It was rainy and overcast, so I figured it was a good weekend to get up in the garage attic and get our holiday decorations put up there. Still hot but at least it was a bit cooler.
I sorted the containers (our color coded ones) on the garage floor and went to work.
You may remember me mentioning I helped to create a dream kitchen for 2nd Man. Part of having a dream kitchen is to make sure you have easy access to your stored cooking items.
Since we designed our island, we planned for these.
There are two cabinets, one on each end. Normally, there is an inset on the end of the island that either occupies these spaces or it's dead space or some people put in a bookshelf or something. We will have plenty of bookcase space elsewhere so we decided to let them put slender cabinets on each side because we knew exactly how they would be used.
The island is, of course, conveniently located right behind the stove/cooktop/ovens.
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Figured we should update on some of our unpacking.
We have books. A lot of books.
In the study, we are going to have four new bookcases with glass doors to hold the majority of our books.
But we still have four more bookcases (one at the apartment and three at the old farmhouse) and so we are going to use those around the new house.
In the master bedroom, we decided to put one on each side of the window, with the desk in between under the window itself.
Here is one of them. We moved them both into the room. That was the easy part. Then we needed to move one huge load of books.
These books have been in the back of 2nd Man's Jeep since we moved in. It was time to get them out. When we moved them from the apartment to the car, we used one of those valet carts that the apartment had and it was pretty good but it took quite a few trips because the sides were open and you can only stack so many before they slide/fall off. But we got them in the car (these books are three, four five deep, ha).
I had to think outside the box (no pun intended).
This was a a shipping crate/box that I found a few years ago in the trash to treasure area. I put in the barn thinking "I might be able to use this for something".
This was another find that I saved after it was discarded. a dolly. It was probably used to move appliances or something else heavy. I figured I might could use it someday as well.
That someday was last weekend!
Our own movable heavy-duty cart! We loaded the books from the car into the box and rolled them into the bedroom and loaded them into the bookcase. It was only three trips total to get the car empty.
Regular readers know I'm all about the storage and we figured it is easier to get that started now as we move and arrange and sort through things.
We got some great feedback and suggestions when we posted about the storage totes and color coding them. We really liked the idea several of you had to use them for more seasonal decorations without being holiday specific. I've been thinking about it and the other day I found two totes in new colors and with them, I figured out how to complete our seasonal set:
You may remember this picture:
This is (kind of) what our garage attic space will look like. It will be floored, and I will partially wall it after we move in, so we can use it for storage. I figured if we had a ton of boxes up there, it would be hard to figure out what is what for different holidays even if they are labeled (a box gets turned around, etc).
So, I thought of putting things in color coded boxes to correspond to their contents. What? See below:
Here are a few of the ones we have already acquired (that I could get to). There are a few already in use but this is just to give an example.
We are starting to go through things at the apartment and get organized to make moving and getting settled in a little easier. We know we want to have as much as possible stored neatly and together. So, we stopped at Target and picked up these great plastic bins. They are a perfect size, not too big to be unwieldy but big enough to hold the items we need to put in them.
For three boxes, we decided cookie cutters and cupcake liners. We sorted through everything we have, scattered in various locations in the kitchen and pantry room, drawers and cabinets and put them together.
So, as I was clearing out the mudroom, we have wooden shelves. On one side of the room, they are deep, 18 inches deep to be exact.
But then, behind the door in the mudroom, I forgot that there was a single set of shelves, shallower at only 12 inches deep. Because they are fully assembled, I just carried them out and put them in the truck (along with the other stuff head to the barn/shed) and drove it over and crossed my fingers.
Here is the end result:
Look at this!
It fits PERFECTLY in this spot! This will give me more space to store things like the supplies for the mower and the weedeater as well as stuff like wasp spray, fire ant killer, tools I use for the mower, etc. It was the only one in that size we had, but it's good we had it.
Once we get out there, I'll have my hands full organizing the barn and the shed, but it'll be so easy because I'll have plenty of time to do it whenever I want. Right now, it's just the weekends and there was always so much else to focus on.
Not only are we building our dream house, I'm going to be able to turn those two buildings into my dream workshop and shed!
This is a storage tip for something we use that works great. We like to be organized whenever we can One thing we found that works great for inexpensive storage is a pencil box.
During the school year, you can find them almost everywhere.
I found the long one on the left at our local grocery chain, and the other smaller one on the right was from Walmart. The bigger one was $1.75 and the smaller one was .99 cents.
What makes them great is that you can put just about anything in there as long as it fits.
This one stays in a large drawer to keep our chip clips and similar items all together. That way, they are in one place and don't move around ending up at the back of the drawer, ha. It's also nice to pull out the box and find just the right clip for the job.
We used the longer one for the attachments to our hand held mixer. Again, keeps them all in one place (this sits on a shelf behind the mixer) and bonus, they stay dust free and clean until you use them.
Check this out! Eight spice containers (from Penzey's anyway) fit perfectly in another one. It makes it easy to keep similar spices together. Right now we only have this one, but 2nd Man wants me to pick up some more so we can put jars in others and have "theme boxes". For example, Mexican cooking, Italian, seasoning blends, baking spices, etc.
But, they are not only for the kitchen. This one stays in our bathroom drawer and keeps our bandages and minor would care needs all in one spot.
Grab the box and go!
Of course, you could use them in a desk or craft room. In our smaller apartment, it helps with organization for sure, but this will be something that helps at the house as well.
Always great to stay neat and organized!
