Tx3

On this Terrible Task Thursday (Tx3), I tackled our board game situation.  I didn't even take a before picture because games were being stored all over the house.  But, I'm very excited to show you the after photo...

What is even more exciting than having the games organized, is the fact that I found this buffet at Goodwill last weekend for a mere thirty dollars.  #seriouslyoverthemoon

The top isn't styled yet, so don't judge!  Still working on that!  

See you next week!

Kristin   

Tall Boots Should be Tall

Name: Tall Boots Should be Tall

Time: <5 min

Money: $

Project Planner: Anna

You made it to Wednesday - half the work week is over, and you can look forward to getting so much checked off your to do list this weekend!  This project only requires one item to be purchased - a fun noodle!   I have seen this on Pinterest numerous times, and always thought it was a great idea, mostly because the tall boots in my closet look like this: 

There are two things wrong with this picture:

1) The boots don't look happy or nice to look at

2) The next time I wear either of those pairs of boots, there will be crease in the leather from sitting in my closet like that

This project takes five minutes and requires little materials and in the end, my boots will look much happier in my closet.  

I first went to Target to get two fun noodles - it nearly broke my bank account - $1.99 each!

 Then, I used a very scientific measuring system to know how long to cut the noodle.  Put my boot next to the noodle and marked it with the knife.

My choice of cutting tool was a bread knife - it worked PERFECTLY.  And beleive me, no large bicep muscles are needed to cut through a styrofoam noodle! 

I was able to get three boots worth out of one noodle, so for two noodles, you can do three pairs of boots (of course depending on the height needed).  Not bad though.  For reference, my boots go almost to my knees, so they are pretty tall.

I then slipped the noodles in the boots and put them back in my closet.
 

Much better! 
Now go get those noodles because Tall Boots Should be Tall!!
Happy Wednesday!

Organizing Baking Ingredients

Name: Organizing Baking Ingredients

Time: <15 min

Money: $$$

Project Planner: Kristin

Hey, it's Wednesday!  That means it's time for a project!  For the past couple of weeks, I keep running across beautiful, organized, walk-in pantries on Pinterest.  Besides the fact that I don't believe these spaces are real because all of the food matches the color scheme, I don't know ANYONE who has that big of a pantry.  But I'm still envious, so I decided it was time to make my own tiny pantry a bit more organized.  What that really meant was that I had to figure out a better solution for our baking ingredients.  When I was single, baking ingredients meant flour and sugar.  Now that my husband does the cooking, baking ingredients apparently mean almond meal, flaxseed meal, coconut flour, oat flour, xylital, and on and on.  I don't know what to do with any of them, but I do know how to organize, so organize I did!

Last week I realized that the cupboard that we stored the baking ingredients in was just not going to work.  At all.  There wasn't easy access to anything so stuff just got piled in and it constantly looked like a mess.  I pulled everything out (it was originally piled into the bottom shelf in the below picture) and threw in some new stuff.  The cupboard is perfect for our recipes, paper products (in the back), and our pencil/scissors/screwdriver jar.  

Then a week went by so the baking goods ended up in a longer cupboard where it was easier to grab items.  Still not organized though.

I looked around at several stores until I found the below containers at our grocery store.  They are perfect because I can fit two on top of each other, we can easily see when we are running low on an item, and they are cheap!  Each container was less than $4!

I bought the store out (two times) and am waiting for them to replenish their supply again as I still need two more.  I then labeled each container with cute stickers that I found in the dollar section at Target.

The reason I chose to label each container by letter is because I figured that if I went through the effort to make actual labels, we would eventually no longer cook with an ingredient (like Xantha Gum) and then I wouldn't be able to create a matching label again.  So, I decided to label them by letter (not by number because the cute stickers didn't have numbers!).  Then, I poured each ingredient into their corresponding container and put everything back into the cupboard.

This was one of those projects where the end result was exactly how I had hoped it would look in my head.  Of course, I still needed a cheat sheet, so I made the following sign with scrapbook paper.

The sign is now hanging on the inside of the cupboard door.

Holy moly I love it!  It makes so much more sense and I wish that I had done this two years ago!

See you tomorrow!
Kristin

Cord Organization

Name: Cord Organization

Time: <5 min

Money: $

Project Planner: Anna

Hello there!  Boy, do I have a quick project for all of you!  It literally took less than 5 minutes and I have a clock to prove it!  :) 

The problem I started with was my phone charger cord near my bed was always falling down between my bed and wall.  I would have to dig behind my pillows and bed to find the cord each night.  I wanted the cord to always be accessible on my nightstand.  I made a quick stop at the Container Store and found the perfect solution...CableDrops! 

 

They were $9.99 for a pack of six, so because this project only used one of the drops, it cost less than $5! 

 

The CableDrops have a peel off sticky back.  You just peel off the backing and stick it to your surface. 

 

 
My phone charger cord now has a nice new home in the orange CordDrop and I don't have to search for it ever again - problem solved!
 

 

P.S. If you look closely at the pictures, it literally took me 3 minutes to do this - including pictures!!  :)



Tx3

Welcome back to Tx3 or Terrible Task Thursday!  Today's task was actually not that terrible, but qualifies as a Tx3 because I had been putting it off for quite awhile.  This Tx3 series makes me sound like such a procrastinator!  Generally, I wouldn't use that label to describe myself, but I may need to rethink that!  :-)

Anyway, months ago the hubby kicked the dog food out of the kitchen.  It was taking up an entire lower cabinet and he politely informed me that priority went to the pots and pans.  This kind of threw me for a bit so the food bin ended up against the wall in the kitchen for longer than I care to admit.  Not a great look.

I kept trying to figure out a new space for the bin in the kitchen.  There was no space.  I then realized that it would need to be moved outside of the kitchen.  Having an actual place to store the food was just going to have to trump the convenience of it being a few feet away from the dog dishes.  New solution: the closet under the stairs in the living room.

We store cleaning tools on the wall to the right and holiday decoration in the space to the left.  I decided that moving the dog food in would be a great use of space as we rarely use the decorations and would still be able to grab the cleaning tools.

Don't worry, as we continue to blog, I'm bound to get better at taking pictures.  Not sure why I didn't take a close up!  Anyway, I re-assigned a bin from Target that I had been using in a different closet in order to make this new arrangement even more functional.  The food bin is on the top and treats, rawhides, and extra food is housed inside the bin.  

The best part?

No more food bins sitting out in the kitchen!  Mission accomplished!  I think this is going to work great and feel silly that I didn't think of it earlier.  

Anything bothering you around your house that just needs some brain power?  I think it is so funny that I let myself be irritated by something for so long only to completely eliminate the annoyance after spending five minutes thinking of a new solution.  

I hope this Tx3 series challenges you to implement changes to make your own home more even functional!

Later!

Kristin