Tame it Tuesday- a summer series on taming the mess

I am a person who likes to create. It feeds my soul and makes my heart sing. I also crave some sort of order and neatness. And when things are not neat and orderly it kills any creativity I want to have. With this new party planning/designing business I need to create, which means I need some neat and orderly.
Over the past few months my home has become disorganized. Homeschooling, 3 part time jobs, starting my own party business, church ministries and this blog have taken over so much that my home has not had the regular organized cleaning it needs. So today I want to kick off a 10 week summer series on taming the mess. Each week I will show what needs done and what steps I am taking with each project. My goal is to also use what I have on hand to organize or clean each project. Want to join me? I would love it!
First up is my kitchen shelf with all my plastic storage. I am on the short side (5'2") so reaching up to put something away is always a challenge. When I am in a hurry I will usually resort to sticking an item where it will fit and deal with it later. Well "later" has come and gone. Plastics are always a challenge aren't they? I mean I never have this problem with bowls or plates. They always seem to stack so nicely. Not with the plastics. They are usually a "heap o mess". What I have on hand to help tame it: small wire rack from thrift store, large round shallow bucket, and rectangle tubs that do stack inside each other.

Before:

After:

 I used the purple shallow bucket for most of the small round and rectangle pieces. The large rectangular dishes to hold all the small lids and then the small wire shelf to hold the large lids. It is not the best or prettiest but it fits in our budget and it works for now. I would love to find something like this for the inside door for the lids... I will be keeping a look out during back to school sales. The ice cream bucket and snowman bowl I put in another cupboard that is for less used items (will show that one when I get to it).
I am curious what to you use for all your plastics. Please share your ideas!

Re-Purpose Glass Jars for your Pantry, DIY

I love the mason jar craze, however I want to save my jars for canning peaches. We have a peach tree and Dear Hubby loved it when I learned how to can them (future post). I still wanted to use jars in my pantry and I have come up with an alternative that I really like.

On occasion I purchase jars of fruit from our local discount grocery store. Because of the measurement on the sides I liked them and decided to use these instead of my mason jars. However they come with tin lids that are just ordinary to look at. But while looking for something else I spotted these and wondered? I got an idea...a wonderfully nifty idea... I purchased them to see if they would fit.

They do! These are white plastic lids from Ball. You can purchase them just about anywhere canning supplies are sold. They come in a pack of 8 for a reasonable price and you can get them in regular or wide mouth size. Once I chose what pantry items I wanted in each jar I labeled them with letter stickers from my scrapbook stash.

I just love them! What do you think?

Thrifting Thursday: How I decorate on a tight budget

Welcome to my first installment of Thrifting Thursday! Each week I will share with you how our family saves money. Posts will include saving on groceries, thrift store finds, decorating on a budget, parties on a budget and anything else I find to write about that has saved our family tons!

To start with you should all know that my favorite place to shop is the thrift store. Why? Because almost anything we need or want can be found there for very good prices. And it is fun- you never know what you will find! Shopping there has truly been a blessing, it has literally saved our family hundreds of dollars over the years. Any thrift store will do, but I do shop our local Youth Ranch the most because it is close to home. I go almost weekly 1) because our store is always busy so I go often to find the deals 2) they put out new stuff just about daily and 3) they have sales that change almost weekly. I will share with you in a later post on the ins and outs of thrift store shopping that I have learned from both working at thrift stores and shopping them over the years.

But for now let's get on to the savings! We have a tight budget and thrift store finds are one way I have found to make our house feel like home. Usually with a little cleaning, up-cycling, or t.l.c. I can make work what I have found, to match the decor we already have.

The first picture at the top of the post is the decor I have on top of my china hutch in the dining room.
I will focus on the items that have been given or thrifted lately. To start with the USA wood sign was given to me from my good friend Heather, it goes well on top of my flag box. Which I got on a half price sale at the Youth Ranch for only 95 cents. The gold pear (which I think I am going to paint) I got again for half price at only 33 cents.

The small white pillar in this picture I got as well for half price for only 33 cents. And aren't the pet food containers cute! I paid under $4 total for them at a gigantic flea market we go to every Labor Day weekend.

This hangs on the wall in our dining room. I love the stitching, heart buttons and colors of it. It goes perfectly in this room. I purchased it for only 95 cents at the thrift store.

The swan planter sits on our dining table which holds our cloth napkins. I paid 33 cents, again on a half price sale at my local thrift store.

And this guy- I heart him! He is adorable and I only had to pay $4 for him at that same gigantic flea market this last Labor Day weekend.

What are some of your favorite thrifty finds? 

linking up at: Faith filled food for moms