The $8 Organizational Tool

Just recently I saw an incredible idea on Pinterest to use a pocket shoe organizer for school & art supplies.  I just about broke the speed limit zooming away to Wal-Mart as fast as I could to utilize this great idea for my homeschool room/playroom.  I had been gathering pails and buckets for all of my organizational needs in our homeschool room but I was slowly running out of shelf space.  All of those markers, glue sticks and pipe cleaners can sure take up a lot of space!  I didn't know how much a pocket shore organizer cost but it looked like a great idea for my homeschool room.

I found them on the laundry and closet organization aisle at Wal-Mart for $7.47.  Awesome!

I then raced back home to install my new organization tool.  That is, after a quick stop at Sonic for a diet coke of course.  I hung the pocket organizer (the hooks are included) on the inside of the playroom closet door and now instead of being overcome with buckets and baskets and pails oh my, all of our supplies are located in one place.  I even have room for more!

Once I implemented this idea in the playroom I knew that there would be other great uses for these pocket shoe organizers.  One place I have found them to be of use is in my husband's closet.

Although we each have our own closet, neither one is very spacious and as a result I have to be extremely efficient in my attempts to organize our closets.  Georgia Boy wears a tie every day to work so he needed to be able to get to his ties easily.  I used a pocket shoe organizer on his closet door to organize both his ties and belts.  Now, instead of hanging randomly all over his closet they are conveniently located in the pocket shoe organizer.

I have used these shoe organizers in places where I don't mind seeing the hooks on the other side of the door.  However, if you don't like seeing the loops hanging over the door you could always use nails in the door provided that the door is strong enough and the nail is the appropriate size needed for the amount of weight that the organizer will be holding.

Other organizational uses for these shoe organizers would be for cleaning products inside a closet or laundry room door or in the bathroom under the sink.  To put it under a kitchen or bathroom sink you  simply cut it to fit and either hang it on the door using the hooks provided or tack a few nails to hold it inside the cabinet.

I'm sure I'll find some other uses for these pocket shoe organizers soon and when I do, I'll update it with any more ideas I have.  In the meantime, please share any uses for these organizers that you've found in your own home!

Happy Organizing Cheap Mamas!

Decisions, Decisions

This is what I see when I look into my living room.  

And I think I want to change it.  

Let me explain.

When we built this house 5 years ago I had been saving pictures from magazines for months and months as inspiration for each room in the house.  You know, old school Pinterest.  At that time it was all about color, color, color and I was determined not to shy away from color by painting every room in the house off-white.  I painstakingly chose coordinating color palettes for each room making sure that each room would flow into the next.

Downstairs I favored warm colors with a definite french influence.  However, after 5 years of choosing items to fill my home according to this color palette I now feel like it's too heavy.  I feel the need to lighten and brighten.  But how to do it on a budget?

Some things will have to remain like furniture and window treatments which leaves me with one choice.  Paint.  As my old guru Christopher Lowell will tell you, the cheapest way to make the most dramatic difference is through paint.  So why am I hesitating?  Because it's a big job.  A really big job.  And it's one that I will undertake all by my little lonesome.  You see, when Georgia Boy and I got married he knew how much I liked to paint rooms and he promised to be their for moral support only.

I know that if I end up hating my lighten and brighten project I can always re-paint it but thinking about painting these rooms twice makes me want to lie down on the floor until the feeling passes.

See, the problem is that not only will I have to paint the living room but I'll also need to paint the kitchen.

I thought about staging this picture but then I just decided to keep it real.

I'm also planning on painting my kitchen island and the armoire in the living room.  Trying to figure out which paint colors to use and how to make it all work together without changing any furniture or fabrics is enough to make a girl go straight to bed with a diet coke and dark chocolate.

I've got my collection of paint chips ready to go and I'm almost ready to pull the trigger.  Almost.

First let me go sit down with a diet coke and think it over again.