Category Archives: house projects

Master Calendar/Schedule

Posted on by

Since we have 5 people in our family we naturally have 673 things going on at any one time. While I have my personal calendar and Derek has his own, somehow we would still each miss recording events. This miscommunication often lead to frustration by both of us so I decided the solution was a master schedule.

We determined the master schedule needed to be in the kitchen so everyone could glance at it or add to it when needed. We placed it above the chalkboard and next to a magnet board we brought from our old house. The magnet board is a great place for the dry erase markers since they have magnets on the back of them.

We used a 38 x 26 frame we had sitting around. Besides the cost of the dry erase markers this was going to be a completely free project. That is…until we broke the glass. Off to the home improvement store Derek went to buy new glass and we were back in business.

I printed off some days of the week labels while Derek stuck two large pieces of paper together. After I glued the days of the week at the top of the blank pages. Derek divided it into appropriate sections. Each day is roughly 5 inches x 4 3/4 inches big.

Here’s an example of a light day: 6:00 soccer for Andrew & 6:00 lacrosse for Alex.It also reminded me of what I needed to bring to Caroline’s school for a teacher luncheon.

A busy, yet typical Saturday

My favorite part is that it’s easy to wipe on and wipe off with a cloth.

Anyone else have a Karate Kid moment there? Wipe on, wipe off, Daniel-san!

Do you have any fun organizing tips? I’d love to hear them.

I’m sharing my schedule here:

Tip Junkie handmade projects

IKEA Elephant Off My Back

Posted on by

Why is it projects always take 98% longer than you think they will?

I bought this IKEA chair back in January. It was in the clearance section since it didn’t have a bottom.

chair with no cushionI picked it up and thought, “Great project for the weekend.”

I don’t know why I still think I will get anything accomplished the first weekend it’s on the to do list. By now I should know once I put it on the list it may be completed within the same season it was initially written down in. For instance, my list for this weekend had 12 things on it, we accomplished three of them – actually, not too bad for us.

One of the projects was – FINISH BLUE IKEA CHAIR

suppliesSupplies: oval wood disk, batting, fabric, staple gun

Fabric: Urban Circus Laurie Wisburn Elephant blue – bought here

We used two layers of batting for the “comfy bun” factor.

Stapling

Uhhh, more stapling

FINISH BLUE IKEA CHAIR

This project was frighteningly simple and it took us just 15 minutes to complete.

That is, 3 months and 15 minutes.

Closet Redo

Posted on by

My husband turned to me one Friday night several weeks ago and asked what our plans were for the weekend. I looked into his big brown eyes and knew he wanted me to say, “We’re eating out, going to the movies, and relaxing all weekend.” Instead I looked at him and knew I was about to burst his bubble. “I want to demolish the coat closet.”

closet“You mean the new closet in our new house?”

closet“Yes, I hate it. It’s messy. It has no organization and the kids can never find their things.”closet floorSigh. “Okay. Show me what you want to do in the morning.”

Our coat closet had the awful hanging single shelf but not much more. The kids (and I) would end up throwing our coats and bags in their and shutting the door. I think my husband was the only one who actually hung up his coat, hence his inability to see the need to demo the closet.

middle closetOur first step was tearing out the shelf. You can see the left over piece at the top of the above photo. My husband then taped dividing lines about every three feet. I wanted everyone in the family to have their own dedicated space.

After painting the lines (first white and then blue – to have somewhat straight lines), we added hooks.

Each person has 3 lower hooks for items they use on a daily basis…..

5 small hooks to hang hats……

and 3 large hooks again at the very top for items not used daily (soccer bags, etc).

I then painted the kids’ names into the section they chose for themselves.

So far our new closet works perfectly. We bought the hooks new but used paint from another project. A little bit of work that makes a huge change for us.

Any little projects you’ve been thinking about tackling?