Couch storage

With a new couch came the wish (need?) for more storage. In our previous couch I always had a «project» or two taking up a seat. To DaddyO slight frustration, it always looked abit messy. When a few springs gave in, we opted for a new couch. After looking around and trying a few couches, we landed on the Vallentuna series by IKEA. This is a modular couch that you can put together as you please. We went for the storage in every seat version. Now my projects can be put away when I’m not working on them. You can use IKEAs planner to try out the different setups to find your favorite and get a shopping list of all the parts you will need. Our setup has the code 4FQNNJ in IKEAs planner wizard (which you can find here). The girls still make a mess when sitting on the couch, so we went for the faux leather cover for easier cleaning.

assembled, but not finished cleaning up

I happen to come over a few pins on Pintrest on couch storage and fell in love with the option to have charger cables tucked away in a shelf behind the couch. I did some more digging and started planning my own version. My shelf ended up being a little more complex that the version I started with. A hinged shelf with storage beneath. So I would have less clutter on the living room table. Win, win!

hinged

I bought wood planks the width I wanted for the shelf and some square planks to fasten the shelf on. When I was happy with my setup, all visible surfaces got three coats of wood stain from IKEA. Within the shelf I place a power cord for the mobile phone chargers. No more cables stretched across the couch.

blending in

-how do you keep clutter away from the couch area?

Headband storage

The headband storage in SweetieLs room has been a frustration lately. As it hang right next to the door I keep getting snagged by the headband and wind up pulling a bunch on the floor. Pintrest to the rescue! And I have now found a new storage solution for SweetieLs growing headband collection.

pass at own risk

I found that the box for fireplace starter cubes were the perfect dimension. So just needed to air out the smell. And with some black felt fabric I had laying around I went to work

before picture

I used a glue gun to attach the fabric around the box. I left about 5 cm hanging to be wrapped around the edge.

with fabric over the edge

I recommend cutting the overhanging edge in flaps. This way it was much easier to glue to the inside. On the first round around I glued every second flap. One The second round, I glued the remaining flaps to the inside.

glue the flaps and then nice and smooth

SweetieL choose a pink lace ribbon and it was ready to replace the old solution. This solution can also be “upgraded” with another “box” if/when necessary.

done

Now less hazardous to pass when walking thru the doorway. And SweetieL is very happy with having something big sister doesn't have...

- have you done any reorganization lately?
- how do you store headbands?

A “quick” DYI

This DYI project was quick to assemble but not so fast when it comes to the accquering of the supplies.
With kids in house we buy raisins on a regular basis. One day when I had an empty box at hand I though these might work…for a bottle rack for all the drinking bottles the girls have.
So we went from this…

a small chaos of drinking bottles

to this…

using these…

They are simply glued together using a hot glue gun. Still need a few more raisin boxes. Happy with this solution.
-have you done any DYI projects lately?

Hand bands and order

SweetieS has begun to have a growing amount of head bands. With my need for order…I set out to find a solution. Pintrest to the rescue! Inspired by this pin on Pintrest and a little help from IKEA, SweetieS now has a storage solution I’m happy with.

The solution is from the IKEA Bygel series. I used the rod, some S-hooks and two cups. Totally up to less than 50NOK!

Not off to find all the head bands located around the house.

- do you have any smart storage solutions to share?
- how do you store your head bands?

Stacked

Winter is coming and the temperature is slowly dropping on the thermometer. A few weeks ago I mentioned to my Facebook friends how I had cleaned our fire place, getting it ready for another season in service. Well this past weekend I organized our log storage better.

The before and after pictures speaks for themselves…looks way more organized. Going from a on-the-fly solution (made of what we had available, a pallet and some planks) to metal racks. After BabyL started pulling out logs from the sides, I realized we had to find a more childproof solution.

before	after

The ones we used here are available from Jula, called “Anslut vedoppbevaring”. We bought two so that we could store logs between the racks too.

picture borrowed from the Jula site – side view of one rack

- how do you store your logs?

Like a Kardashian

Ebay has made sure that SweetieS hair is always stylish. With plenty of hair clips in all the colors of the rainbow I’ve seen the need for better storage. Plastic bags hasn’t been working very well – as SweetieS gets her hands on them and starts unpacking.

Since Ebay had been the source of her many hair accessories I thought Ebay could be the source of organization. When I saw these I thought it be a good start. Fits neatly on the glass shelf in front of the mirror in the bathroom. Nice and handy. Maybe you’ve seen similar around. I remember these being very popular when Kim Kardashian showcased her makeup storage.

though these drawers don’t hold all her hair clips and hair bands – it is a start…

- how do you store your hair accessories?

Lunchbox makeover

July month is a month out of the ordinary in the kindergarten BabyS attends. In cooperation with a few surrounding kindergartens, they are open all Summer. For us this means I have to remember to pack an extra lunchbox for BabyS.

With the need for an extra lunchbox every day I needed a few more boxes, as BabyS only has a few. Well I couldn’t find any I liked when roaming the stores, so I decided I would find simple food containers and pimp the.

I started with these containers from Biltema. I bought the sizes 570ml and 830ml. The difference being the height I could use the lids on both sizes.

very plain boxes…

I used a few stamps I had laying around (a clear stamps set from Michaels – Recollections #171837, and a Inkadinkado stamp set called “Welcome baby” #60–30108) and some jet black Staz-on ink. To color the animals I used fine point Sharpies (any permanent marker should do the trick), I used these. I love how the lids turned out!

the result…

This was fun and I plan on doing this to more lids when BabyL needs lunchboxes…or when I can get my hands on a few more boxes from Biltema. And if BabyS gets tired of the motives I’ve used on these lids, I can always use some ink cleaner to remove the stamped images and give the box a new makeover.

- have you given boxes a new look?

Crocheted square baskets

I’ve seen many round crocheted baskets, but I wanted a square one for my cabinet. I came across the blog by Bekki Bjarnoll and this post with pattern for square baskets. Inspired by this blog post I gave it a go. Though I didn’t follow Bekkis’ pattern.
I started with 15 slip stitches (sl st) and worked round and round with double crochets (dc). In the place where I wanted the corners to be, I double up on dc. When the bottom is the size of the basket I wanted, I started working my way up. In the corners I skipped a dc. When I had the height I wanted for my basket I finished of with a sl st – to get a straight edge.
I used black (color 15) Paris yarn by Drops. It’s a 100% cotton yarn. For one basket I used two skeins of yarn with a 4mm needle. Fits perfect into my IKEA Skär shoe cabinet – seems like this shoe cabinet has been discontinued by IKEA.

please don’t mind the mess…I’m getting to it…

Though it’s called a shoe cabinet, we don’t store shoes in the drawers. The drawers are filled with outdoor accessories for BabyS and BabyL – like scarves, mittens, hats etc…This cabinet is mounted against the wall in our hallway.

- have you crochet any baskets? square or round ones?
- how do you store your outdoor accessories?

Finally some order

Today I finally got a hold of the baskets I wanted for BabyS’ changing table. We have had a IKEA Gulliver changing table for BabyS since she came into our lives. In the beginning there wasn’t much stuff in the shelves. But after almost a year all necessities are covered (I think). Along with more stuff in the shelves beneath came more clutter. So happy to finally get the baskets I wanted from Jysk – they have been out of stock for months! – I totally forgot to take a before picture….I just started organizing…

now we finally have some order

The baskets measure 32 x 44 x 22 cm and are called Shire. I was actually lucky enough to get the baskets while they were on sale, so I got them for about half off what I had initially expected. Yay!

With the baskets being out of stock for so long, it has taken a long time to get all our stuff in order. Better late than never I guess…

- how have you organized your changing table?
- what do you have easily accessible by your changing table?

Show me your lunchbox…

…and I’ll show you mine. With BabyS starting kindergarten this fall I’ve started looking for fun ways to pack her lunchbox.

I looked into different kinds of solutions and concluded I wanted a box with some kind of compartments. That way I can mix different sizes of food in one meal with just one box. There are MANY different solutions “out there” but the one I liked the most is the IKEA Krus box. Plain and simple…

Here is an example I came across from June HS blogg

Love that the dividers can be taken out and thus creating bigger/smaller compartments. IKEA offer this box in three different sizes and the prices won’t bankrupt you either;

Size:	24 x 14 x 10 cm	24 x 19 x 13 cm	24 x 19 x 7 cm
Price:	49 NOK	59 NOK	49 NOK

I’ve also gone shopping for cool trinkets to help facilitate the creativity going into making BabyS lunchboxes more fun! I’m looking forward to playing with these…

boiled egg molds…

some of the cookie cutters I will be using for more than gingerbread cookies bought from Dealextreme

I’ve seen lots of pictures where cookie cutters have been used to cut out slices of cheese, “fish pudding”, cucumber…

- What kind of boxes do you use to pack your lunch?
- How do you pack your lunchboxes?

Now all I have to do is get my butt over to IKEA and buy the boxes…