Organize Those Magazines!

I've been keeping too many magazines lately, it's not that I don't recycle them when I'm done, I bring them to the laundromat to share with everyone else. I just like to covet the magazines for awhile and scour the pages looking for pretty pictures and good recipes.

The Thomas Paul Magazine Holder from See Jane Work is $17.50, but if your a realy DIY'er, purchase one of these from Ikea, find your favorite scrapbooking paper and let your fingers do the glueing!

Check out Michael's for acid free glue - remember to flatten out the paper too so you don't get any wrinkles, spread your glue out VERY thinly as well!

PSH

Small Space Storage Solutions

If you're like me it means that you live in exactly 620 square feet and moved a three story house into a one bedroom apartment.

Kind of.

I can't convince my Beemer Man into donating a whole entire box of unsharpened pencils to a school, nor can I convince him that dirty clothes need to be in the hamper and when the hamper is full to wash what's in there. Um, no. He buys more socks. And underwear. That's only one problem.

Here were my solutions:

Kitchen Hutch from Target - $149
I whole heartedly admit, it's not the prettiest, but it's large and fits the needs of our small kitchen. ALL the baking stuff is stored along with the utensils.
For $39.99 the Rexbo storage unit is easily used in the office area. It holds the law school books along with a few reams of paper and one 8x10 framed wedding picture. Who knew that I would fall in love with red?

These are only two solutions to the many -

Closet organizers - boxes, baskets, an over the door shoe holder houses my bras & socks, a plastic closet doubler, purses that hang on what are supposed to be pants hangers (stuffed with tissue paper), plastic shelving under the bathroom sink...

Honestly I could go on forever (need more room for new glasses - use an old coffee mug for a pen & pencil holder) - sometimes ideas come to you that you would never think. I bought an old restaurant utensil holder (kinda like now what the six pack case is with the napkins in it) and it's now used for the address book, errant pens, a lighter, the stamps and all the remote controls.

Amazingly, you'll find something you love that you have to use for something. No worries, more solutions to come!

PSH

Shop: Umbra

So, in my spare time I browse the internet.

A lot.

And I found this cool store. Umbra - it reminds me of those stupid shorts that people had when I was little, like 6th grade or so for playing soccer. When I actually got a pair, I was so pissed that they kept riding up, I gave them away. My mom was mad. This is a different Umbra.

This is one European treasure that you'll adore. Storage to decorating to furniture to office stuff. Browse away, because I can't stop!

A grassy organizer for your desk, the bathroom (I want one for my brushes) or any small kitchen stuff is $9.50.

Plus their selection of paper towel holders will amaze you - even better than Bed, Bath & Beyond!

They even have a pretty selection of wallpaper - if you're feeling adventurous! The above wallpaper is $39 for 55 square feet, a bit expensive, but pretty for a bathroom or a reading nook - imagine sitting in a warm, cozy alcove with the soothing blue and reading your favorite book with tea (or a martini for me!).

Enjoy!

PSH

Etsy Find

Corkboard. Easy to use, easy to buy and looks incredibly pretty! Corkboard is surprising sustainable for a green home - reusuable and earthfriendly, I'm in love with this etsy find! Uncorked is a great shop for neat interesting corkboard finds. $28 gets you the corkboard above with layers of the artist's personality!

Another good find - earrings! Yeah, yeah, I know they're not exactly home decorish - but still - you just can't deny a good pair of homemade earrings! For $18, the earrings above are a pretty good deal. Made by Elizabeth Williams, you'll find so many cute things from her shop, that I'm sure you'll find a few presents for others as well as yourself!

Time for another DECOR ITEM:

Prestige is the manufacturer of this lovely lamp (now I regret registering for lamps for wedding presents, but then you don't know crap about decorating until you start to learn what you like and what you don't like along with what goes together and what doesn't). The seller's marketplace, Sea Glass Vintage, also includes items like goblets, hand thrown pottery, a candy dispenser and awesome gadgets for displaying on bookshelves (hint: look at everything and you'll find SOMETHING you love!).

So onto Etsy it is... Happy hunting!

PSH

The Entertainment Center

Enjoy organization with this DVD storage set. It's $60 bucks, but totally worth it for the sanity of all who search for that missing DVD (I'm currently looking for The Mexican with Brad Pitt, anyone seen it?). Plus, you can finally get rid of those thick DVD cases that take up room and force you to buy more DVD racks that take up precious wall space. For the most part, you can drop off those cases at your local recycling centers but sometimes they don't take them. In that case you have another option! You can recycle those by mailing them to this place:

Plastic Recycling, Inc.

2015 S. Pennsylvania
Indianapolis, IN 46225

Phone: (317)780-6100

Above is the entertainment console that we need to corral all of our stuff. With a PS2 & a PS3 along with a DVD player, tuner, wireless headphones and countless other television gadgets, they can all be thrown in one place. I love the doors - close off what you don't need and put the items that you use every day in the middle. In fact, I think I might even be able to find a place for the 4 remotes and controllers! Love it! This one is dark wood, but Ikea has a fabulous set of options and many more styles to choose from.

In fact, I might have a hard time of doing this, but I might even try convincing Beemer Man that we need to get shelf speakers instead of the big tall ones that are sitting by the television now. They're ugly. They just don't look good. Bose makes shelf speakers that are full of volume - one pair is about $160 at Best Buy, (search at www.bestbuy.com for Bose Speakers) so for that much money, you get speakers on your shelf, more floor space and enough sanity to actually enjoy looking at speakers!

Happy DVD organizing!

PSH

My Bathroom Went to Shit

But at least I scrub it with Method Tile Cleaner!

Haha! If there's one thing that I've always hated to even think about decorating, it's the bathroom. I shared a one bathroom house with 4 females in college. Dirty, nasty, gross. Those three words sum up the bathroom perfectly! I mean, we had a clear shower liner, which I couldn't even bring myself to step into without my dormitory shower shoes, mismatched rugs that I didn't even want to walk on and the smallest mirror ever.

Oh yeah, and everyone but me had a problem cleaning it. Try having 17 people in your family growing up. You gotta do what Momma tells you...

Try organizing all of your fun stuff with the shower caddy above. It has room for razors, shampoo, conditioner, a scrubby thingy for your feet and more stuff. Today it's on sale for $12.99. Original price - $21.

To go green in the bathroom, try a teak shower mat. It's great for your feet and it's also a non-slip surface. Find it at Bed, Bath & Beyond for just under $40. They also have more teak bathroom accesories - though they are spa-like, they are also an environmentally friendly product for your bathroom and things like this are hard to find that are actually stylish.

All the accessories are plain enough that you won't have to worry if your towels aren't bamboo or natural colored. Teak is a great wood for a bathroom, durable, easy to clean and slip-free.

Another bathroom organization tool that you can use in the kitchen OR in the bathroom is an under-sink organizer. It's easy to put together and easy to sort through all of your stuff. I happen to like hiding my accessories under the sink, but if you have a pedestal sink, you're out of luck! This one is $17.99, but I bet if you want to skip for paying the shipping, you find this at your local Bed, Bath & Beyond or something similar at Target.

Good luck and happy bathroom organizing!

PSH

Wine Racks

The other night I was enjoying a glass of cab, it was Three Blind Moose for $6.99. A little grapey, sweet, but not bad for $6.99. I would buy a case of it. The only problem - storage. Help me now, please, God, give me just one more closet to put my crap.

Or a wine rack.

A cart ($160.23 for above) would be fine - I could keep it where we have our pot rack. Or in the living room or in the closet or in the bedroom and just wheel it out when we need it.

A buffet would be nice in a house. $836.50 if you're looking at something a little more pricey.

Another cart ($799.95) and a side table ($142.80).

And of course, a wine lover's curio cabinet ($1,520.00).

All of the above wine racks and furniture can be found in abundance with MORE wine racks at the Wine Rack Station. If you do purchase, remember that the shipping will be what'll ruin your budget! Try and find some online coupons for free shipping, I won't list any here, as I will probably forget to update with *new coupons every couple of weeks. Hey, another idea for a weekly post! Thanks!

PSH

Workspaces - What A Girl NEEDS

See Jane Work

The fun and fabulous site where you can order your fabulous office supplies. At work, I call my office supply catalog my "bible." I look through it everyday and wonder what else I can order for my desk.

Flip no more - only clicking is required here (along with your company's credit card)!

Another aspect that I love about work areas is your mousepad. I was a freshman in college when I stole my first mousepad from the University of Minnesota. It said, "Do Not Remove. Property of the University of Minnesota." Well, technically I still lived on campus. It was still on University of Minnesota property. So that's not stealing, right???

The mousepad shown is only $7.50. I would buy that instead of steal it. But now, if it said, "Property of Indiana University, Do Not Remove" I think that I would use it at work - that's still Indiana University property, right???

Click on over to See Jane Work. I think you'll enjoy the humorous office stuff along with all the girly products. I need a little pink in my work life and this is definitely the way to go!

PSH

New Pottery Barn Catalog

When I got home from work yesterday I had a pleasant surprise waiting for me on the coffee table.

A new Pottery Barn catalog. Normally I don't exactly look through them because everything is way too expensive for me to buy. Also, living in a small space, their furniture won't fit into my 625 square foot apartment. Plus, how in the world would I get their furniture up three flights of stairs? (That's right, there's no elevator).

And so I decided to look anyway when I saw that they had some Eco friendly stuff. Looking more closely, no, it's really not that eco-friendly when you spend thousands of dollars when you could go garage sailing and looking on craigslist for cheap to free furniture.

But they also had a small spaces section. I looked found a few things that might be able to fit into my teeny tiny apartment. Not too bad... But if you look at the specs, these are still pretty large pieces.

Also, when living in a small space, you want to be able to store as much stuff as possible.

The tv stand wouldn't work out for us (with the PS3, PS2, tuner, DVD player and about 8 speakers...), but it would work out nicely for me if I wasn't living with a gadget freak.

The couch, that just looks hard and uncomfortable, but think of all the throws, DVD's and other stuff you could store underneath in pretty baskets!

The computer office closet, yes, I want! You can shut off your mess when you have friends over, or you can keep it as organized as you want to. For me, I'd love a MAC, but with laptops, the pull out unit for the keyboard can be used as extra work space (I'm thinking off all the Law School work my husband can do...).

So for now, just enjoy the new Pottery Barn stuff. It's too expensive for me, but you can also find knock offs at other places like Ballard Designs, Ikea and even sometimes at Home Goods.

PSH

Small Space Organization

Ever wish you had just another 10 square feet for your shoes? Your clothes? Your kitchen?

I do all the time! In fact, my kitchen is only about 10 square feet. I have a teeny tiny stove (four burners and only 2 pots can fit at a time), an actual icebox for a refrigerator (open one door for everything and then another door inside of the fridge for the freezer) and NOT ENOUGH STORAGE. We bought a butcher rack at Target and I still can't even find time to organize that. Talk about me trying to organize everyone else!

I finally stumbled upon the Container Store's fridge and freezer section of their website. Absolutely awesome ideas. Who knew that me, the world's most lazy organizer could possibly actually use some of these things???

And so now I'm off to shop online and get some great stuff to organize my fridge.

At least one thing that I use daily will be organized, right???

PSH