Make this DIY Martha Stewart gift wrap station

Organized gift-wrapping station

Use baby gear that you no longer need

Try a gift wrap drawer or two

Later we’ll look at some gift wrap station products.

Post from: Blisstree

Get Your Holiday Wrap Station Organized with DIY Solutions

Cool posts lately include:

• Knit a Butterfly bag for Mother’s Day – I don’t really celebrate Mother’s Day, but love both butterflies and soft bags, so neat-o!
• Woven “Earth Listener” Angel Doll – you just have to read the post to get it.
• Frequently asked questions- Spool knitting with kids – it’s always great to pass on your crafts to your kiddos.

Now in order to introduce Hankering for Yarn yet, also stay on topic, I thought we might look at some good ways to organize your yarn collection.

Organize that yarn – after the jump.

Now, first off I don’t knit, but my ex did. He liked sewing and all of that way more than I do. For Ben (the ex) I organized a bin situation. A one bin solution works well if you dabble in knitting. I acquired one large bin, added a few small clear bins to it (a couple for yarn and one for needles) then added his books. This bin sat quietly in the closet until Ben needed it. It worked just fine.

If you’re a more productive or frequent knitter, or like at my house you use yarn for kid crafts, you might want to try one of the following ways to organize your yarn.

Modular Shelving – 12 Cube Organizer: This is great because you can store needles and books in the top drawer, and your yarn in the cubes. Plus, if you have loads of yarns you can of course add more cubes.

[photo via Stacks and Stacks]

Hide your yarn with a 24-Pocket Vinyl Overdoor Shoe Bag: Perfect for yarn and keeps colors separated nicely.

[photo via Container Store]

Lastly, some inspiration. This is quite possibly the nicest yarn set-up ever. It actually makes me want to knit.

How beautiful right – so pretty, and organized! This room is from the post 3 Ways to Store Your Yarn at Jeri’s Organizing & Decluttering News. There are two other ideas that Jeri offers for yarn storage that you’ll want to check out.

Don’t forget to visit Hankering for Yarn who inspired this post. Also, let me know how you organize your yarn in the comments.

Post from: Blisstree

Organize Your Hankering for Yarn

If you yourself are a serious craft person, say you make crafts for money, or simply, crafts are your life-long hobby, a set-up like this could also pay off because it’ll save you time searching through boxes for the supplies you need. Sewers, crafters, and scrapbookers could all use this same set-up.

The nice deal with this set-up is that you could hide it away in a closet – if you have a dedicated art room, or you could mount it on the wall in the space where you create art projects. Add a table and you’re all set. Another perk is that most of the containers are clear, so you can easily see supplies. Also, you could customize the set to fit your needs.

The Container Store sells the entire organized elfa Arts & Crafts Closet and individual pieces from the set.

Post from: Blisstree

Serious Art Supply Organization

I love a simple utility caddy. Here are three uses for a utility caddy in your home:

1. Store cleaning supplies – Yes, I know, that’s not a very original idea but it is a great way to use a utility caddy. When it comes time to clean the bathrooms, kitchen, living room, bedrooms, etc., all you need is one simple caddy filled with your supplies. Take the caddy with you from room to room and it makes clean-up a cinch.
2. Store Art Supplies – I did this for one of my clients and her kids love it. They wanted to store the craft supplies in the playroom, but the kids colored at the kitchen table. So, we found a caddy that wasn’t being used, filled it with crayons, glue, stickers, markers and scissors and in a jiffy her kids had a portable craft station.
3. Store toiletries – If all of your kids share a bathroom like mine, having their toiletries in something portable can come in handy. My daughter tends to switch between three rooms to get ready. Her bathroom, my bathroom and her room. I guess she has nomadic tendencies. Who knows? But having her toiletries in a portable container has helped keep everything together. I can also take one look in her caddy and see what she’s low on.

Can you think of any other uses for a utility caddy? If so, please share! I can think of at least two other ideas.

Post from: Blisstree

3 Uses for a Utility Caddy

You get a new magazine in the mail and the first thing you do is skim through it. You notice several articles that catch your eye and you want to read later. When you have a few minutes, you scan through the magazine again reading what you have time for. You then put the magazine aside and tell yourself you’ll look at it later because you really want to keep that article about buying name brand shoes at a discount. The next thing you know, your pile of magazines is out of control and you have no idea which magazine that article is in.

Yep, I do this too. I used to be really good at tearing out the articles I wanted to keep and I had a special file box where I would put them. Well, life happened and I haven’t don this in awhile.

A comment from one of my readers named Peg, inspired me to get going again and organize my magazine articles:

I’m a sucker for magazines and subscribe to a jillion of them — Organize (of course), knitting, quilting, travel, news, etc, etc.

I’ve found one method for dealing with them that works the best for me: I sit down with a magazine THE DAY IT COMES and quickly go through each page, tearing them off as I go. When I come to something that I want to keep (like a pattern) or to read later, I put it to the side. I DON’T READ IT AT THAT TIME. The goal is to get through it quickly and get it off my desk.

When I’ve gone through the entire thing, I find I usually only have a dozen or so pages left to deal with. The patterns/reference articles go in the appropriate file folders and the “read later” articles go in my “Take to work and read at lunch” envelope. I also keep an “Internet” file folder for those articles that reference something I want to check out on the Web.

If I don’t follow this method, I find that I am soon overwhelmed in back issues and it takes almost an entire Sunday to plow through them.

Great tip Peg! Follow this simple method and you will know exactly where all your favorite articles are. Now doesn’t that sound nice?

Post from: Blisstree

Reader Tip: Dealing with Magazines

Tools are something that can be a pain to deal with if you don’t keep them organized. You can end up spending more times searching for the tool you need, then the actual project takes.

Keeping your tools organized can also help save you some money. How many times have you gone out and bought yet another phillips head screw driver because you lost the other one?

The Bucket Boss tool organizer can really come in handy for someone who either works with tools on a daily basis or someone with limited storage space. You could just load up all your tools in this and then set it aside in the corner of your garage. It takes up very little space and when you need a certain tool, you know exactly where to look.

The key to any organization system though, is to make sure you put back the tools where they belong after you have used it. That one step right there will help keep you organized for years and years to come.

Here’s a review from Amazon:

Constructed of durable, rip-proof fabric, the new 56-pocket organizer from Bucket Boss improves on what was already a great idea. Unlike the toolboxes of old, the Bucket Boss organizer stores tools where they’re visible and easy to access. And, with 38 exterior pockets and 18 more on the inside, the Bucket Boss really does have a place for just about everything. We’ve loaded ours down with wrenches, handsaws, screwdrivers, hammers, pry bars, pencils, utility knives, pliers, and drill bit sets. There’s even a padded pocket for your cordless drill. We quickly discovered, however, that depending on how you load it, the Bucket Boss can get a little top-heavy. After ours tipped over in the back of our truck, we reloaded it with our hammerheads down, and it hasn’t tipped since. We recommend the Bucket Boss 56 for remodelers, carpenters, electricians, repair people, or any other professional who brings a lot of hand tools to the job; it also makes the perfect tool kit for do-it-yourselfers moving through the house from room to room and project to project. –Jon Groebner

This tool bag is very reasonably priced at $19.95.

Post from: Blisstree

The Bucket Boss 56 Pocket Bucket Tool Organizer

Post from: Blisstree

Home Office Organization – Where’s My Desk Wednesday

Well, it was working just fine for awhile. I mentioned that it would need weekly maintenance to keep it up, but that I thought it was going to work just great. Guess what? I was wrong. It’s not working so well anymore.

Because of the deep drawers it made it very easy for my kids just to drop things in there and by the end of the day, each drawer was just a mess. It got to where they couldn’t find any pencils when it was time to do their homework. Why? Because they were all at the bottom of the cube tote. Why? Because my kids frequently decided it was easier to just drop the pencil in the tote, rather than put it back in the pencil box.

One thing I have realized over the years, is that organizing your home and getting it to work for you requires experimenting. One thing that makes my home work for me, is that I am not afraid to experiment with new ideas and techniques. If the system I have set-up starts to become a hassle, is hard to use or just flat isn’t working, then that means it is time to re-evaluate. That’s exactly what I did this weekend.

I happen to be blessed with a kitchen that has a lot of cabinets and drawers. It was the one thing that sold me on our house. I love my kitchen.

Well, the other night I was laying in bed and this idea of how to organize the kids’ crafts came to me. Yes, I often think about and dream about organizing while in bed. I know, I’m weird. The whole cube organizer just wasn’t working anymore and I also knew that it could be put to better use in my daughter’s room. (I’ll show you what my daughter did with it in her room another day.)

In my kitchen I have these four drawers near the kitchen table that were not being put to good use. I knew it was time to clean them out and that those drawers would be the perfect spot for my kids’ crafts. It only took me a few minutes to clean out the drawers and I lucked out that the containers which hold their markers, crayons, etc, fit perfectly in the top drawer. I love it when that happens! LOL.

So, I put the markers, colored pencils, pens/pencils, glue and scissors in the top drawer. They are all in containers. Here’s a picture for you:

In the second drawer I put coloring books and paper:

And in the third drawer I put stickers, glue gun and some other miscellaneous supplies:

I did all of this yesterday, so it hasn’t been put to the test yet. I’ll let you know how it’s working at the end of the week. What I like about this system is that the items are not in deep drawers or containers like they previously were. It’ll be much easier for my kids to put the craft items back where they belong and it’s also much easier for them to see what’s there. I think it’s going to work out great, but I’ve been wrong before that’s for sure!

Remember: if a system isn’t working for you, try to think about how you can change it or improve on it. If you have an organizing system that is complicated or just isn’t working, then it’ll just end up frustrating you and always staying in a state of chaos and that is no fun!

Post from: Blisstree

Rethinking the Craft Area

Snap ‘n Stack by Snapware

Pros
•Takes up less space than several containers would.
•Easier to tote supplies from one room to another.
•Easy enough for kids to use.
•Keeps all supplies together in one place.
•Helps your craft space look more organized.

Cons
•If you do not attach lid and sections properly and securely, it falls apart and items fall out.

One of the biggest complaints I have heard when it comes to organization, is how to organize craft supplies. Whether you are a big time crafter with a whole room dedicated to your hobbies, or a weekend crafter with a designated drawer in your kitchen, the Snap ‘n Stack by Snapware would be a great item to reign in your craft clutter.

I first discovered these containers in 2005. I worked for an organization that required quite a few craft supplies on hand for about 150 kids. Keeping them organized had always been an issue. My co-worker and I purchased several of these and to this day, they have been one of the best purchases we have ever made.

Later, I then realized how perfect these would be in my own home for sewing supplies, kids crafts such as crayons, glue and scissors and scrapbooking/rubber stamping items.

They not only help craft areas look very well organized, but they are easy for children to use as well.

If your crafts are out of control and you would like to get them organized, start with one of these containers. Choose one group of items to organize and see how easy Snapware is to use. I’m fairly certain that you will be just as pleased with the item as I am.

Post from: Blisstree

Snapware Snap N Stack Craft Container Review

Here are some “Think Vertical” storage ideas for you today grouped by room.

The Kitchen and Pantry

1. White elfa® Door & Wall Rack Solution

2. Steel Grid System

3. InterMetro® Kitchen Shelf Unit

4. Extendible Pantry Shelf

Garage and Mudroom

5. Platinum elfa® Easy Hang Utility Storage

6. White elfa® Mudroom

7. Platinum elfa® Garage

8. Storage 2 Systems Wall Storage System Tool Center Kit #S2-6001

Home Office and Craft Room

9. Platinum & Walnut elfa® Office Shelving & Desk

10. Platinum & Driftwood elfa® Study Zone

11. Cube Storage System - Natural

12. White elfa® Mesh Craft Room

13. 12 Drawer File Storage & Literature Organizer Cart

Tomorrow: Bed and Bath, Laundry and Playroom

Post from: Blisstree

Need More Storage – Think Vertical