31 Days Day 6 Pegboard Not Just For Garages Anymore

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Everything But The Kitchen Sink

Some of the ideas I've used in the past have been based on necessity. For instance, using pegboard like this English Cottage I lived in...

Until I lived there I thought pegboard was for the garage, but it ended up up being one of my favorite kitchens of all time. Actually I was thinking about doing that here in this apartment. I've taken measurements and by combining Ikea and workbench ideas I could have a sweet little kitchen. The other thing that I loved was having something over the sink like this because I have a blank wall and it's dark there

combining some fun and practicalities maybe a tension rod for hanging stuff.What do you think? 

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 4 P Is For Pantry

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So this is our second time setting up a pantry in the garage

 in a U shape we added a large shelf coming out the bottom the of the U

Making the letter F then put a freezer at the top of the F and it is now P with a space open at the bottom. So I have 4 shelves in a very small 5 x 8' space but extremely convenient space for unloading  and storing groceries, storing small appliances away AND getting to my frozen foods.
We're not done with the garage yet. Tomorrow a craft section...file it undercover.

31 Days Day 3 A Lot Squouzzin' Into A Little Bitty Garage October 3, 2014

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I knew my DH was something special when I married him.

 He's a born engineer, they are born, not made, you know and inventor, but it comes with a price. EV..ER..Y SINGLE thing must be measured and plotted out on GRAPH paper before being attempted along with ALL the pros and cons of each possible way it could be done and what laws of the universe it violates. Well, maybe I'm exaggerating...a little, but not much. You out there married to an engineer know what I'm talking about right?
So when we got married and lived in my apartment at first he had an idea that confirmed my belief in him forever and when he starts the required formula for anything I sit up and listen cuz who knows what wonderful gold mine he'll tap into next.
He had been watching me struggle to find more space to put away groceries by moving small appliances out of the way and shuffling my little cubbies (little small cupboards in apartments) all around. Then he disappeared into the garage for a while with a tape measure. When he came back he had a plan. If I wanted he could make me a pantry out in the garage with wire shelves in a u shape that would hold a lot of stuff. REALLY!? WHERE? I was breathless... no really.. when a man starts talking to me about a pantry and storage and stuff like that I get giddy.
So he showed me and I'm going to show you what he did AND improved on when we moved back here...Tomorrow, really, come back, there will be pictures, the internet will be hooked up they promised. 

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....

It's Always Something...

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That irritating, aggravating, downright Ugly spot in the house. Every house I've lived in, and there have been a many, had one or more places that bugged me and that eventually I just didn't look at cause it was just..so...frustrating! Know what I mean?
The kitchen with the blank wall above the sink,

the bathroom that was too...waaay too small...

the kitchen that had pegboard, yes my friends, pegboard like you see in your husbands garage, on the wall over the stove.  Huh!?

Or little alcoves that make no sense, they just are because another area bumped up against it. Honestly, it's like an unfinished sentence to me..."what did you say?". Now I know some places probably just need to be dismantled they're that bad, but what if you can't do that? What can be done about these
rough spots that chafe?
Can they be painted away? Sometimes paint is a miracle. But like the pegboard on the wall whose holes keeping shining through, some things need a strong hand.

That is, if it's going to still be there then you need to turn it into something. An alcove into a place for a table and vignette. Too small or narrow?

Too shallow area with blackboard contact paper. Cool

How about blackboard contact paper framed to write script on. Very popular right now and not permanent. Or a vertical row of pictures?

Go Vertical

What if the furnace air intake is a great big frame in a very conspicuous place? A spray painted for mat is great for covering it.

Wire shelves in the closet that everything tips over on. Foam core board. you can cut it to size in the house cover it with nice fabric...voila.

You don't need wood or a saw with foam core board.

Shelves made of foam core board above the desk

Foam core is a gift from heaven. Make a picture for the fireplace in the summer by covering it with an afghan or rug.

 Use it for the backs of picture frames to make a shadowbox. Attach a mirror and frame it with lightweight molding to make it look more substantial.

Dollar store mirrors on foam core board

 From Rachel on Pinterest:

Dollar Store Crafts » Blog Archive Tutorial: PB-Inspired Tiled Mirror for $10 » Dollar Store Crafts 9 framed mirrors, $9 Duct tape, on hand Piece of black foam core board, $1 Ribbon or picture-hanging wire, on hand or $1 Craft glue, on hand Hot glue & glue gun, on hand

Or if renting cover an unsightly anything with wallpaper and foam core. So what is your problem area? Can you find a creative way to fix it? Were any tips here inspiring for you? I hope so.