Tag Archives: organizing

Freshening up an organizer

Posted on by

3

Sarah in Illinois joins us today with a great makeover that adds a bit of style to an area that sometimes doesn’t see a lot of decor–her garage. This is a lesson in the power of paint. Plus the power of soap and water!

It seems like all of my small projects get set aside during the summer months. We spend all of our time outside and don’t want to be cooped up in the woodshop/workshop.

I have a pile of projects out there waiting for the cooler months, but I did get one thing finished.

I found this old metal organizer that has been hanging in our garage for who knows how long.

I thought it looked handy, plus it looked like something that could be fixed up with a can of spray paint.

I took it off the wall and took the little jars off. They easily cleaned up in a sink of soapy water. I took off the bracket that attaches it to the wall. I thought that I could just run a little sandpaper over it and start painting. But the red paint that I chose didn’t show up well, it just looked like a rusty red color.

See how the red looks flat?

I decided that I should probably have done it the right way from the start. So I started over. I ran the sandpaper over it again and coated it with a light color primer. This helped the red really stand out when I painted it and that was the look I was going for.

I put several coats of paint on it trying to avoid getting much paint on the inside of the caps on the threads where the jars screw on. Too much paint built up would have made the jars hard to screw on.

Unfortunately, after all of the years hanging on the wall, there is a little jar missing. I am hoping I find it stashed somewhere in the garage, but I am guessing it may have fallen on concrete at some point and is long gone. So I will keep my eyes open for a replacement.

My mom and my brother’s girlfriend are yard sale pros so I am going to put them on the case. In the meantime, I am happy that I made an improvement that cost very little and is much more pleasing to look at.

Do you use spray paint very often on your projects? Do you ever try to take shortcuts then have to start over? What color would you have chosen to paint this organizer?

The red brings a great pop to the garage, Sarah. I think I probably would have kept the rust(ic) look just because I can’t be bothered painting it or decorating my garage (if I’m being honest), but it looks so good. Such a cheerful addition. I love the concept of this organizer. Do you think you could DIY something like this? Perhaps with some very strong glue for the jar lids?

Summer to-do list

Posted on by

8

Summer officially arrives this evening. While I have grand plans of sunshine and hammocks and hikes and gardens and lots of time outdoors, I also have a handful of projects that I’ve been saving up for my favourite season.

Build a closet in the basement

Enamel basins and infant sleepers hanging in the laundry room

Our house has fabulous storage. However, none of it is a match for my husband. I’m not sure Matt’s office ever successfully contained all of his stuff. Over the winter I had a brainwave. Remove some of the cabinets that are tucked between the dryer and the freezer in the laundry room (they’re already filled with his stuff anyway) and replace them with a full height closet. I think I can just about triple his storage space. And it should be a pretty simple build with some basic framing, drywall, bi-fold doors and shelves.

Sand scrabble tiles

Scrabble art for the basement

Source: insideways

One of my Home Goals for 2016 is adding some art to the basement. Going with our fun and games theme, I want to DIY some Scrabble tiles. I’ve had the wood cut for months. Months, I tell you. I just need to sand them and then paint the letters. Sanding sounds like a good way to enjoy some time outside in the sunshine, doesn’t it?

Strip paint off the guest room bed

Robin's egg blue country guest room

The only thing missing from our beautiful guest room makeover is a proper bedframe. I have a great rustic metal frame in the barn, but the finish isn’t the greatest. I’m planning to strip it back to bare metal and see what it looks like. Paint stripping is an outdoor job IMO, so another good way to enjoy the outdoors.

Makeover office cabinet

Vintage china cabinet

Last week, you saw the china cabinet I’ve bought for my office and heard about my plans to rebuild the upper hutch. I’m so excited to have my office organized that I can’t wait to get started on this project. However, I have to put this lower down on the list, as other projects have been hanging around much longer. So this one’s a maybe summer project.

Puttering on some projects, keeping up with the gardens and relaxing on the farm. That’s my recipe for a good summer.

What’s your recipe? Do you have a summer to-do list? What are you looking forward to this season?

Let’s get vertical

Posted on by

10

In the words of organizing guru Olivia Newton John,

Let’s get vertical, vertical
I wanna get vertical
Let me hear your closet talk

That’s not how it goes?

That’s how it went in the closet under the stairs… and it’s fabulous.

Building shelves in this closet was one of my home goals for this year.

We have a great storage space, but without shelves it was just a pile.

Messy closet

Disorganized closet

Confession, I hadn’t even put away our Christmas decorations because I didn’t want to go to the work of digging through the pile to find the storage bins.

But no longer.

Building shelves in the closet under the stairs

Christmas is tucked away, along with camping gear, electronics, artwork. There’s even a place for the vacuum and folding chairs.

Building shelves in the closet under the stairs

I used my very simple technique of affixing cleats to the wall (I used 1x3s) and then putting pre-finished white melamine shelves on top. The wrinkle with this closet was the stairs. I could only put the cleats on the back and one side wall, so I needed to find another way to support the end of the shelves that tucked under the stairs.

A few 2×3 braces screwed into the stairs solved that problem.

Building shelves in the closet under the stairs

Because I went vertical, we can fit a tonne of stuff in here. In fact, we have more than a shelf and a half empty–room to grow!

I think my favourite part is that I have a nook that perfectly fits the vacuum. Some mail organizers on the wall hold alternate attachments and extra bags.

Storing the vacuum and its attachments

Sturdy hooks hold our folding chairs and little step stool.

Store folding chairs by hanging them on the wall

And there’s still room to walk beside the shelves and access everything even at the far end.

Sing it with me, people. Let’s get vertical, vertical…

Spring cleaning

Posted on by

3

Sarah in Illinois is here to start off the week. Sarah’s looking ahead to spring–and beyond–and has a great tool to share with us.

I am the type of person that likes to be organized, have a plan, make lists, etc. It makes me feel more focused on the job at hand, and I am more comfortable when I feel I have direction. One thing I did to feel more organized this year was to sign up for a daily email from Spring Cleaning 365. Each day I get an email with one small job to focus on for the day.

Obviously I don’t need anyone to tell me that I need to clean my toilet, or put a load of laundry in, but these emails remind me of some tasks that get overlooked.

When was the last time you took out the bottom drawers of your refrigerator and cleaned underneath? Or the last time you disinfected your TV remote? If you’re anything like me, it has probably been a while!

So I like the emails because they remind me of the areas that I usually overlook. The goal from the website is to do one small task a day and then you won’t spend much time on it, but I find it is usually works out that I do one or two a week and use the weekends to catch up.

Tupperware

This weekend one of the projects I tackled was to sort my plastic storage containers. Between using them for leftovers and taking my lunch to work every day, we have a lot of containers. But over time many have lost their mates. So I took all pieces out of my cabinets and drawers and made matches.

Tupperware

Why did we have so many lids and so few bottoms!?

I couldn’t believe how many tops and bottoms had lost their mates. We had all of these extras left over. I am going to take the extras to my mom to see if she can make any matches with hers and then all the rest are going to be recycled. And now my cabinets and drawers close much easier.

I did do a little work on our home improvement projects this week. Steve installed baseboard and door trim in our hallway last week and I finally took an evening and primed them. Next, I need to prime and paint the walls and put a coat of paint on the trim.

Hallway before

Before

Hallway after

After

The hallway will lead to the addition on the house. So the drywall you see at the end of the hall is where we will extend the hallway to two new bedrooms.

I have drawn out the floorplan and started my list of materials, so I can prepare an estimate for us and for the bank. As I think I have mentioned before, we are doing all of the work ourselves, so we will be our own estimators, designers, builders and coordinators. I am nervous and excited all at once.

What have you been working on in your home? Have you started any spring cleaning? Have you ever tackled a large home improvement project on your own? Does anyone have any advice for us on being our own project manager?

Spring Cleaning 365 sounds really neat, Sarah. Thanks for sharing it. Funnily enough, Matt and I did a tupperware cleanout ourselves last weekend. Although I cannot remember when I last cleaned under the fridge drawers, and I don’t think I’ve ever disinfected the remote.

Good thrifting week

Posted on by

15

Last week was a good thrifting week. On Thursday I scored a rocking chair (for our someday front porch).

Even though my backseat was (obviously) full I stopped at another Value Village and found something else I wanted. I’ve been looking for a large metal shelf, but I was loath to spend more than $100 for something new. Finding one second hand for $30 was a no-brainer. Of course it was huge and there was no way it was coming home with me when my car was already loaded.

Thrift store metal shelf

Fortunately, when I returned the next day, it was still there.

And now it’s in our cold cellar (a room that’s impossible to photograph thanks to no windows, fluorescent light and a whole lotta concrete).

Home decor storage in the cold cellar

This may not look like much, but it’s a big improvement over what was here before.

The previous owners left us a desk, but when it came to storage or organization it was pretty useless.

Mess

I’ve been stashing some of my overflow home decor in the cold cellar, and it was time for an upgrade. Up being the operative word. We all know that using vertical space is the best organization technique there is.

Now I have a place for all of my home decor accessories–including my very own lighting emporium. (And a reminder that future thrifting trips should not include anymore lamps).

Lighting storage

Gathering lights, shades, baskets, bins, trays, shelves and bottles from all over the house and consolidating them in the cold cellar made me very happy last weekend. I even unpacked two boxes that have been packed since we moved to the farm… nearly four years ago.

I love getting organized. Almost as much as I love a good thrifting score.

Have you done any thrifting recently? What do you like to buy? I knew I had a thing for chairs. The lighting obsession was a bit of a surprise. Do you have a home decor stash? How do you store your home decor? Who else loves getting organized?

The big freeze

Posted on by

10

In the final stages of negotiating to buy our first house, we were $1,000 under what the sellers wanted. In hindsight, it was just $1,000, but it was hard for us to up our offer. In the end, we wrote the microwave and little chest freezer that were in the house into the contract and paid the extra $1,000.

Since then we’ve joked that we have a $700 microwave and a $300 freezer (don’t ask me why the freezer got undervalued… although the microwave makes really excellent popcorn).

Despite low-balling it, we do like the freezer too. It’s small, but it allows Matt to feed his habit of always being stocked in case the apocalypse arrives.

Small chest freezer full to the brim

Because Matt keeps us so well-stocked though, I often find myself emptying the entire freezer looking for the one tray of chicken breasts I’m sure is somewhere underneath the boxes of frozen fish and 17 packages of bacon. (There’s no question about Matt’s priorities–and yes, I actually counted 17 packages).

In his desire to improve his bacon stockpile, Matt has been campaigning to upgrade the freezer for some time. I’ve been holding out. However, when 100+ pounds of venison came into our lives at the beginning of November, I relented.

We could get a bigger freezer. But I was adamant it had to be upright. I was not going to spend more time mining through an even bigger chest freezer.

Just before Christmas, our freezer arrived. Matt retrieved our venison from his father’s freezers–yup, plural. (The propensity to stockpile frozen food is genetic). And we loaded up the new freezer.

Upright freezer

The venison got a shelf, the whole bottom drawer and a few of the door shelves as well. Deer burgers anyone?

Venison in our new freezer

Despite being one-third filled with venison, there’s still lots more room. This freezer is huge. Cubic footage was our biggest criteria in choosing the new freezer. To help keep us organized, I purchased some bins from the dollar store. We have one for chicken, wieners (sausages and hotdogs), vegetables, breads, seafood, and, of course, one just for bacon.

Bacon in the freezer storage bin

We’re calling this our Christmas gift to each other. (Isn’t being a grown-up so cool? Forget about video games or gadgets. We get appliances for Christmas.) It’s not as big as the couch from our first year and definitely not close to the fireplace from last year, but the new freezer is absolutely an upgrade from our old one.

What did you get for Christmas this year? Do you have a freezer? Is yours upright or chest? Any freezer organization tips to share? Do you have venison in your freezer? Any venison recipes to share? We’re going to be eating it for awhile.

2/3 of a china cabinet

Posted on by

4

Somehow, I’ve ended up married to a person who cannot–cannot–pass by a Value Village without stopping in. Now I enjoy thrifting as well. However, more often than not, I end up walking around the VV parking lot with Baxter, as I prefer not to leave him in the car.

So a few weeks ago, Bax and I did our shopping in the parking lot.

I’ve been on the hunt for a china cabinet to use for storage in my office. There just happened to be a pair of bookcases sitting outside the VV that I thought might work. A quick conversation with the clerk confirmed that they weren’t sold, and he was more than happy to be spared carrying them into the store.

When we got them home, it turned out they were a bit too big for my office. However, I thought they might work for the dining room.

I’ve been on the hunt for a new china cabinet for the dining room for a little while. In fact, it was one of the items on my Home Goals 2015 list.

I had visions of using a big 1990s style entertainment unit for the dining room. I was blown away when I first saw Thalita’s entertainment unit makeover in her kitchen, and it sparked all kinds of ideas.

An entertainment unit–one that used to hold those huge boxy TVs–would give me a tonne of storage. And even though these are more bookcases than TV cabinets, they totally do.

90s bookcases as china cabinet

The cupboards below hold our wedding china, wine glasses and other serving pieces and keep them sheltered from dust–even with a lovely cutout in the back of the cabinet.

Wedgewood Oberon china

Wine glasses and plates

The shallow drawers are perfect for candles and cutlery.

Candle storage

The shelves above hold the prized Bleu de Roi china that I inherited from my grandmother and some bar supplies along with Matt’s collection of steins and shot glasses.

Bleu du roi china

Steins and shot glasses

I haven’t done much styling for these shelves. I’ve more just unloaded various cupboards.

And this set up is definitely not final.

My original vision was for three bookcases. I still have plans to build a middle section to tie the shelves all together. Plus remove the arch at the top of the cases, update the trim and the hardware, add glass doors to the upper section (I don’t believe in dusting, so open shelves and I do not get along) and then paint everything.

90s bookcases as china cabinet

Plus someday I’d like to paint the walls in the dining room, relocate the antlers, etc. etc. etc.

For now though, I figure I’m at least 2/3 of the way there.

“Wait-no-more” organizing challenge

Posted on by

6

This is the post you were supposed to get on Friday. So much for “wait-no-more.”

My office is the least set-up room in our house. As such it’s a constant challenge to stay organized. I’ve shared my shame before more than a year ago, and, apparently, I’m going to do so again.

This time it’s mostly just a build up of paper. I have a hard time staying on top of my paper always. Despite a rainy Sunday two weeks ago, I just couldn’t motivate myself to tackle it.

Piles of paper on top of the filing cabinet

Then, Jen at IHeart Organizing posted a “Wait-no-more” organizing challenge. She’s tackling four trouble areas in her home. I may not do four, but I was going to get my butt in gear and do at least this one.

Jen shared a cute printable to help get the organizing started, so the first step was filling that out. She asked what’s working and what’s not working. It was really good to consider that before I just dove into cleaning up the paper.

IHeart Organizing printable

The wood plate that my Dad made for us works very well on the hall table for mail. Unfortunately, mail and papers also find their way to the kitchen island, which doesn’t work so well. I still love the little nook in my office. The bulletin board, calendar and dresser drawers all work to help keep us organized. I love the drop zone for my keys, sunglasses, wallet. Unfortunately, I’ve dropped a few too many things in the drop zone–the curse of a flat surface.

Paper storage options

On the other side of my office, the wire caddies on the wall could work to store paper until I’m ready to file it. Unfortunately, I forget which bin is which and end up stuffing everything in together. Some labels would help me stay organized. The filing cabinet may be ugly, but it also works. We are a paper household, so we need a place to stash it all. What doesn’t work so well is the top of the filing cabinet–another flat surface that is just a magnet for piles of paper.

Paper storage options

The plan for the week was to sort, reconcile, file and label.

Matt was out with friends on Friday night, so I finally got started. (Do I know how to have fun or what?) Another rainy day on Sunday allowed me to finish the job.

I only do the filing and reconciling every few months (I’ve tried monthly, and I just don’t stick with it). I’ve learned that I need various systems to control the paperwork between reconciliations. (My problem this time around was that everything got a little out of control).

The first part of my system is a receipts bin. This is just a cereal box covered in wrapping paper (a tip I picked up from IHeart Organizing) and tucked into a drawer in my office. Receipts come out of my wallet and into the bin. (Other bins hold gift cards, takeout menus and coupons).

Receipts

The statements and other mail go into the wall caddy. I don’t think I’ve shared this project before. The organizer was one of those white wire things. It had been left behind by past owners, and I’d tossed it in a closet. When I was first organizing my office a year ago, I realized it might work to sort the mail. Remember the first tip of storage and organizing–use the vertical space.

I hit the organizer with some ORB spray paint and screwed it to the wall. It looked good and could have worked well, but for some reason it was hard for me to remember what papers went in what bin. The labels that I added last weekend make it much more functional. I just chopped up a paint stick, drilled a hole in the end, wrote my categories on them with a marker and then tied them with twine to the bins.

Mail organizer

Then it was time to get sorting. There were lots of piles of statements and receipts spread out across the office floor at various points on the weekend.

Reconciling credit card bills

I made a few new files and tucked everything into the filing cabinet. And here’s the before and after to show how far the office–or at least this corner–has come.

Paper work before and after

There’s obviously still some more organization to go (pictures tucked on the floor around the cabinet) and some decorating that’s needed (very, very boring blank wall above the cabinet). There’s also still my nemesis–a big flat surface with the top of the filing cabinet. Even worse, it’s now completely clear and just waiting for clutter.

I need to come up with something to decorate or use the top of the cabinet so that it doesn’t become another drop zone. Any suggestions?

I’m sure paper will gang up on me again, but I feel better for having it under control at this moment.

Thanks Jen for organizing the “wait-no-more” challenge.

How do you tackle paper organizing at your house? Or are you paperless? Does anyone else reconcile like I do? I always feel a little neurotic matching up every receipt. What’s your biggest organizing challenge?

Simple belt storage solution

Posted on by

8

When we switched bedrooms, we switched closets too. I knew one thing I wanted to improve in the new closet was my belt storage. They’ve been tangled and tossed onto a shelf since we moved in.

belts2

When I still lived with my parents, I came up with a solution that worked very well for belts: cup hooks.

belts23

In the past, I’ve screwed the cup hooks directly into the drywall or plaster of the wall. However, this time I decided to go for something more portable so that I can move it if I ever relocate closets again. Screwing the cup hooks into a length of wood worked. Then I simply screwed the wood into the wall of the closet.

Simple belt storage solution

Super simple DIY. Super simple storage. My happiness is not commensurate with the simplicity of this project.

How do you organize your belts? Who else is a fan of cup hooks? Does organization make you happy?

Bringing back the books

Posted on by

18

I didn’t really have project this month, but I did say that I wanted my books back. That meant finishing the bookshelf makeover that I started in August.

You might recall that in my original photo you could barely see the bookshelves because they were painted such a dark brown (oh, and hidden behind boxes that have been packed for two and a half years).

Bookshelves and boxes of books

Well, not anymore. Behold the view from the same angle.

Living room bookshelves

Bright and white and, best of all, filled with books. Hello beloveds.

The bookshelves wrap the one corner of the living room and tuck behind the comfy lounging chair that I inherited from my grandmother.

Corner bookshelves

I’m pretty happy with how things have come together. I know a lot of people struggle with styling bookshelves, and I’m no different. I’m decently satisfied with the middle section right now.

As always, the contents of the shelves have a lot of meaning for us. Besides the books we have some very special treasures.

The trophy is Matt’s grandma’s won for a school running race in 1935 when she was in high school, my dad made the small lidded wood pot on his lathe, and the hammer on the top right was a gift from my grandmother to Matt and unscrews to reveal decreasing sizes of screwdrivers. Towards the bottom, we have a brick I found in the backyard of our first house that has our city’s name stamped on it. Below that there’s a picture of Matt and me at Niagara Falls back when we first started dating, and beside that a miniature replica of Rodin’s The Kiss. (Rodin is our favourite sculptor. A miniature of The Thinker is on an adjacent shelf). The half naked man (or more accurately naked half man) was a high school art class project.

Bookshelves

I want to tuck a few more knick knacks in some of the empty spaces, and I definitely need to get some bookends. I’ll continue to futz with the arrangement, but regardless of what things look like, I’m thrilled to have my books back.

Perhaps it’s because I had bookshelves on the brain, but as I was pulling my shelves together they seemed to be popping up on other blogs as well:

I cannot explain how thrilling it is to have my books back. I came across a few I’d forgotten I had and of course lots of old favourites. In fact the borrowed book that I was half-way through may have been set aside in favour of an old favourite. (I never do that. I’m always a one-book-at-a-time woman).

Plus, setting up the bookshelves gave us an excuse to paint some more of the living room and unpack about 16 boxes that had been piled in the corner. The room feels so much more finished! … Well, we’re still a long way from finished. At least it’s a little bit closer to the vision in my head.

How do you handle book storage at your house? Besides books, what’s on your bookshelves? Any tips on styling bookshelves? Who else is a one-book-at-a-time reader?