my love for cheap toy organization

i love organizing - like really, really love it. the container store isn't far from us, but i've never been because i'm just not sure i can trust myself in there :) after christmas, i had to figure out something to do with all covington's new toys. i looked everywhere for baskets the right size for the bottom of our shelves but couldn't find anything. i'd finally settled on some that were too small for the space and way overpriced when i realized that my trusty file boxes were almost the right size! i love using file boxes either covered in scrapbook paper or painted to organize. some of the ones in our closet are 5 years old, have been through 3 moves in 3 states, and are holding up great. when i was organizing covington's closet, office depot was having a sale so i got 3 packages of 10 boxes for $30. a dollar a box isn't a bad deal :)

so i drew a line where they were sticking out, cut it with a box cutter, stuck the back inside the front, making the bottoms overlap, and hot glued the mess out of them. i did all 7 boxes in less than a 2 hour nap time, so i'd say it wasn't a bad project! that night, i put 2 coats of white craft paint on the fronts while watching a movie and made labels out of scrapbook paper covered in masking tape. not bad for a completely free project.

see the rough edge on that second box? in hindsight i should have used that one as the back piece (not that i'm ever going to fix it or anything...)

       

now i'm not expecting these to last forever but covington has pulled them out and crawled on them daily for 4+ months, and they're still looking great. they hold a ton - all the cars and trucks and  instruments and balls and trains and puzzles and movies. i do so love a free project.

8-15/52

8/52

two of his favorite things - hanging things around his neck and the bathroom

9/52

we loove sliding

10/52

playing with the farm

11/52

his favorite place to crawl - between the bikes, guitars, and wall

12/52

checking himself out in the mirror

 13/52

chewing on the camera strap and the look i can whenever i pull out the big camera

14/52

playing in his easter basket

15/52

a boy and his blanket

i like a little color

hey, remember when i used to blog more than once a month and about more things that covington?  no?? either way, i did a couple projects last spring i thought i'd show all 2 of you that still read this :)

so before we even moved to wheaton, i was on craigslist looking for a great dresser that i could paint with big drawers for storage in our... dining room? eating area? the place next to our table? we don't get real fancy around here :)

i found this awesome dresser in an old yellow color that was perfect for painting. we got there and james was all excited because it's apparently hand made with handwritten markings on the drawers and "dovetailed somethings or anothers" so apparently we stubbled across a great dresser for a great price.


(funny side-story - the week before we moved up here, i found a dresser that i loooved and the couple said they would hold it for me until we got there and then they totally sold it out from under me. well, we go to pick this one up and it was from the same people! i didn't realize it because the email addresses are all encrypted but they recognized mine and so they were all embarrassed and kept telling me how much better this one was than the other - how funny and totally random is that!)

so we got the dresser in and loaded it up with stuff and it sat there, not matching anything else in our entire apartment, for over a year. i was totally terrified of completely ruining it. on top of that, the handles had to be replaced because one was broken and they were an odd size, so i spent 6 months looking for odd sized handles that would fit and 6 months contemplating how hard it would be to fill in the holes and make new ones. when i'm nervous, i read articles on how to do things, so i read a ton of articles on spray painting, but we live in an apartment, so i kept trying to figure out if we could do it in one day in the  parking lot of take it to a friend's house or should i just use a roller inside or a brush but it could smell and now we have a baby because i've waited so long but if i wait any longer than that baby is going to be crawling and i'm going to have a whole lot more trouble trying to paint it and what color should i paint it - red but reds are so hard to pick out but blues are real hard because i don't want another navy dresser but i don't want teal but... and so on and so forth.

SO one weekend i just did it. i had the paint guy pick out his brightest best-selling red and i filled the holes in with toothpicks and wood glue, per a woodworking magazine's direction, and just went for it. after priming and 2 coats of red, i was pretty sure i'd ruined it and we'd be tossing it in the dumpster, but the 3rd coat plus some poly did it and it's my favorite project i've ever done. it's not perfect - there are some brush strokes and such, but the red is fun and did i mention it holds a ton. plus, i'm just glad it's done and i don't have to tell everyone that comes over that i'm planning on painting it soon :)

p.s. james made that awesome lamp with the bark still on it and the little wooden bowl. i like him.