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Budget, Cleaning, De-cluttering, Garage, Organizing

Garage of Doom to Organized Happiness

July 23, 2013 1 Comment

Well, a little more than a month later and my Garage of Doom is D. O. N. E. done!!! Can you tell I’m a little excited? I have been forcing myself (and my hubby) out into that now hot garage – seriously why do we always try to do this in the summer – to finish. You have no idea how many times I wanted to just shove everything back up against the walls and say “good enough”. But, I knew from 11 years of experience that would not do, and we would be right back where we were in a couple of months. So…we trudged through the massive piles of stuff. Many things were deemed worthy to be kept. So, if worthy to be kept, then worthy of it’s own special spot – right? We store A. LOT. of stuff in our garage because we are 6 people in a not-so-big 30 year old home with not a ton of storage inside. We have an attic, but that is for the things we don’t really need easy access to because, well, it’s not easy to access. 🙂 Enough with the talky, talky and on to the looky, looky!! If you are anything like me than the pictures are what you are waiting to see 🙂 I shared with you the before’s in this post, so here are the afters!!

Yes like I said there is still a lot of stuff that we store in here, but man it is organized, and by that I mean like things are with like things, and things make sense to us – things are where they need to be based on the amount of use. If you follow me on instagram you know I took plenty of in-between/progress photos. I just needed to see it for myself!! 🙂 I will be sharing this week some specific areas of interest but for this post I just wanted to share pics, and some thoughts on the process.

This all started with me being fed-up with the mess. I can never find anything!!! When I put stuff in the garage I never know where it came from so I would just throw it wherever, which just adds to the problem. We have lived with the garage plan that the previous home owners left us, because honestly it’s the garage and I would rather spend my time and energy inside the house ;). But, when we were honest with each other, it just didn’t function for us, and we needed a change. I mean, seriously, the walls were PINK.

Ya, that color on the left – really?!? So, we I decided that if we were going to clean the garage we were gonna take it to the next level. Strip it clean and start over. So, everything got pulled off the various shelves, and out of the various corners and shoved into the middle.

This is one of the various pics of this process. There was sooo much stuff in here that we had to work our way around the room digging into one space at a time. We went through EVERYTHING!! Sorted EVERYTHING, grouped EVERYTHING, discussed logical placement of EVERYTHING. We got rid of a lot of things, and relocated some things to their appropriate place elsewhere. A lot of stuff stayed here and we found the perfect place for it – really I couldn’t rest until everything had a perfect place.

As I mentioned I did my best to keep this project on a low budget. In the end the total cost came to around $220. Our biggest expense being the shelves that we added above the work bench. The rest was spent on paint, plastic storage, a few new hooks, and a couple a small shelves.

I’m so satisfied with the results and the time spent!!! I just keep going out there and looking around – amazed!!! My hubby and I are exhausted!!! I’m so thankful for his patient endurance with me to the end. I’m sure there were plenty of things he would’ve rather been doing :). He is a good man!!

Stay tuned this week for some highlights!!

Linking up with Kristen at We Are That Family here

and here with Toni at A Bowl Full of Lemons

One Project at a Time Link party - ABFOL

Budget, Cleaning, De-cluttering, Garage, Organizing

Garage Inspiration

July 22, 2013 No Comments

We have been working tirelessly the past couple of weeks to get this garage project done. Although I like taking my time and thinking things through and getting things right. Having a big project like that looming over me keeps me from enjoying myself. Silly, I know, but hey that’s who I am. I am working on a post to share with you all the loveliness of the completed garage – 99.999% there – but I was thinking I would like to share with you my inspiration. I have seen many great garage organization posts on the web this summer and I have pinned a few ideas on pinterest as well, of course. I shared with you before that I had seen some ideas on leftover paint storage. Aren’t these cute? Same idea implemented by two awesome bloggers.

From Jen at IHeart Organizing

and then from Cassie at Hi Sugarplum

Isn’t this just the cutest!! And functional – you can see what color paint it is without opening the container!!

My next favorite thing is clear storage containers with labels for all those odds and ends things that are necessary to have when you are a homeowner, but you never know where to put them, and they always end up in a jumbled mess, and you can never find anything, so you just end up going out and buying more. (tell me this happens at your house too!)
Organized and labeled storage tubs in plain sight and easy reach seems like a better idea. Something like this:

from Toni at A Bowl Full of Lemons

Then there is the tools…a pegboard is an obvious solution, and we actually have one of those, but I love how Cassie spiced hers up a bit with some paint 🙂

from Cassie at Hi Sugarplum

I love this idea for the cordless things and their chargers. Nothing is ever charged, we can never find the charger, and there is never anywhere to plug it in even if we do find the charger. I think something along these lines would be great. I cannot find instructions to this, but I think it might be something you could DIY or at least something similar.

source

Honestly, part of my master plan is to get as much off the floor as possible. I like the idea of using wall-space like in this pic:

source

I know some things just can’t be helped, but this is how things get junky. Everyone in my family, including myself, is in the habit of just throwing things down. I desperately want to break this habit. These kids are gonna be grown soon and the least I can do for their future spouses is to teach them to pick-up after themselves :).

Stay tuned to see how it all comes out!!
Blessings!!

Family

Insta-Friday {July 19th}

July 19, 2013 No Comments

I am cheating and sharing two weeks of photos this Friday, cuz I forgot to share last Friday.

Sometimes in the summer the kids are so bored that they agree to go run errands with you!! 🙂 Love time with my kiddos!!

It has been plenty hot the past couple of weeks so I was more than happy for this random little rain storm – so happy that I sat out on my front porch to watch and listen to its loveliness.

Finally, it was the little boys’ turn to go to camp!! Can you see the excitement on their faces?!? They wanted to start packing like a week before they were supposed to leave!!

So…the little boys got on a bus to go to camp and the teenagers and I went to the outlet mall for a little summer shopping!!

Love hangin with my girlie!! Happy hour at Sonic makes us happy, happy, happy!!

So thankful to have all three of these boys back home. {Hubby went to Spain on a mission trip for 10 days – was really happy to have him back home :).} They took advantage of another fabulous summer shower to bike ride in the rain – one of their favorite activities :).

We have been spending endless hours in the garage, trying to get 11 years of mess under control, cleaned-out, repainted, and organized.

Now that EVERYONE was finally home altogether we took a much needed break from the garage chaos and went to see Despicable Me 2!!! Loved it! LOVE the minions!!!

More work in the garage – progress is being made. I think I needed to post these pics for myself more than for anyone else.

Thankful for helpers of all sizes!! 🙂 Hopefully I will be able to post about the completed, glorious garage that we are creating – soon.

Blessings to you and your this weekend!!

Linking up with Jeannett at Life Rearranged here

Budget, Cleaning, De-cluttering, Decorating, Organizing, Painting, Renovating

Laundry Room Redo

July 10, 2013 5 Comments

On Monday, I decided to clean-up and declutter my laundry room. So, as I started to throw things away, and clean – really clean, I got an itch to paint. I cleared everything out and this is where I started.

I had removed the doors on the cabinets a couple of years ago, and painted the inside of the cabinets this fun turquoise color. Lately I have been craving some navy blue in my house, and just so happens that I had some leftover navy blue paint from one of the boys’ rooms. Yippee!! Free!!

I painted all the parts of the cabinets that were still wood. After that I stood back and checked it out.

Too. Many. Colors. The yellow had to go. I again wanted to use what I had so my choices to keep it neutral were a tan/beige or an antique white (which is mostly white). I decided to go with the white because I didn’t want any more color in there at all. As I painted I just couldn’t stop. Why not go ahead and paint the trim…and the doors? 🙂

I had these baskets from the first make-over when I took the doors off and painted the inside of the cabinets. But….I had never labeled them. What I have found in trying to organize my home – if the baskets aren’t labeled then all kinds of things end up in the baskets and the organization doesn’t work.

bins for laundry room and cleaning storage

So, I made some cute labels for the baskets – again all with supplies I had on hand. Two days of work later and I am so happy with the results, I just want to spend all my time doing laundry. 🙂

Oh and if you are wondering how I got all this done in two days??? It is a very small space and I had this as my motivation…

well…all the stuff in the laundry room had to go somewhere 🙂

Here’s a before and after for your viewing pleasure.

So thankful the yellow glow is gone. I still have a few details in mind to add to make it fun along with functional, but I have a couple of youngens to get ready for camp. Maybe by the end of the week I’ll be able to share those with you. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy!!! Love it!! Blessings to you 🙂

Linking up with Abby at Just a Girl and Her Blog / Toni at A Bowl Full of Lemons / Jen at Tatertots & Jello / Ann at On Sutton Place / Aimee at It’s Overflowing / Jen at Tatertots & Jello

Budget, Crafting, Painting

Doggone Cuteness

July 6, 2013 5 Comments

We have been using this popcorn tin to store our dog food since we got our puppy.

It’s functional but that’s about it. I had seen some cute things in stores and on pinterest and really how hard could it be. So, I got a hankerin to spray paint something and the tin was the victim. I finally found my favorite spray paint tool – won’t spray paint without it – have you seen these – genius. Home depot for around $5 or less – saves your fingers from getting paint all over them, and from getting a cramp!!

I knew I wanted a handle for the lid and I found this cutie at hobby lobby – on sale of course. I made marks on the lid where I wanted it to go (no I did not measure), and then I used a simple screw-driver + hammer + block of wood method to punch a couple of holes in the lid.

Then I got to sprayin. First I sprayed a base-coat of this pretty turquoise of the front of the can.

As I was letting that dry I found a cute paw-print clip art and printed that out. Then I pulled out my clear contact paper again and traced the paw print on.

I decided to do a reverse stencil this time, so I stuck the pieces on top of the turquoise painted area. Then I sprayed the rest of it, including the lid with my oil-rubbed bronze spray paint, spraying right over the top of the contact paper.