Guest Post #2 - Life After Laundry

I'm back again this week hanging out and sharing a post over at Life After Laundry.

Last week I shared my Back to School post with her readers.  As we all prepare our little (and not so little) ones to head back to school, I thought this week it would be great to help them get everything organized with the Homework Station post.

Be sure to hop on over there and give Brenna some bloggy love!

Before Meets After -- Linen Closet Organization

Do you find that you have several unfinished projects going on around your house?  I've had a "to do" list running in my head for several months now, always with the promise that I will take care of it...soon.  Now that school is out, "soon" as arrived and it's high time I get these items checked off.

My linen closet has been begging for my attention for at least a year {probably longer, but who's counting}.  It's such a small space so it only needed a little organizational TLC.

I went shopping for baskets in Hobby Lobby.  I found several that I loved but wasn't crazy about the prices.  I knew that I only needed three, preferably three different sizes - something like this.

Natural Rush Basket set with liners {picture from Hobby Lobby}

With a $54 price tag {or larger},  I needed to start thinking of other options.  Back to my favorite store to shop for bargains -- The Goodwill!  It took me several weeks to find what I was looking for but I got lucky and found these great containers.

Containers made of wood

They are heavy and very sturdy containers and I was over the moon when I saw them just sitting on a
table.  Seriously, I almost ran over a little old man trying to get to them before someone else did {hey, bargains bring out the worst in a person...lol}.  The best part of this find was the price.  All three together only cost me $11.  Major score!

Though I loved the containers themselves I wasn't so in love with the color, so time to get that small flaw taken care of.  I grabbed my sand paper and tack cloth and got right to work.

Sanding time

They only needed a little sanding work to get them ready for painting.  Then outside I went to get them spray painted.  I used Valspar spray paint and I'm in love with the coverage and finish of this brand.

Sanded and ready for painting

Great coverage -- only required one coat

The finished product - beautiful!

To finish them off, I used my Silhouette machine, scrapbook paper and some great chalkboard vinyl from Pick Your Plum to create the labels for each container

Labels on each container

Here is where my Before Meets After:

It feels great to have one thing crossed off my mental to do list.  I'll be working hard over the next few weeks to get several more checked off too!  What are some of your 'to do' list items and how do you plan to tackle them?

Homework Station

A trip down Pinterest lane and I found some wonderful inspiration to help me with the organizational wall I wanted to add to my kitchen. With the little prince entering Kindergarten this year, I have been inundated with papers of all sort from his school and the pile was beginning to grow {and he started just over a week ago...lol}. I decided that I needed something to help keep me ahead of the game - enter our 'Homework Station'.

First, let me show you a couple examples that I found on Pinterest that I loved instantly:

This great organizational wall was pinned from One Creative Housewife

Here is another from A Bright Idea {sorry, still trying to find the correct link}


After seeing these, I knew this was exactly what I wanted to do to stay organized this year but I needed to find something that would work for the small wall I had in mind. Pinterest wasn't my only inspiration, I found two other ideas flipping through the Pottery Barn Kids magazine.



This idea struck me right away and I knew I wanted to incorporate this into the design


When I saw this, my eye was immediately drawn to the bungy board -- another element that was a "must add"

Of course being the frugal shopper that I am and living on a pretty strict budget, I knew that purchasing the items from Pottery Barn Kids was completely out the question but that didn't mean I couldn't create my own! The art clip board shown above costs $39, I was able to create it for just $8.50 thanks to Michaels -- unfinished wood board for $7.99 with a 50% off coupon and the oversized clothes pins for $1.50 each found in their dollar bin section {the paint I had at home}. The knock-off bungy board {PBK cost ~ $35} was a bargain too thanks to Michael's -- two canvases at BOGO free with a 40% off coupon for a total price of about $5 {antique white grosgrain ribbon I had on hand}.

Love my versions!

A look at the "Before" and "After":

I am simply overjoyed with the way this turned out! All of the design elements that I wanted and the best part - it's functional and cute {and well we all know how important cute is!}.

Linky Parties where we have fun!