This was the original plan, and for the most part, it was built to look exactly like this.  We needed a laundry area, coat storage, shoe storage, and a pantry.  I also had the genius idea of building two drawers in which I would call the KID CLUTTER drawers. Every night, I pictured myself running around the first floor picking up their junk and dumping it into these drawers.  Every morning, I pictured myself yelling at them to empty their junk drawers. :)  It was a moment of sheer organized bliss in my head.

Only it didn't happen that way at all.

The cabinet was built and today looks like this:

Pretty, isn't it?  Here it is from a different angle:

Ignore the nasty fish tank on the left.  We have the worlds most stubborn goldfish. Other people get lucky enough to have their goldfish die on the way home from the Carnival. Ours is refusing, and 4 years later I have absolute seething dislike for that fish and his disgustingness.

I digress...

You can see that this room is a sitting room off of our kitchen. It used to function as a dining room for us, but as I spoke about in our Kitchen Post, we never used it.   A swap, a move, a sofa from Ikea later, we have this awesome little space that mommy uses every day to drink coffee, talk on the phone, fold laundry and find some silence.  

So, we built the cabinet according to plan, however you may notice that the junk drawers didn't happen AT ALL - like ever.  Instead, we turned those two little extra spaces into dog bed areas for my  Maltipoo Entourage.  (Clearly, as in the photograph above, they use them all the time... lol... who was I kidding?!?)

Grainy close up: 

Realistically, they only use these beds when I'm yelling at them or we have a party and they want to hide from our guests and get some sleep.  

The Laundry area was almost an exact match to what we planned.  It's used for SO many storage things - we keep our cleaning supplies here, our table linens, dog supply, picnic items, batteries, extra serving dishes, and a multitude of other things. It's the most organized chaotic place in the house.

 

In hind sight, I probably should have made the Borax vinyl sticker not white... 

On the left side of our massive cabinet, we created a simple coat closet and storage unit for my husband to put his shoes and work bags.  I also placed two boxes in the coat closet to hold our gloves, hats and scarves.  The girls do not use this closet for their coats or winter items, but I have created a special coat cabinet for them.  I will detail that in another post!

The right side of the closet was built to plan, however the usage changed entirely from our original thought.  Originally I thought it would be the perfect spot for shoes and purse storage when we came home.  Ultimately, we discovered that A.  I didn't need an entire large upper cabinet for my purse.  B.  We (meaning me and my daughters) do not EVER take our shoes off and put them in the closet. EVER.  and finally, C. That upper cabinet became the worlds largest junk drawer.  Not exactly the best scenario.

So, in the end the upper cabinet turned into our dry goods pantry:

I love this part because it's all the stuff I don't use daily but still need in the kitchen.  Baking supplies, canned goods, extra boxes of cereal.  Great storage and easy access.  

The bottom of this side is probably the most talked about part of our cabinet.  We created it especially for these two darlings:  Meet Hazel (left) and Lacey (right):

This lower cabinet became the utility access to our dog litter box:

Say What?!? Dog litter box?  Yep. You read that right!

When we rescued our pups about 2 years ago, our Veterinarian recommended litter training them.  I will be perfectly honest with you and say that I thought she had lost her mind!  Litter trained DOGS?!?  But when she explained her reasoning, I remember thinking "my vet is a genius!"

We live in an area that is very cold in the winter (it's -6 today) and our dogs are Maltipoos.  They have no undercoat to keep them warm and get very cold very easily.  As a result, the winters here could be very harsh on their skin, their health and general wellbeing.  Thus, Litter training.

I came home from the vet and after giggling about it with my husband, we decided to give it a try.  2 years later, I must say it's the GREATEST.THING.EVER.  It's just as easy as training a dog to go outside - the only difference is that you take them to the box instead of the grass.  The best part?  No muddy feet.  No snow day fights with the dog to pee. No midnight trips to the yard.   They still get their daily walks when it's warm enough, but on the rainy, snowy, gross days?  We stay in.  And it's absolutely wonderful!

We clean it up every time they go #2 (just as you would in your yard... I hope?) and replace the litter every 4-5 days.  It never ever ever stinks, and because we custom built this cabinet for them, they have privacy and we keep our secret.  ;)   We use this litter, in case any one needs that info.

These doors give us the daily access we need for cleaning, however the dogs have their own little entrance that they can use whenever the urge strikes.

(Yes, our dogs have a "couple" name. Their names are Lacey and Hazel, and our daughters have coined them "Lazel". Lol... it works!)

Take a moment to digest that... I know it's a lot!  Our doggie litter box gets a lot of commentary from our visitors, but by the time most of them leave, they are on board with the plan.  Once you see how easy and smart it is, there's no going back!

So that's our cabinet!  It's not perfect, it gets beat up and used daily, but it works for us.  I think that the most important part of planning a home is to create a space that works for how your family lives.  Even in our planning stages, we had these grand plans that just didn't jive with the actual day to day actions - and so we changed it to fit reality.

Don't be afraid to change the course or try something new.  Every family runs differently and it's ok to customize the rooms and the pieces in your home to fit your unique style of life.  I find that a lot of families dream of those magazine style homes that never look dirty, are perfectly organized and always amazing.  It's just not a reality.  Cabinets get scuffed, pantries are messy, puppies chew on the walls and shoes never make it to the cabinet.  It's life.  Own it and then plan for the life you live. 

Til next time...

~Jessica