New Dishes....no space, or is there?

I found the coolest dishes at Goodwill, during one of their 50% off sales.  If you've ever heard of Denby of England{here}, then you'll know they're a high end priced porcelain company. In addition to the dinner plates, salad plates, bowls, and cups, I got the Tea Plate, Saucers, and Mugs!  WAHOO!  A set valued at over $1200 purchased at a thrift store for $30~I'd call that a deal!

Now, where to put them....

After rearranging pretty much all of my cupboards to fit it, I finally found something that worked.  But, the thought of cups taking so much square-footage and not much space above gnawed at me!  [How could I make it work?] [Should I make shelves?] [What about hooks?]....HOOKS!  Yes, that would answer the space question!

I had some left over hooks from a previous project {hanging my measuring cups and spoons to the door of another cupboard} and they would work fabulously.  I even got a little giddy about it :)  Not only do I now have more space in my cupboards, but I have an aesthetically pleasing place to put my mugs!

 (First row) Width of Cupboard: 25-1/2"

Width from edge to outer cup: 4-1/4"

Spacing between each cup: 5-1/2"

Depth: 3" from front

(second row) Width from edge: 7-1/4" 

Spacing between each cup: 5-1/2"

Depth: 3" from wall

1-1/2" Cup Hooks, Brass Plated {here}

Just make sure that if you do this project, you don't screw the hooks through the other end of the board!  Measure the depth first to make sure you have room.  Then slowly drill your hole prior to inserting hooks.  [I just can't say, "screw" and "hook" in the same sentence...ha ha]  The hook screw was too long, so I didn't twist them flush with the board.  It's okay, I still love the way they turned out!

Back to School...Back to Organizing

My girls aren't exactly the best at putting their homework, backpacks, jackets, etc away.  But really....when you don't have any real space dedicated for their work, backpacks,....yadda yadda, who can blame them?

Now that I have an extra space in my understairs closet, I have formally dedicated it to my girls' school stuff (and it really is stuff!!!)

A Place for everything!

Food Storage into Shelves

Do any of you have those 6 gallon buckets and DON'T know what to do with them???  We've been hiding them in the closet under the stairs for about 18 months now, and I thought of a great idea to create shelves with them.  Before, my closet was used for food storage, canned goods, and pretty much everything that didn't yet have a "home."  Plus it's shaped like an "L," so we would just cram as much stuff into the back, making it almost impossible to access any of it!

By using the 6 gal. buckets to hold pieces of particle board, we've created shelves that store our canned goods.  We were able to use the corners to our advantage, creating a space that allows us to walk all the way back into the closet, instead of just to one side...the pictures will show...I'm not good with words!

View from entry

Around the corner 

ahhhh....organized!

New Year, New Organization...

A New Year's goal that I have is to become more organized.  I am at peace when I feel like everything is in their proper spot, and when every space is utilized.  So, my posts will be focused on making my house and life more organized!  Yay!  I already have a list!

xx