Category Archives: Organizing Tips

Our contemporary kitchen pantry

Our contemporary kitchen pantry is one of my favorite renovation projects so far. It has evolved let me tell you, but it is beautiful and functional for our family. 

Backstory: Our home was built in 1976, and the previous owner lived here for 28 years but failed to update anything but the floors. Yes, so you know there is work to be done.

Check out the space originally and then after we took out the wall

Anyways, last year in 2021 we tackled the pantry area of the kitchen. We lacked space and for re-sell purposes that would hurt us tremendously. In the long run, we decided to revamp it with the help of California Closets. We love our contemporary kitchen pantry so much, and it has turned out to be extremely functional for our family. Here are the ends and outs of our pantry:

  • Small fridge & Pantry = less home value – Originally the space had a small pantry with wired shelving and an old folding door. You couldn’t fit anything in there. If we try to sell right now, we potentially can discourage buyers due to the lack of space in the kitchen. 
  • We originally were just going to replace the fridge, but when it arrived it did not fit! We decided to move it to the other side of the kitchen and expand the pantry. 
  • Expand Expand when you can! – We knocked out the little wall and made one huge space to install the open pantry. It has made such a difference in being able to hold all our food and seeing what we have. 
  • Power cord hidden – That is a must have in a pantry always. My coffee machine to my tea kettle all work!
  • Add design to your pantry when you can – Simple peel & stick wallpaper was the trick for me. I wanted some excitement on the walls before the unit was installed. It now looks like a stunning contemporary kitchen pantry.
After the wallpaper was installed. Details of wallpaper at the end of this post
  • Used simple white bins from the container store at different sizes to “contain” everything in the pantry. 
  • Used “The Home Edit” labels –  but to make them stand out more, I bought a simple white label and drew with black marker then finally placed the Home Edit label. Check out my reel with this process
  • Cereal dispenser – They are great! If you can afford them, get them. Better way to hold a lot with less space. No more baulky cereal boxes. 
  • Separate your pantry by categories that work for you – We split our bins into the following categories:
    1. Cooking – all cooking recipes and canned food used to cook
    2. Snacks – we love our snacks, sorry!
    3. Spreads – We use a lot of peanut butter, almond butter and more
    4. Grains
    5. Condiments
    6. Coffee
    7. Pasta
    8. Sweetner
    9. Juices
    10. Cookies

Shop dupes and everything I used below!

XO,

Jessi Morgan

Vinyl Records Display

Let me show you how to create a great vinyl records display. If you are a music lover and collect vinyls or even movie posters or art, using the IKEA picture shelves is golden. I recently inherited over 100 vinyls from my grandparents.

Before and After

A couple of weeks ago my mom was at my grandfather’s house and discovered vinyl records in their attic! My grandfather at first was going to toss them. But thank goodness my mom decided to hold onto them and give them to me and my husband to inventory. 

I was blow away! I discovered some classic records that potentially are the original recordings. My grandparents had Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall album, it still had the price of $5.99 and stamped with the famous “Tower Records” label! I found Richard Pryor to Marvin Gaye in here as well. 

Now that we have these treasures we need to have a vinyl records display. I have never been a fan of stacking records on their side, I find it not flattering. I feel that the album covers need to be exposed head on. 

Here is what we did to make our wall of vinyls extremely appealing:

These are the perfect ledges for vinyl records
  1. IKEA picture ledges – these are beautiful & simple and can hold a vinyl without it slipping off the wall. 
  2. Keep it white – I decided to purchase white picture ledges in order for our dining room space to remain clean and balanced. We already have wood shelving on the walls and black display cases. In order to not make the room heavy we decided to keep the new ledges white.
  3. Color coordinated – to keep the wall from looking busy I wanted to group similar vinyl covers together by color. This is a great way to keep the feel of the wall clean as well. 
  4. 45 inch ledges – I wanted to keep simple long lines on the walls so I went with their longest picture ledge they had so there was minimal break between them.

Check out the finished product. I am beyond excited for this display and it will be an awesome conversational piece when we have guests. 

Shop some of my dupes for picture ledges below and other vinyls I am loving right now! 

Key Vinyls we found:

  • 1965 Smokey Robinson & Temptations
  • 1979 Michael Jackson – Off the Wall
  • 1959 Nat King Cole – Welcome to the Club
  • 1964 Marvin Gaye – How sweet it is to be Loved by you
  • 1973 Glady’s Knight & the Pips – Imagination
  • 1982 Dream Girls – Broadway Album
  • 1985 Dionne Warwick – Friends

Will share more soon!

XO,

Jessi Morgan

Bathroom organizer Target hacks

We needed organization…badly! We had this stunning bathroom vanity that we remodeled in 2020 but we couldn’t keep it organized. I finally bought some great bathroom organizer Target hacks that made our life easier in our master.

To shop exact items scroll to the bottom. There are affiliate links in this article.

These simple bins in the drawers did the trick! Shop at the bottom for my favs.

Very excited to share how we organized and that it did not cost a arm and a leg. Check it out below.

Here are the steps we took:

  1. Pulled everything out & threw it away – Between my husband and myself we have a lot of cosmetic items. And going through them was great because there were things we didn’t use anymore or they were empty! So why keep it?

2. Bins, Bins and optimization – I bought all of my bins and organization stuff from Target. It was a great price and good quality that will last. I bought bins and a nice chrome pull out drawer. The bins are perfect to put in drawers to make sure everything stands up. 

3. Categorize & Sub-categorize – I made sure we separated our items by “His & Hers” and then by facial cleansers, lotions, moisturizers etc. It is now so easy to locate everything. 

4. Make the vanity countertop pretty – I bought 2 amazing marble trays for each of our sink areas. I love being able to house all the key toiletries we use daily together and it still looks clean. Bought both at Target, they are perfect and go well with our black sinks. 

I am relieved that this is done! Shop the entire vanity look below! Have you ever put off a project that you dreaded for a bit? Lol

Check out some before and after pictures! And shop the blog post below as well as some other organizing favs of mine!

What a difference in our drawers now!

Shop Here for some awesome bathroom organizer Target hacks!

For more…follow me on Liketoknowit to shop all the time!

XO,

Jessi Morgan

The Container Store Rolling Racks

Affiliate links are used in this article

Well these rolling racks changed my kitchen’s life!

We were having a very hard time getting our pots and pans in and out of the drawers and cabinets in our kitchen. I decided to get the chrome rolling rack system that is from the Container’s Store.

Here is step by step how we got organized:

This is where I started! Pull everything out!
  1. Measure! Measure! That was the key for me. I measured the depth, width and height of my cabinets to ensure the rolling racks I shopped for what would fit. *Another tip – if you purchase the 20″ inches rolling rack, ensure your cabinet width is at least 23″ inches wide. You need a little wiggle room so that your doors still close etc.
  2. Took everything out to see what I had. I also gave away older cookware etc.
  3. Whichever rack you purchase make sure the unit is 2″ inches away from the tip of where the cabinets begins.
  4. I purchased contact paper to go down on the bottom of the cabinet but you can also use simple grip prints.
  5. After lay your rack inside the cabinet and pull the rack completely out. There are holes visible where the screws will go.
  6. Ensure you use a black marker and put a dot within the hole where the screw will go into.
  7. After that use an electric screwdriver to install the 4 screw to install the rolling rack.
  8. And you are done! Literally. done.

See my finished product below!

It has made such a difference…Shop my cabinets below:

Happy Organizing!

Xoxo,

Jessi Morgan

Reno Update: The Kitchen

As some of you know my husband and I bought our first home back in September 2020. The home is a fixer upper and does need some work. Whenever you buy an older home you have to be able to see the potential and have a bit of patience. The first thing that needed to be completely re-done was the kitchen.

This home was built in 1976 and the kitchen had the same cabinetry and sink. WOW. The wood was falling a part and I just could not move into this home and not update the kitchen. I was determined to make this happen. Check out the before & after…

When it comes to re-doing a kitchen it can be extremely expensive and we just did not have the budget for that. Here are the key lessons & decor tips when renovating a kitchen for under $8000.

Work with a family owned company

I had the opportunity to work with a family ran business and it was a lot more intimate. The communication was clear and payment was fair from the deposit to the actual work. I dealt with some contractors that wanted me to pay 90% of the money up front and then pay 10% when they start. I didn’t find that good and they could literally just walk away with your money possibly. Also, working with a Home Depot or IKEA is still solid way to go but the price will literally double because of that, so keep that in mind.

Countertops is key

Some people want to cut corners with the quality of the countertops and honestly that should not be the case. We decided to go with white quartz material because it is extremely durable and scratch free usually. White quartz is timeless and for resale purposes it’s the way to go if you ever decided to sale your house.

Cabinets

This is where you can somewhat cut a little bit of corners when it comes to the budget with the cabinets. I went with a grey for the bottom cabinets to compliment the white countertops. The the top cabinets we chose white. I like having a semi-white kitchen, it made the space look much bigger than it appeared when we finished. Last, to stay on budget we went with a simple laminate material for the cabinets vs hardwood.

Backsplash

I prefer a clean kitchen and the best thing I did was use the quartz material to be the backsplash. It actually turned out to be cheaper in cost and to me it looks more elegant. I love the look! Try it!

Go big with the sink

Never go small with your sink. It is always best if possible to purchase a double sink so you can clean and organize your dishes easily. It was one of the best purchases I ever made for the kitchen.

CLEAN COUNTERTOPS are a must

Avoid as much as possible to have a cluttered counter. Try your best to keep your countertops clear. Put everything in a cabinet if possible. It just makes your kitchen more open and it makes you appreciate the look of your kitchen more.

What have you learned when it comes to Reno in a kitchen?

Below shop my kitchen! Most of my kitchen accessories came from Macys or Amazon!



A Girl designing a custom closet…

A dream closet has always been a goal when I finally owned a home. Recently my husband and I during crazy Covid scare purchased a home (yes crazy but we live on faith in God). It’s our first home but it feels close to a dream home when I installed my walk in closet. I went through the famous California Closets and my designer Taylor is by far the most amazing person to work with. She had a vision and listened to what I wanted.

My favorite type of shoes are wedges! They are comfortable and give me height!

Here were the key things I wanted in my closet:

  1. White – I wanted white shelves, white everything. White looks bigger and cleaner. For me you can find things when you have a pure palette in white.
  2. Shoe space – I have a lot of shoes and that was the most important thing to me. I recently gave away about 45 pairs of shoes so I have an excuse to buy more now with the space that I have! Absolutely am in love with my shoe space. I have 3 categories of which consist of flats, sneakers and heels/boots.
  3. Doors – I wanted doors at least for my clothes hanging and folded. It looks way more clean and you get to hide any imperfections of your color story of your clothes that way. Yes I think like that, I like things to be hidden these days. My room looks more clean and simple that way.
  4. Gold accent somewhere – I love white and gold where I can get it! My designer suggested gold handles for the doors and I am obsessed. We also decided on longer handles as well to give the closet doors a more exaggerated luxury effect.

This space was originally a garage, turned a room, then my closet. The previous owner had turned it into a room but they had outdated wooden panels. We removed the panels and discovered that the panels literally were glued to the cement walls. Yes cement walls! My husband found someone who plastered the walls and painted the walls white before we installed the closet. Wow what a difference! He also installed base boards and framed the air conditioning unit as well as the window in the room. Below is a picture before and after…

I just walk into this space daily and I feel so blessed. Have you had a transformation of something that just blows you away constantly? Share below!

XO,

Jessi Morgan