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Downsizing: What To Keep

The thought of downsizing makes me nervous, what do I keep and what about my sentimental items? Many of us have been living in the same place for a long period of time and have accumulated so much. It’s tough to know what you should take with you and what needs to go, making this task discouraging.

Recently, my aunt decided to move into a smaller place. Unfortunately, as we started going through her things she realized downsizing was a larger task than she expected. She didn’t realize how much she had kept; cards, letters, photographs, knick knacks and more. Here are 5 tips we used to help her downsize: Read more

Making Household Items Useful in More Ways Than One

More people are looking to simplify or downsize their living spaces. The following are some organizing ideas I have found reusing household items.

Storing Your Crafts Away in Small Spaces

An 11’ X 30’ office space is not a lot of room for two business desks and a craft room. So we have to make the most of our space for those times when I want to get out the crafts. I needed ways to store a lot of the craft items that I only use a few times a year, but have them accessible at a moment’s notice.

Ribbon StorageOne thing I seem to always have tucked into different places are rolls of ribbon. Here’s how I organize the ribbon. My first choice is taking a wall mount paper towel holder and removing the wooden rung that would go inside the roll. Now you can slide on all your ribbon casings and hang them in plain view ready to use. The second way is to use a shoe box and some doweling. Cut your doweling to the length of the shoe box. Slide one end into a hole you have cut on either end to hold the dowel in place. Next, add your ribbons and then push the dowel through the second hole. To keep things really stashed away you can use the lid and cut small slits in the top for the ribbon to run through. I prefer to keep the box open so I have a better idea of when I am getting close to the end of the roll. If this storage box is going to stay out in plain sight you can make it look less like a shoe box by covering the outside with a nice bright wrapping paper.

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20 Ways to Organize Your Craft Space

20 Ways to Organize Your Craft Space

Got a messy craft area at home that you can never seem to keep organized and tidy?
Check out this video and get some innovative, crafty storage solutions!

Halloween Crafting on a Budget

I have a daughter in her early teaching years and I seem to find myself always looking for things she can make with her students on a budget. Here’s my adventure.

My plan this Halloween season was to find different ways to make ghosts. Pinterest is still new and scary for me, but after a little research, there are a few ghosts I think would go over well. They all look so easy when you see the finished project online but I already had my doubts as I began.

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Backyard Challenge

This year, with the kids nearly moved out of the house we decided to make the place our own, but still entice them back to gather in the evenings.

What to do with a big plain fenced back yard with a standard contractor built deck??deck

The deck is a basic 12’ x 12’ layout which sits as high as our fence line, and has minimal amount of slats for the fencing leaving it looking very open. Our first idea was to make it a little more private and make an inviting sitting area. We put a lighter colored panel over the slatted part of the deck siding. The biggest thing we noticed right away was how much less wind we felt sitting out there. The lighter color in the panel has kept the deck from looking too dark, or getting too hot.

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Pinterest: Thank You For Helping Us Grow!

We took to Pinterest to see what we could find for an end of the school year gift for a teacher or professor and found one that works for several occasions. Our how to instructions are below, along with the link to the original post.

Items Required:supplies

  • A flower pot, any size
  • Black and yellow acrylic paint
  • A sponge brush
  • Fine tipped paint brush
  • A flexible measuring tape
  • A silver paint pen or Sharpie marker
  • Flowers or a type of plant

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Take The Junk Drawer Challenge!

junkdrawerbanner converted

Is your junk drawer a landmine waiting to explode? Let’s get this small spaced organized and see who can come up with the best organized drawer. Back last spring our manager in Lacombe, Sue Sage, shared her best drawer treatment by using a utensil organizer to get a handle on the make-up drawer in the bathroom. I used this same idea to get my kitchen junk drawer organized once and for all. Here’s what I learned from doing my own junk drawer challenge.

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