Another Pinterest Project (with modifications)

If you know me, you know I am not an organized person. I am having to work very hard to figure this out. I have been thinking about it a lot lately. What did I do wrong in the past? What can I do to make it different now?

One thing I have always heard is "A place for everything and everything in its place."  Sounds simple, right? Maybe for some people, but not for me. One thing is I have never had a place for everything. Part of that is too much stuff. Part of it is not enough efficient storage.

I have been working on the too much stuff. I have gotten rid of so much stuff. Enough? Probably not, but I am still getting rid of things daily.

Now, I have to find a place for everything. I have conquered the kitchen and the laundry room. It really is making a huge difference. I can clean those rooms up so much quicker. Tonight, we had family over for dinner. Because everything was put away, and I knew where it was, I was able to get everything ready in just a few minutes. Clean up was even quicker.

One major clutter problem for us is what we bring in from the car or motorcycle. Keys, purse, camera bag, Dean's computer bag and back pack from the bike, everything from his pockets. How does he carry so much in his pockets? We walk in the garage door. The laundry room is directly to the left, and the living room is to the right. I have been putting my things on the dryer. Dean puts his bags on the sofa. He puts his keys and pocket stuff on a ledge by the dining room. This is not efficient for us at all.

After the buffet was in place, we had empty space in the laundry room shelves. It is just the right size for all of our bags! Woohoo! That really made me feel better to have a home for the bags. That left keys, change, sunglasses, wallet, and various other pocket items.

There is small little wall outside the powder room next to the laundry room. I have a little vintage magazine rack. I don't know the history on it, but it is unique. There is a shelf at the bottom where we each keep a pair of flip flops.

I got rid of most of my magazines when we moved in an effort to declutter. The empty shelves made it seem that much more bare.

In the process of sorting and getting our family photos ready to hang in the loft, we had a few items I decided to repurpose. I have been looking at Pinterest a lot. So many cute ideas. I decided to try a couple of ideas and make them work for us. One idea I liked is a key rack. The other was a frame for writing notes. Hmmm, sounded like a good place to start. I tried two separate frames. That would look nice, but there was no place for all the pocket stuff. I decided to combine the two frame projects and add a shelf.

 I must say this frame was a real pain. Really. I think the frame was built around the glass. I thought I would never get the glass out. I took the above pic after i had gotten the glass out and cleaned it. It had been in our garage for years. A lot of years judging by the dirt on the glass and frame. I had already cleaned it up. Oh, and I had taken the lovely photo below out of the frame. Yep, you can see why it was sitting in the garage.

I had primer left from the buffet project, so both pieces got a nice coat of Zinsser Over Stain Primer. I still have a lot of the green paint from the bedroom project. I told you it would be making more appearances. Both pieces got 3 good coats of the green. For some reason, it just didn't seem to cover as well over the white primer. Cheap paint. What can I say?








Today, I made a trip to Micheal's for some scrap book paper. That was when I had 2 more great ideas.  The first was 2 divide the frame in half and use 2 patterns. One would be my side. One would be Dean's side. The next idea I had would make the paper changeable where I can change it for the seasons!

I only bought enough for two today. I knew I had some scraps here that might work, and Micheal's didn't have Christmas paper that I liked. Above is my Fall look - it should work for October - November, don't you think? Because the paper is glued to poster board, it is thin enough to store behind the one that will be showing. That way, I don't have to worry about a place to store the other seasons' pages!

Here is the finished product! We each have a place for notes. We have 5 hooks for keys and plenty of space for our other things. I do need to add something where Dean can drop his change. There is a dry erase marker Velcroed to the back edge to the left. If we put it up right, it is hidden. We talked about adding coat hooks under the shelf for jackets in the spring and fall. That would mean we would need to find a different place for the magazine rack. I have decided the laundry room is just one step away. We have hangers and hanging space there. Jackets will be fine there.

 We even got a couple of magazines in the mail! I think it looks great. Hopefully, it will help us give us a place for all those things coming in from the garage. I think we will like writing notes to one another, too. Sometimes, he leaves before I am fully awake. If this had been up last night, I could have written him a birthday message last night. Instead, I had to text him.

There are still a few more projects going in the garage. Stay tuned to see what we come up with next.

Laundry Room Organization

I am not an organized person when it comes to the house. I can organize a project. I an organize things in my head just great - just not always in real life. Last week, I posted my pantry. It is working great! It is so simple, it had to work.

Next up to organize was the laundry room.

I have been doing really well since we got here at keeping the laundry up to date- even folding socks! That is a huge thing for me. To make it easy, I used laundry baskets for different loads of clothes. I put the baskets in a shelving unit. Dean has been great about sorting his laundry into the baskets, too. When a basket is full, it gets washed. Very simple!

I have a shelf over the washer and dryer. It allows me to hang clothes right out of the dryer. of course, there were things stored there. I didn't like the jumbled look. The laundry room is in the front of the house. The only nice window in the front is in the laundry room! Odd, huh?

I have quite a few empty boxes. I found 4 that were the same size and shape. They each held 6 gallons of milk or tea and came from Super One in Longview. I cut the flaps off and covered them with brown paper> the paper was left over from the movers. It was wrapped around a large frame.

I made tags for all the boxes and the baskets. I mounted the tags on brown paper left over from a recent wedding. Because I used found items, the whole makeover cost me 6.00 for the rings and the glue stick.

Because we don't have a lot of linen storage, I am using baskets to store extra towels, sheets, and various other items. It helps to know what is in each basket. Once I get a buffet that will hold my punch bowl, I will have even more space in the laundry room.

Below is my pic for July 6th

Pinterest & My Pinterest Boards

I really do like pinning on Pinterest.

I do use the pins - I have made quite a few of the recipes. I have been working on some projects that I found there. I will post some of these as I go.

I thought I had enough boards to make it easy to use. I was wrong. I have an mmm, mmm good!! board - that has great recipes on it. A LOT of great recipes. I can't ever find the one I want. I am going to go in and divide it into sub categories.  The same thing with My Style  - I am going to make sub categories there, too. 

Stick around for before and after pics of some of my projects!

Pantry do-over

I still need to blog about the wedding - I am going to soon. I just need to take plenty of time to do that. Ashley & Eric did an amazing job on the photos.

For now, I am just trying to keep my head above water. Unpacking is an ordeal. It is fun, but there are times it is a real emotional roller coaster. I like to keep things because I am sentimental. Lots of memories being unpacked. Good memories. It just makes me a little sad that the kids are now grown up, married and moved on.

Anyway, I am starting some redos at the house. I have been doing some browsing on Pinterest and found a few things. We are doing some re-purposing. We are starting in the kitchen and the master bedroom.

I spent the weekend redoing my pantry. After years of selling Tupperware, I have an abundance. When we used in Longview, I used the modular mates a lot. I didn't in El Paso, because I had no pantry. It just didn't work right there.
 

I moved the two softsided coolers and about half of the grocery bags (white bag to the left) to the garage. Everything else stayed and I added so much more! I have almost the whole floor empty now.

 I added 2 boxes of cookbooks to the shelf on the left. I added pitchers to the top shelf. There are extra Tupperware pieces in there. I even added my cast iron cookware to the bottom shelf where it is easier to get out than under the cabinet.

I saw a pin on pinterest where a blogger used adhesive tiles on wire shelves. I don't really have a problem with them except under my cookbooks and under the cookware (because I didn't want the iron to scratch the shelves)  I didn't want to use the adhesive as we are renting. I didn't want to have to clean the adhesive off the shelves. We bought .68 cent tiles that were just flat (Dean says they are called VCT -vinyl composition tiles). I used them under my cookbooks and one under my cookware. Worked great! Everything is organized and neat. I have so much more room in there.

Oh, I don't usually keep a stuffed animal in my pantry, but the photo challenge this month is to take a photo with the same prop every day. I am using the little bear. He is resting against the basmati rice.

I have completed a couple of small projects in my bedroom. I am going to wait until a few more are complete to post. I will work on more tomorrow.

There are a few pieces we still need to acquire. I need an island for my kitchen. I have been looking at some different options where I can remake an island from another piece of furniture. I need a buffet for my dining room - again repurposing might be an option. Also on my list is bench and a rug for our bedroom and a desk and a floor cloth for a craft room - after we decide where the craft room is going to be. The loft gives me the option of seeing the television and sort of being in the room with Dean. That also leaves the other bedroom open for a studio. However, a craft room in the bedroom will allow the door to be closed. Hmmm. Lots to think about, but I need to finish unpacking the loft before we can really make the call. Tomorrow, I will work on the loft and a few more bedroom projects. I love being creative and getting to make the house into a home.