organizing: turn crates into a bookshelf

in small rooms utilizing every inch of space to its full potential is key.  boy, do we know this :)

the little guy's room is one of the smallest spaces in our house.  we even put a loft bed in his room to allow a little more "play" space.  

he's getting older, getting more toys, and in need of  organized places to put them.  of course, he'd rather just dump everything in a pile.  we call him our "nester". 

there is this space between his bed and the entry to his room where a bookshelf would fit perfectly as a nightstand/storage combo.  regular bookshelf's are boring :) and sometimes pricey. finding one the right hight, but to wide was difficult, too.  so let's make one :)

Michael's has these bare wood crates for about $13 each.  after a few weeks using those 40% off coupons, i had enough to turn into a bookshelf. 

before painting them the same color as this, the hubs screwed them together for me. (i'm not a power tools kinda gal.  wish i was...someday, right?)

i'm kind of obsessed with crates, just check my crate board on Pinterest 

♥ i just might start hoarding them ♥

linking up with:

Weekend Wrap Up @ Tatertots and Jello

Tickled Pink @ 504 Main

Organizing School Papers

i am always fighting the paper clutter around here.  school papers come home everyday, and now i have two wee ones bringing home precious hand written work.  i needed a quick and easy way to store the "keepers".  

i had this wood file cabinet that my parents had gifted me a long time ago.  i once used it to file important documents, but now have another system for those papers, so the cabinet was sitting all lonely in the basement.
i used a little gray paint to give it a fresh new life.  (i'm not telling my dad...he has this thing against painting wood furniture.)  i tried to sand it a bit before painting, but i wasn't too concerned about it (mostly because i was in a hurry :).  

the little frame plates on the front i painted white, and added some new pretty drawer pulls i found on Etsy.  i love the way it turned out♥ 

one drawer for each kiddo, and the files inside are labeled with grade levels.  

the front of each folder will have school year info & their picture.  in the upcoming years i'll also include a sample of their handwriting & a short list of their current favorites.

right now we will keep it in our little make shift office for easy filing during the school year.  around Christmas time we will be in a new home (yay) where i'll have a craft room to keep the cabinet for easy access.

this system is going to help me control that urge to save every paper they bring home.  i'll only have so much room in the drawer so we will have to choose what we keep carefully. 

conquering one paper battle at a time :)



linking up here: Tickled Pink @ 504 Main Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest Simply Create @ Simply Designing Hookin Up with HOH weekend wrap-up party @ tatertots and jello





 

Menu Board (Organization)

I am on a mission to create more organization in our home.  

 

Earlier this year I put together a household notebook and it has helped some things run much smoother around here.  Our notebook is modified for what works for us.  

We have 3 sections: Finance, Medical, and Contacts. 

I have a separate binder just for recipes (some people include that in their notebook).  

Putting my grocery list and dinner menu in a binder just wasn't working for me.  

I needed something quickly accessible. 

I've seen some crafty people turn frames into dry erase menu boards and thought it was awesome, but I wanted my grocery list in the same place as my menu. 

Since I try to only grocery shop once a week, I like to have one master list that I can add to throughout the week. 

This is what I came up with...

a magnetic menu and shopping list combo for the fridge.

 

I started with a $3 glass frame from Wal-mart and a post-it pad.  

On regular printer paper I typed up and printed the days of the week.

I put the days of the week behind the glass (after cutting to size) and attached the paper pad to the front of the glass using glue dots and ribbon.  

Here you can kind of see how I put the ribbon a fourth of the way into the pad...just to keep it from falling forward.  As I use up the paper I'll just pull more out in front of the ribbon.  

{The magnetic dry erase marker/eraser came from Target}

I used E6000 to glue several magnets to the back of the frame.

 

Now I have an organized place for the weekly dinner menu and shopping list. 

Sharing this at THESE awesome linky parties.

A Simple Pantry Fix

The wire shelves in my pantry drive me nuts.  

Everything falls over or falls through the wires.  

Just looks...sloppy.

 so...we took at trip to the Home Depot.  

We purchased thin, inexpensive wood...just needed it good enough to cover the shelves.  

I measured the pantry shelves beforehand and had them cut it at the store. 

{I love that they do that!}  

Total cost for the wood was $14.  

On a trip to Target I picked up a $5 roll of pretty contact paper.  

After covering the cut wood with contact paper the hubs put the wood across the wire shelves.  

For under $20 we have a pantry full of boxes and cans that stand upright!  Yay for the little things!

 {note my tiny helping hands}

Now that the shelves are more functional, it's on to the bigger dreams for my pantry!

These are some of my favorite ideas. 

Let's start with containers with labels...

{Toni @ A Bowl Full of Lemons}

  

... lots of neatly organized containers and baskets...

{DaNita @ Delightful Order}

...and pretty paint, too

{Amy @ Just Pleased as Punch}

I LOVE this pennant touch!

{Jen @ Tatertots and Jello}

I'm inspired.

Maybe soon I'll have another pantry update :)