Bathroom Storage

Who doesn't need more bathroom storage? N was living in a house with only one full bathroom and it only had about half a linen closet. And if that wasn't bad enough, it was the main bathroom in the house - so every guest who stopped by that might have to tinkle got to see a lot of clutter on a small counter simply because there was no other place for it!

Finally, when DH had some spare time and scrap wood, he made these clutter catchers for her. The 1x3 he used offered the perfect amount of depth and the cute trim on the front helped to insure nothing really got lost. N used mason jars to wrangle make-up brushes and hair brushes.

These little wonders took more time to paint that fabricate, and worked wonderfully. N is a much happier camper now that her stuff can stay organized and out of the way. The fact that she moved to a new house with two full bathrooms helped too!

Ribbon, Ribbon, Everywhere!

One of my other loves is ribbon! I love having ribbons around for ribbon flowers and hair bows. I had tried to keep it organized in totes, but it always turned in to such a mess. So, once I got my thread rack done, I put my hubby to work once again. This time I requested a supersized thread rack with slats on the front of each shelf to hold my ribbons in place.

Granted, a lot of the ribbon still trails toward the floor, but at least it is fairly organized, and as soon as I remember to get more pins all those trails will be neatly tucked away.

This was another one of those super simple projects that only took a couple of hours to complete, but really has made a difference in my organization. Having built to fit my space really helped me a lot.

My hubby may think he is not all that crafty, but man oh man! I put in an order and he is happy. Mostly because he gets to play with his power tools! And I'm happy because each of projects gives us a chance to work together on something and ultimately makes my life so much easier!

Thread Rack - why did I wait so long...

I love to sew and there are so many pretty colors of thread out there. I could never keep them organized so I have resisted buying them and therefore cut my sewing down quite a bit. Until I was surfing through Pinterest one day and saw an amazing thread rack idea. 

Once again, I showed my hubby the picture and told him how big and he got to work. The only difference between mine and the Pinterest inspiration is mine does not have the small finishing nails for bobbins in front of each spool of thread. 

I love mine! I think my hubby did an amazing job and I can now see exactly see what I have when I need it. Plus, the very top makes a handy little shelf for some oversized adhesive bottles that I couldn't find room for anywhere else. It's not huge, but it fits my space perfectly and lets me know just how much space I have to had spools of colorful threads!

It's getting cold, time to cuddle up...

Over this past summer, I had my husband build me a few new items to help me get a more organized. This is one of those projects. Our house was built in the late 70's and the only update to the heating system since then has been the wood burning stove we put in two years ago. The stove is great, it heats the whole upper level of the house which is wonderful! Until that was put in, we had to rely on the old baseboard heaters that came with the house. As you can imagine, a split level, four bedroom home will suck up the power using baseboard heaters.

We always have a collection of throw blankets around the living and family rooms to help keep the chills away. All we lacked was a way of keeping them organized without packing them away in a closet. So I put in an order with my hubby for a quilt ladder. 

The first step was to show him a picture so he would know what I was talking about. Once he had the idea, we bought three 8' 2"x2" boards and cut two of them down to 6'6" to be the uprights. He used the pieces cut from the uprights as two of the rungs and cut the last full length board into 18" pieces to complete the rungs.

Normally you only have four rungs on a quilt ladder, however my hubby knows how much I love to crochet and quilt and really thought it better to give me some extra space. This is fine with me. Right now there is only three quilts on it because it has been warm. But those empty rungs give me motivation to get some quilt projects done that I've been putting off. Those will be finished as soon as I have the rest of my current projects finished!

Some of my favorite organizational ideas...

Last week, I shared some amazing ideas for beautiful crafting areas that are well organized, functional, and comfortable. Of course, not all of us can afford to go out and purchase furniture or specialty containers to create designer looks. Like so many, I live on a very tight budget and would much rather spend my small crafting allowance on supplies rather than storage. So, being creative, I look around my home and see what I can make or recycle.

One of my favorite way to store loose beads - everything from tiny seed beads to larger beads - is to recycle glass jars. As we finish off a jar of pickles, mayo, maraschino cherries, or whatever we have in jars, I start the process of making them storage containers. I rinse them immediately, run them through the dishwasher, and then soak in a sink filled with hot soapy water to remove the last adhesive residue and odor. Once they are dry, they are ready to be filled and stacked on a shelf.

Speaking of shelves, one of the centerpieces of my craft room is an antique kitchen cupboard given to me by my mother-in-law. I couldn't use the piece in my kitchen, so it makes great storage for my paper crafting supplies. Take a look around your house and find furniture you already have that can be moved to your craft area. 

If you don't have a room and do most of your crafting at the dining room table, being able to keep your supplies organized and packed away is vital. I love my clear plastic totes, particularly the ones for shoes. They stack easily, keep things organized fairly well, are inexpensive and can be gotten in multiple sizes.

Organization can be difficult to maintain, but it is so important in order to keep your crafting area functioning and you happy. That being said, it's also important to remember that organization doesn't have to expensive. Get those creative ideas flowing and get organized. Please share some of your favorite organizational ideas.

Quick and Easy Crafting Organization

Crafters are always looking for clever and innovative new ways to organize their supplies. Keeping things where you can easily access them makes any crafting project that much more enjoyable. Not mention easier to share with others.


I found this last article at BHG.com with lots of great ideas for organizing the supplies that can easily become a big mess. It's always important to keep your supplies organized so not only will you be able to get to them, but it will also save you money by keeping your supplies neat and well maintained. Click here to get some great ideas!

A Craft Room With Purpose

If you are as lucky as I am, you have an entire room dedicated to your crafting endeavors. But when you do as wide a variety of crafts as I do, it's easy for any size space to feel a bit cramped. I do lots of different types of crafts - quilting, sewing, scrapbooking, card making, needle felting, jewelry making, and painting to name a few - which means I have many different types of supplies. Being able to keep everything in it's place is some a daunting task, but so worth it when I sit down to work.


Advice on setting up and maintaining a well organized craft room is always helpful, no matter how long you have been crafting. Check out this handy little slide show with some neat hints and tricks on how to get the perfect crafting space set up. Click here to view the slide show!

Crafting Organization Ideas

Let's face it, you have lots of ideas for incredible projects, but not always enough room to sprawl out with all of your creative craft ingredients. So what do you do if you only have a single corner in which to set up your creative domain. Fear not - it can be done!


I found a great article over at BHG.com that shows you how you can transform a corner in any room into a wonderful playground for crafting fun. With careful organization and clever use of space, you really can fit a lot of crafting possibilities in a compact area. Click here to see how easy this space is to set up!

Scrap Supply Storage

When you are a scrapbooker, card maker or any other paper craft, it is easy to get overrun with supplies. It's not always easy to know how to organize all of the pretty papers, embellishments, pens, punches, pictures, and stickers. What's the use of having all those pretty things if you can't find what you want when you are looking for it?


I ran across a great slide show over on BHG.com that offers 20 Creative Scrapbooking Storage Solutions. There are some really cool ideas here to help keep things organized and easy to find. Click here to read the article.