STORAGE TOTE UPDATE

 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:

White will, of course, be for Winter decorations...

This is one of the new ones, the color is called "green lily" and I figured it's just perfect for Spring...

This was the other new color I found, it's "sky blue" and made us think of water and Summer...

And lastly, this rust, orange-ish one is the other one that we already had and so it will be used for our Autumn decorations...

We don't have a lot of stuff for different seasons yet and in retrospect, probably should have gotten two each but oh well, we will make do.

Then the last two we already had were these:

We have decided based on comments, to make this one our generic birthday/anniversary/celebration box.  For some reason this color reminds us of a birthday party or a celebration.  This could be a party catch all.

We do have some Pride Month decorations and have decided that this one will be used for those.

I can't wait to get us organized and get these up in the attic above the garage so I can know where everything is and can grab it when we need it.  You don't often get many chances in life to reorganize things in a better way and this seems like the perfect time to do that.

It might have to be a gradual process as we unpack but it will be fun.

GETTING ORGANIZED FOR HOLIDAY STORAGE

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 have a couple of these already, though I am not sure they are the same style.  But they are orange with black lids.  That's screams Halloween decor.

I decided black with a red lid would be good for our Day of the Dead decor.  We have three of these since, as you know, we already have a lot of those decorations, ha! 

Of course, hello, bright red is Christmas.  We have four (five?) of these and that's where we keep the majority of our Christmas decorations.  But we MIGHT need some more later this Fall, ha.

This pink one is obviously Valentine's Day!  OK so red may also be obvious but since red was already taken, and pink wouldn't work for any other holiday, Valentine's Day it will be!

This pale green has become our Easter color.  I bought two of them and they are perfect for the Easter decor.

In fact, here is an example:

This is one of them with some Easter items in it (including that awesome garland I found).

This one is for...4th of July decorations! We have two of these since we have quite a few things.

Hello, St Patrick's Day!  Perfect color green.  Again, these colors are also used at Christmas for storage, but since we're trying to keep our holidays sorted, and we already have red for Christmas things, this was perfect for the luck of the Irish!

This one is going to be for Mardi Gras decorations.  They made a dark purple one that I would love to have had, but they are sold out.  Since the colors of Mardi Gras are purple, green and gold, this will still work!

Here are a some more that I bought recently, just because these colors come and go throughout the year and once gone, they are next to impossible to find.

This will be where you all come in:

Suggestions for what holiday or decor to use them for?

This is an aqua/teal blue green.

They call this one orange but it's definitely different from bright Halloween orange.  I was thinking that this might do as Fall/Thanksgiving.  But as Fall gets here, they might just have an even better new color for Thanksgiving so f I don't need it for that, any ideas?

                                                                                        

This one is marine blue.  It was the original one I chose for the 4th of July box but the other blue is a much more patriotic shade of blue, so this one is up for grabs as far as holidays.

I also have a white one.  This one could have been 4th of July for sure, but it can be for something else.

The good thing is that for now...

...they stack up easily for storage until we have the attic space to put them.  After that, we can begin sorting through our decorations as we find them after the move and start getting them filled.

ORGANIZING AND GETTING READY

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.

Specialty and larger cookie cutters are in here...

And here are the rest, various holidays and other specialty shapes are in this one.

Then, I sorted through all our cupcake holders and put them in this one.  What I've done over the last few years is after a holiday, I would try to find cupcake liners on clearance and they are almost always less than a dollar a package.

We have some for almost every holiday represented. Stripes, flowers, solid colors, stars, snowflakes, hearts, shamrocks, polka dots, pumpkins, skulls, you name it, we have it, ha!

Finally, I made labels for the boxes, put the lids on and we stored them away.  They will be ready to move, no packing necessary and when we get these containers to the new house, we can just put them as they are on a shelf in the new pantry, organized and ready to use!

CANNING CABINET WORK IN PROGRESS

Here is a new(ish) piece of furniture at the farm. I say newish because we already had it and were using it for something else that just wasn't working. 

So we decided to repurpose it. Well, by "we", I mean it was my idea to use it for something dedicated. 

We moved it into the dining room on a different wall than where it was.  We were using it for just a collection of extra stuff.  It's amazing how when you have space but don't really have a specific use for it, it just begins to hold random "stuff" without purpose. 

So we cleaned it all out...

     

Here it is after we emptied it out.  

It's a neat cabinet, a nice size and solid wood. When the doors are closed, it looks like a cabinet with separate upper and lower doors but they open the full length, which is kind of nice.  The only downside is the shelves are not adjustable, they are permanently attached.  So I guess I'll have to work with what I've got.  

So what are we going to use it for now?  Since we're going to be doing something different at the house in the next year or so, part of our plan is to make sure we have furniture that serves a specific purpose, in this house, in a different room or in a different house.  

The goal is to turn this into a "canning cabinet"!  I want to fill it with my empty jars, canning tools and accessories, rings and lids of course, even canning related cookbooks, etc. (I might even have a few canning themed dish towels, ha).  Right now, I'm making an inventory of what we have and getting it all together in one place.  This will make it easier to pack up if we have to move it into a new place later one.  Until then, we still need to make it look nice.

These are the jars that I used for the rings and lids a while back.  In hindsight, I kind of wished I had gotten colored jars instead of white (since it's a white cabinet) but hey, it is what it is.  I suppose I could paint the inside of the upper cabinet at some point.  That would work, right?  Or maybe even line it with wall paper or something?  I put them on the top shelf so they can be seen behind the glass.

There are two more empty "visible" shelves (behind the upper glass section of the doors) so I can use them for cookbooks (only have a few canning ones) and then maybe hang some tools or store them in a utensil holder of some sort. I can also keep pectin and other supplies like that in the upper portion.

These are the two shelves concealed behind the solid part of the doors.  There are most of the jars we have and my canning pot.  Inside the pot are some tools, etc.  It seemed like everything was scattered around the house in various locations, jars on the shelves in the mudroom, the canning pot in the kitchen, rings and lids in the storage jars on another shelf, etc and so now I'm just trying to get it all on the same place and then I can organize later.

I need to get some of those wire pantry shelves so that I can stack the jars.  If there are too many, I'll put as many as possible here.

It will be a great Summer project when at the farm and stuck inside due to the monsoon rain.

By the way, we got this at NADEAU, one of our favorite furniture stores. That's the National website link, for those in the Houston area, here is the HOUSTON NADEAU website. We don't get anything for mentioning them, but we like to call out our favorites in case someone might be interested.

MUDROOM PANTRY STORAGE BOXES

When it's rainy and/or muddy and too wet to do much outside, there is always something we can do inside.  One of the things I wanted to do was take care of some of the clutter in the mudroom.  We had things stacked on the shelves that needed to be a bit more organized.  Rolls of foil and parchment and cups and plastic utensils and things like that.  

You know, the little things that never seem to stay stacked up neatly and end up every which direction falling off the shelves and to the back of the shelves.

We had these white IKEA storage boxes that were part of another piece of furniture (they fit into little cubby holes).  I moved them out to the mudroom and put them on top of the shelves.  They fit perfectly.  We have eight of them (one is on the other set of shelves just out of picture view) and they worked great for what we wanted to use them for.

For example in this one we are storing our plastic wrap, foil, wax paper, ziplock bags, parchment, etc. 

Another one we used for plastic cups, ice cube trays, paper plates, insulated reusable coffee cups, etc.

I didn't take pictures of all of them but another has seasonal items (egg dying supplies, pumpkin carving tools, ice cream sandwich makers, etc), another has plastic plate holders, napkins, retro condiment bottles, corn on the cob holders, etc).  

The good thing is there are still three that are empty!  Whatever will be put in them?  HA!

Anyone else ever get inspired to organize on a rainy or cold day?

SHELVES IN BARN

A couple of months ago, I posted about finding shelves in the downstairs recycling area at our building.  CLICK HERE for that post.  

Recently, I did some rearranging in the barn and put them up.  Part of the problem in the barn is just that everything was just sitting wherever it was when we put it down.  To get organized, we needed to get all the same stuff together.  

So with that being said...

This one is on one side of the main door and is dedicated to beekeeping supplies.  Still more space for more stuff but it'll be nice to keep it all together in one spot.  I'm going to get a coat hook and mount on the wall so that I can hang my bee suit.  Also nice to use some of the containers to store smaller items in.  Now we just need some bees again!

I put the other shelf unit on the other side, opposite the bee shelving for all the grilling and outdoor cooking supplies.  Things like BBQ tools, special pans, basting supplies, accessories, etc.  Those were scattered everywhere, even some in the house.  It was able to be moved out there and since it was on the mudroom shelving, 2nd Man is happy that he has more space inside now too.  

Wait, what's this?

MORE shelving?

Yep!  I did some online research and found matching shelves to the ones that we found.  We did that because a) we needed more shelving in the barn anyway and b) by moving the free ones around we discovered that they would fit in another spot...

And that spot is on each side of the window on the opposite end of the barn.  Here's when I put one of the free ones there to measure.  We found that two of them will fit on each side.  That will give us a LOT of storage in the barn.  And let me get more stuff up off the floor and onto shelves. 

Organizing is a good thing!

CLUTTER RELIEF BOX

There is a shelf in the mudroom right by the back door to the porch...

...and it becomes my dumping resting point for everything I'm using at the time in the garden our outside or whatever.  Honestly, it's easier to put it there rather than carrying it out to the shed.  But for 2nd Man, it's a bit frustrating because he likes less clutter laying around.

I found this plastic tote downstairs at the apartment building (one of my trash to treasure finds a few weeks back) and figured it would be perfect for use as a way to corral the clutter.  And with it being a rubberized plastic, it doesn't matter if items are dirty or damp.  I can just put it all in there and dig around through it when I need something. 

2nd Man is happy.

And if he's happy, we're all happy, LOL!

RED METAL FIRST AID KIT DIY

So.....here is a fun (and ongoing) project.  What is it?  Read on!

Red Excel metal tool box

We started with this metal tool box.  Heavy, sturdy, seals up nicely and definitely mouse proof.

Purchased here at Amazon (affiliate):

Excel TB137-Red 1-Tray Steel Tool Box

$16.72.  Not too bad for heavy duty quality.

It's a nice size and has this removable top tray that adds more storage.  

It holds a lot of tools in the bottom. But wait?

Are we going to put tools in it?

No, we have other plans.

I ordered some stickers online.  Three "white cross" stickers and 2 "first aid kit" stickers.  They threw in a 9/11 sticker which we thought was kind of a nice touch to add to our new first aid kit.  

Red metal First Aid kit

I put one of these on the front and another on the lower part of the back side.

Then I put a white cross on each end of the box.

And just like that, voila!

A heavy duty first aid kit for the farm!

We've started buying some things to put in it.  The lower portion will hold quite a bit.  So far we've got rubbing alcohol, and some wraps and bandages in different sizes and shapes.

Still room for more of course.  

The lift out tray now has some band-aids, antibacterial ointment, hydrocortisone cream, and some aspirin, ibuprofen, and acetaminophen.  

Still room for more here too.  

We are thinking of buying a second one to have one for minor incidents and one for major things that might come up.  This is all for us to have at the farm for routine day to day possibilities and/or post hurricane or other disaster where we might need some longer term supplies.

So with space left in this one and possibly a second one, what items are must haves when prepping a good first aid kit?

Feel free to make suggestions below!