Merry Christmas & some 'new' storage!

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend! We definitely did. It was busy all day with Christmas Eve and our family . . and then we spent Christmas Day unwrapping and playing with presents the entire day. I loved every minute of it, but I am very excited to be nearing the New Year!

So . . to get back in the swing of things today, I found something to reorganize. My nail polish! It's been all crammed in this 6 year old zipper tote for a very long time. I am over it. I could never find any great inspiration on how to reorganize it though, but I am happy with what I did today! (For now at least.)


I just started with another 96 cent shoe box bin from Wally World. From there, I cut a piece of scrap cardboard to fit the bottom of the box and then covered it with a pretty scrap paper. This gave the bottom a nice flat surface, so all of my polishes can stand up right and pretty.


Next, I cut some scrap paper to make dividers to go inside of the pin. I used my new corner rounder too! ;) Paper is just cuter with round corners. I tossed those into the laminator to make them nice & durable.



Now it just so happens that my polish collection fits perfectly into this one bin at the moment. However, that will very soon change. Good thing about this idea is that these bins are small enough to store under my sink in my master bath. Plus, the dividers can just pop in and out so it's no biggie to repeat with another bin. Once I had cut out my dividers, I created some sticky labels with color groups and got to sorting!





& simple as that. Now all of my polishes stand upright. No more digging through a deep tote. Best of all . . it cost me $1 out of pocket.



Tomorrow, I will be back to post about my beloved Christmas present from Joshua. So so excited! <3

DIY Magazine File .. success.

Another Pinterest win. Ah, where have you been all of my life! So, thanks to online freebies & deals . . I have magazines rolling in like crazy. I needed storage! I browsed around a bit in stores, with no luck in really finding anything I like. I didn't want to end up with a $10 magazine file that I didn't even care for. I saw from other blogs that Ikea carries a pack of 5 cardboard magazine files for $1.99. Which just made me sad . . because good ole Louisiana does not have an Ikea. I think driving to Texas for them would maybe defeat the purpose a bit, yeah? So it was on to Pinterest where I found a DIY inspiration! Using recycled boxes to cut and make your own. Sounded easy enough.

I started with picking some scrap papers for the front of my file boxes. These are for my living room shelves. I mostly have greens & yellows in there at the moment, but I decided to go ahead and add a couple other muted colors.


Fortunately (& unfortunately for my wallet), I do a lot of online shopping so boxes were easy to find. First thing I did was tape my box up nice & secure. Then I decided on my shape and got to cutting. I actually did my cutting with a steak knife (lol, I know!) and then I just neatened up my edges with a box cutter.


Then I thought for a bit whether or not to paint my boxes white, but I decided that the rough edges of cardboard would still be there and I knew it would irk me. So I pulled out some big sheets of art paper that I have leftover from college. It's really sturdy so I knew it would help the structure of the file and give me smooth edges. I would recommend poster board or something of that nature! (Or you can paint them if you'd like or cover with fabric!) So I traced around my sides, leaving some room to fold under and glue.



& tada! Smooth edges. Yes, by this time .. I was making a big mess of my carpet and smacking myself for not doing this at the table.



Just as I am getting to the part where I need to make a front to my file, UPS knocks on the door and brings me just what I was needing. :)



Now you could just as easily modge podge your paper to the front of the file. I decided that I was giddy to use my laminator, and it would make cleaning my magazine files a breeze. So that is just what I did.



Then . . after I glued my front down in place, I added a little grosgrain ribbon to the top & a laminated label. Presto! One magazine file down.


Once I have my kiddos to sleep, I will be working on my others. I plan to mix match the colors between the front paper, labels, and ribbons. I'll update again when I have them all neatly on my shelves!

<3