Getting Organized - Plastic Bags

I am going through something right now; not anything bad, I am just tired of looking at stuff.  It is like I want to spring clean but multiply that by 100. Have you ever had that? I literally spent 6 hours in my children's rooms just tearing everything out and only putting back what we absolutely love. I have cleaned, purged and organized under every sink in the house. Closets are on my next to do list...I can't wait. I am not sure what it is about but it is making me happier and I feel lighter.

So, this is not going to be an earth shattering post, but it will be helpful for those of you, who like me, seem to amass piles of plastic grocery bags. I honestly use reusable bags as often as possible, but it seems that they end up neatly piled in our mudroom after I put my groceries away but they don't make it to the car by the time I need them. So over months I am left with a kitchen drawer full of plastic bags.

What do you do to keep them neat and tidy and convenient enough to use them again? Well, I tested out the three technique that I thought were the best options I could find:

1. Cleaning wipes container
2. Kleenex container
3. Folding into triangles

The first two I found as solutions on the internet and the third was taught to me by my mother-in-law.

In all three options I used 6 plastic bags just so I could easily compare how well they hold the same amount.

Cleaning Wipes Container
The first method I tried was to put plastic bags in the disposable cleaning cloths container. Someone on a blog did this and covered the outside of the bottle with pretty scrapbook paper. It really did look nice and I would have done this if I felt this was a viable option, but I really didn't. I have a hard enough time getting those cleaning cloths out without pinching a finger or scratching the back of my hand.

I literally stuffed 5 bags into the container and was quite surprised that it would only hold that many. I might have been able to cram another one in but it was tight.

There were two flaws with this technique. Firstly, I should have cut out the prongs that keep the wipes from coming out in clumps because it ripped the bags as they were pulled out. Secondly, the bags are next to impossible to get out from the bottom. The first 2 came out because I could easily reach them, the last few I have to get a chopstick out to bring them to the top.

 

I guess if you were really ambitious, you could lay the bags flat and then roll them up so they are similar to a roll of paper towels before putting them in. Honestly, this did not work for me. I have the scratches on the back of my hand to prove it too :)

Kleenex Box
The second method I tested was using a Kleenex box to house the bags.I didn't have any empty tissue boxes on hand, but I had purchased a Kleenex box cover for a future craft so I tried that.

I took my 6 bags and stuffed them into the opening. The container held them nicely and could have probably housed a few more. This isn't a bad option, but I don't think it saves that much space.

Triangle Folding Plastic Bags
My mother-in-law has always folded her plastic bags and I never realized how easy and space saving it was. You might think it is not worth the time (30 seconds per bag) to fold the bags but this is by far my favorite method to store/organize plastic bags.

You start by flattening the bag, tucking in the side folds.

 

 Fold the bag in half length wise so the handles line up. Some bags will have the handle in the middle, so you don't have to worry about lining them up.

 Fold it in half again.

 Make a triangle on the bottom by folding the one corner up.

 Flip the triangle up so the sides line up.

 Just keep folding and flipping that triangle....

 until you reach the top.

 Fold the handles over and tuck them into the opposite side.

 Easy Peasy..you are done. You now have a neat little triangle plastic bag.

 It is amazing size difference.

 Here are the 6 folder bags.

This is  my favorite solution! It only takes a few seconds to do each and it really does save a lot of space.

If I had to rank the methods, they would be in the following order:

1. Triangle Folding
2. Kleenex Box
3. Cleaning Wipe container

Look at the size difference between the three methods. All hold 6 but look how small the 6 folded bags are.

I have used a long tube of fabric with elastic on both ends before to hold the bags, but it also really doesn't save much space. 

What do you do with your plastic bags? Give it a try to fold them and let me know what you think!

I will be back on Christmas stuff very soon! I did a great ornament with the kids yesterday that I can't wait to share.

Have a great day,

Stephanie

Transforming Wasted Space in Walk in Closet

For three years we have struggled with our master bedroom walk in closet. I knew there were things I could fix, like how we used the space but there were bigger things I could not change, like the fact it is small. It amazes me that a builder would make our bedroom the ridiculous size it is, but put a small walk in closet. Wouldn't the average person prefer to have 2 or 3 less feet in an enormous bedroom and have a larger closet? Maybe it is just me.

 I did not have the budget to rip all the builder grade shelves out and start from scratch, so I had to figure out solutions to the things I hated without spending much money. I had tried patch fixes to deal with the builder grade closet, like adding hooks on the back of the door and putting those horrible 'hanging organizers' from Ikea to arrange our sweaters and t-shirts. You know the ones. They hang from the rod with no support on the bottom of each row, so nothing says nicely folded and if you put too much in them or bump it the wrong way everything falls out of the back.

Source Ikea

So I felt like I was back to square one. Here is my list of problems I felt I needed to tackle to make this a workable space:

• we stacked our sweaters and pants on the top shelf  all the way up to the ceiling, making the piles over three feet high
• we had our t-shirts housed within hanging closet organizers
• my purses were in a big pile on the floor
• we had no room for a laundry basket
• there was always so much stuff hanging on the back of the door that we could barely open it.

So with a small budget and but big dreams, I dragged my husband and two kids from hardware store to hardware store in search of a miracle solution.  Obviously, there was not one. So here is what I did.

The first thing we did was get rid of all of those hanging closet organizers and replaced them with the Expedit shelf. I love these shelves because they are deep, not too wide and sturdy.

Source Ikea

It is pricier at $80 but it works so much nicer and it fit perfectly into the space. I was able to fold all our t-shirts, fitness clothes and still have two spots for purses at the bottom.

We then thought we would tackle was the wasted space above the top shelf.  I thought if we could move our off season clothes us higher without having the 3 foot high stacks, then we would have more usable space. So that is what we did.

We went to Lowes and found decorative black brackets for $10 for a package of 2 (we needed 3 packages in total) and we bought the cheapest white shelves we could find. We could have used the really cheap industrial brackets at under $1 each but we thought we would splurge a bit :)

See how lazy I am...I didn't even take down all the clothes when he was putting up the shelves. I moved them from side to side so they wouldn't get dust on them. Shhhh my little secret.

My husband cut the shelves to the correct length and he installed the new shelf half way between the ceiling and the previous top shelf.

I would like to say we had the forethought to line this new shelf up with my husband's dress shirt shelf but we didn't and got really lucky that it all lined up. That would have been an oops on my part because it would have annoyed me horribly if they didn't line up. Now it looks like the new shelf was suppose to be there.

I really should have done the fancy folding and color coordinating but as you already know I do not stage photos. Organizing all our clothes and refolding them would take way too long and I believe there are better things to do then convince you all that I can keep my closet color coordinated. I am a mom to two busy kids, I can't even get my laundry put away.

So here are my official after photos:

No more 3 foot high piles. Don't you love my new light? See the previous post for how I made it.

We use the ultra slim hangers from Costco and LOVE them.

I can now fit a laundry basket under my hanging shirts.

 So how did I do with my list?

• we stacked our sweaters and pants on the top shelf  all the way up to the ceiling, making the piles over three feet high - FIXED
• we had our t-shirts housed within hanging closet organizers -FIXED
• my purses were in a big pile on the floor - FIXED
• we had no room for a laundry basket- FIXED
• there was always so much stuff hanging on the back of the door that we could barely open it - Sort of fixed. We still have the hooks but they aren't overflowing anymore!

I am very happy with how it turned out. I can't say it is my dream walk-in closet but reality is, it is a space that holds our clothes and does it really need to serve any other purpose than being practical? I don't think so.

If you missed my first two posts I did for my walk in closet, the budget closet light transformation and hanging my sleeveless/short sleeve dress shirts on pant hangers, be sure to check them out. I love both of them too.

So have any of you tried to deal with a builder closet and succeeded? Or have you failed a few times like me before you found a solution that works well?

We will be adding the top shelf to our other three bedroom closets to store off season clothes too. It really is a cheap solution with a big impact on space.

Have a great day,
Stephanie

Multiple Pant Hangers - Save space by hanging sleeveless shirts and t-shirts on them!

Have you ever bought something just because it was on sale? How about buying a tool to try to get your closet organized but knew deep down that you probably wouldn't use it? Well I did just that.

I was at my local Home Sense (much like the US equivalent Marshall's) and they had padded pant hangers on clearance for $2! Granted they only had bright pink and purple but I thought for $2, how could I beat that! So I snatched up 4. To be honest with you I had 8 in the cart but thought there would be no way I would use them in my son's or husband closets, so I put half back.

Once I got home, I had buyers remorse. You know the feeling! Yes, I only spent $10 but I really had no need for them. Especially since, we have a basic closet organizer in our walk in closet, so our pants are already housed on a long, low hanging rack. I really had no need to conserve pant space (another reason why I really should not have bought them).

After walking around the house with these hangers, I ended up finding an amazing way to use all four of my clearance pant hangers! They are saving me loads of space and I now wish I had purchased all 8!

Here is what I have used them for..are you ready for this? It is one of those, why didn't I think of this sooner ideas. Hang your sleeveless shirts and short sleeve shirts on them!!!!

I tend to wear a lot of sleeveless shirts under my dressy work outfits. I hate that each shirt takes a hanger but I don't want to fold them because I hate ironing more than I hate laundry :). The same goes for short sleeve shirts.

Seriously, this works amazingly well!

I simply turned the hanger sideways, so it was parallel to the ground, and slipped one sleeveless shirt on each row.

For the t-shirts, I slide the padded pant holder through the cap sleeves.

Now that they are hung like this, they take almost no space at all.

See them tucked in the corner? I already have the ultra thin hangers in all my closets and to think there are 10 tops hung in that small amount of space makes me smile.

I need a few more now to organize my daughter's closet, especially to hang all her dance tanks, sleeveless dresses, sundresses, etc.

I am now going to have to keep my eyes open to see if I can find any more on clearance. In fact, I love this so much, I might buy some at full price! If you know me, you know how much I must love this, because I buy almost nothing at full price.

 Don't you just love it! It really is funny how such a small thing can make me so excited :)

Have a great night and happy organizing.
Stephanie
Linking to some great parties including: Story of A2Z, Thrifty Home

OMG!! Flip flop, sandle and ballet flat hangers on my $0 budget

 

With two shoe loving girls in this house, we have our fair share of summer shoes (especially my daughter who loves shoes more than I do). In the winter, I hate having a pile of flip flops kicking around the bottom of the closet getting in the way and in the summer I struggle to find two matching shoes in when I am always in a hurry to run out the door.

Funny story..A couple of months ago I ran out of the house to catch my train. It was very dark outside and I didn't want to turn on too many lights, so I grabbed my knee high boots and ran out the door. I drove across town, parked and ran to the station, I was running up the stairs with the train pulling in and I realized my heels were making different sounds when I walked. It was an odd thing but didn't think too much about it, until I looked down to avoid a pile of snow and saw I was wearing one knee high black and the other was brown! To make it even worse, they were different height heels! I still to this day don't know how I managed it but at least I caught it before getting on the train and was able to go back home to change :)

Back to the flip flop hanger. I was surfing through Pinterest and saw a picture of this amazing idea. I thought it was absolutely adorable and I knew it would solve my shoe problems :).  EPBOT took a cheap wire hanger and converted it into a flip flop hanger!!! She is a genius...who would have ever thought to do this!

Materials
Wire hanger
Wire snips
Pliers
Scrapbook paper 1.5 x 12 inch (optional)
Spray paint (optional)

Method
Here is how it is done. Take a cheap, thin, flimsy wire hanger and cut off the bottom.
My girlfriend is a police officer, so she gives me her wire hanger from when she dry cleans her uniforms. I started to amass a large stash and was thinking I wouldn't find anything else to do with them.  Reinforces my craft supply hording :) 

Using pliers, I straightened out the small bend at the neck and created two new bends about 3 inches from the middle. I then created a loop at the bottom and continued to roll it up for where the flip flop will hang. For ballet flats, I made a wider circle so the toe of the flat rested on the wire. There is no right or wrong here.

I debated spray painting these a bright color, like hot pink or lime green but I liked the white. Perhaps I will make a set for my daughter's closet with bright green. We will see. But if you want to spray paint them, this would be the time.

Cut a strip of scrapbook paper to be 1.5 inches wide and 12 inches long and made a little jacket for the hanger.

Glued on a spare button or a rhinestone to finish it off.  Isn't it adorable!

 I have only done two but I knew I had to share it ASAP. I just love this. Thanks EPBOT!!!

I have an old shower rod (you know the tension mount ones) that I am going to put in the closet to hang all of the shoes. When I am done, I will post more photos.

Are you as excited about this as I am?!?!

Enjoy!
Stephanie