Secret Pegboard

Now that I'm studying how to be more organized, it's amazing how I'm noticing things I never noticed before.  Someone gave us a  tool chest with 5 or 6 drawers. It's sitting in our dining room. I pass it 50 times a day.  Suddenly I noticed it has holes in the side just like a pegboard. So I bought some pegboard hooks and put a few on there, and sure enough, that's what it is. Since we got the thing used, I never knew that. Before 24 hours had gone by, my boyfriend already started hanging things on it. Cool.

Wreath Hangers on Pegboard

When a craft store had a 90% off sale I snapped up a bunch of wreath hangers. I used one, and the rest have just been taking up space. But recently I made that pegboard in the garage and it goes up quite high and I was wondering how to put hooks way up there.  So I'm cleaning the dining room, find the box full of wreath hangers and that little light bulb went off.  In a few minutes, I had hooked six of them over the top of the board and the broad hooks will be great for things like extension cords. One of the hooks was different though. It's for hanging over a door and having a wreath on both sides.  I'll have to find a special use for that one.

Overlooking the Obvious

After watching a fitness show I decided I was going to work out 45 minutes a day, six days a week for 60 days. Only I have no room indoors anymore to work out, so the alley is where I work out. So I get all set up, and realize I need both a clock and a radio. The battery in the garage clock is dead, so I run back inside to get a battery and the radio. I'm thinking a calendar and a noteboard would be nice too.
So I get all set up, I'm about 10 minutes into my workout, when my neighbor parks right behind me in the alley and sits there with his family in the car, Then my other neighbor does the same. Once again I'm feeling like a goldfish in a bowl. So I hang out for 15 or 20 minutes waiting for them to drive off or get out or something. Ugh. But while I'm standing there, I'm staring at the wide side of a steel file cabinet that's been sitting in that same spot since the day we moved in. And then it hits me. That's a great place for a magnetic board to write on with dry erase markers or I could put chalkboard paint on it and make a place to write things about projects.Talk about overlooking the obvious! Then I say to myself, how can I do it with stuff I already own? Magnets! I have lots of magnets parked on the fridge that aren't doing anything. So I close and lock the garage, and start to go in the house to get a calendar and the magnets and so on. Then the neighbors drive away (face palm).
I also grab some unopened tools to put on my new pegboard (see yesterday's post). I grab a lidded plastic container to put my radio on and a metal can to use as a pen holder and catch all because right now the pens and razor blades and little things are all just laying in a shallow box on top of the file cabinet. It seems silly to just put an empty container there to park my radio on, so I fill it with all those little sharp scroll saw blades and so forth. I write 'sharp' on it with a permanent marker. I fill the can with pencils and the new scissors I just unwrapped. I used the magnets to hold a sheet of paper on there for notes. And I used clear shipping tape to secure the calendar, being careful not to tape down the flipping pages. I put a new battery in the clock.
Just when I started to work out again, my neighbor came home again and left his car parked illegally in the alley and went into his garage. Sigh. At least I broke a sweat and got my garage more organized.

Turning the Dining Room Into a Sewing and Craft Area

Last night I was so burned out from pushing myself, that I swore I'd take today off and not do anything on a to-do list. I'm not sure why that worked but this morning I woke up so full of motivation, I leapt up and starting reorganizing the sewing room and archery workshop (i.e. living room and dining room). I realized I was not optimizing the natural lighting that I need so desperately to do fine work like beading or cross stitch or wood burning. So I drew a diagram of a better layout. The main issue is every area is full of boxes, inventory, supplies, junk, food, and tools. Every square inch is encumbered. So before I can move anything big I have to sort, clean, reorganize and discard. But so far in under 2 hours I've made great progress. But my hands are started to shake and the task is overwhelming me so I'm taking a break to recover. So much stuff and nowhere to put it.

And even if I get the big pieces moved, the boxes will have to be put back in the leftover space. So whew! If it was easy I would have done it already. I want to clear off my drawing table (which I haven't seen the top of in 2 or 3 years) and move it in front of the giant dining room window. If nothing else, my cats will enjoy snoozing in the window. Then I'm going to move the rolling tool chest and dresser into the spot where the drawing table now sits. I'm hoping they will fit. If not, I'll need to move another giant stack of boxes so I can slide the sewing machine over a foot. Thank goodness my boyfriend is here to move the things I can't budge.

Storage Caddies and Other Ideas

I am up to my eyeballs in making things to organize my stuff. I just bought PVC tubing to make caddies to hold knitting needles, paint brushes, dowels, pencils and pens. I bought plastic chain to make a hanger to hang up hats, gloves, scarves and other accessories so they won't keep falling on the floor. I do have hat pegs in my closet but every time something gets pulled out of there, the hats get knocked down.

I also bought pegboard to make storage areas for tools like scissors and pliers.

Cubby Finds a New Home

Yesterday I put a coat of polyurethane on my 3 cubicle cabinet to protect the paint until I have time to collage it. I found it fits perfectly on my dresser laying on it's side. I am happy to have a cubby to put my library books in now. And all the stuff that was already on the dresser can now go on top of the shelf, if I wish to store them there. Half of it just needs to be put into boxes or thrown away. All the nice stuff was buried anyway. It's so much better now, and one of the cubbies will serve as my bedside table since I always need to set something down at night like my glasses and a book or a box of tissues.