DIY Open Shelving

A few months ago we added some open shelving to a couple of areas in our home.  One being our office.  I needed an area in our office where I could store office supplies out of reach for little people.  I admire people who have placed open shelving in their kitchens.  I am not that brave.  I like to be able to stash "stuff" behind closed cabinet doors at any moment.

I braved open shelving in our office using these items:

Ikea Brackets
Home Depot primed 8ft boards {they cut them in half at the store}
Anchors {I chose the one that hold up to 70lbs...just incase a little person got any ideas}
1/2 inch or 3/4 inch screws to secure brackets to boards
Drill

Here is how the finished project turned out.  I really do love it!  Our little people have not attempted to climb them.  Purchasing the primed boards from Home Depot saved me time from painting each board. The total project for 3 shelves cost ~$50.00.  In my book....you can't beat that!

The Weekend Project {Kid's Clothing/Shoe Organization}

The last 2 weekends have left me cleaning out, organizing, and purchasing new clothes and shoes for my daughter.  Last weekend we took advantage of a great sale at Osh Kosh and got her some fun things.  I love Osh Kosh clothes.  They are durable and cute {for both boys and girls}.

We got her a few new kicks during Nordstrom's Shoe Sale.  I love Nordstrom,

too.  They always have free shipping on online purchases as well as orders placed in the store.  Nordstrom always impresses me with their organized and well laid out stores, their women's bathrooms {complete with a nursing mom area}, and the impeccable customer service.

Here are all of her shoes from the summer.  I was sad to put away the white sandals {we are after labor day now}.  I also cleared out a few sneakers that no longer fit since she surprised me with a whole size larger foot from the beginning of summer!  Most of her summer shoes came from some jackpots I scored at local garage sales.  Hoping to find some great deals this fall as well.

I covered the boxes her new shoes came in with fun paper and organized her bathroom drawer a little bit better.  The paper came from the dollar section at Target.   I love to reuse boxes.  See what I did for Valentine's Day last year with cereal boxes.

And finally, I cleaned out our hall closet.  I packed away all of the swimming pool gear.  And reorganized the door closet organizer.  It looks so clean and organized....I give it a week before it is back in shambles.  {One can dream}

Next up for clothes and shoes....#2.      

One of my 7 goals and Organization

One of my summer reading list books was 7.  It challenged me in several ways.  You can read my review of 7 here.  

 ::My 7 Waste Goal:: Buy a larger trash can for our recycle items.

I purchased this trash can from IKEA

I used my Cricut to cut white vinyl letters for the Recycle Bin.

We have a small recycle bin in our garage provided by our county.

We always fill it up overflowing.

My sink was always full of recycle items.  At the end of the day

I would gather it all up and take it out to the garage.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This new bin
*sits at one end of our island.

*has a flip lid

*keeps me from stacking recycle stuff in the sink

*saves me trips to the garage

*I can put this bin right out on the curb and they will empty it because it says RECYCLE!

*has come in so handy 

*our 2 and 3 year old are learning to recycle

*it has made recycling even easier for our family

Linking this post to: athoughtfulplace.blog.com

Basement Organization {Part I}

When we first moved, I loved being able to say "just put it in the basement".  That was my catch all place.  But, after a few short months, I had to get some organization down there.  I function best with organization.  It is not to say that everything is always perfect because it is far from that.  But, I do love to know that everything has a designated place even if it does not always make it back to that spot immediately after use.

My recent basement project has been to find, unload and organize my craft supplies.  I sectioned off an area of our basement as "project space" and have been enjoying labeling and organizing all of my stuff.  My old "project space" was a section of our closet.  It is nice to be able to spread out for a change.

I am far from having this area complete.  Hungry children, laundry, dinner and diaper changes keep me from knocking it out. Someday it will be complete and I will share it in it's completed beauty with you.  For now, here are a few of the things I have done......

I had to sift through this mess to find my craft supplies!

WOW!  Was this really in my house?!

 This became my designated space.

Notice how nice and clean

I purchase these Sterile Shelves from Target.

And claimed this fold out table for my space.

I went through and organized all of my craft supplies into clear shoe boxes

and labeled them with vinyl cut by my Cricut.

This space has a long way to go....

1.  Inexpensive way to cover the back wall (I have some ideas brewing)

2. Make a table skirt for that table (will give me some extra hidden storage too)

3. Relocate a more comfortable chair to that area

4. Need a lamp or two for extra work light

5. Rug or a large piece of carpet for the floor

For now....this is what I have.

At least everything has a home!

Deals and Steals: Shoe Organizer

In our old closet we had a nice built in's for our shoes.  

Not so much now.  

After 2 weeks of boxes in our closet 

and me being unable to navigate around them, 

I set out to find something to store our shoes on/in.  

And of course, I was not willing to drop a load on shoe storage.  

I ended up with these hanging shoe holders.  

I purchased them at Wal-Mart for $5.00 each.  

I used to have one hanging in our hall closet at our old house,

 so I new they were durable.

They are made by HomeStays and are found near hangers and closet organizing stuff.  

I look at it this way....if one breaks I can always replace it for $5.00!  

And that to me sounds like a great Deal and Steal!

DIY Valentine Boxes

I made a Valentine Box for each of our kids.  I wanted to have a place where they could stash their cards and I could leave a special treat for them on the day of "Love"!  There are tons of great ideas out there and of course I always love PBK's cute Valentine holders but they cost a lot.

So I made these out of recycled boxes......

What you will need:

Cereal, waffle, butter, milk.....boxes of any size 

(I am a recycler so I loved doing this project)

Tape

Scissors

Ribbon or twine

Scrap book paper

Pen

Your creativity!

1.  Cut the box of your liking down to the size of your liking

 2. Trace each side of your box onto your scrapbook paper 

and cut 

3.  Tape your scrapbook paper cuts to the appropriate side of the box 

with either clear tape of double sided tape (depending on how anal you are;)

4.  Cut long strips of another scrapbook paper pattern 

and attach to the box like below (sorry for the fuzzy pic)

5.  This is what the bottom of the box will look like

(I covered the bottom with an extra piece of the navy and white scrapbook paper)

6.  Cut out a heart and stick it to the front side of the box

7.  Punch holes in the side of the box and tie your ribbon or twine to the box

8.  There is SO MUCH room for YOUR CREATIVITY in this project.  

You could get our your Cricut

You could get out the glitter

You could get out the stickers

You could even BeDazzle this bad boy (if you are into BeDazzling!!!!)

You could let your kids decorate the box.

These are going to hang on the back of my kids breakfast room chairs.

I am thinking about adding hooks to the back of our chairs like this

{via}

Kids Bathroom: Bows and Thrones!

I tackled the bow issue right before or after my daughter was born.  Girls get and mom's buy ALOT of bows.  I am thankful I only have one girl;)  Here is a bow holder that I made for my daughter.  We have lost a few bows along the way and I need to make/buy a few more colors but for the most part...this is where they stay.

It's durable.  It's waterproof.  It has plenty of room.  And it is out of the way!  Yay!

We started potty training back in June and I can thankfully say that we have had success.  I loved the "frog" potty that we used in the initial stage but honestly our kids bathroom is small and is shared with our guests.  So once she got the hang of the potty down, we purchased a "seat for the seat".  But I hated the way it was either always on the seat or in the floor (sick).

I found a HUGE M3 hanger at Target that was sure to hold that bad boy secure.  I secured it to the side of the toilet and viola!  She now uses the potty, gets down, hangs her seat up and flushes!  It is a beautiful thing! 

Hopefully my #2 born will love the idea too. 
(Hope he won't mind using a princess potty....cause I don't see her giving up her "throne" anytime too soon)! ;)

Happy Weekend!  Lots of fun ideas coming next week!

The coats are driving me mad!!!!!

It is not that cold where we live, we haven't seen snow in 2 years but I still wear a coat and so do my kids.  The coats are driving me mad!!!!  I hang them in their closets only to be in the car with the alarm set to realize that one of them or myself does not have a coat.  Or there is that ever lingering pile of coats in the car when they are wanting to go out back and play.

So to remedy the problem I purchased a row of coat hooks from HD.  They have all price ranges (this one just happens to be less than $20.00).  I tried one from IKEA a few years ago and the durability left much to be desired (and I am an IKEA lover). 

I also saw this nifty idea on athoughtfulplaceblog a while back and made one for myself this summer.  It helps to keep our family organized.  Just the other day I asked my husband if he had seen my sunglasses.  His reply, "They are in the cubby labeled 'Sunglasses'."  How clever.

 

The shoe organizer came from Target

The round labels I cut out with my one punch circle cutter.

I would use heavy cardstock or notecards for labels.

I secured mine with paperclips instead of clothespins.

I recently changed the labels to reflect our needs for fall/winter (hats, mittens....and took out the sun hats and sun screen....although I am ready for those items to come back).

This little space is easy for us to get to when we are coming in or going out.  I am hoping the little ones will learn how to hang up their stuff.  There is hope.  They have learned to take off their shoes and put them in the mud bench basket.  Progress is made in small steps!