Showing posts with label storage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label storage. Show all posts

Friday

Refillable Easter Eggs - Organising My Home




Last year I discovered a girl called Louise who made refillable Personalized Easter Eggs and I bought some for my 3 grandchildren.

This year I will be re-using these three eggs.






Now when I got these large plastic eggs they were already full of treats and you can read more about the eggs & about Louise's online business in my review  

Louloumadethis - Unique Gift Ideas

 


This year when I went up to the storage area 
I easily found the eggs.
2 Deep Pink ones for Ruby and Sarah 
and a Blue one for Matthew 
but of course they were not full of little treats now.






I would have to think about it this year and decide what I should put in the eggs and then organise to get the treats myself.



BEFORE



Main Thing is I need to remember 
an egg is "egg-shaped" 
so not just any treat will fit inside.




IDEAS


First Thing as per usual for me is a list of ideas that would immediately spring to mind knowing what our grandkids like.


  1. Chocolate
  2. Stickers
  3. Lego Cards
  4. Little Notebooks
  5. Washi Tape
  6. Balloons
  7. Bubbles







Secondly I thought about having a little look around my study for the box that contains things that I used to have for little prizes for my Sunday School kids a few years back.

  1. Sharpeners
  2. Bookmarks
  3. Magnets
  4. Hair clips
  5. Pencils
  6. Pens
  7. Flip Bracelets
  8. Small puzzles





So glad I thought about this because I then realised that I probably already had enough little treats in the house to fill all three eggs. 

I got out my two boxes that had these types of things plus other larger things stored inside.

The first one mostly had items that would be too large 







The second one had a variety of better sized items

 



FILLING  THE  EGGS


These were the things I could consider (except for the large bubble wands but they will be used in the back garden in the summer because the grandkids love to run around the grass after me trying to catch or burst the bubbles).


Small bubbles - but there was only one of these left and they would not be happy if one got bubbles and the other two didn't.

Washi Tape - only two was ok because it would be for the girls but at 2 yrs and 4 yrs they are a bit young to appreciate it.

Balloons - Yes definitely they always enjoy a balloon to play with.

Small ball puzzles - best for Matthew's age so he could get one of those.

Stickers - only a few Easter themed ones and they would suit Sarah

Little Hoop button operated game - Ruby would be old enough now to try it.

And we cannot forget the 

Chocolate treats - Ruby needs different items from Matthew and Sarah as she is allergic to nuts and dairy so I had to go online previously and order a selection of bars and buttons for her because there is not a good variety in our supermarkets.







AFTER



Yes everything I had picked did fit into the eggs but I could have had more treats if eggs were not egg-shaped and I didn't include any chocolate items.

 
     




Tips & Helps!



Don't leave things like this to the last minute.

Most mums and grannies will normally have some sweet treats in the house but you can also have some other little treats bought in anytime you see something in one of those pound shops or the dollar shops for our American friends.

Also what about some of those small things that your kids receive at Christmas or birthdays that they hardly notice among everything else or just forget about. Store them away in a box for a time like this.

Another place I like to gather things up from is any Christian Book Shop I'm in - some of these have a great variety.

Lastly when you are shopping online somewhere like Ebay keep an eye out for small items because sometimes you can buy a bunch of similar things for a good price.




So is Easter sorted for our Grandkids?


 
Almost for the grandkids because I have the refillable eggs and I already have some eggs for an egg hunt for them.  Now just need to get some Easter eggs for grandkids, the grown-up kids & my husband and myself because let's be honest we all love Chocolate Easter Eggs too.








Now you may be thinking how this is organising my home!  

Well....

1.  I had the eggs already in the house
2.  I knew exactly where they were in the storage area
3.  I had little gifts that would suit the kids ages in 2 boxes
4.  I knew exactly where these two boxes were in my study
5.  I had a table clear for working on where I could sort the little gifts out around the eggs without having to use my dining table.








How to Organize Craft Punches



Over the years I have collected a lot of Craft materials 
but not used all that I gathered together into my Craft Armoire.

One of the reasons for this was that I had not organised my supplies in the best way to make sure I would regularly use them.


I had found many storage items large and small for storing my crafts but now I was determined to get more organised.


Today I'm going to tell you about how I organised my 

PUNCHES






BEFORE


Originally I had my punches in square matching cardboard boxes of 
3 different sizes 

grouping 
the larger border type punches together in the largest box on the right
 
and 
the small & medium sized ones together in the small box on the left.






Then a mix of small & medium sized ones 
together with the large ones that were leftover from the large box 
in the medium box below







Yes you can clearly see it was not a good arrangement for storage
  1. Sizes were mixed together
  2. Types were mixed together
  3. Subjects were mixed together
  4. Boxes had to be opened to even try to remember what punches I had
  5. Punches on top of punches meant ones had to be lifted out to see the others.






I also tried using clear plastic boxes to store them thinking I could maybe have the same types or same subjects together and see through the sides.


This was the result:







I only got two boxes used when I realised I was going to need 4 of them if I wanted to keep them well sorted and 4 of these boxes would take up much more space.

If I didn't want to use 4 then it would always mean that some punches were on top of others and I would forget what I had and every time I was thinking of using a punch I would still need to go through all the punches which meant I would still be moving and opening boxes and to be honest I'm too lazy for that.

So I was back where I had started!!! 



Then I saw an interesting item one day online in Ikea's Kvissle Series

It's called the Letter Tray






With this item 
  1. I would not have to lift one box off another and open boxes and then sift through punches lying on top of each other
  2. I would be able to see all the punches in one section without even touching any of them.

So I got all my punches out again 






and started sorting them into subjects & types like borders,  designs, 



ANIMALS



PLANTS




So off to Ikea and I bought the Kvissle Letter Tray


I knew beforehand that I would have a choice of places to keep the tray unit as it could fit unto a couple of different shelves in my Craft Armoire (Ikea give you all the dimensions) 

and I knew it would be so much better than my previous system for my punches and I was right.



Corner & small border punches




Animals & Plants




Shapes




Large Borders





AFTER



It is now

       easy to open, 
 
              easy to see the punches,  

                     easy to lift them out 








and then maybe the most important fact of all 

it is
 
       so easy to return the punch to it's position - yes!
 


I will  NOW put each punch away as soon as I use it 

because 
it is just a matter of pulling out the right tray and placing it where it came from.








Doesn't it look so neat here in my Craft Armoire





even now when I got a few extra punches and put them in the wicker basket in front but that is easy to lift out and then I can pull out the trays.



NOTE to SELF
Please try not to be tempted to buy more punches








Baskets, Boxes & Bags - Organising My Home



There is so much to organize in any home
and
I'm sure you are like me
which means


we would rather have something that
looks nice
to help keep us organised.


SO


There is nothing better
for
Great Storage Solutions

than the 3 B's



BASKETS, BOXES & BAGS






When I was working on the Dressing Room and Storage Closet Overhaul & Inventory I had done a bit of a mixture and it was all centred really around those
Baskets, Boxes and Bags that I love.


Some of you who laughed at these labelled baskets







in my Hall cloakroom will have fun today again
(just a little hint of what is to come)




STORAGE CLOSET


Previously I had done a very quick tidy up in the Storage Closet because I had to get the floor cleared so that the walk-in closet could be a proper walk-in closet!

Now that meant that the closet did not look too bad on a cursory glance but the storage shelves and containers definitely needed more attention.

It is difficult to get pictures taken because of the smallness of the closet and only artificial lighting but I hope these are not too bad.



Left Hand side First set of Shelves







Doesn't look too bad here but top and bottom can't be seen here as it is too close to get a full length picture and they needed more work done on them, and some of the scarves had got mixed up so they got sorted neatly.


And then I got out my heart labels and strings.






I got these tags on Ebay and loved them so much I sent for more.

Because of being tied with string you can tie them tight or loose and let the tag hang just the right length to suit whatever basket you are using.



The top shelf had a smaller blue box than the two you can see in the BEFORE picture but there was room beside it to move the middle sized blue one up beside it leaving room for the third dark wicker basket which had been elsewhere in the closet so my sets of baskets are all together here now.



Right Hand side First set of Shelves








The top shelf here was not being used properly at all but because it is rather high up for me I couldn't use it for baskets or anything heavy that I might want on a regular basis so after looking around at the rest of the closet I decided that moving my Puzzle magazines up there would be better than having them take up a shelf under my shoes and would free up more space for my shoes, so up went the puzzle books.







I fixed up the handbag shelves as they get very untidy as I pull out and push in handbags all the time.
Then I change d the use of the three matching baskets here to take my sun caps, Fred's caps and my belts and of course labelled them too.









Okay there were definitely baskets here and yes a set of blue boxes but what about the bags?


The handbags?

No!


we need to go downstairs for
the bags
and
more boxes.



STUDY


In my Study the piece of furniture that was tackled now was the white console unit which is from the Hemnes range in Ikea.

I particularly love this range in white although I like it in the other colours too.

So this is what it looked like to start with.









What I needed was something to sit in the sections that would look like a good fit for them instead of all the different things I had stuck in them in the mean time.


The expanding files you can see in one of the bottom sections have now gone into the craft armoire in another Organising post and some other things have been housed in the armoire too but I have still to find a home for a few things since I have rearranged with my new
(wait for it)



BOXES


with chalkboard panels

that I shared in my Storage Bargains









I just love them


and my other


A4 sized Butterfly and Silver Boxes







so now with the large chalkboard boxes in the bottom sections

and the Butterfly and Silver Boxes in the top sections

and the top cleared up

my console unit looks like this







Then I must show you the lovely stationary box I have which I keep letters in and paper to write letters (unfortunately not many letters are written these days) 






Well now you are thinking


"she still hasn't done the bags!"


I love bags because they are very useful for storage and of course for carrying items to and from places that I go regularly.


I have my Ark bags that I mentioned in other posts and they are used for taking Sunday School materials to Church on Sundays or if I do a School Assembly.






But then below there is (clockwise from top left):


  • my other Ark bag which is wider and this is the one that goes to the Kids After School Bible Club each Monday Afternoon to carry my Bible, songs, small games items and other miscellaneous items that I may need.
  • my Craft bag
  • my two bags for storing large songs and quizes
  • and my Ladybird Tesco's Bag which I use to keep my wool.





and loads too many other bags to mention


because


many times a bag


is better for storage than a box or a basket.



So even though I was sorting out and tidying up I was working with


"Things I love"


my


Baskets
Boxes
&
Bags


and dare I admit it


I still have more


Baskets, Boxes and Bags to use elsewhere!