School Area Organization

 

I love for things to be neat and tidy. Unfortunately, I have 7 little people who don't feel the same way. ;-) I kept seeing chalkboard labels in various places and decided that they might help me solve my lack of neat and tidy problem. Most of the labels I saw were expensive and had high shipping cost as well. I knew that eventually I would need several so I began researching how to make my own.

 

I began with Avery name badges. I liked the scallop edges on other labels I saw but wouldn't find labels that were already scalloped. I purchased the above label and used an e-xacto knife to remove the brown edge.

Then I got out the big gun. I love this chalkboard spray paint! It covers well. I've made several batches of labels and still have a lot of the can left.

Armed with my labels {with the edges removed} and a cardboard box, I headed outside. Painting, neat and I don't go together! :-)

The labels dried in the sun for a couple of hours and were ready to use.

 

I carefully peeled each one off the back and removed any stray flakes of paint that stuck to the edges. Then I used a chalk pen to write my information on each label and placed them on the containers. I wonder how long before they get thrown back in the school cabinet?!? If I ever need to relabel the containers a wet cloth is all it takes to remove the current writing.

Jewelry Organization and Amazon Mom

One of my favorite places to shop is the discount jewelry store. Of course, frequent shopping also means my costume jewelry collection is rapidly expanding. My sister brought me this shadow box a few years ago from Hobby Lobby.

It does a fabulous job keeping my necklaces and thinner bracelets straight. The shadow box has a foam back in to which I inserted straight pins. The pins hold two - three necklaces with ease. The other nice feature of the shadow box is the hinged lid. This keeps everything covered.

 

The shadow box left me needing something to hold earrings. I recently used a command adhesive hook to hang this 37 compartment jewelry organizer that I purchased from Amazon. It is double sided and I have one pair of earrings in each space. This is also wear I store my watch and bracelets that are too wide for the shadow box. Both the hanging organizer and shadow box live in my semi walk-in closet.

Speaking of Amazon, Have you joined Amazon Mom yet? Right now, all new subscribers can receive $10 off a box of diapers! Amazon will also notify you of special discounts in the baby center. I have used Amazon Mom for the last 2+ years. I order diapers, wipes, shampoo, conditioner, snacks, paper towels, washing machine cleaner, diaper rash cream, detangler spray and lot more items using their subscribe and save program. The subscribe and save program can save you up to 15% off the regular Amazon price. On diapers you can save 20%! The UPS man drops everything off at my door for even less than what WalMart charges. There is also no tax in my state which adds to the savings. {I am not an affiliate for Amazon, I just really, really, really like their program and service!}

Want some more great tips? Head over to We Are That Family and join in the Works For Me Wednesday fun!

You can also checkout Raising Homemakers for some great homemaking tips.

{It seems I am frequently asked how I do various tasks. I'm a member of a wonderful online community and have friend who are always willing to share their successes {and failures}. I plan to share a few of the things that work for me over the next few weeks. Most of my ideas are not original creations, they have morphed from places like Pinterest and Facebook. There is no reason to re-invent the wheel and I'm more than willing to share how I made it work for me. If you would like to know how I do something, leave a comment, send an e-mail, etc. I'll be more than happy to work up a post on the topic. You can e-mail at Stacy at TheresRoomForMore.com .}

{Garage} Design on a Dime

. . . .well, maybe not a dime. When we moved in the house, one of our future to-do projects was to repaint the garage. It was a light tan color and always looked dirty. Kent power washed it at least once a year but it just didn't a coat of paint that seemed "cleanable".

The project finally moved up the list enough to get accomplished. We began by priming. The walls weren't bad but the ceiling was a bear. I was glad I was too pregnant to do the ceiling so poor Kent had to do all the ladder climbing and neck craining.

The kids "helped". It was a pretty cool night but Henry would not keep shoes on.

Everyone wanted to get in on the painting action. In a few years maybe we can take them up on the offer of help and pull a Huck Finn. ;-)

When the walls were finished, the floor looked even worse. Kent decided to paint the floor. We bought a few kits and followed the directions carefully. The most important thing is cleaning the floor correctly. I'm happy to report that 3-4 months later it still looks just a great as it did when he finished.

The cleaner and paint itself was very fumy so it's definitely not a job for expectant mommas. I kept the kids inside and only came out to capture a few pictures. ;-)

Playroom re-do

Previously, our 4th bedroom was our school room/office. We did "school" in there for a while but it just didn't work for our family. There wasn't enough room for the littles to play while the bigs did their work. It was too far from the laundry and kitchen. Eventually we moved everything to the kitchen/dining/living room area and starting doing school at the kitchen table.

The before pictures are from when I re-arranged to make it work for school.

Before

After

I added the mat to help with the noise. We don't have any carpet in our house - which I LOVE - but it does make for noisy tractors and trucks on the floor. The mat helps some but I would like it if I could cover the whole floor or at least more of it.

Before

After

Let me just say that I don't see this bookshelf/cubby unit going anywhere. For one thing it's solid wood and weighs a TON! But I really like it. It is very versatile. We purchased it when the McCrory school district moved the elementary to a new building. We had an auction for them and sold all the surplus equipment. I also have some wall maps I bought there (3-4 years ago) that are still waiting to be hung on the wall (will require strong anchoring and they are heavy).

It previously housed our non-fiction books, read alouds, and chapter books (all the easy reader were in another shelf). We cleared out some closets and moved all those books hopefully - out of sight, out of mind for the little boys. Anything that is out now, they can play with.

My awesome mother-in-law made this bookshelf/storage unit for the boys a few years ago. {I figured you would ask ;) } She also made Madisyn one shaped like a house. I saw similar units in a catalog but they were particle board. Nana took the general idea and really improved on it. The barn has two trap doors, the silo opens (I left it cracked so you could see), the silo has shelves and the roof is copper sheeting. We've had it 3 years and it still looks this great!

Proof that it doesn't always look nice. In fact, that's one of the best things about it. There are no toys in the boys' room. No more tripping over tractor/trailer rigs in the dark of night.

I allow the playroom to stay messy (though there is a no books on the floor rule) until Thursday afternoon. Friday is our lite school day and we generally do our cleaning and errands then. This way the playroom is done before we start our Friday activities.

Ch-Ch-Ch- Changes

Recently, we started work on some minor home improvement projects. We have big plans, big wishes and unfortunately - a small budget.

We started with re-purposing some rooms. We converted the school room/office into a play room. All four boys are sleeping in the boys room now so we wanted to move the toys out. No more toys under the bed, under the dresser, under the changing table, in the closet, in the dresser and empty toy boxes. LOL

Clearing out the school/office supplies meant we had to start with the closets. One great thing about this house is out closet space. We have two coat closets (one by each main exterior door, a linen closet (and cabinets in the bathrooms with plenty of bathroom linen storage) and a general storage closet. The boys room has two huge closets (their room was the former master suite) and Madisyn has two small/normal closets.

The linen and storage closet housed most of craft and sewing supplies so we decided to re-purpose the above Barrister Bookcase to house my stuff and move it to our bedroom.

This past summer we purchased a bedroom suite for the boys room that needed refinishing. We decided to paint the dresser and chest blue. We recently decided to paint the twin beds to match (they weren't from the original set).

I don't even know how many cans of spray paint Kent has used lately. The insides of his lungs are probably blue and black (our main colors). We aren't completely done with any rooms so I don't have after photos to share yet but things are looking GREAT!!!! Kent has worked really hard sanding, scraping, gluing and painting and it really shows!