Organization Tips - 3/12

organizational boards

So…still on the laundry room theme here…sorry about that. I promise I will change it up here soon so as not to bore you to tears! We updated our family organizational boards here recently. I shared with you earlier this family work station that has really worked well to keep me on top (ha…ya right!) of all that comes with raising five kids. You can see that post here:

Kids Organizing Bulletin Boards

Pin It

I wanted to style it up a bit and make it look like an actual piece of “furniture.” But I could not have it stick out from the wall as the outside door opens right into it. (see the black door mat?) So we added a few more changes to it. I tried to show on the picture below what pieces we used to create this bulletin board. It is really pretty easy and you can make it to your own tastes as well. Here is what we used:

I will not share the lengths we used unless some of you would like the exact specifics. Just leave a comment and I would be happy to add some edits to this post. I figured since every one will have different wall dimensions and kids, etc, you would have to come up with something that will work for you. This picture should be able to help you visualize it better.

After we added all of our molding and MDF pieces with nails (we always use nails rather than glue…just in case we ever want to take it down), we caulked all the seams with painters caulk. After it had time to dry properly we sanded any areas that needed it. Then we painted it with our white trim paint in a semi-gloss finish.

I also wanted to add some magnetic days of the week for each child to help us to organize their individual schedules.

I printed up some 1 inch circles with the days of the week on them and printed them onto some magnetic paper using my Xyron machine. ( You can always save those restaurant magnets and Mod Podge them onto there too).

Then printed up some of the kids activities on strips of magnet paper too. Such as piano lessons, soccer, ballet, basketball and so on. We also are including things at school like PE days (so we wear the right shoes), library and computer days so we don’t forget to turn in our keyboarding homework or library books *ahem*!

This wall is right at the front of my laundry/mud room as you walk in a side door of our home. So this is the door my kids use when they get home. It also happens to be the door all of my friends and family enter my home as well. So this room NEEDS to stay clean…ha…whatever.

In theory…the kids are supposed to come home and put up papers and assignments on their boards (which each have been labeled with their names) and then hang up their coats and backpacks…MOST of the time they are pretty good and only need “gentle” reminders here and there.

But for me it has really cut down on a lot of the searching and chaos of the early morning rush or the evening homework routine. It was really pretty easy to make and wasn’t that expensive. We were able to use a lot of scraps we had on hand, but my estimates for this project would be about $50 depending on the hardware (hooks) you bought.

If you were to ask me which DIY project has been the most useful to me as a mom…hands down…this would be it.

Pin It

January 17, 2012 · Filed under: DIY Tutorials, Home Decor, Home Remodeling, Organization Tips, Tutorials Tagged with kids bulletin boards, organizing back packs, organizing mud room, organizing station for kids

how to build a closet shelf

5 Comments

Thanks everyone for sharing you thoughts on what to do in our laundry room. I got some really great advice and have some ideas brewing in my head. You are the best! Are you getting sick of me posting about my Laundry Room? I hope not because today I am going to share with you how to build a closet shelf…or in our case a shelf in the larger locker we were able to create from a side panel.

This locker was just empty inside and so even though we could store some things in there, it was not very organized or efficient. There was a lot of wasted space. So we decided to build a few shelves in there. The estimated cost for us was about $35.

We needed our shelf to be 5 feet tall and about 17.5 inches wide to fit into our space. You will need to determine the size that will work for your space.

Pin It

You will need the following (in your determined sizes and lengths):

2 white melamine boards (8 feet long x 15 7/8 wide x 3/4 inch thick)
2 white 6 foot sections of 2.5 inch wide shelving board (particle board)
Nails (just to secure glued pieces in place)
Hammer (nail gun)
Wood glue
Hand Held Circular Saw
*Handy Dandy Worker guy optional

1. Measure and mark the locations of where you would like your shelves to be located in your closet or space. Be sure to take into account the thickness of your shelves. Our melamine board were 3/4 inch thick so we made sure to lower the side support down 3/4 of an inch so the shelf would sit exactly at the height we wanted it to be.

2. Use your circular saw (not pictured) and cut your side supports. We cut our tall side boards (vertical) 5 feet. The side supports were cut to 13.5 inches. And the shelves were cut to 16 inches. The top shelf was 17.5 inches as we attached it to the tops of both of the side pieces. We also added some side supports under the top shelf to give it more stability and support.

3. Originally we were going to add an additional support along the back of the shelf, so we added some spacing on the back of the support to allow for that…but ended up not doing so. You can just run your support sides all the way to the back of the side panel if you don’t plan of the back supports.

4. Glue your side supports into place and then add a couple of well placed nails to secure the wood so it can dry and get a good seal.

We secured the right side panel by drilling screws into the other side of the locker. We did not place our shelf across the full width of the closet as we wanted to leave a small space to store our ironing board.

Now screw your shelves into place with a thin line of wood glue and a couple of well placed finishing nails.

Caulk all of your seams with a painters caulk. Then do any sanding if needed and then add some paint to any area you feel needs it. We just painted the wood colored sides of the shelf supports but didn’t worry about painting the rest…(cause we were tired!)

That’s it! Now we have some more storage space. I actually use this as MY personal storage area. It is now a great place to store my shoes and my church and gym bags, etc. It is so nice to have them all in one spot now.

Some of you asked about what we actually store in the other lockers…There are seven lockers…one for each person in our family. Each person has their own locker to store their coats, some shoes, hats, gloves, etc. Items that they need to grab as they are headed out the door. They aren’t always pretty inside…ha ha…but with the doors shut, no one is the wiser.

Pin It

January 15, 2012 · Filed under: Home Decor, Home Remodeling, Organization Tips Tagged with Build closet shelves, DIY closet shelves, how to build a shelf, shelf tutorial

Back To School Ideas-Clothing Organization

14 Comments

We have been busy getting our house back in order after a crazy summer. I needed to come up with some back to school ideas for organizing the kids and our new schedules. I knew one area we needed to work on was our morning routine. This year we decided to make a drawer for the younger kids to hold each of the school weeks outfits. I know this is not a new concept, but we needed a better plan of action at our house this year. Last year we tried hanging them in the closet…but that didn’t seem to work for us very long. My kids seem to forget how to hang up their clothes for some reason. Do your kids suffer from the same problem? So this year I decided we need to have a spot in their dressers for their school week outfits.

My kids are really excited about this new method. And I actually have hope that this one will stick. We have been refilling the drawer when the kids put their laundry away for the week. I have been helping them this first little while so that they can know what to do and what shirts and pants/shorts make a good combination. This is really going to save me some headaches this year when dealing with a certain child’s dressing habits. And hopefully it will save us some precious time in the early morning before school rush. And in case you missed it, I also like to organize the kids home lunch routine that I shared last year.

What do you do at your house to beat the early morning chaos?