I hesitate to call this an actual tutorial since it's basically hot glue and office supplies, but then, sometimes it's the simple things that we need suggestions on. I know it took me way longer than it should to come to this particular solution.
I've already come to the conclusion that the secret to living in a very small space with four people and two pets is the constant rethinking of storage. I've already reorganized several spaces in our apartment to be more efficient or user friendly because they just weren't working. Yesterday I tackled the office closet. We have three closets in our apartment, one for us, one for the kids (currently "the playroom") and one for everything else that needs to be stored. It was starting to look a little Hoarders with stuff piled in there, wedged in here and a big huge computer box from Will's desktop taking up way more space than we could afford. Now all the long term stuff (Christmas ornaments, booster seat, box of miscellaneous paperwork that needs to be kept) is stacked up on the shelf and below there is room for the vacuum, stroller and a few other more readily used items. And while it's nice to have it working better, I can't help but think that in a few months I'll be rearranging it again for some other purpose. I think that's just the way it goes.
The other project I tackled yesterday was Briton's Lego books. He loves to keep the booklets that come with every kit and he does actually rebuild things, so it's nice to have them around. But ugh, they fall apart and slip around and are all over the place. They don't fit well into a bookshelf (and bookshelf space is limited, anyway) and in his Lego bin they always seem to be in the way, which means that every time he plays, they end up all over the floor so he can search for that particular brick that he's looking for.
I was starting to think about tossing them when he wasn't looking when I spotted these cool see through pocket dividers at the art supply store.
A binder, some flat Legos and a little hot glue later and voila, Lego Book Storage. Each divider is a different theme - cars, planes, dragons etc, making it easy to find a particular book. When I handed it off to Briton he declared it "cool!" and then set about building up the bricks to make it more interesting. And it is helping because he's already "discovered" some booklets that he'd forgotten he had. Problem solved. For now at least.
Now I'm on the warpath with our refrigerator. You would think that having one larger fridge would be easier to organize than two undercounter ones but you would be so wrong. Not enough shelves, too easy to loose things in the back. I miss my little refrigerators. Any suggestions for in refrigerator storage?
I've already come to the conclusion that the secret to living in a very small space with four people and two pets is the constant rethinking of storage. I've already reorganized several spaces in our apartment to be more efficient or user friendly because they just weren't working. Yesterday I tackled the office closet. We have three closets in our apartment, one for us, one for the kids (currently "the playroom") and one for everything else that needs to be stored. It was starting to look a little Hoarders with stuff piled in there, wedged in here and a big huge computer box from Will's desktop taking up way more space than we could afford. Now all the long term stuff (Christmas ornaments, booster seat, box of miscellaneous paperwork that needs to be kept) is stacked up on the shelf and below there is room for the vacuum, stroller and a few other more readily used items. And while it's nice to have it working better, I can't help but think that in a few months I'll be rearranging it again for some other purpose. I think that's just the way it goes.
The other project I tackled yesterday was Briton's Lego books. He loves to keep the booklets that come with every kit and he does actually rebuild things, so it's nice to have them around. But ugh, they fall apart and slip around and are all over the place. They don't fit well into a bookshelf (and bookshelf space is limited, anyway) and in his Lego bin they always seem to be in the way, which means that every time he plays, they end up all over the floor so he can search for that particular brick that he's looking for.
I was starting to think about tossing them when he wasn't looking when I spotted these cool see through pocket dividers at the art supply store.
A binder, some flat Legos and a little hot glue later and voila, Lego Book Storage. Each divider is a different theme - cars, planes, dragons etc, making it easy to find a particular book. When I handed it off to Briton he declared it "cool!" and then set about building up the bricks to make it more interesting. And it is helping because he's already "discovered" some booklets that he'd forgotten he had. Problem solved. For now at least.
Now I'm on the warpath with our refrigerator. You would think that having one larger fridge would be easier to organize than two undercounter ones but you would be so wrong. Not enough shelves, too easy to loose things in the back. I miss my little refrigerators. Any suggestions for in refrigerator storage?