Disc Sanders

Review of two Skil Disc Sanders

The 5 inch Random Orbit Sander

The Octo Multi-Finishing Sander

When I think of finishing furniture, the part that I dread the most is the sanding.  Thinking about refinishing my dining room table was not a happy thought.

I was thrilled when I found out I was going to get to review these two Skil Sanders.  The job didn’t seem nearly so scary anymore.

I also was going to refinish an Ikea table

I set up my work area in the garage. The 5 inch random sander came with several specifically  cut pieces of sand paper.  It also has the dust collector. What a great benefit that was. I didn’t have to worry about massive amount of saw dust all over me, all over the garage, all over everything!

The 5 inch Random Orbit Sander

I wanted to start with this sander because it was going to be the main one I was going to use for the surface of the dining room table and the Ikea table.

Here is the bottom of the sander…. why look at that…. the same holes that are on the sandpaper. lol

 

The gray surface has a bit of a “Velcro” feel to it … it is rough and then the bottom of the sandpaper is almost “felt like”.  When you place the sandpaper on the sander… it grabs and sticks on.  It isn’t hard to line up the holes either.

Now to test to see how it works.

The on/off switch is really handy. It is right where your index finger goes… so if there is any reason you have to stop it fast… it is right there.

There is also a light guide to let you know if you are putting too much pressure  (light turns red) or if the pressure is just right (green light that is lit now).  The dust goes into the particle filter. It is so nice to not have all that saw dust coming up all over the place!

My son was dying to help me out! lol  He couldn’t wait to use it.

I did try the other sander on the legs (I’ll show more of that sander later).  It would have worked, but there would have been a lot of changing of the sanding tips… and I had four volunteers (lol) who each got a leg to sand.

You have to be sure to remember the leaves of your table too if you are going to refinish a dining room table.

It made sanding the table top So fast and easy.  We also used it on the Ikea table. That surface was much different, but it still worked fine.

The Octo Multi-Finishing Sander

Look at this cool sander!  The Octo Multi-Finishing Sander has  eight different sanding tips (hence the octo) to be able to sand different surfaces.  (Check out the video on their site that shows this sander in action)

With all the tips and the sand paper to fit each of the tips, it is nice that it also comes with this bag.

It isn’t too hard to change the tips, but I did use the directions to see how to change things out. The different tips fit into the slots and snap in place.

The white on my hand is not saw dust, it is actually primer that was a pain to get off!

Putting on the sandpaper pieces worked the same way as the other sander. There are several cut pieces of sandpaper for each tip.  I didn’t realize at first (but did before I actually used it) that the sandpaper had the different grades.  I used the 120 grit for my projects.  I do realize you would have to purchase replacements pretty quick if you were doing much sanding though.

I did try using it on the legs.  It worked, but as I mentioned earlier in the post… it would have had me changing the tips for the different angles and surfaces.

Since I had willing participants… I spent my time working on other projects with the sander.

I had an old mirror to refinish and it had scroll work on it.

I was able to use several of the different tips.  I think I liked this tip the best, to do the curves.

I used all of these tips

The corner attachments were really nice to do in the little creases …. and also the long side of the mirror. The longer tip wasn’t as useful for this mirror.  I used it to try and get on the flat main surface at the edges of the scroll work. You can see how the sandpaper did. I don’t know if I was putting too much pressure on the tip and that is why it wore out so fast or not. I didn’t feel it was as useful as the others on this mirror.  But I am counting on it to get in between the rungs of my chairs when I refinish them.

I also refinished this little chest of drawers that goes on the wall.  I did use that longer tip on this for the corners and it worked nicely.

 

I was very happy with the sanders. It helped save some real time along with muscle in sanding the several pieces that I worked on.

I loved the 5 inch random orbit sander for the flat surfaces.  The Octo multi-finishing sander was very handy for different edges and surfaces.

I think it is going to really help me when I refinish my chairs. I don’t think those spindles will be any problem at all.

I would recommend it for sure if you had a lot of sanding to do with those surfaces.  If you didn’t have much to sand, I would say it would probably be easier to do it by hand rather than changing the tips several times for a small area.

The weight of the sanders and handling of them were great. They worked easily and I felt very comfortable using them. They definitely saved me some time.  I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend someone purchase one of these if they have some refinishing projects to do.

You can check out all the Skil sanders and tools by going to the Skil.com site.  You can also find them on Facebook.

I very much appreciate Skil for giving me these two sanders to use and keep.  This did not influence my opinion on the sanders.  The pictures and projects are my own.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Organizing Mission Link Party – Week 24

Memorial Day – Is Your Flag Out?

Remembering those who gave their lives for our freedom.  I wrote a post last night about Memorial Day and seeing the 2500 flags displayed as a tribute.  It was truly inspiring to me.  I think more so because my boys are serving .  (Can you tell how proud of them I am?)

My Featured Bloggers For This Week!

Amy at Home Remedies took a loft area of her home and created and awesome craft room!

Isn’t this darling?  You will have to make sure you stop by her blog to see the before and all the afters. There is much more that she did to this room than just this side. The curtain to the left is a closet that she created.  Stop by to see her entire Craft Room Reveal post.

Check out this cute idea from Courtney of A Diamond in the Stuff

She took a bunk bed ladder and created it! Be sure to stop by her post for the Ladder Gallery and see her whole tutorial on how she created this. ;

Link up to my Link Party

I would love to see what you are working on this week. But as always you can link up any organizing or cleaning or DIY post to my link party.

You can find the link for my button and also my “Proud to Be Featured Button” on my sidebar Rules 1) Link to your specific post – not your blog
2) Please Link back to my blog with my button or link (link just above underneath my button)
3) I’d love if you’d follow me on google and/or FB. The google is new and I’m trying to build it
4) Blog post related to Organizing or Cleaning or DIY or decorating
5) No sales pitches or web sites.
6) If I feature you I will use one or more of your pictures with a link back to your blog.
7) Feel free to link up more than 1 post.

Looking for other link parties? I have a whole list of them. Thumbnail via day above and keep scrolling down to find a more extensive text lists by day on my link party list.

If you aren’t sure how to link up… see my link party tutorial here. It is simple.

If You Are On A Reader and Want to View All the Great Link Up’s Please Click Here.

This link party will be open until Saturday night June 4, 2011

Memorial Day

Remembering Those Who Gave Their Lives

Often we think only of Memorial day as a three day weekend and a time for cookouts and parties. But we have many people to thank for the freedom to have those cookouts and parties.  Many, many people gave their lives in order for us to have our freedom.

We were driving to meet some family for dinner tonight. As we drove through Westerville, Ohio we saw this awesome flag display.

I didn’t have my good camera with me, and I had to have some  pics. I took these pictures with my phone.

Dave stopped by one of the tables that were set up and asked about them.

There were 2,500 flags set up. You could purchase one of the flags for $30 and dedicate the flag to someone that has passed and was very special in your life. It doesn’t have to be a veteran (although I think most of them were), they also suggested a policeman or fireman.  They would print out a card with that person’s name and your message on a blue card and attach it to the flag pole.  Then tomorrow evening you can come back and pick up your flag.

If we had been able to get back to that area of town tomorrow, I’m sure we would have gotten one for my husband’s father.

They also had a 911 tribute.  The luminaries were attached to a generator and I bet it looked really awesome at night.

When I saw the sign and realized what this was about, I had to fight back tears. I don’t know anyone personally that was killed, but anytime I think about it and the terror that those involved went through…. the pain, the fear, the death for so many… it is almost overwhelming to me.

With my boys (Joe on the left, Drew on the right) in the Army now, Memorial Day means even more. Knowing they are serving our country… I couldn’t be prouder. Their cousin Matt is in the center. He is a veteran also. He was in Iraq serving as a medic. He saw and has dealt with so much. He still wears a black metal bracelet that has Matthew Holley’s name and date of death on his arm … for the last six years.  My nephew Matt posted about it on Facebook and Matthew Holley’s father responded his gratitude back on Facebook.  I then looked at John Holley’s FB page (I’m not friends with him, so could only see a couple pictures) but realized that they have a book coming out soon about their son and his story. If I can find out more information about the book, I’ll let you know.

Please think of someone who served or is serving and thank them (if possible) tomorrow. See a vet, shake their hand and say thank you. My son will be traveling home tomorrow. I was so impressed and proud of so many people who would see him in his uniform when were at the airport and thank him. My boys have had their meals paid for when they were out. People do appreciate those serving. It is a very cool thing.

Don’t forget!

High School Graduation

My Son Graduated From High School Yesterday

The weather was perfect. I was concerned because it was so warm yesterday. The ceremony was outside in the football stadium at 7:30 pm.  The sun went under clouds as we got there and it was very comfortable.

Tim’s grandparents on his Dad’s side came in from Kansas, his Dad and step Mom from WI, one of his brothers who is in the Army got leave and came home from TX, another brother from TN and a step sister from IL! He also had all of us and his other Grandpa & his wife there .

Tim was so happy. We had everyone over after graduation for some yummy cupcakes  and other food.

I also made this video for him. I’m so proud of him!

 

Chandelier Chain Cover Tutorial

Making a Chain Cover Without Sewing

I knew that I wanted to make a chain cover for my new chandelier makeover, but I didn’t know how to do it. One of my problems is that I don’t have a sewing machine anymore.

So… what did I do?  Of course…. I went to the internet to look.  My search came up with “In My Own Style” blog. She had an entire tutorial step by step.

I first wrote down the supplies I was going to need and headed to the store.

I found the fabric I wanted (be careful if it frays easily. Mine really did and I did a lot of clipping of little threads)

What you will need:

1) Fabric – Measure the length of the cord to cover and double it.  (I needed 16″ total in length)  It needs to be 7″ wide.
2) Sticky sided velcro (make sure long enough to go the length of your cord)
3) Fabric glue
4) Needle & thread to match fabric (don’t worry, not much sewing)

Here is how I worked – I took my laptop upstairs to my room and followed what to do …step by step.

1) Heat up your iron
2) Iron your fabric
3) Turn the fabric in 1/4″ on all side. Press as you go.

Get your fabric glue (or you can use iron on fabric adhesive)  This was the only brand that Joann Fabric’s has.

4) Then apply a thin coat in between the 1/4″ folded edge. Press lightly and let it dry for a few minutes.

Once it has dried…thread your needle (and use a needle threader if you are as blind as I’ve become for close up work)

5) Make a single stitch the length of the fabric – down each side. This will be going over the 1/4 ” fold. Only use a single thread (don’t double your thread). Knot the starting side.

I kept my stitches about this same size. If you look back behind the needle you can see a couple of the stitches. This worked fine. It is ok to go smaller, but remember you are going to be using this thread to do your gathering. If you want your gathering a little smaller looking, then it might not be a bad idea to make your stitches smaller.

Knot the end side also.

6) Mark the length that you need your chain cover to be.  I laid the tape measure out on my table so I had a guide. I don’t have a fabric board that has nice measurements already on it. (Wish I did for something like this)

7) Take the thread and on one end gently pull it (gathering fabric as you do).  I did a little on one side, then went to the other side. I didn’t want to have one side all gathered up and have them be really uneven.

8) Pull equally on both sides until the fabric measures the length you need.

I held mine up to make sure it looks like it will fit.

I did not get a picture of applying the velcro. I needed all my hands.

Get your Velcro ready to be used.

9) Apply the sticky Velcro carefully along the edges of the fabric right over top the gathers.  I’m going to use one of Diane’s photos from In My Own Style. It helped me to understand that the velcro really would stick to the gathered edges.

Pay attention to what side you are sticking the Velcro to. One has to go on the finished side and one has to go on the unfinished side.  I just rolled the fabric so that it would be right side out and pretended to wrap it around my chain. You can easily tell which side to stick the velcro on when you do this.

10) Clip any loose threads or frays you might still have. Attach the chain cover to the chandelier and position it to best cover the entire chain.

I love how this turned out!

I didn’t have to worry about waiting to get my chandelier back up on the ceiling (once it’s makeover was complete) because I didn’t have my chain cover finished.  Dave hung it back up and I finally got a chance to get to the chain cover yesterday.

It’s especially good if you aren’t making over your entire chandelier, you might just want to make the chain cover.

No sewing machine.. so easy. Just follow the steps. Thanks so much Diane for showing me how to do this!!  I was thinking I was going to have to pay someone to make this for me. Ugh… that would have been dumb.

 

 

Chandelier Makeover

DIY Brass Chandelier Remodel

Deciding to makeover my chandelier was made much easier when I started seeing several bloggers that had made theirs over. I really hadn’t thought about doing anything with it until I saw what I could do with it!

Lovely isn’t it? We used a twist tie to hold it up high enough. lol

I’ll take you through the steps that I used to finish it. Dave first took it down from the ceiling for me. I left the white plastic tubes on.

I primed it using Valspar white prime.

I found that it was hard to get all the edges and of course it has to lean on some part of it, then that paint gets messed up. So I hung it up from the garage door opener.

I used Dover White Kryon spray paint. I found it at JoAnn’s and Michael’s stores.

Next step was to get the medallion.  I thought they were plaster. I was shocked to learn they are plastic and very light weight. I primed it and also painted it with the Dover White spray paint.

I headed to Hobby Lobby and found the crystal beads. I have never done any beading, but I did get one of those bead trays. It really did make it easier.This is what I used for the long string of beads.

I got the crystal beads so they would sparkle more.

I had Dave drill holes into the edge of the trays.

Here is the other trays (I have no idea what the real name is for this part of the chandelier.You can see how I used one of the small beads at the top. I used fishing line (I know there is some kind of bead wire, but I didn’t have it and actually the fishing line worked great) and would go through the bead several times to hold it in place.

Does this look familiar? You can see it if you go to my “Guessing Game” post.

I wanted to make a chain cover, but wasn’t sure how. So… I googled it. I found a tutorial on how to make on. (I’m going to show you how I made the chain cover in a post tomorrow.

But here is how it looks

So are you ready to see the finished chandelier?

LOL…. I’m getting closer!  But wait!  Let’s see another picture of the “Before” chandelier first.

Before

And now…..  AFTER!

Let’s see some more pictures

I know the bulbs look purple don’t they?  They are actually a clear bulb. I was trying to find a clear light color so that the room took more of the periwinkle paint color rather than making it look too purple.

Here is the bottom beading that I did.

Here it is lit up.

I am really pleased with how it came out.

 

What do you think?

Don’t forget to link up your DIY or organizing posts to my Organizing Mission Link Party. It will be open until Saturday night.

I’m linking this post up to these lovely blog parties!

Beyond the Picket Fence – Under $100 Linky Party
Delightful Order – Delightfully Inspiring
Cherished Bliss – Craft and Tell
The Shabby Chic Cottage – Transformation Thursday
Organize & Decorate Everything – Home Decor & Organizing Link Party
Blue Cricket Design – Show and Tell Linking Fun
A Bowl Full of Lemons – One Project at a Time

 

 

 

 

High School Graduation

I have a son graduating this Saturday.  Tim is the youngest of my four boys.

Here he is in his motorcycle jacket like Dads. I think he was 6 years old in this picture.

With two of his brothers at Dave’s farm when he was 11 years old.

Here he is getting ready to para-sail when he was 14.

And this is my favorite senior picture of him.

So hard to believe he is graduating.  He will be going to school to learn web design! Yeah!!  I sure can’t wait for that!

We aren’t having a formal graduation party. We wasn’t sure he wanted one (he would never let me give him a big birthday party with friends growing up) and our agreement was that since he didn’t have the money for prom (because he spent it going to Florida over spring break) that I would pay for prom, but he would fore go a graduation party. He was thrilled with that plan. But I am still going to made some cupcakes and get a slide show ready (I hope) and invite all that go to his graduation to stop by the house afterward.  Guessing that to be around 15 people I think.

They grow up so fast.

 

Gleek Retreat 2011

Holland, Michigan is one cute little town!

I loved the location for our retreat this year! Holland is on the west coast of Michigan, right on the water. It is actually a college town. A private Christian college called Hope College is there.

There is a fireplace always going and their brick walks are heated! Can you imagine? (So nice in the winter right?)

It was a six hour drive for me, but the weather and traffic cooperated and I got there on Friday about 5:30pm.  I met with Courtney Velasquez and we went out to dinner at a place called CityVu Bistro with a few other Collective Bias members. Some old, some new.. some yet to be. lol

From left: Sylvia Hubbard, Elena Wollborg, Elizabeth Edwards, Deb Steenhagen

Look at this spinach dip!

Courtney, Elizabeth and I.  Thank you very much for a wonderful dinner CityVu, Courtney and Collective Bias.

It was a small group of us for the Gleek Retreat which was so nice. I think we were around 40 or so from what I heard. We all met in one room and we all heard the same speakers. The positive thing about that was that you didn’t feel like you missed anything.

Lisa Lehmann started things off. It is so neat to hear about the person behind the business.  She did a fabulous job.

We had some network time to get to know some other the other bloggers.

We also heard from an author of over 20 Romance novels; Sylvia Hubbard.  I don’t know why I didn’t get a picture of her speaking (ugh)… but she is up in my picture of when we ate at CityVu.

Brittany Gibbons and Heather Spohr gave us all the ins and outs of how to start and run a group blog.

Katie Kimball from Kitchen Stewardship talked to us about writing E-books. This was really useful to me. I have been planning on doing a couple, and she gave me some great info!

We were finished up pretty early. I’m guessing around 3pm.  We had time to walk around the town… and go in a bunch of the cute little stores.

There has to be a cute coffee shop in a cute town right?

You also can’t forget the fudge shop. I guess they also have awesome milk shakes.  There was SO much I wanted to buy there, but I was good (for me) and only got a caramel covered pretzel stick.

I loved this cute little shop – it had some really creative hand made items in it.  The owner had made these cake pops.. and they were awesome!  I almost bought the book by Bakerella… and I wish I had. I am going to get it, either in a book store or online. These were just too cute. When I do get the book, I’ll make some and share it on my blog.

There were five of us walking around.Shanda, Jodi Michelle, Stacey and Courtney. Jodi and Stacey both live close by, so they knew the stores well….. especially Jodi! Heck, they know her by name when she walks in!

After our run around town, we got ready to go on the Holland Princess dinner cruise.  It was only a short bus ride there, in the rain….

Thank goodness there was a closed section downstairs.  We all got two drink tickets… hee haw!

We were served a lovely dinner (well…. not really very good. The chicken was cold, cheese not melted and noodles dry and it was salsa instead of tomato sauce… but the roll was good! I didn’t eat the dinner, but I did eat my roll and Courtney’s roll.)

But my drink was good!

Courtney, Shanda and I went on top of the boat after the rain and it was so nice and cool and the view was great. Shanda was saying how she didn’t have a good profile picture…. so we decided to try and get one. Here are several I took.

 

and here is one more

The lighting was being a pain. But we had fun. I took a whole lot more than those… lol

Guess where Courtney and Shanda pretended to be?

Here are a few other fun pics from that night.  (I was trying to hide my band-aide on the side of my nose. But I just photoshopped it!)

I love walking around with Shanda!  If you have met me, you know I’m 5’10″ tall.  Shanda is obviously taller than I am and I love that! lol

I think this picture of Courtney and Shanda is so cute!

There was karaoke on the boat… and Heather and Meredith from Life’s Crazy Joke were such a hoot! You can’t fully appreciate it if you weren’t there. But ….there were plenty of video cameras going, so it is possible the rest of the world might get to experience the fun of these two at some point down the road.

Sunday morning started at 9am. I was already checked out of the hotel and ready to go. There were three speakers today, Cynthia from Nap Warden,  spoke on blog design. She showed some great examples of what to do and what not to do with your blogs. Ok… so this isn’t the best picture. I mean, it isn’t a bad picture, I just wish I would have gotten a smile!

 

I also realized I didn’t get Kris from Little Tech Girl talking! What the heck?  All I can figure was that I was too nervous about talking myself. Sorry Kris! She was full of awesomeness as she always is. I wish I could just “steal her tech brain” for about 24 hours and I think of all the stuff I could get done on my site etc during that time.

Up next…. me and Andrea from Simple Organized Living.  I went first and discussed organizing your blogging life. I discussed making a blogging binder and I gave two of them away.  I’ll be getting them ready before long so that you will be able to download the printables or get an entire notebook already prepared.

After looking at these pictures of me, I realize more than ever that a face lift, neck lift and eye lift are well in order! Getting old really sucks! ugh.

Andrea took the stage as our last presenter. She discussed how to organize your life and family as a blogger.  She said she could talk about five hours on time management, but would talk only as long as Julie wanted her to.  lol

Julie from Dutch Being Me organized the retreat this year.  Lots of work. wow

It was nice to have a few sponsors there. The “Bissel” guys were there and had carpet cleaner with them (I got some for my sad carpets that need to be replaced… but that we will try to clean and have last a little longer since we have 7 of us and 2 dogs here..{breath})  and also some coupons to rent a free steam cleaner!

Christina from Therapon was also there. She was giving free facials. I needed one, but didn’t get one because I didn’t want to put my make up back on, plus I was sporting such a fashionable band-aide on my nose (the basal cell thing ya know).

Mabels Labels provided the bags and also their cute bag tags. (love those)

Last years organizers were there… Jodi and Stacey

Courtney also suggested that we get a 2010 Gleek retreat reunion picture!

Thanks ladies for a fun weekend and thanks Holland MI for such a cute town!

 

 

 

 

 

Organizing Mission Monday Link Party – Week 23

Surprises This Past Week

I had a big surprise this past week.  My oldest son Joe got married! He is stationed in San Antonio for National Guard Training.  He met his girlfriend there and they found out she was going to be transferred to another base (long story, Army lost and messed up her paperwork..blah blah blah) that week.  They are both in the military.

I got a Facebook message from him on Monday.  Yes, Facebook (at least it was a DM) He was going to not even tell me, but she convinced him to.

I think he was worried of what I would say.  I of course, being his mother an all, wanted to make sure they had thought things through. It was a very quick decision.  I didn’t tell him not to (I wouldn’t do that), but I did want to ask him some questions. (No… she isn’t pregnant)

They ended up getting married on Tuesday evening.  She had to leave first thing Wednesday morning.  But they will end up being stationed at the same base in September when Joe gets out of his training.

On Tuesday when I knew for sure the wedding was definitely going to take place, I asked my other son who is stationed with him to please take their picture and send it to me.

Then I posted that picture on my computer.  My other son, Drew put his phone on speaker phone, and we got to hear the wedding.  See what he is holding?  It isn’t a Bible, or smart phone so he could remember his words.  It is my other son’s phone so that I can be at the wedding too.

Here is the kiss!

And one more..

I told the triplets they could go make a wedding cake for them.  Of course Joe and his now wife, Fulton wouldn’t be able to have any, but it would be something the triplets remembered and associated with it.  This picture was taken about 9:30pm. The kids were ready to go to bed.  Texas is an hour earlier and it was about 8:00pm est when they were married.

So…. that is my bit of shocking news.  I got to hear about my son’s wedding via Facebook and be at my son’s wedding via speaker phone. Now how many of you can claim that?  lol

Joe is so happy. I just hate to see them apart now until September.

My Featured Bloggers This Week

Parents of a Dozen – Uses Storage Space So Wisely!

They utilized space in their garage for storage.  This is one of the things that I had planned to do in our garage, had we not gotten the storage shed. But I will if I need the space in the future. I love this.

Here is their attic. Unfinished…. insulation…. yes… fall through the slats into the room below kind of attic.

On her post she shows the steps they went through to make this usable.  Then she also labeled the sections so anyone could find things.

Stop by her post to see the rest of Extra Storage Space and how she converted her attic.  Also just check out her blog… some great ideas for large families!

Katja from Skimbaco Home shares this really cool idea for laundry storage on the wall.

These are laundry baskets on the wall from Helene Steiner.  Katja always finds the coolest things on her blog. I mean really, wouldn’t these be great if you had a small place and a small family?

Then you just take it off the wall to use it.

Check out Katja’s blog and you can get the link to where you can find these too.

 

Be sure to stop by and give some bloggy love to all my Featured Bloggers!

Link up to my Link Party

I would love to see what you are working on this week. But as always you can link up any organizing or cleaning or DIY post to my link party.

You can find the link for my button and also my “Proud to Be Featured Button” on my sidebar

Rules

1) Link to your specific post – not your blog

2) Please Link back to my blog with my button or link (link just above underneath my button)

3) I’d love if you’d follow me on google and/or FB. The google is new and I’m trying to build it

4) Blog post related to Organizing or Cleaning or DIY or decorating

5) No sales pitches or web sites.

6) If I feature you I will use one or more of your pictures with a link back to your blog.

8) Feel free to link up more than 1 post.

Looking for other link parties? I have a whole list of them. Thumbnail via day above and keep scrolling down to find a more extensive text lists by day on my link party list.

If you aren’t sure how to link up… see my link party tutorial here. It is simple.

If You Are On A Reader and Want to View All the Great Link Up’s Please Click Here.

This will be open until Saturday night May 28th, 2011

Outdoor Lights – DIY Makeover

Low Cost Makeover

Our outdoor house lights were in need of a replacement or makeover real bad. They looked terrible. The brass on the light fixtures was all wearing off.  I actually thought one of the lights had caught on fire at some point because it was so black looking.

Enter the terrible house lights.  Two of the four. These two were by the garage, and there are two more by the front door.

We went to Home Depot to look for new lights. Hubby picked out some gosh awful ugly ones that were only $30 for two. (No wonder they were so cheap, no one liked them).  Of course the ones I liked were all over $50 a piece. We certainly weren’t in the mood to spend over $200 on the outdoor lights.

So I thought, if I am redoing other items in the house with spray paint, why can’t I redo these lights too? So Dave took them all down for me and I disassemble them.

I first used primer and primed everything.

I gave them 2 coats each.

Dave wanted me to get the spray paint that gave the stone appearance.  Why not?

It was so strange going on. I felt like I was spraying a thick sand on the lights.  This was the first coat.

I painted all the little screws that would show and the backs etc.

Notice this picture?  It was one of the ones in the guessing game post.

The pieces of glass were so dirty.

Each light had five panels of glass.  I used ammonia and water to clean them.

I sprayed on two coats.

Putting these suckers back together was not real easy.  I’m sure there was probably an easier way, but I didn’t know of it. I used two of the triplets to hold and the third to grab the pieces.

Each one was a little easier than the first though.

I then used a Stone Sealer spray that was recommended.

Here is the finished products.

I think it came out great.  I never minded the shape of the light, just the worn off brass finish.

Now to get them hung back up.

I was a little concerned because up close it didn’t really seem to match that great. But from a distance it blends in just fine.

I was really happy how they turned out.  Instead of spending $75 on lights that I thought were really ugly, or spending well over $200 on lights that I liked – we spend about $24  (the primer, paint and sealer were all around $8 each)

Don’t forget to link up to my Organizing Mission Link Party this week if you have any organizing, cleaning or DIY posts!

 

 

 

 

 

Guessing Game

Guess What Each Uncompleted Project Is.

I have not been able to complete all of the projects I started this weekend.  Mostly because of the weather change.  Rain and cold are the forcast all week.  Not great for painting when the temps are in the low 50′s and humid.

I, or I should say we; because the whole family helped – did get a lot accomplished this last weekend.

I’m going to give you a few picture hints.  Let’s see if you have an idea of what project they are from.

#1 Project

I have my part of this project finished, but I need my husband to help with the last little bit.

 

#2 Project

This is only about 1/2 way completed

 

#3 Project

Hmmmm…. what could these be for?

 

#4 Project

This needs some finish work. It is about 80% completed

 

Project #5

This project is about 98% complete.  Any ideas what these are?

So how do you handle things when timing doesn’t work out?  Are you calm and collected and think…no big deal.  Or are you anxious and frustrated?

I have to admit that usually I tend to get anxious and frustrated. It depends on what the situation is, and what the project is.

But I like schedules, I like to be on time, I like to do what I say I’m going to do.  I don’t like it when things slip. But I’m far from perfect and I do let things slip and slide at times.  I am occasionally late for things (especially if I am not sure about the directions! lol) but I hate it.

I will get these projects completed as soon as I’m able.  I’m anxious for them to be completed and for you all to see them.

I want to hear your guesses!!

 

 

Organizing Mission Monday Link Party – Week 22

DIY Projects! Show Them Off!!

I have been working on several DIY this last weekend.  I am not quite finished with them yet.  But I am working on my dining room decor, creating a mud room in my garage and a couple other little things.

I have painting underway. I wanted to be able to show you my finished dining room today, but alas…{sigh} it decided to be a super humid rainy day and my 2nd coat of primer wasn’t drying well on my furniture.

I’ll show you what pieces I have been working on!

DIY Chandelier Makeover – “BEFORE”

This is my “BEFORE” picture of my chandelier.  I’m so excited for this one!! Hoping to finish it tomorrow, but I have to go back to the store to get something else before I can finish.

 

Dining Room Table “BEFORE”

You all gave me the advice to paint my dining room table and chairs.  The chairs won’t happen right away, but I am going to refinish them also.  But the table will hopefully be completed tomorrow.

That is just a hint of what I’m working on.  I’m also really excited to have an actual “mud” room. My son said, “You can’t have a mud room in the garage, because then it’s just called the garage.” lol

But I’m doing the best I can with what I have. Unless we add on (which would be silly in this neighborhood, we’d never get our investment back) I will never have enough room in my tiny laundry room for a mud room. Since we got the shed, it cleared so much out of our garage – that I have the room to work with.

My Featured Bloggers for This Week!

Susan from Homeroad made this great herb garden for her mother.

She made this!! Isn’t it cute.  She took the black carry container and spiced it up for a gift for her Mother.

Be sure to stop by Susan’s blog to see the rest of her post titled, A Gift for the Mom that has everything.

 

Becky from Organizing Made Fun completely overhauled her master closet.

Look how she took her closet from this…. (this is a pic of how it looked when she toured it before they bought it)

To this!

Here is a close up of the Elfa baskets

You can see the rest of her closet makeover and how she made her Elfa baskets look so cute (because you can’t buy them this way)  on her blog post.

Be sure to stop by and give some bloggy love to all my Featured Bloggers!

Link up to my Link Party

I would love to see what you are working on this week. But as always you can link up any organizing or cleaning or DIY post to my link party.

You can find the link for my button and also my “Proud to Be Featured Button” on my sidebar

Rules

1) Link to your specific post – not your blog

2) Please Link back to my blog with my button or link (link just above underneath my button)

3) I’d love if you’d follow me on google and/or FB. The google is new and I’m trying to build it

4) Blog post related to Organizing or Cleaning or DIY or decorating

5) No sales pitches or web sites.

6) If I feature you I will use one or more of your pictures with a link back to your blog.

8) Feel free to link up more than 1 post.

Looking for other link parties? I have a whole list of them. Thumbnail via day above and keep scrolling down to find a more extensive text lists by day on my link party list.

If you aren’t sure how to link up… see my link party tutorial here. It is simple.

If You Are On A Reader and Want to View All the Great Link Up’s Please Click Here.

This will be open until Saturday night May 28th, 2011

Organizing Girls Headbands

Organizing Headbands

 

 

 

 

Old Time Pottery Review

Do You Have an Old Time Pottery Store Near You?

Hopefully you do! If you’ve not been there before, then you need to go! You will find a massively big store that has just about anything you could need for your home.

Be sure to give yourself plenty of time! This is not a store that you zip in and back out of quickly. I don’t know if I have ever spent less than an hour in here.  Oh wait… yes I have. I had to run in to get some extra baskets one time and spent only about 15 minutes in it. (But that was an exception)

One thing about Old Time Pottery stores is that merchandise varies in each store.  They buy huge quantities of merchandise (hence the good prices for some high end products) and they get new shipments in each week. This is one of those stores that it really pays to shop frequently! And if you see something you really like, don’t hesitate to buy it, because there will be others who like it as well…. and it might not be there next time you go to the store!

Ok, so you know many stores like that right? But do they also have discounted prices on everything? That is why it is so fun to go to Old Time Pottery.
I have made many trips there recently. I used plastic baskets from there for my pantry, refrigerator and freezer reorganization.  These are the ones I used on my pantry, I got red ones for my ref. and freezer.

I also got some wire organizers that I used under my sink, and pantry and also plastics cupboard.

It isn’t your fancy-smancy store.  It is very basic. Grab your cart and start your adventure.

There is a little bit of everything.  I love all the baskets they have there.

But I have recently been there for items to decorate in my dining room.  (You’ll see those in a later post when I show you my finished dining room….but if you watch the video close you’ll see what I got on the check out counter) Here are a few other fun things you’ll find at Old Time Pottery (that you haven’t already seen in my video)

They also have a contest going on. You can see rules for the VIP Old Time Pottery card contest below (hint…. it can earn you five extra entries into this contest! Double whammy goodness!)

 

 

 

To Enter to Win 1 of four $25 gift card to Old Time Pottery!!!

Tell me: If you have an Old Time Pottery Around You. Which store (or state if you don’t want to be specific)  If you don’t know go to Old Time Pottery and plug in your zip code to find out. (sorry, no online sales – in store only) **Be sure to come back here and leave me your answer in your comment. Your e-mail has to either in your comment or on your profile.

FOR EXTRA CHANCES TO WIN:

**Each of these HAS to have a separate comment to win. The winner is picked using Random.org. It just goes the number of comments….not by what you say.

1) Go to the Old Time Pottery Web site and sign up to be a VIP OTP (Old Time Pottery) shopper. No purchase necessary. You will register and then you can print out a coupon to take to your OTP store to enter. You are entering to win a $50 gift certificate! (They are picking weekly winners) This promotion is good until June 17th. (5 extra entries – add 5 comments)

2) Subscribe to my Organize with Sandy blog This is for 1 chance to win!

3) Follow me on Twitter @OrganizerSandy (Leave me your twitter name) 1 chance

4) Stumble one of my posts for 5 extra chances to win. (tell me which post. Post 5 comment entries)

5) Tweet this out up to 3 times a day. You can use the tweet button at the top to make it easy. ( Pls leave your url link) 1 chance for each tweet.

Please keep in mind I approve my comments. So you won’t see them right away. Never fear!

See lots of way to enter!!

This contest will run until 11:59pm est on Wednesday , May 25, 2011  *THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED*

Any comment that comes in after the above time will be deleted. This is open to US mailing addresses only. Must be 18+ to win.  One person per mailing address only. Winner will be chosen by Random.org

You will have 48 hours to reply to my e-mail if you are picked as the winner, or else I will go on to the next winning number.

I was given a $50 gift card for Old Time Pottery, but this in no way swayed my opinions.  I was talking about going to Old Time Pottery on my past posts, before they contacted me.  The pictures and videos and opinions are my own.

 

Packing Tips

Tips and Tricks to Packing the Perfect Carry-On

I consider myself very lucky; I not only enjoy my job, but I also have the
opportunity to travel all across the United States. As an account manager for a
storage company, I am required to visit our facilities. About a year ago, I realized
just how much of my “free” time was being spent waiting at the airport’s baggage
claim. It was then I became a dedicated carry-on traveler. Since then I have not only
saved a bundle of airline baggage checking fees, but I have learned many tricks on
how to pack a carry on. There is an organizational science to packing a carry on and
by following these tips you can avoid baggage fees and minimize travel time.

Preparation

1. Do Your Research: In the past few years, airport security has beefed up significantly. So before
   you start to pack, do some research on the airports you will be passing through,
   double check the regulation carry on bag size, the laptop policy and the rules for
   carrying on liquids. There is nothing more frustrating than having all your toiletries
   confiscated at the beginning of your trip. So it is well worth it to do a little research.
2. Make Use of Available Resources: When it comes to picking your carry-on luggage, be sure to maximize your
   options. Most airlines allow you one carry on and one personal bag or purse, which
   essentially means two carry-on bags. I often bring a small rolling suitcase, to stow,
   packed with my clothes and toiletries and a briefcase with my laptop, reading
   material for the plane and work papers, that I keep under the seat. For the carry-on
   bag that you plan to stow, make sure the bag fits airport regulation size. Most
   luggage is now sold based on airport regulations, but don’t be afraid to ask at the
   store to be certain. Depending on your preference, hard cased rolling bags or soft
   duffel bags make great carry-ons.
3. Be Budget Conscious: Since you will be carrying everything on, you will need to pack toiletries in
   your bags. Now that airport security regulations dictate the volume of liquid you can
   bring on the plane, you will need to purchase security certified sized bottles of
   shampoo, conditioner, or face wash. Instead of buying brand name, airport sized
   shampoo bottles, try buying a bunch of plain three ounce bottles. That was you can
   fill them up with whatever toiletries you already own and can reuse them for
   multiple trips.

Let the Packing Begin

Before you put anything in your bag, lay out everything you plan to pack. Try
to wear your bulkiest clothes and shoes on the plane so you can avoid packing them
and wasting precious space. Since you need to fit everything in one carry-on bag,
there are two strategic packing strategies to choose from. Folding clothes is one of
the least efficient ways of packing your carry-on:

1. Many of my friends swear by
   the “rolling” method that they claim allows you fit the most items in your bag and
   also keeps clothes wrinkle free. This method is pretty self explanatory, but consists
   of rolling your clothes up in to tightly compacted tubes. Then you pack them into
   the suitcase.
2. The other option is lying clothes completely flat on top of each other.
   This option eliminates the extra bulk of folds and allows you to fit quite a bit of
   clothing into your carry-on.

Once you have packed your clothes, put your toiletries in a quartz sized, clear
plastic bag on top. That way when you go through airport security, if they request
you remove your liquids and put them in a bin they are easily accessible. Remember
you can’t bring full water bottles through security. Instead back an empty water
bottle that you can fill up on the other side of security or once you are on the plane.
Also keep a jacket handy, there are usually drastic temperature changes on the
plane and it can also serve as a makeshift pillow.

Once you are all packed, you can print out your boarding pass, skip the hassle
of checking a bag and breeze through airport security. Carrying on saves a bundle of
time and money, once you make the switch you will never go back!

Sunny Brady is an account manager for Storage Arizona. 

 

photos provided by Sandy

Organizing Mission Monday Link Party – Week 21

What Are You Working On This Week?

I have a whole list of things I am trying to accomplish:

My Son’s Graduation in three weeks
Working on son’s senior pictures (I took them and I’m still editing them!)  Here are a couple I have done. What do you think?

This is Tim’s favorite.  It isn’t mine though.

This is one of my favorites, but I have several.

This is also one of Tim’s favorites. I like another one in this same setting, but I haven’t worked on it yet.

Some more of what I have to do this week.  I’m whining! lol

Dining Room Decorate which includes furniture refinishing
Garage Organize with Painting and creating a Mud Room
Blog Over-Haul – Many new links to add and updates to make
Preparing To Teach a Social Media Class at TechConnect Ohio Next week
Preparing my Power Point Presentation for Gleek Retreat in two week
Working on beginning a new chapter in business with teaching Social Media Classes

I am becoming a bit over whelmed.

I would love if any of you wanted to do a guest post for me in the next several weeks (asap is fine!) Just let me know if you are interested.

I neglected to honor my Featured bloggers last week, so I wanted to do several this week for you!

Featured Bloggers

Heather from Decor-ganize Crafts

Heather took a simple 5 pocket shoe organizer and turned it into a great car organizer! I love when I see organizing products used in unique ways.

This could also make a really handy accessory for a car trip for a little bit older kids too couldn’t it? Please be sure to jump over and check out the rest of her post, Car Organizer using a Shoe Organizer.

Terri from Healthy Wealthy Moms

Terri uses mod pod to repurpose items so they can be used in new and different ways.  Look at what she did with this glass jars.
Isn’t that cute?  I tend to think what cute pencil holders you could make and outfit your office with matching accessories.

She has a video posted on her post also about how to Mod Pod. I told her that I was going to send my  husband over to check it out. He is in the process of making karate belt racks for the triplets and wanted to mod pod an picture to the top of them and was having a terrible time.  So check out her post Organizer from repurposed bottles, jars

DaNita from Delightful Order

You have heard me mention to give yourself a limit on how many school papers you keep for your children right? This is a great way to do that. She has created a file for her children, and in it a file section for each grade.

Notice of course that darling name tag she created (she is so good at that!)
Be sure to go see the rest of the post, Organizing Children’s School Papers

Bianca from Little Brick Ranch

Bianca took this coffee table that she found on Craig’s list and turned it into a coffee table that goes great in her room!

She gives the step by step directions on her blog post.  (Which I need because I am going to be refinishing  a couple pieces myself soon!)

Stop by and see how she did it! Her post is called A Coffee Table Joe Could Be Proud Of…

Be sure to stop by and give some bloggy love to all my Featured Bloggers!

Link up to my Link Party

I would love to see what you are working on  this week. But as always you can link up any organizing or cleaning or DIY post to my link party.

You can find the link for my button and also my “Proud to Be Featured Button” on my sidebar

Rules

1) Link to your specific post – not your blog

2) Please Link back to my blog with my button or link (link just above underneath my button)

3) I’d love if you’d follow me on google and/or FB. The google is new and I’m trying to build it

4) Blog post related to Organizing or Cleaning or DIY or decorating

5) No sales pitches or web sites.

6) If I feature you I will use one or more of your pictures with a link back to your blog.

8) Feel free to link up more than 1 post.

Looking for other link parties? I have a whole list of them. Thumbnail via day above and keep scrolling down to find a more extensive text lists by day on my link party list.

If you aren’t sure how to link up… see my link party tutorial here. It is simple.

If You Are On A Reader and Want to View All the Great Link Up’s Please Click Here.

This will be open until Sunday night May 15th, 2011

Inn at Honey Run

Beautiful Place to Visit in Ohio

The Inn at Honey Run in Holmes County is in the heart of Amish country.

I will be doing a full post on Inn at Honey Run on my Explore Ohio with Sandy blog in the next week or two, but I wanted to share just a couple pictures I took today that I liked.

This is a picture of their Facebook  bird cam. I kid you not. They have a camera mounted that takes pictures. I am assuming maybe it is action motivated.  I wondered who was spending all the time watching for birds and taking pictures. They are posted on their FB page. How fun is that?

There is so much nature here.  It is sooo quiet and peaceful.  It began raining right after we arrived, but only lasted a half hour or so.  When we came out, the sun was out, the rain was dripping off the flowers and it was absolutely beautiful. Everything looked so crisp and clear, the birds were singing.

Isn’t this orange tulip awesome!

This candle that hangs from the walk way up to the entry had a drip of rain that I kept trying to catch as it hit the top and bounced off.  I didn’t have the luck, but still loved the picture.

This robin was very accommodating as we were driving out of the parking lot to go to dinner. She just sat there and let me get a couple good shots.

We went into Berlin and had a great dinner at Boyd and Wurthmann restaurant.  It is an Amish run restaurant and the portions were huge and food was great!

I always love to see the horse and buggies.  Dave’s farm is in Amish country, so we get to see a lot of them, but I don’t know that I will ever tire of trying to get some good pictures of them.

Be watching on my Explore Ohio with Sandy blog for the entire post.  I’ll plan to link it to this post once it is finished.

Also be sure to look for the exclusive offer at the bottom of that post. (Hint…. if you call and reserve a room for at least one night, you will get a $25 gift cert to use in either the spa, restaurant or gift shop! You just have to tell them that Explore Ohio with Sandy sent you!!)

 

My room at the Inn at Honey Run is complimentary, but has nothing to do with my opinions.  The photos and thoughts are all my own.

 

Shed Storage

Tool & Loft Storage

Being able to clear out our garage has been wonderful!!  It enables me to be able to make a mud room (coming in the future) and to not have to worry about the bikes scratching our cars coming in and out.  Having Storage outside the garage in our new shed has meant many changes.   It also enabled Dave to go buy a motorcycle, because now there is room in the garage (ok, so not all the reasons are so great! lol)

Tool Zone

I gave a specific area (back left) to Dave’s tools and equipment. We used the pegboard and I also gave him a space on the bottom shelf that he has some workspace.

There is a surge protector plug behind the white drawers so when he is working he can bring out the extension cord and plug in his radio and drills, or other equipment.

I labeled the drawers for his equipment.

The shelves above have storage items in them that I labeled.

Pegboard for equipment.  The wheel barrow isn’t hung on the proper kind of hook. I was experimenting. We did have the two black hangers full of chairs where the wb is hung.  But I didn’t like them there and found another solution for the chairs. I am going to take those two hangers down and figure out a better way to hang the wheel barrow

You will see some more pictures from this area in my video below, but I wanted to get to the loft.

Lofts

There are three loft areas in the shed.  I haven’t organized them yet and yes that bothers me!  Right now things are just kind of thrown up there.  But I’ll show you just so you can see.  But… there is one thing I did do to organize in the loft, that you’ll see in a minute.

Loft above the kid and fishing zones- This has a heavy hitch hauler that we use only on full family vacation trips. I have to figure out a better solution for that.  The bin has some golf shoes that Dave rarely wears but wants to keep and paint ball equipment of the teens.

The side loft is kind of a make shift loft right now. Dave really was just storing lumber and board there while he was building the other two lofts, but it is convenient. The umbrella is up there now because it was left open in a storm and broke one of the hinges. Dave thinks he can repair it. (We’ll see what happens with that)

This is the only part of the shed lofts that I am excited about. I had another one of those wire shelves (like I used for the temp bike rack).  We brought it out and it works great for storing the card table chairs and a few extra lawn chairs.

Beside that we just have the kiddie pool that we use for the dogs in the summer and my son put the extra roll of garden fence up there, plus the two card tables. Those still have to be stored better.

A closer look at my chair storage solution

See the whole shed all at once in my video.

Be sure to check out my other Shed posts that I did this week

Sheds and Garages – Organizing Mission Monday Link Party – Link up your posts!

Shed Plans – Making the Shed Usable with Shelves

Organizational System – Inside the Shed (Kid & Fishing Zones)

Garden Shed Plans

I have linked this post to these wonderful bloggers

Tip Junkie

Garden Shed Plans

Garden Supplies Organized in the Shed

My Garden zone in my shed is the area I like the best.  Coming up with storage solutions for the shed was a lot of fun!

Dave built the shelf underneath the window specifically to have a place to store the seedlings. This is Elise’s tray of flowers that she plans to plant in the flower box just on the other side of this window.   The kids each have their own gardening bucket. No fighting, a specific place to hang them. They are out of the way and add a cute touch.

Now you get to see the entire inside of the shed.  Here is a picture without any of the bikes.  You can see the two shelves on the back wall.

Garden & Kid Zones are to the right.
Tool and Fishing Zones are to the left.
I will cover the Tools and loft tomorrow. I was going to add it on today, but there is just too much to go over in the garden zone.

You can get a little better view of the garden zone.

These are the shelves that Dave built me for gardening supplies.

Here is another view

I made this make shift paper towel holder. I didn’t want to go buy one, but I did want some paper towels out here.

I used the 3M Command hooks (again! lol) and they stuck to wood too!  So far they seem to be holding great. If I discover different I’ll let you know.  But I just put up two command hooks and got some wire. I taped the wire on the left side so that it would stay on.

I left the right side with just a wire loop. So that it is no problem to change the roll. No money spent (I already had a pack of the command hooks) and I have a fun little paper towel holder.

I also used a command hook for the scissors I hung in this area. Seems you always need a pair of scissors and I must have used them a half dozen times while I was working in the shed this day.

They are hanging just behind the paper towels in the garden area. You can see them if you scroll up a couple pics. One more place I used the Command hooks in this shed is just on the outside of the garden shelf (near the single door) I hung one for my dust pan. I haven’t hung the broom yet, but plan to hang it on one of the shelves above (on the outside like this).  The broom I’m using in the shed now does not have a hole in the handle.

The shelves are the place for any gardening supplies.

To the left of the garden area is the single door. Again there was a lot of space that would have gone un-used if I had not put the pegboard on it.  I plan to have Dave put another piece on the lower section, but the only piece we have left is too short to fit.

I had a small basket that I just put a pair of flower snips in. The larger basket underneath the tools has the garden gloves in it.

This was the perfect door for this because it opens up on the side directly across from our three gardens.

Dave put in a third raised garden bed this year so that each of the triplets could be in charge of a garden. He had to put some green fencing around the beds because the dogs thought these were their own sand boxes or something. They kept playing in them. I just saw that the tomato starter tray had fallen when I looked at this picture. That is what that black thing is on the right hand garden bed.

The basket that holds the garden gloves is great.

So even if the garden gloves come back looking like this after the kids have worn them – it isn’t a problem. The basket is open, so it helps them dry without getting mildewy and the dirt will eventually come off and fall out of the basket and onto the floor where it will be easy to sweep out the door.

There was an area above this door, well all along the side of the shed that bothered me.  I thought there is space up there to be used!  Dave again made a little shelf for me (although I didn’t have to have it, but it does keep things more stabilized) to be able to place the more dangerous sprays and chemicals up higher.  You can see it in this picture.  See above the door?

The roof is slanted and since I didn’t want anyone to get conked on the head coming in or out of the shed by a can of Raid, I made a safety catch. I again used a piece of wire.  We put two screws in the studs on either end.

 

Then wrapped the wire around both ends securely.  The sprays and such can just be lift up above the wire to get out or put away. There is no reason to have to take the wire off and on.

You can also see that Dave just used a spare piece of peg board for the shelf. We weren’t able to use this piece anywhere else because it was too small, but it worked perfect here.

Just underneath the garden shelves I bought two rolling plastic bins to store bird feed in. I was thinking one would be for potting soil, but we didn’t have any of that and had lots of bird seed, so at least on this round – both are for seed.

Once one is empty it will be no problem to clean it out and change the label and use it for whatever I need it for.

They are sealed containers so that we don’t attract mice (hopefully)… also why a broom and dust pan are so important. I don’t want to brush the bird seed into the grass. There is some thistle seed in the bird food and if it gets on the grass, I’ll get thistle.

I also think it is important to have a trashcan available in your shed. You will use it more than you would have realized.

To the left of the garden rolling seat/cart – I have a couple other clear bins. I will use those at this point for potting soil and any odds and ends that might be too big for the shelves. There is some weed control cover in there right now.

The left to the left of the window had a nice space for the watering can.

Don’t forget to use the underneath areas of shelves, or above your head areas.  Think outside the box!

As you saw in the earlier picture I hung the kids gardening buckets underneath the shelf.

Her flowers are growing! I do have her take them outside to water them.

Here is my little “Martha Touch”. This just seems like something Martha might do. I had all these gardening gloves. Most had never been worn. I decided to use them as a bit of Garden Shed decor!  See them?  I was having difficulty getting a head on shot of them because it was so light outside.  It was washing out the picture too much. But I used a chain and hung them on either side of the window.

 

I used binder clips and clipped the gloves onto the chain.

I just thought that was a cute idea. You could actually buy gloves with a pattern and be even more creative with the idea.  Hang them down across the top or something?

Dave wanted a clock in the shed, so we brought out one that he had in the basement and didn’t use much. We hung it right over the window. The window still has tape on the outside. Dave still has another coat around the window to paint.

On the shelf to the left of the window I have a green bin with sprinklers and garden nozzles in it.  One of our coolers is on the shelf above. We have a couple more that might come from the basement out here also.

On the shelf below the paper towels I have another green bucket. I have the seed packs in there that we didn’t use or partially used and a pen and sharpie marker. Just odds n’ ends.

I had a lot of fun with this area.

My suggestion is to utilize every portion of your shed you are able.
We will be hanging bikes in the winter, use under shelf space, above head space, door space etc.

I am sure I will continue to add thing up higher on the ceiling and any wall space.

Tomorrow I will finish up with the tool area and lofts.  I am also hoping to make a video of the whole shed, so you can see it all at once instead of in four different posts.

Don’t forget to link your organizing, cleaning or DIY posts to my Organizing Mission link party!

Be sure to check out my other Shed posts that I did this week

Sheds and Garages – Organizing Mission Monday Link Party – Link up your posts!

Shed Plans – Making the Shed Usable with Shelves

Organizational System – Inside the Shed (Kid & Fishing Zones)

Garage Storage – Outside

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A Bowl Full of Lemons
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Thank you to Bella Before and After for Featuring this post!

Shed plans

For The Shed

Break your shed organization system into zones.  You will probably have different zones than I do. You have to look at the bulk of what you are storing, and decide from that.   I have four main zones.

1) Kids
2) Fishing
3) Tools
4) Garden
5) Loft Storage

The Kids Zone

Come on in my shed!  I’ll take you on the first phase tour!

Notice something on those doors?  I thought that space was too good to pass up.  This was the solution I came up with for the kids balls and ball gloves.

I used these baskets that I found at The Container Store.  They are a heavy duty wire basket made for the Elfa closet system. I had my husband drill screws into the studs on the door.  Then I just hung the basket over the screws.  They have been staying on without any problems.

I have the ball gloves in the top basket and some of the balls in the bottom.

There is still work that has to be done on the shed. One of those things is to get hook and eyes on the doors to hold them open.  They stay open if there is no wind.  Today it was windy and getting ready to storm while I worked.  So I propped the doors open.

On this door we have the elbow and knee pads for skateboarding. (The kids hardly use them anymore. I did get rid of several sets, but did keep just a couple in case they decide to start using them)

This bin has the baseballs and golf balls… along with whatever that orange ball is. I think it is for the Lacross stick actually.

When you come in the double doors of the shed, to the right you will find the “kid zone”. This is where most all their equipment will be stored.

I did hang the step stool right inside the door on a hook. It has easy access, and since we do have lofts in the shed, we will need to use it on occasion to get things.

I did purchase this tennis ball organizer from The Container Store. I really like it. The lacross stick is just hanging on a hook.

Their scooters and po-go stick are hanging on a specialty pegboard hook that I already had.

The baseball bats also hung easily from a pegboard hook.

I hung their bike helmets low and simple for easy access.

So what else do we have in the garage that takes up space and scratches the cars coming in and out (when they aren’t careful).. that we REALLY wanted in the shed?

Yep…. Bikes!!

This part of my plan has not been completed.  Dave is going to build me a bike rack underneath the shelf.  I am hoping to be able to store all five bikes in it.  For now, I made this temporary bike rack using a 3 level wire shelf that I had.  It doesn’t work the greatest, but it does give the triplets a designated space for their bikes.

There is still extra wood and pegboard that may yet be used, but for now I just slipped it out of the way behind the bike rack and under the shelf.

The other two bikes have pegs on the front tires that are going to come off.  I have my bike rack designed, I just need the man to make it for me. Sometimes things in my head aren’t realistic for what can actually be done.

I just used green duct tape to label with.  It doesn’t look the greatest right now, and after we get the final bike rack completed (which I will show you when it is done) then I will be relabeling.

Now for the two teenagers bikes.  We already had these portable bike racks that I purchased a few years ago from The Container Store.

So I slide the two bikes in sideways in the shed.  Is there the perfect amount of space in this 10×14 shed to have the bikes not block something? Nope…. but I did try to arrange them so that you could get to the areas that are most used.

That about does it for the kids zone.  Let’s move on.

Fishing Zone

This area is still under construction.  My husband has decided he is in charge of this area.  I did the major organizing of the items.  He still has to go through all his tackle boxes and get rid of stuff.

So you think I don’t have struggles with my better half decreasing his clutter?  lol  I said, “Dave, we have seven people in this family, there is NO reason that we need more than seven tackle boxes.”  Ok… that didn’t go over so well. He has all kinds of reasons why he needs more than seven tackle boxes. “A Man can’t have to much fishing equipment”, he said.

I of course disagree with that!!  I did however get him to get rid of five fishing poles.  He hasn’t had time to get to this yet (but I’ll tell him I’ll do it if he doesn’t! That will help)  I used this old brown shelf that we had in the garage for roller blades and it is now for his tackle boxes.

I took advantage of the pegboard for a few things.  The corner area is where he is going to build his fishing rack.

He even left a hole in the corner of the loft floor so that his taller fishing rods can fit.

His newer fishing tackle box has these separate organizing sections.  I think he has a few too many for the bag and that is why these were loose.

I’ll also share the fishing rod racks once those are completed… (unless he doesn’t ever do them!!)

Don’t forget to link your organizing, cleaning or DIY posts to my Organizing Mission link party!

Be sure to check out my other Shed posts that I did this week

Sheds and Garages – Organizing Mission Monday Link Party – Link up your posts!

Shed Plans – Making the Shed Usable with Shelves

Garden Shed Plans

Garage Storage – Outside

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