Hi everyone! I’m back to chatting today about my journey towards a minimalistic and simple lifestyle. If you missed my previous posts, check them out here and here. I’ve been attempting to follow the advice from the book The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Upand it’s taking a bit longer than I thought it would to complete the “tidying” process! (How could it be any different, lol). I had a three-day span of frantic cleaning and throwing away and organizing and then I wiped myself out and didn’t do any more for a week and a half. My advice– don’t try to do this all at once!! Pick one category at a time (clothes, books, paper) and only tidy that category. You’ll have much more energy left afterwards.

It’s been about two weeks since I tidied my clothes– and got rid of 4+ bags of giveaway items — and I am managing to keep everything the way it is! Folded, organized, everything in it’s place. What Marie Kondo says is totally true– when everything actually has a place, you are much more motivated to put it back there. 

Nick and I have been wanting to decorate our dining room ever since we moved into this apartment last May (can’t believe it’s almost been a year since we moved to Fort Worth!). We have a really nice bar cabinet that we keep wine glasses, liquor, mixers, etc that has always looked messy and disorganized. We decided wall shelving would be a great solution to clear up counter space and allow for that minimalism look that we are both craving. 

Here’s a few pictures of the dining room before:  

The cabinets were so full of glasses, cups, mugs, mixers etc that we had no room for the items on the counter to go beneath. 

We bought shelving from Home Depot and hung three shelves– they’re a beautiful light grey wood with stainless steel brackets. We also went through our cabinet and gave away all the old bar-ware we had that got replaced by gifts from our wedding. Everything that could go inside the drawers and cabinets went inside, and we kept the counter as clean as we could with just our stainless steel bar tools and a few pretty bottles of alcohol on display. 

Dining room after: 

We also bought this really pretty painting from Bed, Bath & Beyond! It reminds me of the ocean– with crashing waves. The light touches of grey in the painting match our grey shelves! Nick picked out the shelves AND the painting, so I was pretty proud of him. He did a great job. 


Another angle of our amazing shelves! Feels magazine or restaurant-like. I love that most of our glasses are clear– adds a really clean touch. 

Love it! We can’t stop walking by the dining room just to admire our handiwork. 

Another area that I’ve finished tidying is my bookshelf in the office. It was crammed full of books I haven’t touched in years. A lot of cookbooks that I never opened but just bought because they looked pretty, haha. I took a giant load to Half Price Books and got $80 for selling a ton of them. I don’t miss them at all! Going through my books, I only kept the ones that made me happy and I knew would be used often. 

Bookshelf before/after:

I’ve finished many other areas of our apartment, I just need to take after photos. The only place left to “tidy” is the kitchen, and I think I’ve been saving that for last because that task is pretty daunting lol! 

Have you read the book? Have you recently redecorated any areas of your home? 

2 Comments

  1. that bar area is beautiful. you guys did a wonderful job.

    1. Thanks, Dixya! :)

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