, our dining room got a little makeover as well. Check it out!

Here's the overall picture...

And for the details...

What do you think?!

...............................................................................................................

Get the Look

Dining Table & Bench: World Market

Hutch: It's an antique piece handed down by some family friends

Dining Chairs: Target
Mirror: Purchased from a local antique shop

Planter Box: DIY Project

Hydrangeas: Hobby Lobby

Table Runner: Hobby Lobby

Dishes & Silverware: These were borrowed from my Mom

Chargers: Pier 1

Wall Monogram: ETSY

{Master Bedroom}: Design Board

After coming up with a list of must haves for our master bedroom and searching Pinterest for inspiration, here's the design board I managed to come up with for our space. Since making this design board, we've made a few purchases and have began to paint and redecorate the room. Here's to hoping by next week I can do the full room reveal! Fingers crossed friends...

Four Years Ago + A Garage Update

Four years ago Kevin and I signed a million and one papers and closed on the place we'd call home. It's amazing how fast four years has flown by. Check out this picture taken at the attorney's office? Don't we look like a bunch of little teeny boppers? Hard to believe I was just 21 and the hubs (fiance at the time) was just a mere 26.

My hope was to share an updated tour of our home today since the one I shared last year (found here) looks quite a bit different. Over the last year we've done quite a lot of home projects. We've ripped up carpet and installed hardwood floors, taken down wallpaper and painted, added crown molding to new places, gotten new furniture, redecorated a few rooms and various other little projects here and there. We're currently fixing to update our master bedroom and convert Kevin's "man cave" to Harper's playroom. Once those projects are complete I'll give you guys a sneak peek into the current state of our home.

But before I do go I would like to share a project we just completed recently that was sooo unbelievably cheap and super easy. For years I've admired carriage style garage doors and hoped that one day our home could have one too. Unfortunately replacing a perfectly good garage door with another visually appealing one just wasn't in our budget. But in came Pinterest to save the day.

A few weeks ago I just happened to be on Pinterest and one of the very first pins on the page happened to be an easy garage door update with a garage door before picture that looked like mine and an after shot that looked just like what I had envisioned. Intrigued, I clicked on the link and read this article. When I found out I could create the same look for less than $20 I was hooked! A few days later I made a quick trip to Home Depot and picked up this set of black traditional crown bolt hardware for our garage door for less than $19!

My dad was super sweet and swung by to drill these bad boys in for me. It only took him about 30 minutes. The back of the box offers several different options for looks as well as installation directions for each so it made it a relatively easy process to install.  We went with option 1 for a more traditional look and I couldn't be happier with the outcome. 

Before: 

We took off the window panels last year as you can tell from the next picture! 

After:

Dining Room Redo

I am so happy to finally be able to share my dining room updates with you ladies! The room has been finished for almost a month now but I was hoping to have new wall decor before I shared it with y'all. My parents recently purchased us an antique mirror that is absolutely gorgeous and I was hoping it would be hung before I did this post. However, we haven't gotten around to it yet. It's super heavy and the wire needs to be redone on the back of the frame in order for our wall to hold it. So as soon as it's up, I'll do a dining room update post. Until then, here's how our dining room currently looks. To say I'm in love is an understatement!

To begin with, let me just show you what our dining room looked like before!

& here's our dining room now!!

Below are the changes we made!

{New table, light fixture, decor, & shadowboxes & paint}

What do you think ladies?!

Our Home

Kevin and I purchased our first home in the summer of 2010. Over the past couple of years, we've done a few home projects here and there. Some I've blogged about and some I haven't. However, I have promised multiple times to do a home tour and quite frankly, I've just never gotten around to it. So I decided that today would be the day. Today, I'd like to welcome you to Casa de Holt (:

Now please keep in mind that though we've lived here for over 2 years, our house is by no means complete and is a constant work in progress. If I was honest, I'd admit that that's why I've never shared this tour before. I'm such a perfectionist that I wanted our house to be completely done before I shared it but at this point, I can see that's going to be a while. And let's be real, it will probably never be "finished" with my constant desire to redecorate. haha

Without further adieu, welcome to our humble abode!

FOYER

LIVING ROOM

DINING ROOM

(This was how it was decorated at Christmas! Typically the bench sits in the window but we had to have somewhere to put the trees. I'll try to get a more recent photo soon but I'm currently in the process of redecorating the dining room for the spring/summer)

KITCHEN

PANTRY/ LAUNDRY ROOM

 

HALF BATH

MASTER BEDROOM

MASTER BATHROOM

(It's a work in progress!)

GUEST BEDROOM 

(We're in the process of redecorating it right now so ignore it's plainness!)

GUEST BATHROOM

NURSERY 

(COMING SOON!)

BONUS ROOM

UPSTAIRS HALLWAY

PATIO