Our Favorite Projects of 2018
At the end of every year, we love to take a moment to share some of our favorite projects from the past 12 months. In 2018, we had a particularly special project worth highlighting: the opening of The Little Details Organizing Studio in Cambridge! This project was years in the making, months in the executing, and celebrated during one spectacular weekend in February. Last year at this time we were under construction and now we’ve been open for almost a year. Without further ado, here are some little details about some of the not-so-little projects of 2018!
I have always wanted to open a brick and mortar location, so this was an actual dream come true for me this year. The plan was to find a space in the next year or so but as fate would have it, I stumbled upon an ugly duckling of a space a few weeks before our wedding last year, thought it was absolutely perfect and I couldn’t stop thinking about how I could transform the space into a permanent home for The Little Details.
This purple palace screamed “HELP!” This space was previously a hair salon for decades, we even found old newspapers from WWII in the walls. Within two months of an extreme renovation, extreme cold, and extreme hours, we replaced the floors, raised the ceiling, added some much needed insulation, repaired the walls & sewage lines, replaced all of the electrical wiring, sanded, stained and installed barn doors, and added elfa (our favorite) everywhere.
This is now a place to learn how to get organized through our workshops, shop our favorite organizing products, and get to know our team of talented organizers who can help you achieve your goals. Needless to say, we are SO thrilled with the outcome of our studio space and have loved sharing our new home with everyone over the past year. Come say “hi” if you haven’t already!
This laundry room needed some TLC from TLD. Our client has this wonderfully spacious laundry room, but it wasn’t being utilized to its full potential. A busy life and growing children meant that laundry was being done multiple times a week, so it made sense to make this a prized room that made everyone happy every time they walked into it.
For this laundry room, we designed the space based on how the client uses it. We needed shelves, drawers, space for clothing to hang dry, and so much more. This family keeps separate donation bins for adult and kids clothing to be dropped off at local charities once the bins are full so we popped those onto the shelves on the left. We needed a parking spot for the clean laundry cart (bottom left), as well as a shelf for extra linens that are now stored up high since they aren’t accessed very often. We also added hanging rods for clothing to come out of the dryer and go directly onto hangers until they’re ready to make their way into the proper closet and we used Elfa’s gliding shoe racks (that are normally used for storing high heels) as wall-mounted drying racks since they have multiple rungs and were a great way to save floor space. We also used ventilated shelves as flat surfaces for things like sweaters to lay flat to dry.
Our favorite part of this design was assigning each removable drawer to a family member—clean clothing is folded and dropped into the corresponding bin for each family member and then it can easily be transported directly to the space it belongs. This was a way for the kiddos in this house to start helping out with the laundry as well. We added more drawers (in the center) for lint rollers, fabric shavers, iron, ironing pad and steamer for easy access. The large folding surface can also be used as an ironing surface by just popping the ironing pad on top.
On the opposite wall, we have 4 laundry bins on wheels to sort laundry into and Elfa shelving above the sink to hold all of the detergent, stain sticks, etc. Within the laundry room there was also a closet that we reorganized, putting the most frequently used items in direct line of sight and making space for cleaning products as well since the laundry room is on the 2nd floor away from the main cleaning closet on the 1st floor.
If my laundry room looked like this, I would be washing clothes all the time!
This project had many moving parts. Literally. We helped move this client from her condo to her current home, which included moving her two master closets into a tiny room, previously used as a nursery. The biggest challenge here was fitting all of the clothing and accessories from the previous two spaces into one that had been used as an itty bitty nursery with super steep ceilings.
As always, the first step was to purge her entire wardrobe. She used one closet for her everyday attire, and the other, smaller closet for out-of-season and formal clothing. This client loves her accessories—shoes, bags, hats, you name it! Once the closet was purged, we took a detailed inventory of everything that was kept. This included the amount of each item as well as measurements of how much space it took up in the closet. Knowing all of this information allowed us to map out where the items would go in the new closet, which was quite a puzzle!
We decided to use elfa, our favorite closet system. In this situation, we included hanging sections for tops and bottoms, shelving for purses, drawers for smaller accessories, and gliding shoe shelves to fit all 70 pairs of shoes! Our finishing touch included color coding each section and hanging clothing by sleeve length within its category. One of our favorite things to do is turn an odd or under utilized room into a walk-in closet and this proved to be a great use of the space!
We just finished installing and organizing this beautiful new elfa closet for one of our clients this weekend and had to add it to our favorites! To say that space was limited for this fantastic wardrobe is an understatement- we maximized every inch of this 639 sq ft condo over the last two months and saw it all come together over the last two days. This closet was literally overflowing with clothing, spilling into the bedroom and piled high in every nook and cranny. There were storage solutions all around her bedroom attempting to contain everything but it left her bedroom with barely enough room to get around her bed. We started with a major purge of all clothing, shoes, handbags and accessories to get an accurate inventory of exactly what needed to be stored. Of course we opted to use elfa to solve this puzzle! On the left we have Halloween costumes, memorabilia, her ski bag, a large mattress topper (for guests) and handbags on the upper shelves, then a short hang section for all tops, and drawers below for jewelry, sweaters, shorts, leggings, bathing suits, sheets, blankets & towels. We made use of the back left corner which could have easily been overlooked but instead now stores our clients super long dresses that aren’t worn as often. Straight back we have guest bedding stored in baskets on the top shelf, short dresses and long skirts hanging up top with 2 drawers just below containing all of her clutches and then short skirts and pants hanging down below. On the right, we used the elfa angled shoe shelves that are now one of my new favorite solutions to contain her entire shoe collection except for her tall boots that are stored up high on a flat shelf. We then hung a ton of her long necklaces and belts just inside the doorway of her closet on the right as well as a couple of very shallow shelves for her sunglasses. She is so thrilled with her closet and has been admiring it and giving closet tours to her friends all weekend. Nothing makes us happier!
As we enter 2019, think about which spaces YOU want organized! We’d love to turn your dream into a reality!