craigs list selling tips

I discovered Craig's List a few years back and I'm so glad I did! Lots of people know about Craig's List, but are nervous about actually using it. And who can blame them? Connecting with perfect strangers can be scary. However, after getting informed *on how to stay safe, it can open up all new kinds of home purging and DIY possibilities for you. Since my friends know I use Craig's List they often ask me how I sell things using it, this is what I tell them:

12 Organizing Ideas for the Holidays

I recently taught a class for my Church's women's group. Since the holidays are almost here, I focused on strategies to help make the holidays easier.

Here's the 12 organizing ideas for getting through the holidays in one piece.

diy printer shelf

Sometimes things just need to be functional, like this shelf we built for our printer. We don't have a dedicated office space, just a corner in our cozy kitchen. In fact, we bought a different computer, a monitor/computer combination, because of our lack of space.

DIY Printer Shelf built in closet

summer pinch bowls

I found this cute yellow striped pinch bowl set at my local thrift store recently. For less than a dollar, I knew I could find some use for them. Plus, I love their summery vibe with the yellow and white stripes.

top 10 pinch bowl uses

yellow and white striped summer pinch bowls

inspiration

Just in case you needed some inspiration to get you through the rest of this week. Perhaps you'd like to. . .


Update Your Bedroom
or just take a nap . . .

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Spray Paint Something
Use this fancy cork board to display jewelry . . .

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Really Spray Paint Something
This process involves a number of sanding and spraying steps. . .

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Get Organized
I love this printer drawer Ikea hack. . .

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Get Crafty

Maybe for a play space or a child's teacher. . .

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Have you already settled on your weekend project? Or is your weekend already filled with all those "other obligations"?

I'm still trying to decide if I want to jump on the white bedroom trend.

family room progress

Remember how I gushy I got about Ikea's shoe cabinet, here? How I loved it so much I bought two? That's because with my problematic family room, posted here, it not only needed to function as a mudroom, but also as our media/entertainment center console.

I got the idea here.

I was pretty sure this would do the trick. Except instead of a mirror, we mounted our flat screen.

Initially, I didn't notice the gap in between the two units from my above inspiration image, but once we assembled ours, that gap really bothered me.

So, we just preformed our first Ikea Hack (pretty minor, I know). We took the tops off, drilled new holes so that that each was offer center to both to the left and the right. This way each individual piece could butt right up to each other instead of creating that narrow gap.

And our entertainment center was born.

Sorta of.

Until we mounted our TV and realized how high it was on the wall. Too high. Like sitting in the front row of the movie theatre high. No good.

So, we trimmed the legs. Since we bought the tall ones, and our ceiling is quite low, we trimmed the legs quite a bit. This allowed us to mount the TV at a much more comfortable and normal height.

You can see in this Ikea image that the legs are longer.

You can see from the above photo:

• that we trimmed the legs almost all the way off
• how we scooted the tops over so that two pieces can sit flush next to each other
• my cool flooring situation, posted here.
• my partially painted ceiling
• the new crown moulding
• the lack of a baseboard
• my fun green CB vase, posted here

And remember this what the room looked like when we moved in. 

It's slowly coming together, baby step by baby step. (More on the transformation coming later!)

If you are into Ikea hacks, check out this site.

Do you have any Ikea hacks?

Linked up to Domestically Speaking | iheartorganizing

shoe peeve

One of my biggest pet peeves is the pile of shoes by the door. We are a shoe off-at-the-door-kind of family. It keeps my house cleaner, and with four little ones, we spend a lot of time on the floor -playing, reading, wrestling, hosting stuffed animal & baby doll tea parties, eel hunting -the list goes on forever.

But I just hate that pile of shoes at the door. Even if each person only has one pair of shoes at the door, with six people, it quickly becomes a pile of at least a dozen loose flip flops, sneakers, boots, or sandals -just sitting there.

I don't mind a small basket of shoes, or a few tidy shoe cubbies, but with my crew, even a small basket doesn't really accommodate us.

Not to mention, our little yellow cape doesn't have a proper entryway or a mudroom. Remember, my family room layout here. There's not a coat closet in sight. (We do have a coat closet, but it's past the kitchen and down the hall. Not exactly handy for our frequent comings and goings.)

Enter the best thing I found ever . . .

Ikea's Shoe Cabinet from the Hemnes Collection

The larger one is not only taller, but deeper and includes a drawer. Prior to now I've never been a big Ikea furniture fan. I love all their space saving strategies and their organizational goodies, but their furniture, not so much. But this shoe problem was starting to make me desperate for a solution.

And I love it. The drawers slide open, easily accommodating even my husband's big ole shoes. The taller one has a double row in each compartment. In fact, I loved it so much, I bought two.

How do you solve your shoe problem? Or do you even have one? It's not just us, right?

Other post you may like: family room

Linked up to Miss Mustard Seed, Finding Fabulous