A Little Slice of my Thrifting Life

I hope you are reading my blog not only because you either a) love me (thanks family and friends) b) love design and décor project but also perhaps because you like the snarky, pun-loving, ridiculous person that I am. I hope that jumps off the page at you and grabs a hold of you a little. I like the idea that we have this internet bond (wait, does that sound wrong?), even just a little one. In my mind, we are friends. And I like that.

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I say all this because this post wasn’t meant to be written. Why? Because of life people. That’s been my excuse a lot these last few weeks, and I will take it! There has been vacations, spontaneous weekend trips, busy family time, and work…lot’s of work (like my real job people!). So after a crazy busy weekend full of big dreams but no realities in the form of projects and then a Monday with a whole slew of random activities thrown at me all of a sudden, and then working late tonight, I was going to just throw my hands up and not do a post.

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Then something awesome happened. Our board meeting let out before 8pm (I’m usually outta there at 10pm). Which meant I had this whole new free evening! Shops were open! I wasn’t tired. So what did I do? I buzzed around Goodwill for until they closed.

What happened there? I got hit on. By an old man. Now, this may not be big news to anyone; girls get hit on every day right? Well, not me. I think I can count on one hand how many times it has happened (including both old and young men). For real – but it’s cool; I think it’s kind of awkward. I blame it on my independent vibe (well I did before I married the love of my life and now I blame it on my I’m blissfully happy and in love with my man vibe). Since we are friends I thought I would share this story that I just thought was too funny and inspired me to actually put fingers to keys and make a blog post happen today. Let’s get into the details, shall we? Cause this is sooo important (did you catch that sarcasm)?

I walk into Goodwill, beginning my browsing through the glasswares section. Suddenly, the big swinging doors open up from the back and this jolly man steps out whistling a tune and immediately says, “Hi darling. How are you?” That kind of talk is normal in the South. Lots of honey childs and sweeties from strangers. You get used to it. I continue my browsing until all of a sudden Mr. Jolly just kind of walks up to me.

“Hi there darling. I hope you don’t find this offensive. It’s not what I mean. Actually, I really hope you don’t get me fired. I don’t do this much but I just had to tell you that you are one beautiful woman. You got that shade of red hair. I just had to tell you. But don’t get me wrong and please don’t get me fired.”

Me: Laughs. “Oh. Thank you. No worries, I won’t get you fired. Thanks.” Laughs awkwardly.

We move on but he’s still around the store. He tells me as I check out, “I’ll give you my discount. Oh wait, we don’t get one.”

Bummer, that had actually gotten my heart rate up! I thought I was going to score a discount.

But silly little me, I thought this story is hilarious. I wish I had gotten all creepy on him and taken a picture on the sly. It would have made this story better. Oh well, I hope you enjoyed it and got a little chuckle out of it. Cause I not only want to welcome you into our home and show you around, but I want to welcome you into my life. Show you around my head a little bit. This is a prime example: it’s a little awkward but usually funny.

Back to Goodwill though, eh? Since I wanted to share this story, I thought I could throw in a little décor since I picked up a few things. Perhaps a few future thrift find makeovers in the future.

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I picked up this little lap desk because geez I’m on this laptop so much and it’s always over heating since it usually sits on blankets, pillows, and beds. Might as well treat it right. I’m definitely thinking about giving this a facelift…maybe even breaking out the decoupage. Yikes!

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Then there is this lamp shade I bought for the guest room. I thought it could go on my crystal lamp. But it doesn’t fit. Sad story. So maybe another place?

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I swear I have been wanting to make a gallery wall in our hallway for three years (oh wait, I’ve lived here three years!). Every once in a while I randomly buy some possible gallery wall pieces. Like this one. Gosh, I hope I actually do it one day. Although I’m definitely going to be painting that frame.

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That’s the only picture I took at Goodwill. It didn’t come home with me. But I was contemplating it. I thought it could have been cool. Now that I look at it, I’m pretty sure it’s just weird. Thoughts?

Last but not least, as I type away here in bed (cause gosh darn I still did get home a little late and I had to type this spontaneous late night post in a comfy spot) I bought a DVD to play as I type this post. Who doesn’t love a ditzy blonde going to Harvard? I sure do!

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So thanks for sticking with me on this post that is 100% random which means it is 100% Megan. I appreciate you hanging with me and liking my whole take on the world. I like yours too, friend.

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Spontaneous Bathroom Makeover

Ikea did it again (and again and again). This weekend Eric and I decided to take the three hour trip to Ikea in Charlotte. We actually like the road trip. It’s a long day but fun. It is good quality time in the car together, then a delicious meal in the Ikea cafeteria, and then a few hours of deliriously delightful browsing through the maze that is Ikea.

The purpose of the trip was to do some loveseat scouting. I’m in the market for a new loveseat for the Mego Cave, and I wanted to get my eyes and bum on a few at Ikea. I’m still unsold on the loveseats but something that we weren’t unsold on were the bathroom accessories.

Our current master bathroom was looking all monkey crazy.

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This was Eric’s request when we were shopping for our wedding registry. It’s been fun but it had been three years. The shower curtain was a little speckled from cleaning agents (bleach, you’re so good yet so bad) and it was time for a change. We didn’t decide it was time for a change until we hit upon the bathroom section of Ikea. Then it was one thing after another and we came home with this.

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Fun, bright, and not girly (huzzah! Eric approved!). So in went the new shower curtain, bath mats, and new towels. Shabam.

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www.rappsodyinrooms.com

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www.rappsodyinrooms.com

We decided to go with a bathmat in front of the sink for warm, snuggly toes and then another one that can go in front of the shower when we need it and then keep it draped over the tub when we don’t. That way it’s not constantly in front of the toilet. Ew. This is what it looks like in with the other bathmat up.

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www.rappsdoyinrooms.com

So this spontaneous bathroom change-a-roo now added a few house projects to the list (yes!!). This is what else we might change-up:

  • Get new bathroom sink accessories (toothbrush holder, soap dispenser, etc.)
  • Possibly get new curtain. We are on the fence about this one? What do you think?
  • Maybe a new wall color? Not sure on this one either. Color suggestions?
  • Make new wall art for that now blank wall.

Let’s do a before and after baby! It went from this…

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To this!

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Garden and Discount Plant Update

With the green grass growing all around, all around, and with summer blooming in full strength, I thought I would follow through with my promise of actually doing garden updates this year. It all began when I first planted the garden and explained my method. Here is what it was looking like just planted.

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Week one was pretty exciting because I wasn’t expecting anything to grow, but with watering it every other day and some fertilizer, growth was popping through! Those beans were definitely the front-runners.

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www.rappsodyinrooms.com

Week two was garden heaven. It pretty much rained all week long so I could be a lazy gardener with no remorse. I did notice some bug activity on the plants (meaning they were eating my bean plants) that I used some Seven Dust (spray works too) to help ward them off.

www.rappsodyinrooms.com

www.rappsodyinrooms.com

Week three things were really getting started! After a full week of rain these little babies were just ready to breathe some good ole Virginia air! I had to water every other day, put down more bug dust, and hoe some weeds.

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www.rappsodyinrooms.com

Week four was just busting green. It is so exciting to see so much growth in the garden. The plants in the mounds (mainly melons and squash) are definitely slower growers compared to the beans, but those are usually a harvest that I get later in the summer while the beans are the first of the summer. It was pretty rainy this week too, so I was lucky I only needed to water once. With it being such a rainy season so far I can really see how much the plants love it (duh) so it is motivating me to be a diligent water-er when it’s not so rainy.

www.rappsodyinrooms.com

www.rappsodyinrooms.com

That’s where we are at with the garden. I definitely think that I will be able to share some actual veggies with you on my next update (and hey – if you’re a local maybe I can actually share some veggies with you!).

I thought I would also share an update on my discount plants were flourishing. You may remember my plant score from the section in the back (aka the clearance plants). I told you that they would look awesome once they had time to fill in. Thankfully, I was right…except for a few that died off, although it wasn’t that many. My goal this week is to get a few more plants to fill in dead spots. Let’s check on the progress.

Before

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After

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After

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After

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Phew! That’s a lot of before and after pictures and that’s a lot of growth. Do you have a little more faith in discount plants now? Sun and water people, sun and water.

Virginia Beach Girls Weekend

I hope everyone had a great weekend, because I sure did. One of the best – full of belly laughs, sun and surf, great friends, one liners, delicious everything bagels, and lots of lots of reminiscing on old memories and making loads of new ones. I am one lucky girl who has stayed in touch with her three closest girl friends from high school (I say it’s the only good thing I got out of high school).

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We’ve spread out a little bit since then but definitely stay in touch and try to get together a couple of times a year (I shared another here). This weekend’s meet-up was in Virginia Beach, where one of the girls lives. We got in late Friday night and Saturday morning it was all about the beach.

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When the sun was heading behind the clouds and our stomachs got to growling we had a delicious lunch at a restaurant on the water and then hit the boardwalk when the skies cleared.

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It seemed it was a very athletic weekend with tournaments all over the beach for soccer, volleyball, lacrosse, and football. Kind of random sports for the beach.

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There were also beautiful colored condos that wooed me in their bold statement.

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It was the perfect afternoon for girls who wanted to actually do something while we could talk a mile a minute the whole time.

www.rappsodyinrooms.comAfter enough fun in the sun we headed back for some indoor time before heading out again a couple of hours later to Norfolk 2013 - a giant festival on the waterfront full of vendors, boats, music, and fireworks.

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www.rappsodyinrooms.com

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www.rappsodyinrooms.com

I even got some Cube love!

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The night had a grand finale of one of the most amazing firework shows that I have ever seen. Quite bombastic!

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Just thought I would share why I didn’t get to any house projects this weekend since it was all about friendship and fun! Hope you had a great one too!

Fine Tuning the Blog

It’s fun to look back at an evolution of your blog because basically it becomes apparent that you aren’t looking at how a site changed. Basically you are looking at how you changed.www.rappsodyinrooms.com

Yup, we’re getting deep today with that one. I have been having fun thinking about ways I can make this site better – how to have better content, better organization, better ways to navigate around the site, better ways to view my projects. Just better.

The first place I started was with My Projects Page. That page was originally quite the mess. I tried to break it down into categories, which worked, but ultimately it became this long, long list full of hyperlinks and pictures. Not working. It was also hard to figure out where to put new posts. Since it was hard for me to keep updated, I was pretty sure it was hard for you to navigate. This time I decided to break the projects into different pages and on those pages do some different organization as well.

I now have three pages of projects:

Instead of having lots of pictures in those pages I decided to make fun collages (via PicMonkey) that give you a sense of the category but don’t make the page meander on forever. I hope this will help you be able to navigate Rappsody in Rooms literal rooms much easier now. You can get to those pages by either clicking the links above or navigating to the top of this page and clicking on them in the drop-down menu.

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Another change I have made is adding a new side bars. Here’s the list as it sits today:

  • Do-It-Yourself Projects
  • The Decorating Dish
  • Travel Adventures
  • Tasty Treats
  • Shopping Excursions - New!

I thought those would help break down into more specific areas you are looking to browse as well. Of course there are always the archives by month, the category cloud you can click on or just plain ole search.

Another small side menu change is that WordPress finally has an Instagram widget that connects to your account and shows your latest pictures! So now I can bring some more of my up-to-the-minute life to the blog. You can also click over to see all my pictures and follow me!

I was actually planning on having more updates…like updating the House Tour Page and the About Page. As it so often happens, life got in the way and this week got Crazy. That’s right Crazy with a capital “C”. “C” being appropriate since my Cube was part of the craziness.

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Don’t worry. She’s okay and back home with us now. Phew. The picture actually makes me smile, so I thought I would share. Picture it with three girls in a parking lot with clothing malfunctions, a pregnant woman eating a Danish, and illegal turns through a bank. Yeah, it was amusing. On that note, have a great weekend! Have fun browsing the Projects Gallery!

Greenfront: The Mecca of Furniture

Apparently I like to shop. The plus side on that: I like to shop for the activity and don’t mind not buying things. Many times I prefer not buying things. I tend to feel like I spent too much money anytime I buy anything non-essential to life, so I really just enjoy the time walking through stores, gathering inspiration, and soaking in all that is around me. [Aka - I'm a big people watcher.] It’s more like an activity to me. Although, of course I buy things quite a bit. But as I stated in my 2013 goals, I am going to try to think less of things and try to make more items myself. Then it turns from just buying something to a good ole creative project.

One of these shopping adventures where no money was spent (ok, ok, you got me, we bought fro-yo on the way home) was a trip to Farmville. Farmville is famous for its load of furniture stores called The Greenfront. It is like a Mecca of furniture with a great big range of price tags, most of them leaning towards the higher end. See why I didn’t buy anything now? #selfproclaimedcheapskate

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www.rappsodyinrooms.com

They did have beautiful, high quality furniture – and rugs galore – that was just fun to look at. I thought you might enjoy looking at some of it too! Let’s dive in!

Warning: I like to take pictures of pretty things and just awkward things. I tend to be drawn to the awkward things. Shocking.

Warning #2 – iPhone pictures are in here galore!

This place had an amazing selection of rugs. Rooms upon rooms of all sizes, shapes, patterns, and colors. Like the below, crazy (fake-phew) animals.

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Or rooms full of clearance rugs! If I needed one then I would have been like a girl in a ball pit diving through these rugs!

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I loved all the beautiful wood furniture they had. Drool worthy here.

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www.rappsodyinrooms.com

There was also plenty of beautiful, comfy chairs and sofas. Some of it was even a hoot.

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I got so excited about this one I couldn’t even get the whole chair in the picture. Oh well, still worth sharing.

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I would put this entire set in my living room right now. Done.

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www.rappsodyinrooms.com

Remember that warning about the awkward items? Well, I am here to fulfill that warning. How about a bookend with a frog and a mouse on a bike together? I almost bought this because it was so weird.

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I found it in the Bone Yard, the place where all the clearance furniture goes. I found this guy there too, but he wasn’t awkward or on clearance. He was priceless. I decided I would take him home.

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There ends our little shopping adventure in Farmville full of beautiful furniture, awkward mice, and delicious fro-yo! Hope you enjoyed this little trip out!

The Closet Makeover Reveal

After glitter painting explosions episodes and many tin upcycles (both popcorn and coffee to be exact), I am back with the final reveal of the Mego Cave Closet. This has been a closet makeover two weeks in the making. Geez! I have decided to take my time on projects and do it right the first time. Do it so I don’t just like it but love it. Also, this closet had many functions, including:

  • Out of season clothing storage
  • Out of season shoe storage
  • Fancy dress storage (including one prom dress and a wedding dress)
  • Fabric storage (both folded and rolls)
  • Craft storage
  • Personal file storage
  • Camera storage
  • Printer stand
  • Let’s throw in a little bit of miscellaneous storage for fun

So that is one hard working closet (it works hard for the storage, so hard for the storage). This is her looking all rough and tumbled.

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This is her looking all gussied up, ready to party. Now let’s take a stroll through this glitter party zone.

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For the clothing and shoe storage, I tried to pare that down as much as possible. Purge people purge! It does the soul good. So you see a little less of all that in there. There were also quite a few other items that got stored elsewhere in the house in places that it made more sense. The items in the closet needed to be items I go-to frequently and wanted to keep in easy reach.

This is what the top shelf was looking like.

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On both ends of the shelf I have two tins (count it – four in total, two are hiding behind the other two) that I picked up from the Dollar Tree (love it!). I thought those would be good for items I go for frequently, like the paint brushes. I took some craft paper and washi tape to make an easy label.

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The next item on the shelf is my file storage. I didn’t DIY this section but went to Target instead. I found those file holders for $1 (although I was originally going to make my magazine holders from cereal boxes but couldn’t resist the dollar price and patterns) and the file box which is all gold and chevron fun inside.

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I then reorganized all my files that I had in an accordion style file that was exploding at the accords… I sandwiched the box between the two file holders: one labeled “to file” and the other “to scan”. During the week I can easily slip papers inside and then just go through them once a week. Making it easier on myself.

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I didn’t get any brilliant ideas on my camera storage. It needed to be there for easy access but it didn’t make sense to put it in a bin since it is storage, so there it stayed all black-tacular. Then of course comes the popcorn tin and the final two $1 tins.

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Moving way down you see that my shoe stand became a printer stand as well. I am actually going to invest in a wireless printer so I don’t have to plug up any cords to the computer (for that reason and that this printer just broke).

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The last section of the closet is the side cubbies. Starting at the top I repurposed a cardboard box into an organization container. Cover it with pretty paper and it’s usable and oh-so-pretty!

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Then I used two shoe boxes that I had kept because they were pretty. Put a label on them and instant organization.

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I was also able to organize all my fabric so I could easily see what I had and use them more frequently.

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Then there was the coffee tins. There is actually more space behind the second row of tins too for future storage (the first row has scarves behind them).

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Can you believe that? I cleaned the closet out so well that there is now empty space ready for me to fill it up over the next few years! Although, I do believe that when everything has a designated space clutter doesn’t build up as much. Thus ends my closet reorganization in the Mego Cave. Lots of fun, glitter, and patterns were had!

Let me just leave you with a final before and after:

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Popcorn Tin Upcycle

Perhaps I should have made this upcycle week with all the transformations of things going on the blog this week. Well, let’s call it that, eh? Better late than never! So I’ve shown you my coffee can upcycle and my China cabinet reorganization. Well this is the final DIY organization project before I reveal my closet makeover on Monday (’bout time, right?!). Now that’s something to make a Monday better, at least in my book!

This time I took went through my Goodwill pile and snatched up something that almost was lost outside my door forever: an old popcorn tin. You know the kind, right? The one with the cute Christmas dogs on the outside and the three sections of popcorn inside? Oh yum, why do they only sell those at Christmas time? I look forward to them all. year. long. I didn’t have the heart to throw it out, so I put it in the Goodwill pile. Yes, it had been sitting there since December. Oops.

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After my coffee can upcycle, I realized that the popcorn tin would be an awesome storage container too. So after a little cleaning up it was outside for spray paint attack. I used the leftover Rustoleum Lagoon spray paint in satin. This one definitely took a few more coats since there was actually a picture on the can. For some reason those puppy dog faces would not go away. When I thought that I had everything covered I would look closer and see that puppy dog eyes staring at me. It was a heartbreaking spray painting adventure. Sorry dogs. See you next year on another can.

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Once that was all dry I wanted to add a little something, something to it. I could always wrap it in more decorative paper but I wanted to do something different with this one. I wanted to use words to beef up this can! I thought about stenciling words but then realized that vinyl would be so much easier. Unfortunately I don’t have a super cool vinyl cutter…but one of my super nice co-workers did! She said it was a simple project to do and whipped it out in 5 minutes. I thought I would pun it up, like I do.

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Yup, I wrote “can it” on my can. :) I love it. Once I had the letters in my possession all it took was a few minutes to get it applied to the can. Gotta love a good peel and stick project!

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www.rappsodyinrooms.com

www.rappsodyinrooms.com

Call me crazy, but I love this popcorn can upcycle. It is just up my alley. Teal with a pun. Also very useful! I am storing my paints and glitter in there now. It’s a big can and I imagine I will fill it up pretty quickly as my paint collection expands.

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So there you have it, another can upcycle, complete with a pun!

Coffee Can Upcycle Organization Project

As you know I have been knee deep in organizing around the casa. It started with a glittery closet and then organizing the China cabinet (the actual cabinets).  Well, I have been really working on putting everything back together in the Mego Cave closet but way more organized. Except sometimes I think organizing can get kind of expensive, so I decided to try and use what I have to organize everything. Well, it wasn’t exactly what I had. It is what I found in my work recycling bin. Thanks to some heavy coffee drinkers I brought home these babies (although I actually have three in total).

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After some cleaning up they were a fresh slate.

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The next step was to pick up some pretty teal Rustoleum spray paint in Lagoon (satin finish).

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It took a couple of thin coats to cover all those little ripples but finally it was a nice teal color. I decided to keep the tops black since I thought with all the bending when taking them on and off again might crack and peel the paint a little bit.

www.rappsodyinrooms.com

www.rappsodyinrooms.com

At this point they were definitely looking a little better but were still looking like teal coffee cans. I thought I would dress them up a little bit. [Sidenote: This totally makes me think that my playing with dolls and dressing them up as a child grew up into projects like this.] I had some extra paper scraps from the modernizing of the China cabinet. This just confirmed why I hold onto things, even scraps. I just wrapped them around the middle and taped them in the back.

www.rappsodyinrooms.com

www.rappsodyinrooms.com

The great thing about these is how they easily stack too, making even more use of your space. So there it is, how something from the recycling pile got rescued by me and upcycled into organization containers. I’ll be showing (oh so soon I promise) how they worked themselves into my closet organization.

A Little Bit of Organization in My Life

Yeah, that title is a Lou Bega reference. Deal with it. You gotta do something to pump you up while organizing pretty much all weekend long. It all started last weekend when I painted the Mego Cave closet (with glitter paint!). The reason behind it (other than just making it super fly pretty) was to make it work harder since my craft supplies were getting outta control. The supplies were literally spilling out of the closet and the China cabinet, another space in the Mego Cave where I store items. The China closet is really the space of scrutiny this post. Remember when I spruced it up with some pretty paper in the back and nice styling?

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I didn’t show you the inside of the closed cabinets below for a reason. It was a mess behind those doors!

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After everything was a mess in the Mego Case due to emptying out the closet to paint it, I thought I would empty the China cabinet drawers too. This would allow me to go through my organization system:

1. Empty the area you are wanting to organize.

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2. Sort all the items into piles: a keep pile, a donate pile, and a throwaway/recycle pile.

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3. Sort the keep pile into smaller piles, putting all the like items together. (Ahh blurry picture. Let’s think of it as symbolic, eh? No? How about artistic?)

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4. Put all the like items back in a space that makes sense. I recommend buying/making/using what you have storage bins, boxes, baskets, etc. This way items are corralled and easy to pull out and even more importantly, easy to put away in its right place. Give everything a place and you will stay organized. Put that on a t-shirt.

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www.rappsodyinrooms.com

Look at the easy access for craft items!

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Isn’t organizing amazing? It’s like all of a sudden you feel lighter and your space feels bigger! Yay!  After all that mess I still can’t believe I had room left over. Whhhat?? Gotta love organizing!