Just Hanging Around

I mentioned before we were putting our house on the market. Well it has sold. It must have shown well, because we had an offer in less than 24 hours!

Getting the house ready to sell took about a month of finishing projects, cleaning, and de-cluttering. As you may know, one of the difficult things with getting a house show ready is making sure everything looks as clean and organised as possible while still trying to live there (i.e. you can't get rid of everything). So after we de-cluttered as much as possible I started to focus on organising.

Our house was not huge but we seemed to have enough for a family of 10 (instead of 2) so organisation has always been a goal and a focus of of some quick projects around the house, such as my pegboard broom closest and backpack storage. After a quick organising once-over through the house I decided to focus on organising the bedrooms and in particular my pile of jewelry that normally sits on top of my dresser. I had saved this pin awhile back and thought it would be a perfect solution.



Via: Tanya on Pinterest

I decided to take advantage of the unused space on the back of my closest door since when it is closed it hides everything away, but when it is open when I am getting ready it provides easy access to my accessories. I also knew people would be looking at the closest when viewing the house so I wanted something that would keep everything looking nice.

Luckily for me I had a small Grundtal bar and hooks in my basement from my last trip to IKEA (this is especially lucky since, as I mentioned before, the nearest IKEA is 3,000 km away). I had purchased it with my shelf that I used as curtain rod/plant stand with plans to attach it under my cabinet and use it to hold mugs for my coffee station similar to this - but never got around to it. If, like me, you do not have an IKEA near by the same look (probably even nicer) can be achieved will a towel bar and shower hooks.

Since this was a temporary solution (as we were planning to move) I decided to use 3-M Velcro mounting strips so I could remove everything when we left without leaving holes in the door.

Everything held up fine until I moved about two months later. I also added another jewelry holder below for some bracelets and other accessories.
Sorry for the poor picture - I only remembered to get this quick pic as I was packing the room.

Jewellery Storage

 I even decided to use it again at my new place.

 

 

This simple solution is great and gives me easy viewing and access to my necklaces and prevents them from getting tangled up or ending up a a pile on top of my dresser.

Cloudy with a chance of keys?

Source: fab.com via Tanya on Pinterest

When I saw this magentic key holder I loved it. It is such a fun and simple design. And since keys go missing in our house everyday I was thinking this was just the thing I needed.

But when I started looking for them on the Internet I was surprised to find out that they retail for $12-24!

So maybe I didn't love it that much. It is cute but really, $24 for a plastic cloud with a magnet?



Not to be dismayed I was determined to keep looking, so I was thrilled to find them on focalprice.com* for around $6 including shipping.

Once they arrived I loved them.


Stealing an idea from one of the customer photos from the Focal Price site I decided to frame them and create a little key centre in our entryway.

Conclusion: I love them. They hold the keys really well (even my heavier set as you see in the picture) and it's just as easy to attach them to the cloud as it is to throw them on a table - and this way they don't get lost under a pile of stuff.

These magnetic cloud key holders make keys easy to find and grab them on the way out of the house.

* Focal Price is one of those wholesale/retail direct from China sites. Looking a reviews I was a little hesitant as some reviews are great but others were really bad. However, since they were so inexpensive I decided to buy 4 (one was for a birthday present) and if something went wrong I would be only be out $25, which is an amount I can blow on coffee and treats for a week. So long story short I receive my clouds 3 weeks after I placed the order, though I did have to contact them a few times to ask for my confirmation/tracking number which they forgot to send. Oddly enough the shipping date was the same date I contacted them - so if you plan to order from them I would recommend following-up with them right away if something is off.

Pegboard Broom Closet

I love pegboard. I love how it can easily be adapted to fit your current needs. I love that you can change the configuration of hooks, shelves and holders on a whim and do not have to worry about filling holes and creating new ones.I even love the style of it, with the little peg holes in perfect rows.

I have been waiting to use pegboard in the house for some time now. I had started to collect pins to get ideas of where it could go and how I could use it.




Source: apartmenttherapy.com via Tanya on Pinterest

Source: apartmenttherapy.com via Tanya on Pinterest

The opportunity finally arrived after an impromptu renovation of the basement stairwell (started with replacing the side-entrance tiles and ended up with patched and painted walls, and a new wall cap, and new handrail). So after removing the old and ugly hooks that were used to gather random items that found their way in the side door, we were left with a blank wall that needed something a little special. At the same time we need a broom closet. The kitchen didn't have a space for brooms and other items, and they often got lost in the basement among everything else that gets thrown there.

This was a perfect spot for pegboard. This often wasted space can be difficult to make functional with the sloped ceiling and narrow depth. But with pegboard each item can be arranged to fit the space.

For this project we required 2 sheets of mdf pegboard, trim (important for uneven walls), paint (I used what I had leftover from the living room) and a pegboard accessory kit. Luckily the kit came with spacers to help hang the pegboard and allow for space to insert the hooks. We also found similar small plastic spacers with other hardware.

Pegboard Broom Closest

Baskets to hold smaller items

Conclusion:

I love it. It was easy to install (though a little tricky to cut with the ceiling) and holds everything perfectly. We even have some extra space that I am thinking of adding the pegboard shelf. Everything is also easily accessible and easy to find.

Since we had extra leftover we even used it in other parts of the house.

Pegboard in Storage Closet

Pegboard Tools

This is also a cheap solution. Though I did not remember to keep my receipt, I think the whole project was around $40 (using leftover paint we had).

Backpack Storage

Our house has very little storage, and a lot of our DIY projects and renovations around the house are based on creating more and better storage solutions. I saw this pin a week or so ago and loved it. It provides multi-use storage and does not take up much room. But I really didn't have a place for it.

Source: apartmenttherapy.com via Tanya on Pinterest

The front hall closest is one area that causes problems. We always seem to have more than we can fit in. Our recent problem is all of our bags for the gym and work. They pile up and often end up spilling out on to the floor.

Looking for a solution I remember this pin that offered a solution for keeping bags off the floor. Even more perfect I happened to already have the IKEA grundtal bar and hooks that were not being used.

So after gathering everything I needed I set to work, and 10 minutes later I had it installed and the bags off the floor.

Before

After

It may not be the final solution for our lack of front hall storage but it will hopefully keep our bags in order.