Inspirational Organization

I am a compulsive planner. Every house we have ever owned (which is only three), I had every room's decor planned far in advance. I blame it on too much HGTV when I was in elementary school. In our last house, I made foam idea boards for every room and clipped paint swatches, fabric samples, magazine pictures, and digital photos of things that inspired me. I was most certainly a little over the top with the new house we just built this summer- I planned every room down to using graphing paper and scale to shrink all of my furniture so that during the move I would know exactly where to put things. It made moving week much smoother, and the guys were thankful to move something right in and set it up. Everyone knew to follow the chart and read the labels. For two years, David and I drove through new construction and took photos of our favorite counter tops, fireplace mantles, bathroom cabinets, tile, and brick. Our architect was impressed when we lugged that album in and knew exactly what we wanted. Our first meeting lasted only an hour tops, and he was able to draw the first version of our house plan. I am always looking for better ways to organize, as I know you probably are too.

One of my favorite hobbies is to google decorating ideas. I currently keep an online album of pictures that I refer to for ideas. It may be a picture of a gorgeous throw pillow, or a kitchen island with a great butcher block top. I even save pictures from blogs that I fall in love with. Some of your pictures now have a permanent place in my hard drive! : ) Baby showers are always fun pictures that I love to save and keep a record of. It is a nice place to keep ideas for a rainy day when you have to put something together and you are looking for a little extra "umph". The biggest folder I have is of baby's rooms. I love nurseries, especially those that are really trendy and unique. Here are a few rooms that I have saved in the last week. I love them for different reasons. None of these are from blogs, or I would most certainly direct you their way. But, they are real nurseries in someones home right now. They are not show rooms, which is what impresses me. I hope you are as inspired as I am! : )