Month: March 2014

I apologize for my lack of posts. I would love to say I have been so busy crafting that I just didn’t have time to post but that is not really the truth. I have found a new hobby that I can’t seem to get enough of…..napping! I just adore it. Anyway, yesterday I decided to forgo my daily nap and clean a closet or drawer out instead. My house was clean and so I decided to tackle something that usually gets neglected. My poor linen closet came to mind. I started thinking that I don’t ever go in that closet except to throw the random crap in 5 minutes before company arrives. I thought I would take a look and refold some things and make some nice stacks. When I opened the closet and looked inside I started to realize just how long it had been since I had given this little closet any attention. I started to pull random things out. Beach towels, old (expired) medicine, half burnt candles (from my first house), used plug ins, bedding to bed sets I don’t even remember. I began by pulling everything out of the closet and started 3 piles. Keep, trash and Goodwill. The majority of the crap went to Goodwill or trash. I kept only the beach towels but moved them to a Rubbermaid bin in the basement. Now staring at an empty closet I had to decide what I would fill it with. I walked around the house and realized one recurring theme I had in almost every room where signs of my kids “crafting”. I had buckets of crayons in almost every room. My laundry room has been a catch all for Play-doh, coloring books, markers, old pencil cases and glue sticks. I had 3 drawers in my kitchen full or markers, stickers, crayons, thread, glue, clothes pins, ribbon and other random artistic supplies. So I had my idea. I would consolidate our crap…er I mean crafts. Now normally my sister Kim would direct this project and I would just do as I was told but since she is 5 hours away, I was on my own. I remembered a few things she told me. 1. Buy all matching Rubbermaid and buy twice as much as you think you will need. 2. Buy clear containers! You need to be able to see what you have at a glance. 3. Label everything. It won’t get used it you don’t know it’s there 4. Keep 1 or two items. You don’t need 12 of anything. (Except scissors! They looked too cute to get rid of any of them) 5. Make it visually appealing but more importantly functional. I took a trip to Target. I bought a lot of bins, more than I needed! I stuck with a color theme….yellow, black and white. I bought chalk labels to label the bins. This way I can change them as the bins change contents. I placed empty bins on the top shelf so I would know exactly where they were when the time came to fill them and so they wouldn’t accidentally get used for something else. Now I don’t know about you but we always have a lot of unopened crafts from birthday parties etc. that I save for a rainy day. I placed these on the top shelf as well. I wanted to kids to be able to see what we have but not be able to grab it all!!!! 🙂 I tried to display the craft supplies so they would be easy to see what we had and easy to access as well. All of this took about 1 1/2 hours to complete. The kids love it and it keeps the crafts organized and in one place. As crayons get broken and markers run out I throw them immediately in the trash. So there you have it from “Crap to Craft”! Before/After