Kids Storage Solutions

First, I want to apologize for my lack of blogging lately.

I thought being unemployed would give me tons of blogging time.  But instead I've been so busy catching up on projects that have been on my To-Do List for FOREVER, I find myself away from the computer more than I would like.

And well, let's be blunt for a minute...I'm a, um, full size plump plus sized thick girl.  A thick girl who used to sit on her rear all day in front of a computer.  My body is not used to going full speed ahead all day everyday!! 

It's tired.  No, wait!  My body is more like, fall onto the couch-it hurts to lift my finger, exhausted, come evening!  LOL

I have so many things to show you, I just have to schedule more time to sit down and blog about it all. :)

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One of the things I promised to share with you was, storage in Doodle's bedroom.

As I've mentioned, oh about, a bazillion times....her bedroom is only 9 x 9 (plus a couple inches).

Luckily, she is outgrowing the toys stage, so we don't have alot of that to store anymore.  But we do still have books, movies, CD's, jewelry making supplies, games, art supplies, etc.

Last week I showed the work horse of the room....

Hidden storage is always the best solution!! ESPECIALLY in a small space!

Doodle is anal retentive a neat freak like her mother, so hidden storage is a big deal to her.  Well, she's a neat freak in her bedroom anyway.  The rest of the house, yeah, she just throws her stuff wherever for Mommy to pick up.

Anywho....in the nemisis cabinet, Doodle stores all her books, her DVD's, and her jewelry making supplies (another hobby that seems to have come and gone).

I also added a storage ottoman under her window.

This may seem like a strange choice for a tiny kids room, but I do have my reasons.

First of all, let me note...if I was staging my house for sale, I would remove this piece to make the room look larger, because absolutely, it does take up valuable floor space!  But my daughter is beyond the age of playing in the floor....and we LIVE in this house.  Staging has it's place....but you can't live comfortably in a staged house!  (There I said it!) :) 

Hang out space is important to her at her age. 

The bench provides a spot for her friends to sit...for her to sit and play guitar...for her pets to stretch out and watch her when she's in her room....a place for her dog to get up into her bed (Lucy the Pudgy Pug can't just jump up into the bed, LOL).

And more importantly....it offers more hidden storage for stuffed animals and Barbies (the last of the toys that are still played with)! 

If she's hanging out in her room with her friends or just watching TV and needs a place to put her drink (water only! LOL) or a bowl of popcorn...both sides of the ottoman flip over to useful trays!

So, while she doesn't have a ton of floor space, this ottoman provides more usefulness to her at this stage than floor space.  She has ample room between her bed and ottoman to move around.

I purchased this ottoman last year at Wal-Mart for around $80.  I shopped other places, but I liked this one best for the flexibility it offered with the trays.

Please excuse all the cords!  Someday I'm going to get an eletrician to put outlets in the right places! :)

Later this week, I will show you more storage ideas that I've used to maximize Doodle's tiny 9 x 9 bedroom. :)

My Nemesis

Do you ever have a project that just kicks your butt every direction you turn? 

I have lovingly referred to this cabinet as the "Project from H E (double) L!!! ;)

I think it is the first furniture piece I have ever taken on.  But after seeing all the wonderful redo's in blogland, I decided I had to do it too!  You know how that goes. LOL

So it started with this $15 Craigslist find...LAST SUMMER!

Yes....I have been slowly redoing this cabinet for well over SIX MONTHS!!!  Maybe nine?

Now you know why I call it my nemesis!

Here she is before:

AWFUL!

It used to be an old bathroom cabinet.  It would have hung the other direction....like this:

Is it weird that turning the picture upside down like that makes me nauseous? LOL

Anywho....it had a crackle finish.  I 'think' some type of oil based paint.  And had painting on the back.

It was B.A.D.

The inside was covered with old contact paper.

And let me tell you....that stuff was STUCK!

So, as a furniture novice...first I removed the contact paper.  Which turned out to be a nightmare!  It was down so hard, I couldn't just pull it off.  I had to use wallpaper remover and a scraper!

I was frustrated before really even starting. 

So I let it sit awhile before coming back to it.

When I finally got up the nerve to revisit this project, I tried sanding it.

But I decided pretty quickly that I was going to need to strip it!  UGH! 

I wasn't sure what kind of effect that crackle and oil (I think) paint would have on my finished product and I sure didn't want to do all that work to paint it and have it messed up.  And sanding wasn't getting me anywhere fast.

So, I bought furniture stripper and went to town. 

Furniture stripper was actually pretty easy to use...but it took me several coats to get it acceptable.

So....I got frustrated....and it sat....again. LOL

Next, I decided spray paint was the way to go. 

Doodle's room needed more of the grayish blue color spread around, so I figured the cabinet would be a great way to do that.

Unfortunately, the color I 'thought' would work, turned out looking like 1985, let's add some ducks wallpaper!!!

Thoroughly FRUSTRATED.....yep......it sat for MONTHS!!!!

Then finally, as Doodle's room was coming together, I knew she was going to need that cabinet for storage.  So, I repainted it.  This time with a quart of paint I got at Lowe's, a close match to her throw pillow.

YES!!! 

Finally!!!

Something I was pleased with.

BUT.....I did NOT want to tackle stripping the doors!!!

So, it went in her room, without doors, for MONTHS. LOL

But, FINALLY, with my new found freedom, I got the gumption to finish the whole stinkin' thing!!  It moved to the top of my list very quickly. :)

And last week, with a huge sigh of relief (and possibly some dancing and whooping), I finished the cabinet that was once my nemesis!!!

And I am in LOVE!! :)

I added feet I got at Lowe's to the bottom of the cabinet to make it look more like it was meant to be standing on the floor and not hanging on a wall.

Of course I distressed it.

I was a bit overwhelmed when picking out the knobs.  So many things would have looked great on this cabinet.  But eventually I decided I wanted a somewhat vintage, but understated look for the cabinet.

I got the adorable knobs at Hobby Lobby for $2.99 (I think, they may have been $3.99 each).

And now Doodle has a ton of hidden storage for her books, movies and bead supplies!!

And most important of all.....I can finally mark this project off my list!!!  LOL

Staged, before I had to add all her tween girl stuff: ;)

And here with the stereo, her beloved shells, and collectible she loves. :)

I got the little lamp at the Christmas Tree Shoppe for $10.  That place is so awesome.

I have a few more things to finish up in her room, but it is almost complete!!!

And I have some other functional ideas I used in her tiny 9x9 bedroom to show you soon! :)

(Check out the tab at the top of the page for the parties I attend and will be linking this project to.) :)

Laundry/Craft Rooms

Do you have a headache yet?

Sadly, I post in current time....so while I'm posting about half of Doodle's Room Reveal, Kitchen Decor Inspiration, and Redoing my Living Room....yep, that is exactly the order those are going in here at my house too...not just on my blog!

I AM all over the place like that. LOL

And NO...I haven't finished any of those projects yet. :)

I confess that I have "Project ADD"!  LOL

This week my office/craft room finally drove me over the edge!!  I couldn't stand to look at it one more minute!

Here is what it looked like:

 (Sorry, for the REALLY bad pictures!  It has been cloudy and gross here for days!)

It's looked like that for MONTHS!!!  I just could not take it another day!

I'm turning this room back into a bedroom. 

I do not use that room!  I usually surf the web on my little Acer Netbook in bed or on the couch, so the desktop, while staying, does not need it's own room.  And I do NOT do crafts in here.  I almost always use the coffee table to work on crafts.  So, really I just need good storage, not a whole room, dedicated to my craft supplies! 

So, the crap stuff needs to find a new home!

Enter my laundry room!  Which was turning into another dumping spot.

Somehow I had to combine these two spaces into ONE!! 

Don't laugh!!  It is possible....I hope. ;)

I took every. single. solitary. shelf. in my entire house at some point and put it in that laundry room to try out!  I can't afford some elaborate system...so I have to use what I have.

I wish I had taken pictures of all my trial and errors...but of course I became so fixated I forgot. LOL

Anywho...here is what I ended up with.  I am VERY pleased!!

It's not as claustrophobic as the big black shelves from the office felt.

What's behind the curtain you ask?

My laundry supplies (and my utility closet...which is why everything has to be removable as well)!

I'm not done. 

I have to find one more basket (did you notice that one was missing?  ARGH! They were sold out of that size when I checked. Those are from K-Mart by the way.  I bought them ages ago, but they still carry them for $9.99).

I need to label the baskets for easier use. 

Plus, I have a ton of projects still in the office that need to be finished or donated or something!

I am SOOOO thankful I bought a stackable washer/dryer years ago!  I don't know what I would have done when I bought this house without them.  They fit perfectly into my little laundry "nook".

That door to the right is my back door, it leads to the backyard. 

Can you believe I got that much storage into that teeny tiny space?!?! 

I will post more in the upcoming days about the additional changes I've made to this area!  I have some plans. ;)


UPDATE:  This project was featured at Delightful Order!

Closet Organizer

Happy New Year!!! 

I have so much planned for 2011!!  And I figured since organization is usually high on the resolution list, I'd start the year out with my own organization project.

Doodle's Closet!!

As I mentioned last month, Doodle is getting an entire room make over!!

Her closet before was just your basic builder closet...a rod and a shelf...that's it.

Considering it is SO small, a customizable closet system seemed like the perfect solution for maximising space in her tiny closet! 

After shopping all the home improvements stores and online, I decided to go with Rubbermaid's Configurations Closet Kit for 3-6' Closets.  I purchased my system at Menards for $50 (I paid $60, but I got a $10 rebate coming!). Plus I added the shoe racks, for $16 and the extenders so I could put the shoe racks down further in the closet, for $10 each. So, the whole system cost about $90.

This project is one of the biggest projects I've tackled on my own to date!!!

As is with every.single.project I tackle...everything was NOT smooth sailing!

First I gave the closet a fresh coat of paint.  It's amazing how many stains a closet gets in a year and half!  Plus since I never got around to painting the baseboards in the closets when we moved in, I went ahead and painted those as well while I was in there.

People have asked before how I painted my baseboards in my house.  Well, since I've known my carpets are temporary and will be removed, I didn't get super anal about it.  I used edgers and went to town...giving, typically, three coats. 

I strongly recommend priming them first, but I'm lazy and didn't want to open two different paint cans.

So, here she is with her fresh coat of paint and newly painted baseboards.

Then....it happens!  You know, the point where everything goes ALL WRONG!

It hadn't occurred to me that I would need to remove the wood that was already in place in the closet.  So....I had to take out the wood nailed all along the closet to hold up the old shelf!

So, step one was to pry all the wood off.....patch all the holes....sand.....and give the closet another fresh coat of paint.

NOW I'm ready to start actually installing the new system.

You know you are in trouble when STEP 1 says, "Measure 86.5 inches up and mark at each stud" this is where the main bracket for the closet system will hang (meaning the top shelf will go there, so technically the closet will need room ABOVE that 86.5 inches so you can use the top shelf).........and you measure up and the closet only goes up to 82 inches high!

Uh-oh!!

THEN....you get out your new stud finder and......can't find a stud!!!

At this point I realize....if my stud finder would just go out and get me a couple of 'real' studs....they could do the whole bleepin' closet and I wouldn't have to worry about any it!! ;)

Ok, breath Erin!  You're just going to have to wing it!

So, I played with the top shelf and just decided where it would 'work'.  And went from there.

I did eventually find 2 studs in the closet (no....not the kind that would actually do all the work unfortunately).  But of course, they didn't lay in the right place for the closet system.

So, I had to put in an anchor for every.single.stinking.screw I was going to use in the ENTIRE closet!  As much as I wanted to skip this process, I figured it was kinda important the system actually stayed up and didn't come crashing down. 

Of course, they didn't include enough anchors (probably because they assumed you'd be able to find a stud!).  So, I had to run back to the hardware store...Lowe's this time because it's closer.  $6 later I had a bag of screws and anchors.

Back to drilling and anchoring.

Until half way through I realize.....I STILL don't have enough bleepin' anchors!!!!

BACK to the !@#$%#@!##@ hardware store.  Menard's this time.  I don't know why...change of scenery?  NO, that's right, to get the shoe racks this time in addition to MORE ANCHORS.

Ok, breath again Erin.

Actually, after this, the rest of the system went up quite easily.

If I hadn't run into the disassembly of old system (I use the word system lightly here), the closet height issue and the stud/anchor issue, this systems was actually very easily to install.

After all was said and done...I did my "who needs a man" dance (yes, I do this every time I wish I could pass it off but complete it by myself). :)

Doodle is THRILLED with the result! 

We still have to add some pretty storage boxes to the shelves....we've got plenty to still get back into her tiny bedroom and closet.  And I still have to decide whether to decide to install new closet doors or go with a curtain for now. 

Until next time.... 

Fridge Art!

Sorry, I'm late again to 'No Function Friday'!  It's been crazy busy around here lately trying to get ready for this Holiday Bazaar coming up! 

But better late than never I suppose! :)

Speaking of the Holiday Bazaar....this Friday's craft is another item I'm planning to sell at the show!

And believe it or not....it actually DOES have FUNCTION!!

I would prefer to add a bit more embellishment, but for the most part and I am quite pleased with the final product!

Sorry I don't have more pictures, I was in a huge hurry!  I'll be making plenty more and I'll show all the neat and colorful options I'll have available.  I've got LOTS of great choices lined up and I can't wait to show you all of them....when I get them completed! LOL

I'm actually considering selling these on Etsy.

Anywho...it has magnets on the back so your child can choose ONE piece of artwork to display on the fridge....making them happy and MOM happy too! :)

I have to admit...I am one of 'those' moms.  I love my kids artwork.  I just don't want it all over the house. 

This is something that is pretty for mom, functional for your kid, and limits 'masterpieces' to ONE at a time!  Plus it gives your child the freedom to choose which one gets displayed!

It kind of sassies up Fridge Art!!! :)

So...what do you think??  Any changes you think I should make? 

How much should I sell it for at the Bazaar next month??  I was thinking around $12. 

Thank you again for your ideas and opinions!! 

I hope everyone has a Happy Halloween!!! :)

Until next time....

Tale of a Pantry

Wow, it's been awhile since I've done a post about my actual blog's purpose....living well in a small home! :)

Today I wanted to discuss my pantry!

Can you believe a house as small as mine has a large size pantry?

Ok, actually it doesn't. What it does have is a coat closet...inside the kitchen area!!

The previous owners turned the coat closet into a PANTRY by removing the bar and adding shelves! How ingenious is that??

And I had no intention of changing it back! :)

Sure, the builder built this closet to hang coats in when you come in from the garage. But, we need a pantry way more than we need a coat closet!

I bolded this sentence because I want you to think about this! Do you have a spot in your home that was built by the builder with a specific intended purpose but could be used by YOU in a better way for your family?

Don't be afraid to repurpose a closet or a room or a nook in your home if it will make your life easier!! I give you permission! :)

I always say, make your home work for YOU.

So, here's the second part of making your home work for you. Did you notice I'm not showing you a fancy pantry?

Nope. No fancy holders. No fancy painting or wallpaper or shelves. I envy beautiful pantries...but they are not realistic for me.

I'm not going to empty my food into pretty containers when I get home from the grocery. Let's be honest...we're lucky when the food makes it INTO the pantry. ;)

I do keep certain things in Lock N Lock containers (I LOVE Lock N Lock!!!) like cereal. That's because Doodle doesn't close the bags and they get stale. I keep my flour and sugar in large containers because it's easier to measure out...but that's about it.

Ok, and yes my food is grouped and all labels must always be facing out because I am that anal retentive (my step-mother actually calls me "A.R." as a nickname because I am THAT BAD! Whatever.) :P

The white can is for my recycling. I keep it in my pantry so it's out of the way and I don't have to worry about smells because it's 'clean' trash.

Don't overlook 'free' storage space, like the inside of the door!

On the bottom shelf of the door, I keep plastic cups and small containers for snacks...within easy reach of Doodle and her friends...not that Doodle is really that small anymore...but she still uses them. :)

When I started taking pictures of the pantry on Sunday, I got a briliant idea!! I thought it would be awesome to use my Cricut to make a vinyl sticky for my pantry!!! Because I REALLY felt like I needed to add another project to my day...because you know...I don't have enough to do. LOL

Anywho...I downloaded a fancy font (using dafont.com...and my Sure Cuts A Lot 2 software) and made my own 'Pantry' sign (with Doodle's design assistance).

I used my level and painters tape so I made sure I put it on straight.

Then after I put it on, I grabbed a Doodle to rub it on real good.  Everyone needs a good Doodle! ;)

And walla! A fancy pantry door since the inside isn't!! :)

I had planned to add some squiggly things to either end of the word, but never found any I could download for free and get them to work. But Doodle and I justified it decided that since the "P" was so fancy it didn't need any squiggly scroll thingies. :)

Do you have any spaces in your home you are not using as the builder intended?  Do tell! :)

Until next time....