Hang Up the Stuffed Animals

 Hello Readers. If you have children in your house then you probably have stuffed animals. And there is never just 1 or 2, they seem to multiply. There are so many. They are everywhere and don't look neat or tidy at all. We can't get rid of them so let's find a way to store and display them neatly.

Let's hang up and store the stuffed animals in a neat way. 

All of our stuffed animals lived in a pile on this chair. They also lived on the floor because they didn't stay on the chair. We love them so they had to stay close by but this mess looked bad and made the chair useless for humans. We could do better than this. 

We needed some cord or string or even thin rope. I chose this because it was in my sewing stash but it was also a little bumpy. I don't think smooth cording or satin ribbon would work well for this project. It would be too slippery.

You can use something simple like this jute cord. It is very inexpensive too. 

I put the cording across the top of the bookcase. You could also use a dresser for this project but the taller the piece of furniture, the more stuffed animals you an hang up.

 

 I wanted the cording to go over the top of the bookcase and hang all the way down off the bookcase on both sides.

The next thing you need is a few dozen clips of some kind. These cheap clothes pins would be great. 

 

You could also use something more fun and colorful if you want.

 

I clipped one end of the cording to a soft container. This was going to anchor the cord on this side of the bookcase. 

 

This is a good place for the stuffies that are heavy, large or favorites that will be played with or slept with often. 

 

The other end of the cord needed something to anchor it too. On this side I used a large bear. He is heavy enough to hold the cord. I clipped the cord to his ear. 

 

I made sure to get the cording and part of the stuffed animal in the clip. The clip really needs to hold on to both.

 

I started clipping all our stuffed friends to the corThe. 

 

 I clipped the stuffed animals on both sides of the bookcase. I liked this storage method because the stuffed friends are visible and unharmed in this clips. The bookcase or dresser you use will be unharmed too. 

 

My child liked this set up. They could see the stuffed animals but the stuffies were not in a mess on the floor anymore. My youngest child is 10 so I don't need to worry about him hurting himself with the cord or the clips. (*This is not a good storage idea if you have an active baby or toddler that will hurt them selves with string or cord or might climb tall bookcases or dressers. You know your child, as always use your best judgement and caution.) Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 

***Year End Update***- These stuffed animals are still in a semi orderly arrangement thanks to this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Make Shelves From Drawers

 Hello Readers. I am always trying to make more storage in the space that I live in. In addition to myself I live with my husband and my kids and we all have "stuff".  Where can we put the stuff? I am pretty much out of floor space so we have to go up and use some of the vertical space. I am talking about shelves today. You can of course buy bookcases and cabinets. But let's do something more creative and free! Let's make some shelves from old dresser drawers.

 Drawers to Shelves!

I found these drawers on the side of the road when I was driving home from the library. There were 5 dusty drawers that a man was putting at the end of his driveway. I stopped and asked if I could have them. He looked at me like I was crazy, but he said yes.

I came home and used a vacuum to get some of the dust off the drawers.

 

I sanded the drawers because I wanted to paint them. The paint will stick better if the finish is sanded.

 

I dusted the drawers to get rid of all the dust I had made when I sanded them. 

 

I removed some of the knobs with a screwdriver. I knew how I wanted to stack my drawers and the knobs would be in my way.

 

I used some white acrylic paint to paint the drawers I was going to use as my shelves.
 

I started painting my shelves. I let the first coat of paint dry over night and I added a second coat of paint the next day.  

 

I wanted my drawers stacked like this so each of the lower drawers needed 1 knob taken off. That way I could stack a drawer on top of the 2 lower drawers. We tested and shook the shelves to make sure they were very balanced and stable. (If you have kids that might climb on shelves, you should to anchor them to the wall. )

 

Kids are wild and they will climb on anything when they are young. When my youngest was a toddler, he would climb things that I never even thought he would try to climb. He is older now but when he was young we anchored all our furniture to the wall. Better safe than sorry. 

 

I used the new shelves to display some of my child's artwork. 

These can be swapped out whenever we want. Displaying them this way won't leave holes in the wall.

 

You can put the drawers into any order and arrangement that works for you and your space.

 

Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 

***Year End Update***- These shelves are still full of kid projects and artwork. They are very handy.

 

Behind the Door Storage From a Pallet

 Hello Readers. We all seem to need more organization and storage options. I made some extra storage behind the door using a small wooden pallet. It is now a handy and adjustable hanging rack. Let me show you. 

This was easy to make and the hooks can be changed as needed. 

 

Thee space behind the door is perfect for hanging items. Let's utilize it.
 

I got this little pallet from a neighbor. It looks like a small shipping pallet. (Similar here.) I cleaned it off because I wanted to paint it. 

I used some flat white spray paint that I had on hand. It was a spray on enamel that said it was good for wood projects. 

I worked outside for plenty of fresh air. I made sure I was not near any cars, children, pets, homes or anything else so the over spray would not bother anyone. I let this dry over night. 

We hung this behind the door like this. But we couldn't hang the pallet directly to the wall. We came up with a solution. I am showing you the after picture because it will make the process easier to understand. 

 

To begin, we found the stud in the wall. We want the weight of this to be hung on the stud and not the drywall, for strength.We needed to find the stud in the wall

 

We got longest screws we could find (About 3-4 inches.) and used a drill bit that was slightly smaller that the screws for this project. 

 

We used a piece of wood to hold the pallet. This piece of wood was about 10 inches long, not as wide as the pallet itself. We made sure it was level and drilled 2 holes into the piece, one hole above the other.

We drilled 2 screws through the piece of wood and into the stud in the wall. We made sure to keep it level.

 

The piece of wood was cut so that it had a place to hang the pallet.

 

We used a router to make that cut in the wood. That little cut-out will keep the pallet in place securely. 

 

You can see the cross beam of the pallet fits down into the groove we cut in the wood. This could be painted to match the wall or the pallet but it will kind of disappear behind the pallet when we are done. 

I used some simple S-hooks because I want to be able to change the location of the hooks whenever I want. 

This is great storage in a kids room or a mud room. It's perfect for hats, jackets, sunglasses or keys. And you can change the hook placement in just seconds when you need to hang something else. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun and organized for yourself.

***Year End Update***- This shelf is still on the wall and it holds so much stuff. It's almost like a small closet.

 

 

 

 

 

Creating a Helpful Study Spot

 Hello Readers. Fall is right around the corner and that means school is starting. No matter if you are in elementary school, high school, college or just working from home, it can really help to prepare a spot to study/work in. It can be for online classes or just a needed schoolwork area. 

Before and after a little work and planning.

This little desk is built in my kitchen. It is off to the side and perfect for schoolwork while I make dinner. All summer it has collected odds and ends and has been used for projects and crafts. It is a real mess, I let it go all summer. It's time to get it in shape.

I started by clearing the surface and wiping it down. I threw out the dried up markers, broken crayons, and old papers.  I moved all the toys, Lego bricks and  random items.

We needed new some new supplies. I want to be prepared for projects and assignments that are going to come up. I don't want to run out to the store last minute, at night, in my pajamas because we don't have what we need for school. I can't be prepared for everything in life but I can prepare for this.

I used little cans to organize our supplies. These were from a hot cocoa obsession we had last winter. They are cute and kid safe so that is what we went with. I wanted all our supplies to be visible and easily available. Use whatever containers appeal to you.

My son is young so we still need things like crayons. I made sure to have extra pencils, scissors, glue, tape, markers, a ruler ... all easy to see and reach. 

 

Consider having a clock and/or a calendar in the area. Young kids need to learn to tell time and older kids need to learn time management. They can't do either without seeing the time and the schedule. This is right in our line of vision so we don't forget to look at it. Everyone has a calendar on their phone but if you or your child doesn't remember to open that app, it won't help them. Use whatever method works for you and/or your student.

Make sure the lighting is adequate. Winter is coming and it will start to get dark earlier.  No one can study in the dark. Add a lamp to the area if it gets dim in the evening.

I made sure to get the laptop, the charging cord, the headphones and that charging cord. I wanted to make sure I had everything and didn't need to replace anything. It's better to know now if anything is missing or damaged, before any online classes or meetings are scheduled.

I don't know what your student will need. I do know that getting every school related item in the house and putting it all in one place will make it easier to find when we do need it. Will we need calculators this year? I'm not sure but if we need one, I know it is in the study area along with extra paper, folders, a protractor and our trusty kids dictionary and atlas. If I get it all together now, I won't have to hunt for it later. 

 

Thanks for reading along, I hope all the students have a great year. 

 

 ***Year End Update- This was helpful for school work but kids are kids and they all try to avoid school work at times.