Organization Week: Storing Books

I love children's books. I might have a slight addiction to finding and buying them from thrift stores. The kids have so many now that I really needed a way to store them. The shelf in the closet wasn't big enough and I didn't have space in the room for a standard bookshelf.

I was inspired by this bookshelf from Pottery Barn:

and the DIY version at Infarrantly Creative:

But after much searching, I couldn't find a hutch that would work to do what she did. Not to mention, I had WAY more books than that to store.

So my next idea was getting magazine racks to run along the back of the futon that could display them the same way.

I bought several of these Elfa magazine racks from The Container Store and attached them to the wall:

I lined up four of them in a row and filled them with books:

I love the way it looks and it keeps all the books at an arms reach at bedtime. I think it's the perfect space-saving solution for this room. Next up, I need to finish hanging a few more things on the wall above the books and this room will be DONE! (for now!)

Organization Week: Quick Tip

Speaking of Counter Clutter, here is a quick tip I used in my bathroom that I really like...

I used to have a small free-standing towel holder on my bathroom counter with all of my necklaces hanging from it. It worked well in my apartment on my dresser, but it wasn't working for me in the bathroom. It was too cluttered and half of my necklaces were too long to hang correctly.

So I started browsing the web for other ideas. I saw everything from hooks on the wall, to over the door closet racks, to drawer organizers, but nothing was working exaclty. Then I saw a metal tree hanging on a wall with a few necklaces hanging from it. Score! That's what I wanted.

Well, this is what I got:
It's a piece of metal wall art that I found at ROSS for $10-15. It was a green vine with flowers that I spray painted black and hung sideways on the wall.

It may not be the most tidy looking arrangement of jewelry, but I like it. Everything is at eye level and hangs nicely from the various leaves/petals. It also clears room on my counter and keeps my longer necklaces from getting tangled.

If you're looking for a unique way to organize and store your necklaces, you might find use out of something unexpected! You never know!

I'm linking up to The CSI project!

Organization Week!

I wanted to do a full week of organization posts starting next Monday, but what a coincidence- it's Organization Week over at The CSI Project this week and I want to link up!

So I'm going to start posting now and even though it won't be a clean Monday-Friday week, you'll still get all the ideas and organization suggestions in a timely manner. Deal? Ok, good.

Organization #1: Attacking Counter Clutter!!

My first organization idea was inspired by my friend, Debbie. She uses old townhouse mailboxes in her kitchen to keep her husband and kids stuff all in one place. As she finds things around the house that belong to someone else, she simply puts them in their respective mailbox to keep them off the counter and out of sight. Here are her mailboxes (super cute, right?):

Well I looked and looked for affordable townhouse mailboxes but just couldn't find ones that fit what I wanted. I wanted a little more streamlined/simple look than Debbie had, and I wanted to spend less money. So instead of nice townhouse mailboxes, I bought some clear plastic magazine holders from the Container Store that look like this:

They were $9.99 for 2, so they fit perfectly in to my budget. The only problem is- they are boring. So now we add some personalization! I had a vision of each person's initial on the mailbox in custom color/patterns. Brilliant and clean.

Since I am the last crafter on the planet to get a Silhouette Machine, I wasn't able to just print out vinyl letters and call it a day. Instead, I had to do it the old fashioned way: stencils and paint.
We each placed our stencil on the mailbox:


Then sponge painted our first color using crumpled up newspaper:

After the first layer dried, we sponged on a second contrasting color:

Finally after the paint was completely dry, I outlined each letter with a Sharpie to give it a nice clean edge:

And that's it! Easy and done.

Now I have them hanging at the garage door so that we can easily separate mail before it hits the counter. (Ignore the "Dad" one... he did his before he heard the instructions. Jeez...)

In addition to mail, I also put little goodies I find around the house in there for the kids to put away (chapstick, flashcards, mini motorcycle toys, etc). It's been a great way to keep everyone's things neat and organized and it keeps clutter off my counters (which I am SO thankful for!) The only downfall is that they are semi-transparent, so clutter isn't completely gone. But that's OK with me- it just reminds me of bills to pay or things to follow up on.

We even painted on the dog's initials on their food bins so they would feel included in the craftiness!

Hopefully this helps you come up with a great way to organize your own counter clutter!

I'm linking up to The CSI Project!