Prepping for the In-laws, Part 1 December 30, 2009

The in-laws are coming for a visit which means the guest bedrooms that were formally home to my crafts and my cat, must now go into guest mode.

With four extra people coming to the house, I want each and every person to feel special. Usually when guests come, I provide a handwritten note of appreciation and some little tokens depending on the purpose of their visit.

For my mother’s first visit to the house and our city, I left maps and brochures detailing excursions in our city as well as some coffee crafted with the flavors of the city.

image from neatocoolville

When my family came for the holidays last year, I provided a basket with shower supplies and not much more since their stay was short and they already had their own agenda mapped out. I also provided more coffee, since my mother fell in love with it.

image from HEB

For the in-laws’ visit, I plan on each person recieving a plastic basket with their towels and extra shower supplies. This will serve double duty, since all four people will be sharing one shower, as a way to carry items to and from the bathroom quickly and easily, as well as holding all the token gifts.  Inside the basket, I plan on adding a small bottle of water and snack to the basket.

Preparing for my brother-in-law will be the hardest, since he will be sleeping on the downstairs sofa, which naturally is the gathering space during the day. His set-up will have to be temporary and easy for him to use.

I love hosting and sharing my home with others. This visit will be interesting since it comes at a time when we’re redoing the master bedroom, so I’ll have a lot of free shopping going on.

Christmas Tree Reduex December 25, 2009

Nothing was wrong with the Christmas tree, it was cute with its sparkling balls and glittery star on top.  Then I started going through my Christmas cards from my students and BING! I loved the cards and wanted to display them, but didn’t have a fireplace or a spare surface to do so. So I added hooks to the cards and homemade snowflakes and hung them up. I also stuffed the plush animals and candy canes from the students into the tree. Believe it or not, now the tree seems more…real, if you may. Not so much ‘designed’ or magazine quality as full with meaning and joy. There are even some non-Christmas cards on the tree because they mean a lot to me.

It made me think, sometimes I strive for magazine quality images in my home, that I forget to personalize it with memories. Sometimes this may mean a very artistic photo display area, other times it means hanging up large paper snowflakes and hand-drawn cards.

How does your tree look? Do you have a theme or is it full of handmade goodies? What about cards? How do you display your Christmas card collection each year?

Mission: Laundry Room Makeover, Part 3 December 20, 2009

We already discussed how I wish I had a laundry room like this from Classy Closets.  

Image from Easy Closets

 and the blessing of my current laundry room’s floor plan:   

My Laundry Room

 

 Last time we looked at the entry/mudroom “portion” of the laundry room. Since then, we decided that the shoe rack was too cumbersome for the laundry room and since it didn’t get a lot of use, it was banished and sits near the front entry for guests.   

Today, we’re looking at the laundry portion of the laundry room. You may recall that my wish list included:   

• A space to sort dirty laundry as it comes in since we only wash full loads.
• A space to iron occasionally since hubby sometimes doesn’t get the laundry as soon as it’s done which results in wrinkles.
• A space to hang freshly dried clothing to reduce the amount of ironing (see above)
• A space for folded laundry to hang out while waiting for hubby to put them away.
• A space to store laundry detergent and essentials.

  

A quick shopping trip around the house yielded:   

Three laundry baskets (well, two since the cat has claimed one as his occasional bed)

  

    

• Rubber modular shelves 

   

• Fabric from a curtain project
• A fabric placemat
• An old calendar
• IKEA bed slats 

I combined the first four items by placing a basket on each shelf and covering the shelves with fabric. Placing the placemat on top creates a table like effect for placing those morning cups of tea.  

I still needed a place to store laundry essentials and hang clothing. Thanks to mom, who sent me a garment rack that fulfills the “hanging clothing storage” issue, however this doesn’t fit between the washer and dryer like I had hoped. BING! I put the garment rack under the shelving unit, it’s not like I’ll need all the vertical space for hanging clothing.  

 I also wanted a between the dryer/washer rolling cart.  

  

However when I went shopping for one, those things were just too expensive. Especially since they’re nothing more than an open bookcase on wheels. BING! I could build one! I stopped my friendly Lowe’s worker, purchased some 8 x 0.5 cut into 4-3 foot lengths, l-brackets, 2 casters and screws and happily jetted home.  

Round 1: The open bookcase is far too long. The 3 feet long cart sticks out from in-between the two machines by a good foot. Ugh, disassemble and start over.  

Round 2: This time using some scrap wood taken from a slotted IKEA bed base for the shelves. The new dimensions are 3′x2′, much better. There is no overhang into the laundry area. Start loading the cart-realize that products can fall off the edge and in between the cracks of the shelves.    

Round 3: I’m impatient by this time and want this project to be over. I rip some cardboard off and lay it on the shelves. I then staple yarn around the unit to serve as bracing. Not the prettiest sight, but it works. To beautify it and feel better about being so darn impatient, I cover the front of the unit with a nice piece of fabric.  

Looking at the IKEA wood, I realized that I had some leftover closet brackets. I bring them downstairs and build an instant shelf over the washer to keep additional detergent and supplies. After living with it for a while-try six weeks-I decided that the shelving unit was far too tall. Enter silly brain fart. I actually went shopping for a laundry hamper organizer/ironing board. Thankfully, the store was out of stock and being the impatient person that I am, I went home and started working with what I had. BING! Take off one of the shelves silly! So I did that and it was now lower and provided more space to hang more clothes, but I lost a basket to hold dirty laundry. Another shopping trip around the house yielded a pop-up hamper that with the addition of some floral wire and leftover IKEA plank, it no longer self collapses after a curious cat pounces on it.  

Now, I’m done…for now.  Here are a few picks of the finished laundry area.    

My rolling cart. The top shelf holds the current powder detergent and a small trash can for lint and items from pockets. The rack above it is for the dryer so that you can dry delicate items without having them tumble around the dryer. I use it as a bra drying rack so the wires and pads don’t get warped.

A view from the side. Can you see the fruits of my impatience? Now that I have a nail gun, I will probably add IKEA wood to the sides to form the braces instead of the delicious looking yarn.

 

My laundry sorter/entry table, this is the view when you entry the laundry room from the garage.  It’s nice and stable for those morning cups of tea.

 

This is the view as you enter the laundry room from the house on your way into the garage. You can see the garment rack and additional laundry basket in this view. Can you find the floral wire holding the basket to the garment rack?

 

 

This is the laundry sorter side of the whole thing and the view from the laundry area of the laundry room. You can see the scrap wood keeping the pop up hamper from collapsing.

 

You can also see the “brand new” rug that I brought from the wonderful store of home. Hubby’s mini-ironing board sits in the space between the wall and entry table/laundry sorter. When it’s time to iron, this moves to on top of the washer/dryer.

 

 

The quick and dirty shelf. It’s four IKEA wood slats, the ribbon is still attached to the wood, simply placed on top of two closet brackets. The basket is supposed to hold items pulled from pockets…however I don’t pull items from pockets, hence the great number of candy wrappers found in the dryer. The artwork is from the old calendar I found. 

That wraps up the laundry room makeover. The cost breakdown for the makeover:

• Over the door hooks=$18
• Wood, brackets and casters= $8
• Laundry baskets=$3
• Rectangular laundry basket = $3
• Total = $32

Not bad for a 6 x 10 room. In the future, I wouldn’t mind adding curtains to hide the contents of the upper shelf and add more color to the room, but since there’s not much up there, it doesn’t bother me.

What’s your dream laundry room?

Mission: Laundry Room Makeover, Part 2 December 15, 2009

 Recently I talked about how I would love to have a laundry room like this one from Classy Closets.  

Image from Easy Closets

 

However I have been blessed with a laundry like this.  

My Laundry Room

 

However, I’m determined to make this into my dream laundry room, without expanding the space.  Using my dream list of what I want from my laundry room I decided to look around the house for materials that can be used, also known as free shopping.   

My Finds     

• Brass cafe curtain rod brackets

 

• Bronze wall decals from Dollar Tree that say “live well laugh often love much“
• A green and bronze runner rug
• Three silver framed mirrors with gold detail, also from Dollar Tree.
• Ikea shoe rack
  

 

Armed with these items, I knew I had plenty to make the entry way part of the laundry room. However, I still needed something to hold those heavy work bags and coats.  After a quick trip to Target, I found the perfect item. No need to drill holes and heavy-duty enough for those heavy work bags. 

  

 Combining all the items, I decided to stick the decals around the walls such that we would be greeted by an inspirational saying regardless of the wall we faced. The mirrors found a home on the wall behind the doors for that last-minute face check, while the brass cafe brackets were drilled into the wall by the house entry door. These brackets serve as hooks for my keys, coupon bag and occasional purse. The shoe rack sits underneath them for the time being. So far we’re not using it that much and it’s in the way of loading and unloading clothes of the dryer. The rug stretches the length from door to door and creates a hallway effect while the hooks are on the back of the house entry door for our work bags and coats. 

Here’s a few shots of the entryway section of the laundry room.  

 

This is the last thing we see on the way out. 

 

The mirrors for the last peek before leaving. 

 

Finally the workhorse of the room, plenty of spots to hang my keys and coupon book. Over the door features plenty of room for work bags and coats. 

Next time, we’ll look at organizing the laundry room section of it.

Mission: Laundry Room Makeover, Part 1 December 10, 2009

How I wish I had a laundry room like this from Classy Closets.

Image from Easy ClosetsImage from Classy Closets

 Everything is light and airy, there is plenty of workspace and it’s so organized!!!

 Instead my laundry room’s floor plan is this.

My Laundry Room

Not airy, or light.  Those two doors make it impossible to do much in there. The bottom door leads to the garage, the top door leads to the house. So in addition to serving as a laundry room, this is also our mudroom and entry area for the family.

I’m determined to make this into my dream laundry room, without expanding the space. So I made a dream list of what I want my laundry room to look like, function as, and feel like.

• A space to sort dirty laundry as it comes in since we only wash full loads.
• Aspace to iron occasionally since hubby sometimes doesn’t get the laundry as soon as it’s done which results in wrinkles.
• A space to hang freshly dryed clothing to reduce the amount of ironing (see above)
• A space for folded laundry to hang out while waiting for hubby to put them away.
• A space to store laundry detergent and essentials.
• A space to drop off keys (mine), bags (hubby and I) and jackets (mostly mine).
• A space to put my morning cup of tea as I grab my jacket, workbag and keys while opening the garage door so I won’t spill it all over my outfit resulting in a last minute change in the laundry room, except clothing is wrinkled which means a quick run upstairs for more clothing. (Don’t ask)
• A spot to kick off shoes and put on flip flops.
• A mirror for that last peek before leaving.
• A place to stash some tools so I won’t have to run into the garage everytime I need a screwdriver.
• Inspirational artwork or decals since this is the last place we see when we leave and the first we see when we arrive.

A pretty long list for a 6×10 room.

Organization Containers December 5, 2009

I love to organize, absolutely love it. I hate to clean the kitchen and wash dishes, but I love to organize.  Part of organizing means that everything has a place and since I am frugal by nature, I tend to reuse items until they fall apart. So while cooking in the kitchen, I laid my eye upon some containers and brain bolt!

 

Spray paint + cheap items = modern organization decor items

 

I scavenged around the house for containers, anything and everything made it into my pile.

My Final Score

• Heavy paper boxes from a clearance center, they’re Christmas items, but at $1 for 6, they are a lot cheaper than their non-Christmas alternatives.

• Tins hanging in the kitchen from Christmas cookies
• Empty litter containers (not litter boxes, but the boxes litter comes in)
  

• Cans from veggies/fruit
• Glass jars from food stuffs
• Plastic fruit containers (the kinds that strawberries come in)

MY MISSION: Create cute chic decor boxes to store items in.

MY TOOLS: My trusty spray paint in various colors, wrapping paper, decorative scrapbook paper, trims like ribbons and such.

MY PROCESS:

1. Clean containers of any foodstuff, litter, and stubborn labels.
2. Cut any holes if you need to.
3. Spray paint or cover the boxes/tins with fabric/paper

1. Optional: Add decorative embellishments such as painted stencils, ribbons, glitter, etc.
2. Add items to the containers.
3. Put items on various surfaces around the home.

1. Admire your handiwork and your beautiful organization containers on the cheap/free.