Installing Laminate Flooring for Beginners

 Handy Mandy Series: #1 Installing Laminate Flooring

Handy Mandy was a silly nickname my parents would use when I was younger. There were tons of variations, but it came from me always wanting to help or be a part of a project if I was allowed. My dad, Fran, has always been able to do any contracting job asked of him. I can't tell you how many remodeling projects he's done; installing all types of floors, taking out walls, installing ANYTHING, electrical work, plumbing work, appliances, building anything from scratch. He can read a tape measure/ruler better than anyone I have ever met. Adding measurements and determining angles, and just general problem solving when doing a project are all skills he has above anyone else. He's absolutely great at doing it, and he loves to be able to help others do the same. Handy Mandy was his little side-kick. It didn't matter what the project was, I just wanted to be there helping!

When we bought our house in 2017, we knew it was going to need a little bit of work.  There is a laundry list of things we have discovered, and are currently discovering, that need to be fixed or remodeled in this house, but for the sake of time (and sanity) I will only discuss the laminate flooring. Each of the three bedrooms has a darker, red-toned laminate floor installed. Each of the bedrooms will eventually need to have the flooring replaced. They ALL have major gaps and are scratched from moving furniture. We knew we wanted new floors, but also had an agreement that it wasn't priority. When we first moved in, our budget was limited and we focused harder on growing grass in the backyard (that is a totally different rabbit hole to go down). It was a "get to it eventually" project. Not a necessity, but I didn't want those floors forever. 

Here are photos to show you what the floor looked like. The giant gap still gives me twitches just looking at this picture. It was like Narnia for dirt and hair. 

Then, one day after work, I grab Madden from daycare and we head to Target. We got a few essentials and head home. As we are unpacking the grocery bags, I realize I'm missing some items. I check out my receipt and immediately call Target customer service to locate the bag and get it back. During this time,  my fully potty trained three-year-old said "MOMMY I HAVE TO GO PEEPEE!" So of course, I encourage him to run to the potty. He says "I'm going to use your potty." No big deal, right? A potty is a potty, please just don't pee on my floor. I continue putting away grocery items, he comes out of our bedroom and goes back to Cocomelon and playing with his firetrucks. After about 20 minutes, Target says to come on down and grab the bag we left behind. As I am loading this little guy into the car, I realize there is a small river flowing out of my garage. I follow the river and see its pouring from the area where our water heater is. Naturally, anxiety kicks in and I am in full blown panic attack mode. I'm crying and running numbers in my head to replace this water heater, I call my husband who has a ton of plumbing experience, I sit in the driveway and just let my emotions take over me. When I get slightly composed, I start investigating and realize it's not the water heater. The water is pouring from the wall. What's on the other side of that wall? MY BATHROOM. 

I run in and instantly see my entire bathroom is flooded. My beautiful child, bless his little heart, had taken the top of the toilet tank off, and pulled off the tubing that allows water to flow between the tank and the he pump. When he flushed the toilet, water sprayed from the pump, but wasn't able to flow into the tank. From the time he flushed to the time I got to the car was about 60 minutes.....60 minutes of water flowing from the toilet onto the floor. I set up our box fans and start drying the area. There is no damage to the baseboards or walls (this was one of those moments that remodels not being installed properly came in handy). The real terror came the next morning as I got ready for work the next morning. 

I open the closet door to an overwhelming stale-water, slight urine stench. I instantly realize what has happened. One bathroom wall leads to the garage, the other leads to the closet. That's right....the water seeped from the bathroom to the closet and I never thought to check there. You could see the damage on the floor, buckled boards, water-soaked seams......I knew this was going to be bad. 

Luckily the damage was contained to the closet, but with the scratches and gaps on the floor already, this project became a priority. I have never installed a laminate floor before, but with Fran's help and a few Youtube videos, I was able to do it ALL. BY. MYSELF! If you need to install a laminate floor and need some advice, you have come to the right place. 

***DISCLAIMER: YA GIRL IS NOT A PROFESSIONAL! This is a recounting of my experience and any advice I can offer to help you on your journey. Please do further research and consult a professional if you have major concerns.****

Materials

Tools

• miter saw
• table saw*
• tape measure
• pry bar
• tapping block
• rubber mallet
• needle nose pliers
• saw horse or work bench
• air nail gun
• air compressor

Measuring/Installing

• flooring 
• underlayment
• dry erase marker
• pencil
• spacers
• quarter round
• caulk
• caulk gun (optional)
• popsicle stick(optional)
• microfiber cloth (necessary)
• threshold cover and metal tracks

If you are in the same situation I was, and don't own any of these tools, I highly recommend you check out Harbor Freight. Bruce and I are Lowes stans through and through, especially with the military discount they offer. However, Harbor Freight has prices that sings to my frugal side. The quality is decent and you pay an outstanding price! When I went to buy a nail gun and the air compressor, they happened to be having a sale and I spent $120 for almost all of the tools mentioned above, excluding the miter saw. We got our miter saw on sale at Lowes for $89 for their Black Friday event. 

*I highly recommend you get a table saw, if you are able to fit one in your budget. At this point in time, we weren't able to buy a table saw, but we already had a circular saw that I used to make some of the trickier cuts. A table saw would have made my life SO much easier. 

Before you Prepare to Start

Before you begin, please do your research! I am fortunate enough that I could have my dad coach me through a lot of this process. However, I needed more information that just one person could provide me. I watched Youtube Videos, read articles online, and read the instructions on the flooring that come inside the box in order to prepare for what I was about to do. I am going to link the two most helpful videos I found for beginners. 

1. How To Install Laminate Flooring For Beginners. This guy is super helpful and informative. He gives good descriptions and shows you a lot! He even goes into depth about cleaning preparation and quarter round. 

2. How To Cut Quarter Rounds For A 90 Degree Angle. Again, very informative, very visual and easy to follow!

There are so many tutorials you can watch that show you step by step how to install laminate flooring. Find one that suits your learning style!

Preparation

1. Your first step needs to be determining how much flooring you need. I found our flooring on Lowes for a super good deal. I measured the dimensions of our room and closest and typed all the information into this square footage calculator. This helped me determine how much I needed. I also factored in an extra box or two, to figure in waste and errors. 

2. Your second step will be to clean the area. I moved all of the furniture out of the bedroom and got to work sweeping and vacuuming. Our dogs love being under our bed, so I needed to make sure that area didn't have piles of sand and hair. My husband had a paintball tournament this weekend, so all of the furniture was removed by yours truly. We have a Serta adjustable bed and let me tell you, that thing is HEAVY. I was able to get the mattress out alone, and I carried one of the bases out. The other one, I shifted from one side of the room to the other when it was in they way. It was just easier! You'll see it floating around in pictures. 

3. Next, you have to get the old floor up! This can be tricky to start, but once you find your rhythm, it is one of the best parts. Start by removing the quarter round. You do not have to remove the entire baseboard, but the quarter round has got to go. Use a pry bar and pop those suckers off. Proceed with caution, depending on their condition, you are able to reuse them (so Fran says) and you could eliminate that cost in your budget. I unfortunately cracked every single one. In my defense, I was completely overthinking and in the back of my mind I knew replacing would be best for us because these pieces were in rough shape before we even moved in! 

Make sure to go around the base boards once if is removed and get all the remaining nails. This will prevent your quarter round from being flush to the base board. It is also a safety concern! Use your needle nose pliers and rip those suckers out. 

Once you get the quarter round off, use the pry bar and find an edge that has enough space that you can pop one of the boards up. Once you get one of the boards out, you will have no trouble removing the others. They may come up still connected to each other but they will come apart. I would get a pretty sizable pile, then I would carry them in armfuls out to the garage. Be cautious of broken boards! You may want to wear gloves. I got a nice slice when a broken board slide down my hand. 

Here is my progress with the removal. As you can see, the furniture is still in the bedroom. I was moving it all alone so I did a wee bit of procrastinating. That bed is freaking heavy!

Before going any further, sweep another time. You don't want any nails or dust to surprise you down the road!

Now, it is time for the underlayment! This is that foam stuff under the flooring. The rolls self-seal with adhesive so roll out a section, cut, remove the seal and lay the next round on top. Make sure the whole floor is covered!

Now my friends, you are fully prepared to begin! To get started, you want to start along the longest wall. It was easier in my case to start on the wall with the door and move down, because I had to factor in the closet. I also chose to work from the left side to the right side to avoid issues near the door. 

Squaring The Floor

The first 3 rows of the floor are critical. This begins the squaring process. Squaring is when you make sure the floor is even from corner to corner to avoid uneven and crooked floors. 

To start your first three rows, you lay the boards like this: the first row gets a full size board to start, the second row gets a board half the size of the full board. The third row gets a half of a half. My boards were 4 feet long. I started with a four foot board for the first row. Then, the second row started with a 2 foot board. The third row got a 1 foot board. 

***I was going to originally start at this end of the wall. I changed my mind when I realized it would be easier to start away from the door. This picture still does the process!***

Lock your three boards in place. The boards are very simple to lock in together. Start by putting the first board in place up against the wall in the corner, Place your spacer at the top. Lock in the board for the second row by lifting it at an angle, and pushing it against the other board. It will go most of the way in, but will not be laying flat yet. This means it is not fully locked in place! Take your tapping block and rubber mallet. Place the tapping block down and gently tap with the rubber mallet. A few gentle taps and boom, that board will lock right into place and give you a flat, seamless connection. Repeat with the first board of row three. 

Now that you have your pattern established, take full length boards and finish as much as you can for row 1, without needing to cut a board yet. Then, repeat for the second and third rows. Be conscious and cautious of your floor moving. This is the beginning stages and moving the floor even the slightest distance will result in your floor not being square. Make sure your spacers are in place and stay in place. When you get to the point where you have to cut a board in order to finish the row, measure from board to wall. Using your dry erase marker, write the measurement on the board you are about to cut. The dry erase marker will be a game changer for you. This is a Handy Mandy secret. The dry erase marker wipes away instantly, and I was able to remember my measurement with no issues. I would make my marks with dry erase marker too. Then, determine how to make your cut so the flat side is along the wall/baseboard. This was an initial challenge for me. Head to your miter saw, make the cut, and pop that sucker into place!

When your first 3 rows are secured, check to make sure the floor is square. Measure the right and left corners from the wall to the end of the floor. They should be the same measurement. If not, shift the floor and adjust your spacers. If you are good to go, continue on!

To continue, you start your pattern over; full size board for row four, half size board for row five and half of a half for row six. Lay out the remainder of the row in full size boards, measure and cut the last board. It gets easier as you keep going. It is CRITICAL you continue to check that the floor is square. I had issues and had to adjust often. I'm not sure if the floor was shifting as I was using the rubber mallet, or if the wall had squaring issues (all of the above and more, I'm sure) but I was able to catch it each time. If you don't catch it in time, you will have a challenging time with your cuts down the line. 

The babes were having a blast!

The doorways were super interesting. You have to measure the board, but take into consideration the frame of the door. I don't have any pictures of this for you, but having a table saw would have made this part very easy. I was able to fix my errors in measuring and cutting along the door frame with caulk. 

When I got to the closet, the door piece was the hardest yet. I had to work around the door frame, but also had to have 3 inches on the bedroom side. The cut was super wonky and seemed impossible with my circular saw. I found that measuring, cutting and testing was necessary, and when it came time to make adjustments, I would use a brand new board. If I had table saw, making a minor adjustment would have been simple. On a circular saw? Not so much.  After I got through the door frame of the closet, It was smooth sailing. I had to make only 1 cut per row and the pattern alternated. Super simple. The closet was NOT square. This was a huge challenge for the final boards I needed to be complete. The right corner measured 3 1/2 inches, and a foot to the left measured 3 3/4 inches. By the time I reached the left corner, it was measuring 4 inches. These cuts were brutal and took a ton of time to get right, but it was worth it in the end to take my time and get the right cut. 

I celebrated HARD when the flooring was done. There was still some elbow grease needed before we could move the furniture back in, but the hard part was over!

Threshold

Now, to cover the area where your laminate floor meets another floor, you will need to buy a threshold cover that matches the color of your floor. These can be expensive, which I was not prepared for. The metal track was already installed for us, luckily, so I bought the cover that matched our floor best. I followed the directions in the Youtube Video that showed how to install them. Basically, you pop the insert into the metal track and make sure its clicked in place. We had issues with our metal frame being bent and wonky, which caused a ruckus for sure. In the end, we were able to get it to work!

Quarter Round

The next day, I got to work on the quarter round. This was a walk in the park compared to measuring and cutting the floors, but it still had its tricks to it. In a video I watched about installing laminate flooring and installing quarter round, it was suggested by the professionals to measure and cut your quarter round for the whole room before nailing. I recommend this advice as well. Mainly because, well, I didn't follow their advice when I should have. You live and you learn, right? This process involved many FaceTime videos with Fran to make sure I had the angles right. Here is what I mean. 

When you start laying the quarter round, you start with a full size piece, as far down the wall as you can get it. When it comes time to marry two pieces of quarter round together, there are special cuts you need to make. You cut each end at a 22.5 degree angle; one side with your miter saw swung to the left, and one with the saw swung to the right. Then, they lay perfectly inside each other and you can take some caulking and gently hide the seam. Of course, you can always put them next to each other, flat sides touching and also cover the seam with caulk. But for a more professional look, you will want to use the 22.5 degree angles. 

This is my unprofessional seam I messed up on!

Now, the corner cuts. These suckers can make you go crazy. The corners need to be cut at 45 degree angles so that the edges fit inside each other and form a 90 degree angle. Easier said than done my friends. Here is how my anxiety riddled ADHD brain interpreted this information: 

•   When you quarter round board is on the right side of the corner, swing your miter saw to the right and cut at a 45 degree angle. When making your cut, you should have all of your excess board to the RIGHT of the blade. That way, you trim enough to make the 45 degree angle, and you are finished. 

• When your quarter round board is to the LEFT of the corner, swing your miter saw to the left and cut at a 45 degree angle. The excess of the board should be to the LEFT of the blade. 

Watch this YouTube video if you are a visual learner. I had to read it, see it for myself, and do the hands-on approach to get this correct. Once you have the process down, it is SO simple. Get your quarter round measured, cut, and set in place. DO NOT NAIL IT IN UNTIL THE PIECES FOR THE WHOLE ROOM ARE FINISHED. I learned this the hard way. 

When you have the room done, get your nail gun and compressor. Suit up, turn that bad boy on and get to nailing. I started at a flat end and worked my way to the left. I did a nail every 6-10 inches. I'm not sure what the professional guidelines for nailing were, but I knew I could cover my nail holes and went with what I felt comfortable doing. When it came to the corners, Fran recommended I put my last nail 10-12 inches away from the corner. He said the nails tend to make the corners bow certain ways, and you won't have a smooth seam that way. So, I followed this advice and kept my nails 10-12 inches from the corners. The nailing was not only fun, it made me feel like a BOSS! It was super simple once you got a rhythm too! 

After your quarter round is nailed in, it's time to caulk! I have watched so many caulking Tik Toks that I felt so prepared for this moment. I follow a creator named @thecaulkanator. His videos are AMAZING. Very simple, aesthetically pleasing and factual. Take your fully loaded caulk gun and cut the tip of the tube at a 45 degree angle, the smaller the hole, the better. Squeeze a bead of caulk on the top and bottom of the quarter round, and be sure to get any seams from boards married together or in the corner. Gently spray with slightly soapy water, and use a popsicle stick (or your finger) to wipe away any excess caulk. The soapy water does some chemistry-level stuff that I am in no way qualified to explain, and will cause the excess to wipe away with ease. Use a microfiber cloth to help with any mess you may make (I made a huge mess). 

Your last step is to take a filler and fill in the nail holes made. You could even use caulk if you were desperate and didn't get a filler. 

Finita!

VIOLA! A not-so-perfectly-installed-but-looks-amazing new floor! 

Handy Mandy DIY Project #1 Complete! Now, to decorate.....

                                  

As I said before, I am NOT a professional. I am just a girl who knows how to use power tools that is confident in her DIY abilities. I strongly recommend you be confident in yours as well! I hope that you were able to learn from my experience putting in a laminate floor and can use this information when installing your own one day. 

Organizing Board Games

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find me on tik Tok for organizing videos!

@thehawkesnest

Did anyone else take advantage of Target’s Black Friday deal on board games? When we saw that board games were 50% off we went buck wild in the store. When the deal went live, we stocked our game closet with staple games for kids and adults. Madden lucked out the most. He got some awesome games I remember wanting as a kid, like Mouse Trap. Our best purchase was Catan. If you haven’t played, you are missing out. Catan is originally almost $50, so this was our time to invest and we got it for an actual steal ($24.99). 

Right after we got all of our board games, it was all we wanted to do! We had competitions and currently have a stats board of who wins which game. Catan is our favorite game to play together and with others. If you have never played, it is a cross between Monopoly and Risk; you are strategizing to get build settlements and gather resources. Bruce and I both have really good problem solving skills and that plays to your benefit when strategizing in games like Catan and Battleship. We get very into games like this, to the point where we may or may not argue.

Madden really enjoys board games and for this, I am thankful. Board games help teach and reinforce important life skills. Following directions, first and foremost, is the easiest thing to practice when playing board games with your family. We reinforce counting as we play games like Trouble, and Pop the Pig. There is always the good lesson of "You don't always win" when playing games as well. Madden is an only child so he only has Bruce and I to learn from. Madden also has a Sensory Processing Disorder, so many of the games double as OT activities and self-regulation strategies.

Now that our closet was fully stocked with board games, my anxiety kicked in each time we would play a new game. Some games don’t go back into the box as well as when they first game out. The boxes begin to rip, especially if you have a barbarian toddler that Hulk Smashes everything in his path. Have you ever tried to get the game Mouse Trap to go back inside the box? It is literally impossible. There can't be a single person on the planet that can keep Mouse Trap clean and organized. If you can do it, kudos to you. It is already a challenge to put together. Our box was always bulging or we were trying to find a method to making sure all the pieces were flat before putting it away. It was a nightmare, and ultimately it ended in a ripped box. Hungry Hungry Hippos is another one! The hippos are super cute until you are trying to get them to get into their place and in that box. The balls have a special storage area under the board, but the second that sucker comes loose, you are chasing red and yellow balls for the rest of your life. We currently are missing 4!

This is our game closet in its natural habitat. My anxiety was at an all time high when I took this picture. Game pieces, puzzles, baggies and other items have gathered on the shelves and on the floor. At one point, Connect Four had been placed wrong-side-up and little red tokens tinked all over the ground. Each time we go to grab a game, the tower of boxes tumbles down on top of you and you spend 5 minutes trying to keep the boxes in some sort of organized fashion. The bottom of the closet is random cleaning storage that I can’t seem to fit anywhere else, such as the mop and the air filters for the HVAC. I have a twitch just thinking about it.  

   

Searching for a Solution

I knew there had to be a solution for this board game debacle. Ripped board game boxes and missing pieces have been an issue for decades, so surely there is a product out there that will ease my anxiety. While scouring the internet for a viable solution, I came across something that instantly sparked my attention. I found these amazing zipper pouches that were designed for protecting and organizing documents. As a teacher, I was instantly intrigued. I had never seen something like it before. How cool would it be to take home important paperwork and not have the last few remaining drops of your coffee in your cup spill over it? How many times had I graded papers and brought them back to look like my toddler had played trashketball with them? I did a deep dive into the descriptions and reviews and realized that this was the product I was searching for. This was my board game saviour.

Let me introduce to you the Sunee Zipper Pouches. They are made from a durable PVC mesh that is strong and waterproof. The original size is 9x13, and is meant for storing and traveling with documents. computer-sized paper fits PERFECTLY! When I saw these, I ran to the closet and began measuring the board games we had. Would they fit in a 9x13 sized bag? Some games are super awkward-shaped, like Pop the Pig (that guy has a chef had and a pot-belly) or Mouse Trap (sure, the game board isn't too big but the pieces?!). Back to deep diving, and I see THEY COME IN VARIOUS SIZES. Bigger, smaller, tiny.... There is even a portfolio sized bag! (Where are my teachers at? This is perfect for anchor charts!!!). This is it ya'll. This was my saving grace. I added them to my Amazon cart, and patiently waited for them to be delivered.

Organizing the Games

When my bags got here, I had the day off work and had the house to myself. Madden was at daycare, Bruce was at work....just me and the fur-babes. I put on some Machine Gun Kelly and got to organizing. Cleaning and reorganizing is my Zen. If I could make a career out of organizing and cleaning, I would. It makes me SO HAPPY. This day, I could jam to my favorite album, drink my coffee, and solve my game board problem without any interruption.

I started by removing everything and organized it into 3 different piles; board games, puzzles, and learning materials. 

Then, I began sorting the board games into the proper sized bag. I made sure to place the instructions pamphlet facing out so that we could easily read the name of the game. I considered cutting the name off the box, but I think a vinyl sticker would be easier (and a fun new project). Many of mine were in the 9x13 or 10x14 sized bags. The smaller bags were perfect for games with cards or many pieces. The long, skinny bags were the best size for card games like Phase 10 and Skip Bo. Bigger card games, like Cards Against Humanity fit very well in the smaller red bags. Awkward games like Pop the Pig needed a larger bag than expected, due to how wide the pig is. 

After all of the games had a home, I needed to find an organization system in the closet! I got these awesome trapezoidal baskets designed for closets. They are shorter in the front of the basket for shorties like me that have to stand on tip-toes, carry a step-stool, or tilt the basket so that the contents fall out. 

 

I kept everything organized according to the pile they were placed in. I turned the baskets in order to fit two on one shelf. This tapered look works perfectly for finding a game and putting it back neatly. The board games were on the bottom shelf in the bigger basket, organized from left to right in size order. The games on the left are not in bags. Jumanji is a wooden, foldable game board, Mandalorian Monopoly has a "special" box according to my husband, and Catan has so many pieces that we want to get a few more of the smaller bags to keep it organized.

The next shelf up has two smaller baskets. The basket on the left has remaining board games that were smaller, organized from back to front in size order. The left basket has all of the puzzles, and are organized from size of bag from left to right. Learning materials were purged, and left in their containers for easy grab-and-go.

Testing the Theory

Now, I had everything in its place and I felt so great about how it looked. But, is it effective? Is this organization system going to work? Is my family going to follow the rules with the bags and keep them in their spot? Time to test it out. 

I decided to order pizza from our favorite place and have a family game night. We order from Anthony's pizza, a family run place that makes pizza just like they do in Italy. We always get the Margherita pizza made with Mozzarella de Bufalo (fresh mozzarella made with Buffalo milk). For anyone who is lactose-intolerant, has a dairy allergy, or is avoiding dairy for any other reason.....try this cheese. It will change your life. 

As I finish bribing my family with pizza, garlic knots, and zeppoli, I ask which games we should play. We start with Pop the Pig, which was a pretty simple gig. All the pieces store inside Mr. Pig, and the retrieve-and-replace system worked well. Next, we move on to Candy Land. This was a big trickier with the cards. But, after Madden was sent back to Gumdrop Land and Bruce was sent back to Mr. Mint, I was able to swoop in with a win. Putting the game back was much easier than the box. Plop in the cards, zipper away. Put back in the basket. So far, so good. 

The last game was a true test. Mouse Trap. I shivered a bit (not a cold shiver, an anxiety shiver....anyone get those?) We got all the pieces out and Bruce set it all up. He's a professional. This was a very serious game; we all kept stealing and losing the cheese pieces. I got sent to the trap SIX TIMES. It was super intense. The competition was on. In the end, Madden got his cheese wheel first. We rewarded him with extra zeppoli. 

On to the clean up. We put the game board in first. Then, we put Scuba Steve, the mice, the silver ball and the rubber band inside a smaller zipper bag. We got all of the trap parts inside the bag, tossed in the small bag with the mice, and zipped it all the way up. Madden walked it to the closet, stood on his stool, and put it in the basket. 

IT WORKED. At this point in time, I am ecstatic. Not only is my closet clean and organized, but my family is following the system. We aren't losing pieces, we aren't frustrated with boxes, the closet has more space......overall a major success. 

Other Uses for The Zipper Bags

Now, what else can I use these bags for?! They are magical, and I want to use them EVERYWHERE. Let me remind you that these bags are waterproof. When reading that in a product description, I'm sure you react the same way I do, and think, "SUUUUUUUUURE it is." Ya'll. I printed pictures of my students in color for a Christmas craft. I placed them inside the 9x13 size back and placed it on the counter as I finish getting ready. As I am rushing to get my toddler dressed and out the door on time, I set down my coffee cup with no lid. Madden stood up on his stool, grabbed his lunchbox and swung around to get down. In the process, my coffee cup goes flying and coffee spills everywhere. The only thing on the counter at the moment was my pictures! I start panicking and get the mess cleaned up and am preparing to be 15 minutes late so that I can reprint the pictures. I open the zipper pouch and am shocked. Like, jaw-dropped open shocked. Not a single drop of coffee on my pictures. They were dry as a desert. This was when my brain began to think of every possible use for these bags around my house. 

• I reorganized our family documents to be in zipper pouches. I have an organizer for these documents, however, we are in central Florida and are prone to hurricanes. Having the documents in a water safe bag would be extremely ideal. All of our tax information from previous years can be sealed into 1 bag! I put the zipper pouches inside hanging green folders and now everything is even more organized than before.

• There is a 9x13 bag in my school backpack for special documents I don’t want ruined. I have a tendency to overfill my backpack and my papers tend to get crinkled corners or accidently smushed by something else. This zipper bag helps prevent that! My bad habit at school is also hoarding every coffee cup I own in my classroom then bringing them home to be washed all at once. When this happens, I tend to get residual coffee spills on things.

• Have you ever saved a critical receipt, and found out the hard way it got water stains, or the sun lightened the font and it was unreadable? I keep one of the pouches in our home office to organize receipts. We just redid our floors in the master bedroom and we kept the receipt inside a zipper pouch, and were able to quickly locate it when we had extra flooring to return.

• I have used the portfolio bag to hold anchor charts. When 3:45 hits at work, I usually am out the door. I have a tendency to bring stuff home and work on it during TV time or after bedtime for Madden, and this bag has reduced the number of errors I have to correct on my anchor charts.

My Recommendation

To get my closet looking the way it did, I needed an order of 9x13 bags, and a variety pack. The 11 x 16 sized bags are GREAT for bigger boards and bulkier games. My suggestion is to measure your games, specifically the board itself. Don't forget to add about 1-2 inches to make up for the bulk of certain games. If you are interested in any of these products, the links below will take you to the products mentioned above! Happy Organizing!

• Sunee 21 Pack Zipper Pouch, 7 Sizes

• Sunee 9x13 Zipper Pouches

• Sunee 19x25 Art Portfolio 

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Organizing your Linen Closet

 

The linen closet can be a dreaded place when it comes to putting laundry away. In our house, it has always been a place where we knew we could do better, but never put effort into maintaining a decent organization system. We showed improvement over the years, but it was never like the pictures you see on Pinterest. 

Our house is NOT Pinterest perfect by any means. There are some areas where I strive to be Pinterest level organized. I have caught myself feeling bad that my home didn’t look like my Pinterest boards. Don’t fall down that trap! Your home, just like mine, is amazing just the way it is, and with a few tips and tricks, you will feel that Pinerest proudness. My boards and pins are such an inspiration for the house we have now, and the house we are planning to build in the future. I hope my posts help you feel better about not having a Pinterest perfect house and learning to use your space effectively by maximizing your organization!

Now, onto an area that needed a ton of work. Our linen closet is right next to our guest bathroom. This is a picture of the location. The door in front is the bathroom, and the accordian door on the left hand side is the linen closet. It was a VERY hard angle to get a before picture.

Here is the before picture of my linen closet.

We have a running rule in my friend group that you don’t judge a friend by their linen closet. It is NOT easy to keep organized. One skill I did not acquire before turning 30 was how to fold a fitted sheet. It was something I knew I probably should learn, but was unsuccessful at each attempt. In turn, when I had to fold and put away a fitted sheet, I had mastered a fold-and-roll technique so it wasn’t just a blob on the shelf, but it had some rhyme and reason to the unkempt madness. 

I had a pretty good handle on folding our towels. This isn’t all of our towels (it was doggy-tubby day yesterday). Normally we can fit 3 rows of towels across. They tend to look pretty neat. I added the baskets to control the chaos of dish towels and cleaning rags. I have a ton of microfiber cloths we use for cleaning on a daily basis, so having them loose or just folding on the shelf wasn’t working. The baskets looked cute, but it is a tight fit to have 3 across the top. When I go to reach the baskets I have to use a step stool, or I stand on my tippy toes and tilt the basket and cross my fingers that everything inside doesn’t topple down on top of me. 

Sheets, blankets and comforters can be such a hassle, especially when you are only five feet tall. If I don’t have Bruce to help me, or a chair to stand on, I tend to tuck and roll and shove that thing onto a shelf and hope for the best. Not the best method, but effective when you are in a hurry or have a toddler climbing into the dryer for fun. 

Organizing Tools

I knew the baskets I had in the closet already were not going to be enough to tackle this job. I scoured the internet for a solution and found these baskets here. 

These baskets are trapezoidal; taller in the back, shorter in the front and tapered on the sides. They are designed for closet organization. When I found them, I knew I had struck gold. The tapered front makes it so easier to grab what I need while keeping everything neat, without needing to tip the whole basket down. 

How I Organized the Chaos

I started by taking everything out of the closet and putting it on the dining room table. This was helpful so I could see what needed to be sorted and folded. 

I started with one section at a time. The pillow cases were super simple to begin with. I found a folding method and sorted them by color.My folding technique: fold in half horizontally, fold in half vertically, then fold in thirds. We have primarily grey sheet sets, so this grey ombre with a touch of color is a snapshot of our personalities.

 

Madden needs a blanket for nap-time at school, and he has a few crib sheets that were used in his previous classroom for the mats. He hasn’t used the crib sheets in a while so I decided to purge those. His blankets were simple to fold and set to the side. We added his weighted blanket in later, after it got a good clean. 

To keep things simple, we separate sheets based on room. Madden gets his own area for sheets and Bruce and I get our own as well. This makes it easier for Bruce to figure out where to put them away or grab from when changing sheets. It’s aesthetically pleasing as well when you look at your linen closet! I refolded the sheets and sorted them based on whose bed they go on. 

Folding a Fitted Sheet

Now, I had to take an hour-long Professional Development break here. I could no longer move forward without learning how to fold a fitted sheet. I was determined; today was the day I was going to be an adult that could check this skill off her bucket list. I had pinned a few posts that I immediately tried to decipher. I instantly got frustrated when it didn’t look like what was described in the blog post. I am a visual learner, so I switched to Youtube. Then I found this angel who saved my agony. It was like something clicked in my brain as she went through the steps. She filled in all the little gaps everyone else was leaving out. In the teacher world, this was perfectly explicit direct instruction and modeling. She deserves a gold star. Check her video out here for an awesome tutorial! Here was my first attempt, not perfect, but I eventually improved!

Check out my Instagram and Tik Tok to watch me model how to fold a fitted sheet!

Back to the Chaos

Now that I knew how to fold a fitted sheet, I was able to fold and organize the rest of the sheets, and tackle the blankets as well. I organized each item into its own basket and started placing them on shelves. 

I am so content with the final result! I may play around with the organization of the comforter and blankets. For now, the basket is keeping everything together and providing a space to keep them neat. 

Tips and Tricks for Folding and Organizing

• Do your folding on a flat surface, especially when folding your fitted sheets. I have limited space for folding, so for a big job like this, I used the dining room table. 

• Play around with folding techniques. There are so many ways you can fold a towel or blanket to fit your linen closet measurements. I have seen the hotel folding method and tried it out. It is a great method, it just didn’t work with our bath towels and linen space. I fold my towels into thirds, then into thirds again. This has been my tried and true method for 7 years!

• Use baskets you have around the house before going to buy more. If you are trying to stay on a budget and can’t drop a ton of money on new organizing bins, that’s okay! I bet you have something around the house that will be perfect. Check out Marshall's and Homegoods before you buy something pricey! I have found so many amazing baskets and organizing bins at Homegoods for dirt cheap!