Yard Sale Score, Hoarding, and Odor Removal!

My mother, the littles and I all went yard saleing this past weekend (oh, be quiet spellcheck, that is too a word!) Daddy doesn't do yard sales. If he has to shop, he wants to get in, go straight to what he needs, and get back out before he has to actually interact with any people. (Yet, he will spend hours at an auction where he has no intention of buying anything - that one, I do not get at all.)

 

At yard sales, there is no quick getting in and out - there is browsing, rummaging, and staring hard at various items, trying to decide whether or not they are something you always wanted/needed, you just didn't know it until this very instant. As someone whose Pinterest boards are full of creative uses for old shutters (which I have yet to find at a yard sale), this is the part of yard sales that appeals to me most.

 

That, and, I'm very, very cheap.

 

So, at the second yard sale we hit, when I saw three new-looking, largish CD/DVD racks priced very reasonably, I had to stop and stare hard. My first thought was, "pantry!" But, I knew they wouldn't fit in my pantry. I stared more. I thought more. They were really very cheap. They would probably fit in the van. Obviously, what I needed to do, was get another pantry to put them in. So I bought all three of them (much to the dismay of two older ladies who came in right after me).

 

They did fit (barely), and as we drove slowly around to the rest of the sales on our list, I plotted where I could possibly put them. We picked up some kids' clothes, a kindling bucket for the wood stove, and a neat little cast iron grill. Then Mom and I both started to sniff suspiciously...

 

Cigarette smoke. Which we are both allergic to. The clothes, maybe? No matter, I always wash clothing as soon as I get home.

 

Nope...you know what it was, don't you? The shelves. The particle board shelves. Shelves made of porous material that soak in everything, and which would get completely ruined if soaked in anything liquid.

 

By this time, however, I had figured out where I was going to put them - the closet in the boys' room, which is just used for storage anyway - and I did not want to give up my new imaginary pantry. I brought them inside and wiped them down with a dish soap and Borax solution, then a vinegar and water solution. Nothing. Having a husband who traps skunks, I know the wonders of Woolite (forget tomato soup or the hydrogen peroxide recipe, trust me: Woolite takes out all trace of skunk odor!) I aprayed on a watered-down Woolite solution, leaving it as damp as I dared: no luck.

 

Fortunately, Daddy recently started using a new (to us) cleaner in places like the underneath of houses, where you can't just suds up with Woolite:

 

 

As Woolite's biggest fan, I had a hard time believing anything commercial would work better, but I tried it. I sprayed it on, wiped it around - smells like soap and cigarettes. I resigned myself to months of baking soda boxes, and started moving the shelves into the closet. As I began piling cans on, I suddenly realized...

 

...all I smelled was soap. It took maybe half an hour, but it worked perfectly, and I have a new favorite cleaning product! (Don't worry, Woolite, I still love you for all my skunky laundry and canine needs!) It says it can be used on carpet, so I sprayed it on "that" spot in ours, and we seem to have a success there, too! (I am reserving judgement for a while - carpet odors are notorious for returning, especially when your house is as old as ours).

 

And my new pantry? Le sigh...

 

 

I really like this setup, because I can see very quickly what I need more of (mushrooms!) and what I am completely out of (beef broth! How did that happen?!)

 

The shelves are easy to move around to fit the containers. I did put shims under each set, to make it lean a little more towards the back wall - if I decide for sure I like this arrangement, I will attach them to the wall more securely.

 

The area to the left still had some free space (this is a very long, shallow closet), where I hung C.'s 4 solitary button-down shirts, and covered the floor with bottled juice. No wasted space!

 

I still have dry goods in the pantry just outside my kitchen, but they aren't likely to explode in extreme heat or cold. My plan is to move things like canning jars from the garage - which is on the other side of our property - to the 'old' pantry, so I don't have to trek over and search the garage for them. Hopefully, that, in turn, will give me enough space to organize old clothes and toys out there. Since the garage is not as well-heated as C.'s closet, however, that will have to be a project for another day!

 

So, what have you repurposed for storage in your home?

 

Closet Makeover

I cleaned out my closet.

 

No, I mean, I REALLY cleaned out my closet! My closet at work, that is. Also known as The Black Hole of Calcutta. Curious children often poke their heads in, and I tell them, "Oh, honey, don't go in there, we'll never find you again!"

 

I wish I had a before picture. What I really wish I had, is a picture of way-before: what it looked like when I first started working there. I took over from a long string of pack rats, who kept (real example) copies of thank-you notes that someone sent the year I was born. I spent my first two weeks throwing things away. Of course, being new, I ran across many things that I thought maybe I should keep, just in case they were important (or, just as often, because I didn't know what they were!) Every subsequent year, usually after summer reading had ended, I tackled the closet once again, and got rid of a little bit more.

 

At the same time, I have been constantly adding just a little bit more...okay, a lot more! I like to stock up at work just as I do at home. I find things at yard sales a lot, and whenever I have the budget money to order a certain art supply, I order enough for future projects, as well.

 

Another thing I have been slowly building up, is a supply of containers of the same brand and roughly the same size. Stacking mis-matched recycled yogurt tubs and shoeboxes doesn't exactly help the sense of clutter.

 

Last week I was able to eliminate two filing cabinets that were taking up one whole wall, and add two sets of shelves (one salvaged from an old storage area, and one purchased for $59 from Walmart). I took the opportunity to move absolutely everything in the room, putting like things together (what a concept!), and spending another $150 on containers, to once and for all get everything uniform.

 

Why am I boring you with this? Because I can. Or, because maybe it will give you hope that someday, after ten years or so of fiddling, your problem area may become manageable, too:)

 

A counterclockwise tour of the room:

 

 

The shelves nearest the door are for current projects - this week, some pictures I need to sort, and some puppets I am making into puppet-and-book kits to be checked out. The location means I can easily chuck things onto a shelf when it is time to go, and I haven't finished something. Previously, those things would end up somewhere on the floor of the closet, or piled up on my desk.

 

The shelves with the mummified body hanging from them are the start of the holiday tubs. The bottom shelf is Valentine's Day and Easter, and Halloween gets...all the other shelves. We like Halloween.

 

 

I wish I could take out some of the shelves in the corner, but I would have to cut through them to do so. I'm going to be weeding out some of the old posters and bulletin board characters by holding drawings - I'll create a display of books associated with a set of posters, and when kids check out one of the books, they enter their check-out receipt in a drawing for...the posters! The posters get one last use here, the books get checked out, and my shelves get emptied.

 

Staring about where the planting stuff is, I have the other holidays...

 

 

merging into general activities and celebrations. Then I have almost an entire section of empty containers (WITH the corresponding lids, thank-you very much!), but when SRP rolls around, those containers will be filled with related items, and those will be the srp shelves.

 

 

Finally, crafts, crafts, and more crafts! Labeled and organized by type of material. (The bead boxes towards the top, btw, are actually hardware boxes - much cheaper and more versatile than what you find in the craft section!)

 

 

The construction paper is even in rainbow order:) Miscellaneous odds and ends go in the shoe rack hanging over the door. A huge thanks to the bored teen volunteers who sorted the giant tub of pasta into the different types!

 

And yes, as my coworker pointed out when I proudly showed her the finished product, I will probably run out of room again within a month. So, enjoy the pictures, it probably won't look like this for long. This is the first time in ten years, though, that I have at least started with everything in its own place, so, who knows - it may go for a whole two months! (Once srp time approaches, all bets are off).

 

None of this being exactly Pinterest-worthy, what are some handy tips you have for storing crafts supplies?