Tag: organization

$40 Nightstand Makeover in Four Steps

I recently moved a have been looking for just the right nightstands to go in my bedroom. I’ve seen a few that I liked, and I hemmed and hawed way too long, and now that we are in the middle of the COVID pandemic, store closures have brought my search to a semi-halt.

Of course I can still look around online, and I could do a delivery, but I like having options before making a furniture purchase. And quite honestly, I wasn’t in he mood to spend a lot of money. And I also like going into stores and getting good visuals of the things I’m interested in.

So when I stumbled across two nightstands for $30 on Facebook marketplace, I decided to go with an all-together less expensive, more creative option.

These tables weren’t exactly what I was looking for, but for the price, I could see the potential to turn my weekend quarantine hours into a project that would keep me busy while creating some furniture pieces that would suit my needs.

If my bedroom furniture was a different style, I would have used these well-kept pieces as-is. But I have more rustic contemporary feel going on in my bedroom and figure that these traditional furnishings may work better if they were repainted. I’ve seen a lot of furniture makeovers using matted blue, grey and black and thought that painting in one of those hues was more in my wheel house.

I perused around online and saw that I could do a pick-up order of some matte blue spraypaint from my local Walmart, so I went with that. All of the other materials that I used were things I had around my house leftover from various other projects, so the cost of this project wound up being $30 for the tables and about $7 for three cans of spray paint. Not bad!

Here are the materials I used:

  • Sanding block (I don’t know what the coarseness is because it was leftover from other projects)
  • Rust-Oleum Ultra Matte spraypaint in True Navy (3 cans)
  • Design Master 14 kt gold spraypaint (1 can leftover from other projects)
  • All purpose interior/exterior primer (leftover from other projects)
  • Paintbrush
  • Rags
  • Tarps

So here’s what I did:

1. Sanded the tables. After removing the hardware and the drawers, I used a sanding block and sanded the tables and drawer fronts. The tables had a glossy finish, and I knew I was going to need some texture for the paint to grab on to, so the sanding seemed like a good idea. After I sanded, I wiped them off with a wet rag to remove the dust, and let dry for a few minutes.

2. Primed the tables. I had some primer on hand from another project, and spread a layer on the tables. I didn’t use very much, so if you have some, use what you have. If not, maybe buy a small can or a bottle of spray primer. It may not even be needed if you are working with an unfinished, non-coated wood.

3. Sprayed the tables. I sprayed a thin coat of the navy spraypaint, let it dry about 20 minutes, then sprayed another coat. Once I sprayed the second coat, it needed 24-48 hours to fully fully completely dry.

4. Sprayed the hardware. These tables came with bronze hardware that was pretty well tarnished. If I didn’t have gold spraypaint on hand, I would have left them as is until I found replacement hardware. But…because I love having craft items laying around, I happened to have a can of gold spraypaint. So I gave these knobs a couple of quick coats and they came out perfectly.

I poked holes in the cardboard backing of an ink pen package (lol use what you have, right??) and I set the knobs in there for painting.

 

Once everything dried, I put the knobs into the drawers and that was that! I love how the project came out! And I love even more than I did it for under $40!

Have you done any cute makeovers that you want to share? Drop me a comment!

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justamarylandgirl

DIY Reusable Disinfecting Wipes

Lemme tell you, COVID caught me completely off guard. I have prided myself lately in trying to remove hoarding tendencies from my life. And one area where I’ve worked the hardest is on not stocking up on tons and tons and tons of household items. I would buy one pack of paper towels, one counter cleaner, one pack of paper towels, etc. Use those and re-up when the time was right. Space is limited and I typically don’t use most items very fast.

This no-hoarding lifestyle has totally failed me when it comes to COVID prep. Luckily I had recently re-upped on toilet paper and paper towels, apparently the biggest must-haves for the virus.

But when it comes to disinfecting wipes, I have what remains in one container I bought several months ago, and that’s pretty much it. I had started using non-toxic cleansers years ago because I had a cat, so I haven’t stocked up on virus killing products. This means I have little to no bleach, alcohol, peroxide, etc. This will all be rectified once we return to normal.

But in the mean time, I decided to try to stretch the items I have, and stop trying to fight people in the store for wipes and sanitizers. And with that said, I present to you my quick, easy reusable disinfecting wipes.

Materials:

1) 1 and a half cups of 91% rubbing alcohol

2) 3 tablespoons of Palmolive dish soap

3) 10-20 drops of essential oils

4) Cloths

5) Container

This step is optional. For my purposes, I figured it would be a better for my usage for me to cut them. Also, one of the last things I stocked up on when I moved a couple months ago just happened to be this HUGE bag of microfiber cloths from home Depot that were on clearance for $2.50. I’ve only used a few of them, so they were perfect for this project. Also, cheap wash cloths would work as well.

When you use them, you can toss them in the wash.  You can easily refresh the mixture when necessary.

The end! Easy peasy!  

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justamarylandgirl

Unsubscribe from Those Things Which Do Not Serve You

CollageMaker_20190917_111341365

We all get those emails…and now, heaven forbid…those texts.  The ones offering a sale, or promoting an event, that we can’t quite figure out why we’re being alerted about.  Oh well, no biggie…delete.  Then you get another one, and another one, and a reminder, and before you know it, you’re getting a message a day, then multiple messages a day…delete, delete, delete.  WHY ARE YOU HERE???  WHO SENT YOU???

If you’re like me, it’s not enough to delete and keep it moving.  I want to find the root of the problem and cut off the source, and let them know not to EVER EVER EVER come around here no mo!!!  DO. NOT. SEND. ME. ANOTHER. EMAIL.!!!!  Since the source is probably a sold marketing list from someone I bought something from six months ago…or an event I expressed interest in but never attended (how many times have I done that??), finding the source is not likely to happen, I tuck my tail and opt for the next best, yet not quite as satisfying, thing…I click unsubscribe.

Then to add insult to injury, that little message pops up saying that they hate to see me go, and asking what did they do wrong.  Ha!  What did you do wrong???  You sent me an email!   Please click the box that applies–they ask.  Where is the box that says WHO. SENT. YOU.????

Then they probe me further.  Do we send too many emails?  Do you want to revise your subscription?  I NEVER SUBSCRIBED!!!  Do you only want to hear about sales and special events?  Seasonal messages?  Certain products?  What?  How can we keep you???  Please don’t go!!!

It is getting harder and harder to just live in peace, uninterrupted and unbothered.  Stores and people will intrude on your space without thinking about it for a millisecond.  Any opportunity that they can find to jam their issues or products smack into your face, they will take it.

And it’s not just businesses that do this.  Do you ever find that your day is going along perfectly fine, and someone figures out how to disrupt your peace with their drama?  Can you help?  Can you buy?  Can you advise me?  Can you listen to this?  Take my side?  Do me a favor?

Or what about the oh so important news alerts, or text message notifications from the chat group you don’t remember ever asking to be in?  It is virtually impossible these days to just be.   Uninterrupted and unbothered.  Impossible.

But here’s the good news.  That unsubscribe button…it’s there for a reason, and you should definitely use it.  Use it now, and use it often.  Yes, you should not have to use it, but if it helps to make your life a little less irritating, then click it hard and fast!  And don’t give it another thought.

To preserve your peace of mind, to maintain your sanity, or to save your wallet, unsubscribe from these items ASAP:

  • Emails from stores that you rarely or never shop at
  • Email lists that message often, but you rarely read
  • Any text messages from a business you have no interest in
  • Emails that tempt you daily about a product you don’t need and should never purchase
  • Group chats that are constantly dramatic
  • Emails about items that are no longer relevant (you already bought the house, why do you need to keep hearing from the realtor?)
  • Emails about events that you’ve decided are of no interest to you
  • Emails that are clearly from a company that you’ve never had a relationship with and never will
  • Continuous emails from hotel and travel sites when the promotions aren’t typically as good as they lead you to believe
  • Social media accounts that don’t serve as a source of information, joy, comedy, inspiration, or motivation

Life is hard enough sometimes.  Do you really need mental interruptions that impact your peace of mind?  If the answer is no, do yourself a favor–unsubscribe!!

justamarylandgirl

Ideas for Handbag Organization

handbag organization

If you’re like me, you have a lot of purses.  A. LOT.  Despite my best efforts to purge and consolidate and minimize, I still have quite a few handbags remaining.  This wasn’t so much of an issue when I lived alone.  But now that I live with my boyfriend, I have to reign this in a little bit.  Apparently there’s no room for my handbag dresser, and having them strewn about the home is a no-go.  Fine.

Before I moved in, I trimmed down my purse collection, and now I have them all isolated to a corner of my closet, piled high.  Real high.  It isn’t functional and definitely isn’t pretty.  I find that I kinda just leave the last one I used on top, so it gets easy to forget about the poor ones on the bottom.  Some may ask…”well, doesn’t that mean you should get rid of the ones on the bottom?”  Of course not!  That’s definitely not logic that I’m going to follow, primarily because…I don’t want to.

So…in my quest to come up with ideas for storing my handbags in the space I’ve been allotted, I rounded up a few ideas from around the web that I thought were cute, functional, affordable, and relatively easy to implement.

book case
{glam book shelf}

closet organizer
{Park-a-Purse Organizer}

 

curtain rod
{Curtain Rod Organizer}

hanging organizer amazon
{Vertical Hanging Storage}

ikea hack
{Book Case With Cubbies}

lid rack
{Lid Rack}

peg board
{Peg Board}

purse wall
{Purse Wall}

wine rack
{Wine Rack}

Depending on your particular situation, one idea may work better than another.  For now, I should probably get to measuring and assessing to see which one will work for me.

tata for now -m- (2)

justamarylandgirl