When money is tight

I don’t know about you, but there have been times in my life when money was T.I.G.H.T. I mean, on the floor of the car, reaching under the seats, trying to find a dollar in change to get enough gas to get me home or to work. (That’s when gas was cheap!) ;)

I learned a few BIG things over those years – one, not having money is one of the scariest, most unsettling feelings ever. It makes you feel completely out of control of your life. But I realized there were certain things I could do that would make me feel like I had control again and doing those things would help tremendously.

Although things are different for me now, there are certainly still times when cash is low – we are adjusting to a definite change since my hubby has retired from teaching. We planned for it and know things will even out so it’s not a scary situation, but it’s easy for those feelings of fear creep back in. It’s silly because my situation is completely different from years ago, but when the bank account goes low and the budget is spent for the month, I can’t help but feel that again, just a little. I will for as long as I live – you just don’t forget that feeling. :)

There are a few things that I’ve always done at times like that – and each of them gives me a sense of having control over my life. The first one may sound a little unusual – but it’s always worked for me.

I clean my car. :)

Now, my car is the thorn in my organizational side. It is just a space that easily gets messy and full of STUFF and I let it get out of control all. the. time. My husband does too. Maybe it’s the creative side of us? ;)

Back in the day it was my mom’s car that I would do this with, but I would gather up change from around the house (or the car!) and drive to the car wash place and use their vacuum. I know you can do this at home and save a couple bucks, but for me it’s always getting out and driving there that helps too. When you don’t have any cash you’re not getting out as much so the drive was usually much needed.

I did this the other day and it ALWAYS makes me feel better – just throwing trash away, vacuuming the whole thing – it seriously works! If you are extra ambitious you can get even more detailed with it and maybe clean the outside (at home with the hose). But I’m rarely that good. ;)

It’s just a little thing but to this day it makes me feel better!

Depending on the state of your car, the next one goes hand in hand, and it’s to purge. Or decrapify as I like to say. If you’re like me you’re not always totally on top of stuff around the house when you’re feeling down about something. And again…I think what’s most important when money is tight is to feel like you have control over your home and life.

Going through the closets, the cabinets, the clothes and losing a few pounds of stuff feels SO GOOD. I cannot stress how amazing it feels when you see a pile ready to go out the door:

Maybe this is just me? All I know is it makes me feel so accomplished, so light and ready to conquer the world.

I wrote a post years ago about what to do with all that stuff too – you may just make some cash from that pile! I break it down into a few different areas – consignment, donation and recycling.

And finally, one that goes hand in hand with purging – organizing what’s left. Like decluttering, it won’t cost you anything! I mean, of course you can always add pretty baskets or organization, but most of the time just reassessing what you already have is enough: 

  

You can get creative with scrap wood, shoe or diaper boxes – whatever! Make labels with your printer or paint chips or scrapbook paper – it doesn’t have to be fancy!

Next month my plan is to get the house decluttered once again! I want to get it done before school gets going in full gear and before the birthdays and holidays later this year. I’m so motivated right now – I don’t know why but I feel like it’s spring instead of late(ish) summer. I have this desire to clean out and organize the whole house!

So what do you do when funds are low? Do you have any go to projects like my car clean out? Like I mentioned, I learned over the years that, for me, the way to fight the fear that comes with financial stress is to figure out something that makes me feel like I have power over my life – and all of these things do that for me, whether money is tight or not!

Have a GREAT weekend!!

Dining room (pretty) organization

Hey hey! How the heck are ya? There are some beautiful projects linked up at the before and after shindig – check it out here to see them or link up yours!

Today I’m back in the dining room – or is it the library? This room is a little confused right now. :) Last year we decided to do away with our dining room (that we used twice in seven years?) and make it into a more functional space for us. I shared the progress on this DIY built in project early last year and the final result here. The “book” part of the library is done…but we still need a cozy place to sit.

I love the built ins for so many different reasons, but one of the BIGGIES is all of the glorious storage they provide:

I chose to use upper kitchen cabinets as the bases, which I’ve done a couple times elsewhere in the house. They aren’t nearly as deep as a regular cabinet base (12 inches instead of 24), but I knew they would still provide plenty of storage.

I use this area for most of our serving stuff – the items we don’t use every day or even every week, but I like to have it all for special occasions/holidays/parties. You know – all that pretty stuff you hardly use but still need (want)?

When I finished the built ins I was so excited I just shoved everything back into the cabinets and called it done. For a long time now I’ve been wanting to clean them out, purge some of the stuff and pretty it up just a tad.

I started by pulling every single item out of the cabinets. You know, the whole it gets worse before it gets better thing? Yeah:

Well the dog wasn’t in the cabinets, of course. He just has to be in front of the camera every. single. time.

And this is another reason the room is still in limbo – the table and chairs from the kitchen were moved in here temporarily and have stayed. Hubby sits here to work most days lately instead of the basement so we’ve kept it for now. I’m itching to get those comfy chairs in here though. :)

So I cleaned them out and then cleaned them out – vacuumed all the leftover sawdust (nice) and wiped them down:

Side note – no I don’t paint the insides of the doors. SOMEONE (me) doesn’t have the patience for that.

I pulled out the top shelf in each one to cover them with some cute contact paper I had picked up for this project a year ago:

But I ran out of it before I could do the bottom shelves. I was just going to leave them as is but it looked wonky. Sooooo I quickly taped them off and did one coat of the color I used on the backs of the built ins – Storm Cloud (I think it’s Sherwin Williams?):

Do you see that little piece of Frogtape on the back of the door? That’s been there all this time – I used those to number the doors when I took them off to paint them. I highly recommend doing that because otherwise you’ll have to do a lot of adjusting to get the doors just right again.

Anyhoo, did I need to paint the inside the cabinets no one but me will ever see? (I mean, obviously I have no life.) No. But there’s something to be said for having an organized space look pretty too. It only took me five minutes for each one, so it wasn’t too bad.

I only had to do one coat each too – which totally surprised me. The paint is the SW Duration kind and it covered great.

After it was dry I did a super quick purge and then loaded everything back in. I have a cabinet for holiday stuff:

One for vases/pitchers/birthday party supplies (there’s no rhyme or reason to this as you can see):

One for random serving stuff, with room to spare:

I have more in the kitchen that will fill that space, don’t you worry. ;)

And finally, one dedicated to dishes. My vintage glass plates (from Goodwill) for showers and small get togethers, our white dishes for big meals and some serving plates and linens as well:

And, I gotta say, it doesn’t ever get any less weird that I share the insides of our drawers and cabinets with you, even after five years. ;)

It is SO GREAT to have a spot for all of this stuff! Most of it was in the basement before – now I like having it close by in a pretty spot:

I still LOVE how this all came together. So very much.

We’ve lived here for nine years and I feel like I am on the cusp of having a good spot for everything – it’s taken that long. If you’ve been around for awhile you know I have to live with things for some time before making them right for us – the same goes for how I (try to) organize the STUFF in our house.

How do you organize all the dining stuff you rarely use but want to keep? :) Or do you use them often? I think I need to throw a party.

Building a Lego house

Hey all! Can you believe it’s July? This is one of my favorite weeks of the year! It’s even better than years past because our temps are unseasonably cool and we’ve had tons of rain – two things I like very much. Last year we had drought conditions and couldn’t set off fireworks, so we’ve already made up for that this year. ;)

Oh by the way, I wrote this whole post and then realized it’s the first Monday of the month so I should be doing the Before and After Party today. I totally forgot. We’ll do it next Monday, hope that works!

This weekend I finished up a DIY in the basement that I’ve been planning for a while. Since we had the built in cubbies installed I’ve been hoping to get this done, just to take advantage of some odd wall space down there.

I have never built true floating shelves – I have built shelves (here in the dining room built ins, here in the pantry, here in the basement bathroom) but all of those had supports on the sides for me to attach supports to.

True floating shelves with no side support are another thing – but I think I did pretty OK at it for a first try!

I didn’t follow any specific tutorial, just used what I’ve seen here and there and winged it myself. This is a relatively simple project if you work with tools. And sometimes I make relatively easy projects total pains in the butt, so yeah. This was one of those. :)

I started out with some 1x2’s from the hardware store – I cut them down to the length I wanted the shelves to be and then cut supports (same exact length) and glued them on with wood glue:

Then when I thought I had let them dry well enough, I flipped them over to secure them even more with screws. That’s when I realized I didn’t let them dry enough and every. single. support. fell off.

Sometimes I look like I know what I’m doing. This was not one of those times. I’m sure my neighbors were all, awww, look at her, trying to DIY! So cute!

ANYWAY…I always go way overkill with nails/screws/glue and this was no different – I used two (long) screws in each support:

Before I put the front of this support on, I installed them on the wall. This way I could get the screws into the wall straight on (if the front support was on I’d have to work around it, make sense)?:

After both supports were up I went to grab the wood I had bought to make the actual shelves I was going to build to slip over them. And I realized I had totally made the supports the wrong size. DOH!

So…back to the store I went. I ended up getting a big sheet of stain grade particle board cut down instead, which in the long run ended up being better anyway (a lot more light weight and less bulky):

That photo is why I have an SUV. That photo is also why I don’t have a nice SUV. ;)

So instead of making a shelf that slips on over the support, I ended up just securing all the wood to it instead. Which is fine, I just won’t be able to take these down…like, ever. Good thing I like them.

Here’s the process as I started covering the supports with the wood:

I hope that makes sense! The trim on the right is just the start of what I wrapped around the whole shelf to make it look finished off.

Here they are all done – I taped off the walls with FrogTape so I could get them stained with little mess:

So sometimes I recommend you paint before you do a project because I think sometimes it would make the project easier. I NEVER do this and many of you ask why. It’s mostly because of projects like this – they are rarely perfection. So I fudge with stuff, have to recut many times, sometimes make additional trips to the store – and if I had painted the wood I originally wanted to use for this I wouldn’t have been able to return it.

So…sometimes it’s easier to paint/stain before – I just work better doing it all after all is done. That usually ends up being quicker for me.

I used the beautiful Kona (Rustoleum) stain I’ve used elsewhere in the basement – love it!! When that was dry I did a coat of semi gloss polyurethane and called it done. Then I loaded them up with the little Lego sets that have been all over the countertop for months:

I’ve been planning these shelves forever now – their purpose is two-fold. Obviously as a place to display all the little Lego sets our boy makes, but to keep them up off the countertop as well. I just want to use the storage space as best we can.

The basement is such a fun space for us and my goal all along has been to make the art down there be very personal to our family. So the Lego sets, although not styled to perfection, are just us. :)

Here you can see how the trim looks and how the bottom piece of particle board hides the supports inside:

I just started grabbing the Lego sets and putting them on the shelves – there’s not much hope that this is ever going to look “perfect” but I kind of LOVE it:

Although the Bub did say later that it’s a “little messy” so he’s going to rearrange it. Gah. (He did NOT get this from me.)

Of course these are all sets he plays with, so he needs help getting them from the top shelf, but he can reach the bottom shelf easily. They are both fairly low because of the bulkhead in that spot.

I had to include a pic of us on a roller coaster in Legoland -- we had it made into a Lego set:

It’s hard to see but it makes me laugh out loud every time I look at it. You can’t even see the Bub because he’s ducking down, totally freaking out. My husband has his eyes tightly shut, probably praying for his life. And I’m in the front laughing my butt off – it’s pretty obvious who loves roller coasters in this family.

Now this little spot is dedicated to what the kiddo loves – I’ve mentioned a few times that he’s a Lego freak and we encourage it (within reason). I like that this part of the room really speaks to what he loves:

Like I mentioned, this was my first try at the true floating shelves – and I think they turned out pretty well! Just don’t look too close. :) The bottom one is secured to the wall on one side so it’s super secure. The top one is definitely staying put but I wouldn’t do any pull ups on it. Good thing I can’t do a pull up.

Have you tried this DIY project? Did you do them any differently? Do you have a Lego house that you try to organize too?

Too many spoons in the kitchen

Heyyyy all! How is your week going?

So you get that play on words? Cooks in the kitchen? Spoons? Well…maybe by the end of this post it will be clever.

I’m SO happy to be done with the powder room – have I mentioned that?? There’s a million reasons (hello…functioning bathroom) but one of the big ones is that I can finally start addressing some of the other little projects around the house. I told myself I would hold off until I got the bathroom done.

I told you a few months ago that I’m slowly but surely attacking the clutter hot spots around our house. At this rate I’ll be done next year in time to start it all over again, but whatever.

I’m on a mission in our kitchen to declutter the countertops. Mostly – not completely clear them off, but be smarter about the things we have out. I know it’s probably silly but lately all the utensils next to the stove were driving me crazy:

Especially considering we have a drawer right there that I use for the rest of the utensils:

Problem was, as you can see – it was a hot mess. Every time I’d put something away I would have to try to close the drawer about five times before I finally got it shut. ;)

I realized it was getting a little ridiculous – who needs all those spoons? Really? Especially for someone who rarely hardly ever occasionally cooks? So I took about 15 minutes to declutter the situation.

You’ll notice the wonky drawer organizers in that pic above – that was a little DIY project I did years ago. (I saw the idea at Stephanie’s site here.) At the time I didn’t secure them well enough so they weren’t working so great.

All I did was take scrap wood from the garage and cut it to the width of the drawer and then nail it in. Stephanie just used glue for hers but that didn’t hold well enough for me. So I needed to add one more nail to each side to make them more secure and I used the little trick I used years ago:

I used my Frogtape to mark off where the wood was so I could nail into it without missing. Does that make sense? Cause otherwise this happens:

(The nail didn’t hit the wood and came out the side.)

Obviously you still need to have good aim. Gah!

In hindsight I wish I would have installed the wood slats the long way instead of across, but if I remember right I was trying to work with scraps of wood I already had.

So once the organizers were secure again I started the purging and reorganizing. The bigger items went into a cabinet in the kitchen with like items and all the grilling stuff went outside underneath the grill:

By the way, those little marshmallow sticks telescope out and are perfect for making smores! :) I got them at the Target dollar spot last summer, not sure if they still have them.

We had doubles and triples of plenty, which I pared down. And then I found things that I have NO idea why we had:

Uhhhh…what are those?

I was able to purge plenty so now I don’t even need the holder next to the stove anymore, which was my goal:

On a side note, Squish the Fish is doing AWESOME! We’ve had this Squish for three years now and he’s the most spoiled fish I’ve ever known. My husband loves him. You can see more about the gumball fish tank here.

But let’s marvel at the lovely utensil drawer, with a (little) room to spare:

One drawer done, eleventy billion to go.

And one thing you don’t ever think you’ll do until you blog – take a picture of your utensil drawer and share it with the world.

This little spot makes me feel like I did a lot – I find decrapifying is a lot more manageable when I tackle little bits at a time.

So do you have too many spoons in your kitchen? Can you close your utensil drawer??