31 Days Day 5 Buttoned Up

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If you look at other posts here or on my Pinterest you'll find lots of links to

 buttons and button crafts and.....well crafts

of all kinds. So it is important to me to have someplace to store them.
Note that this apartment only has 2 bedrooms and we've been planning to have a nice guest room for company and have lots of other plans for that room and closet in that room.
Trying to find additional space for crafts and buttons just wasn't working. I am so not talking about the button tin or candy box our moms and grandmas had.
So DH had the idea to use 2 horizontal files we had no use for anymore.
At first they were too narrow.

 So he adjusted the panel it as far back as it would go. I didn't even know you could do that.

Here it is after he moved it.

  And here is my button collection and lots more room for crafts All on the other side of the door next to our files.

31 days day 2 Moving Back To The Future October 2, 2014

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A while ago I lived at some lovely quiet apartment complex. It is a little like living in a condo without owning one. I pay monthly and they take care of everything. It was great. Then I got remarried and we moved out to some property my husband owned.
We lived there for a couple of years and decided it was time to sell all the things we didn't want or need and simplify and decide if we wanted to build a small place so guess what. We moved back to the same complex I lived in before and we got another apartment exactly like the one I had before so I knew all the flaws and limitations of this apartment already.
Loaded with information from memory and measurements from the past I started a binder and started laying out what I had and where I wanted it to go. And very quickly was reminded that 5 lbs of butter will not fit into a 2 lb tub no matter how you finagle.
So I started looking for storage ideas at

Ikea, Pottery Barn, Home Depot and Goodwill (what?) yes I said GOODWILL!  and I am not kidding when I tell you I found a lot of wire drawer rollers, plate racks and even some plastic bins for under the sink!
I started planning where I would put things in the kitchen before I ever went into the apartment. So I knew some of the things that would help.
But you can do it even if you haven't lived someplace. Take pictures, lots of pictures of closets, cupboards, how the doors open, any cubbyholes (trust me, they are some of the best places to find storage or design spots), ceilings and walls (try to include something to reference these picture to once you get home cause you'll be lost if you don't) and take them up high and down low so you know where that shelf or mirror will fit. If you have time measure...the closet, cupboards, bathrooms etc. Then go home and make a rough sketch of it right away before your memory fades.
When you lay everything out decide where things will go in general then when you're packing it will be easy to label the box to the room.
Tomorrow I'll show you how I got 2 Pantrys count 'em 2 PANTRYs into an apartment that doesn't have any.
 Due to the fact that we are waiting for internet hook-up I don't have my pictures yet, but bear with me they are coming. Lots of them.

31 days day 1 A Moving (and organized) Experience October 1, 2014

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This is the perfect time to write these articles cause I'm moving into an apartment with my DH and

Poppy the cat. We are simplifying and organizing. So we are already in that mode. Let me show you some ideas that we are using.
First thing, we sorted...a lot.

We're talking about 2 people x 35 years + crafts + tools + children's stored items. You can see that's a lot of math and a whole lot of junk. We  gave away,.. threw away..not enough...and sold...at an auction (no garage sale this time I didn't have time to deal with it and the stuff that is left over,),
I went to

pinterest for moving ideas and got a lot.
One of my favorites is using colored tape on the boxes that match each room. I went even farther
I used different graphics for each room also the garage and

a pole barn that some of our things are going to be stored in.
I wrote on a tag what was generally in each box and it worked like a charm.
Oh, and I taped the things we would need the first night we were there in bright yellow tape so we would know what boxes had the toothbrush, PJ's, pillows and sheets and coffeemaker in them. Very Important! The coffee and coffee pot, you know.
But tomorrow I am going to take you back a little farther in the planning which made everything so easy for us. 

How Things Have Changed...Or Not

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Some time ago I wrote about retiring and how and what I had  planned to do. What I found see in retirement was that I was busy with

Setting up at the flea Market

 flea marketing, deciding where to live,

Don't necessarily need a boat. Living near the water is satisfying

Being with family and friends

Sharing a meal, laughing together

adding up my priorities,
 making choices and....getting married? Huh? Uh, No. Not been mentioned anywhere on my agenda that I could see.

No mention of this anywhere on my agenda.

Looking back,  nowhere was:

• get married again,
•  uproot yourself 
• start a whole new life, 
• living with another living being besides 

Poppy. The other living being in my house.

the cat ever written or discussed or considered or even mentioned.
I loved my life view here: Falling In Love With My Life.  If you've followed these posts at all, erratic as they were, I retired, sat down and decided what was important to me and began shedding what was not and pursuing what was. And I didn't regret one decision I made at that time.
But hello, life sometimes gives us what we didn't ask for and ,Voila, there you go. So here I am, very much and happily married.
But flea marketing and ebaying, that's still the same. The rub is.flea marketing requires stuff and stuff has to go somewhere, that's still the same, too. So here we are with

 stuff that was in "my" garage has now been moved to....

Poppy moved, too.

"Our" garage and the car is outside shivering in the cold.
Hmmm. So the point of it is I have to organize the "stuff" and free up the garage somehow. Didn't I have another post about organizing? Yikes! To Be Continued....

Day 4 Of 31 days Of Organizing and Finishing Projects

Looking At What I've Done So Far

My 31 Day Theme may end up being; 31 Days later She Is Nowhere To Be Found or What is that muffled groan I heard under that pile over there, no, not that pile, that one! No, no not THAT ONE either....
Or Maybe just 31 Days of Organizing....
Even that will be something...I put on my Pride and Prejudice recording and got at it. Had to stop to pack 2 lamps that went on eBay. I went searching all over town for a big enough box and ended up making one out of two smaller ones. Took it to the post office and got charged a premium because it was close to the size limit. Stopped at a sale on my way home and scored some neat stuff (really good buys I had to get them.) Just Look!

This vintage lamp and the gorgeous, rectangle, copper silk shade with concave corners!

Ok, how about these darling painted white metal lamps with ceramic busts of a boy and girl?

This metal plant hanger is SO shabby is it not?

Yours Truly is a pushover for all things nautical, especially the Sea Captain carved in wood...

and this pierced tin pocket...sweet!
So do I hear you saying "what about the organizing?" Tut, Tut lest you think I've been neglecting my goals here are some samples of the sort of sorting that has been going on...mind you it's not pretty...pretty comes later. This is not a magazine or TV show where all you get is the quick before and then it's lovely This is organizing BOOT CAMP. It's the dirty, messy, stuff right now. Later I'll have lots of tips to pass on about storage and making nice with the style. For now (1) it's like things together...(2) edit, edit, edit, (3)to the trash and regroup! Are you with me, Ladies!?

Buttons with buttons

Sea Glass, Shells, all things nautical...oh yeah...

All fabric and material

Bolts of it! Before you can organize you need to know what you have, how much of it and how much space it's going to need. Then comes the lovely presentation.

Tissue paper for wrapping purchases.

The "mail room" section is coming along nicely, with boxes, envelopes and soon supplies for sending out pretty gifts and packages.
So as you see I have been a very busy beaver today. It's all in a days work for someone enjoying their "retirement". For more on that see; Retirement is the hardest work I've ever done! elswhere in this blog.

Tomorrow: more sorting and finding useful containers.

Day 1 Organizing And Finishing Projects

31 DAYS Of Organizing And Finishing Projects

Time To Get Organized
In The Storage Area
I need specific areas for different facets of my business.
A. Areas for eBay, shows and flea market and things to take to the store.
B. Paint and repair area
C. A Pack and ship space with needed equipment.
So the first priority is to get some shelving. And today for a little extra interest we have a nor'easter.

So running between the raindrops....
4 shelves acquired and ready to....use? not!...ready to assemble!!

Found this little fella(Monarch Butterfly) in the parking lot hanging on for dear life to the asphalt while the wind whipped his wings ferociously. I picked him up and put him in my plants and put some sugar water on a cotton bud. He isn't moving. Don't know if he's alive.

Have you started your 31 days of...whatever...it's not too late. Why not start now....check out this blog for over 300 ideas for your 31 days.
http://beautyandbedlam.com/beauty-and-the-budget/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+beautyandbedlam%2FMCXv+%28Balancing+Beauty+and+Bedlam%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo

Time for hot chocolate. I feel a little wind whipped myself.

Tomorrow...
1. Putting Together Shelves