Organising a Storage Cupboard

Slowly but surely I am making my way through the cupboards in our house , tidying, culling and labelling. I will probably reach the end of my list and have to start again but that is ok. I like a challenge and a project!! 

Seeing as though we are renting, we can't permanently add more storage to the house as I would have done in the past and we really have to work with what we have. 

The cupboards are quite random throughout the place. I have no broom/mop/full length cupboard and others don't have the right shelving etc inside of them so you can't use them to their maximum capacity. 

Oh well ... It just means we have to be creative ! Creative with limited shopping and storage options of course ;)

This single door cupboard is near our main bathroom, toilet and laundry and comes off a bedroom (which I use to work out of ). It tended to be a random dumping zone for anything that didn't really have a home so it was one of the most important areas to make over.

This is the before photo (and this was tidied a little while before);

It wasn't too bad but as you can see, some really strange items ended up in here! 

I pulled everything out, purchased some white tubs from Red Dot (will on a day trip to Karratha) and sorted the items groups for the tubs. Luckily we already had the plastic drawers , and they were being a nuisance , taking up space in the store room so it was nice to find them a use! 

Ta -Da!! 

Now this is the home for the kids DSI and tablet devices and their accessories and travel bags ( honestly, they really only play with these items every 4-6 weeks or when we are travelling) we didn't feel the need for them to be anywhere more accessible, plus we love how they are out of reach of the children (giving us the control).

 It is also where I now store our cards, ribbon and wrapping paper for gifts ( I do miss the wrapping station that I created at our old house) and some cleaning items (like dustpan and brush set, a few scrubbing brushes etc. 

These white tubs have made all the difference. They are super cheap and light to pull out , which is important to a shorty like me when they are stored up high!  I made these labels using THIS tutorial and then backed them on some pretty paper before running them through a laminator. I just stuck them to the tubs with BluTack. I want to be able to swap and change around the tubs and contents whenever I like so this method works well. 

All the earphones, chargers and travel bags for the devices are in the tubs and drawers and then I made use of the void of space under the shelf with some baskets from Kmart. As the bottom of the cupboard is where my vacuum cleaner lives,  this basket is perfect to store the different attachments so they are handy all the time. The other under shelf basket houses our double adaptors/plugs as we seem to always need one of these ( especially when we have visitors).

I didn't forget the Miscellaneous tub. Every cupboard needs one in my opinion!! 

This one has a few small gift items that I picked up super cheap at Kmart (like 10c each) such as skipping ropes, wooden cupcakes and a few cars and trucks and I often add them to a present or use the skipping ropes when wrapping gifts. I will keep adding to it anytime I see something on special. 

A few hours of my time, over a few days, $20 for some plastic tubs and we now have a very pretty and tidy cupboard. Got to love that! 

Now onto the next one!! 

Don't forget to check out the rest of my 'Organising on a budget' series .

Our Portable Fairy Garden

After seeing many many gorgeous fairy gardens on the wonderful world of the Internet, on pinterest and on my social media feeds, we decided that perhaps we would like to make one for our home.

Seeing as though we are in a rental, are unsure if we will have to move next year when the lease is up and are in a cyclone prone area, there were more factors that we needed to consider when creating our little garden.

Not to mention the fact that during our summer it is consistently at temperatures of the high 40's , day in, day out for MONTHS on end. The sun is brutal and not many lovely flowers or plants survive the heat onslaught! We hardly survive it!

So .. the garden needed to be portable - so that it can be brought inside or to the shed when a cyclone decides to grace us, so that we can take it to any house we live in and so that we can move it around depending on the seasons and weather. 

Living in the Pilbara means limited shopping opportunities , and really not a lot of choice full stop. If only we had a Bunnings! And a Target and and and and ......

However, we don't, we have a Hardware store but you pay through the nose for anything really, especially a lovely ceramic pot or a half wine barrel (oh how I would have loved to use one of those!!)

Instead , a trip to Kmart , and this lovely tub was bought. It has handles for transporting, its light enough to be less hassle when moving and its a great size. 

All supplies were purchased from Kmart or Thingz ( a WA franchise, its a giftware type shop) and cost less than $40 for everything! If you have more stores to choose from, I am sure you could pick up some really gorgeous items and there are some amazing online stores that cater for these things especially but we went with what we could find locally and rehomed a lot of items we already had. 

The kids were so excited and had a ball helping us put it all together. They really got into the fact that fairies would come and perch themselves in the garden for a rest, the check on the kids or for outings with each other! 

We firstly filled the tub with potting mix (for when we use real plants instead of the lovely artificial ones pictured). 

We then created 'zones' in the garden - a path using some small pebbles (sourced from our front verge hehe) , some small plastic type crystals for the garden sections, a plaque at the back with a saying and some gems on it (both from Thingz)

We added a rock (also sourced from our garden) , some shells for the path edging and an area at the back, some toadstools (actually sharpeners from Kmart, they come in a pack of 2) , a bunch of artificial lillies and a ladybug spinner (from Kmart). 

Not forgetting somewhere for the Fairies to sit when they visit, some chairs from the unused dolls house were rehomed , as was a small bucket (in the front) that I had in my party supplies. 

We left a small patch at the front bare as I wanted to source a small off cut of fake turf , and put a call out on our local community facebook page. 

Our prayer was answered by a lovely lady we know from dancing, and she had this cute grass mat with flowers that she had used for a birthday party. 

I shaped it with the garden shears and created a cute little grassy area. 

Some renovations also took place when I rediscovered the white bird house in our store room cleanup - so out with the rock, and in with the cute house. Perfect!! 

Our little fairy garden is a constant work in progress. It gets changed and added to constantly by the kids with things they have found or made.  Every child that comes to visit likes to stop and check out all the magic as its at our front door, and I have no doubt they all request one from their parents too!! 

Our portable , magical Fairy garden has been in place for a few months now (sorry for being so late to share) and we all still love it! Everything is wearing well and its easy to care for, we just clean a few loose leaves off it occasionally. 

It wasn't hard, nor expensive and its amazing how something so small, can create so much joy, imagination and magic in our little cherubs. Totally worth it! 

Maybe you would like to make one too? I would love to see them if you do!

Lately ......

Lately ..  I have been the blogger that doesn't blog. 

A Mum enjoying the slower pace of the school holidays

A lady going mad because all of my favourite shows (that I like to watch online) are on season breaks! (first world problems here peeps) 

And a crazy DIY-er with a few projects on the go, paint in my hair and all over my arms and waiting on bits and pieces to finish them all off!

Lately life has been busy, the weather has been glorious (in the sunny Pilbara) and we have plenty to look forward to. That always seems to make the days and weeks fly by!

Hubby has started a shift roster, which is bittersweet. Long days , where I am literally doing everything and he is just eating, working and sleeping but then bigger blocks of time off. We can take day trips, I can work a little more and we have more time to spend together.  Like I said ... bittersweet. 

I seem to have found my crafty mojo. The only problem being , I want to have a go at everything that has been on my wish or 'to do' list for a while. So much I want to do, so little time and so little supplies in this town! Oh how I miss Spotlight!

I have so many projects and bits and pieces to share with you all, but here is a bit of whats been happening in the Team M house ....

The painting of shadow boxes, these ones are from Cotton on Kids

And this is from Kmart (it was beige and hessian but I undercoated them with this white before painting on the colour coats)

A photo on Instagram inspired me to tizzy up the kids kitchen! It is nearly completed , just waiting on some yummy wrapping paper I am using as a splash back and I will definitely be sharing the finished product!

Post coming soon!!

School holiday fun has meant lots of plays at the park,  lots of scooter riding, a day trip to Karratha , and a trip to the movies yesterday! So excited as it doesn't happen very often up here, and it was Angus' first time!

The weather has been chilly, for Pilbara standards, and I took the opportunity to whip out the beloved boots! Such a novelty!

More paint projects, baskets and lids. Frames for walls and hooks. Fun fun 

One of the finished mini projects , a simple Ikea jar , a spare knob glued on the top and a touch of spray paint. A cute update for my 'Tea and Coffee Cupboard" revamp. Again, another post to share when the labels have arrived and I am finished!

I have crates of fabric begging to be turned into something pretty and a few bunny dresses and skirts were the prefect starter projects! 

Late afternoon walks along the paths and lookouts to kill time while waiting for Daddy to finish work. This really is a beautiful part of the country, and somewhere that people just never want to visit.

And the most important thing of all. I've been busy being a Mum to my 4 cherubs. When I posted this photo on instagram I wrote this ;

Motherhood is sleep deprivation and self doubt, testing and a content challenge. You lose a lot of who you were before but become so much more in the process. Today I feel lucky to have 4 happy , healthy kids (and I will use this post to look back on next week when school holidays start and they are fighting like cat and dog)

And they have been fighting , but they have also been playing beautifully. I still feel the same a few weeks later, at the tail end of the holidays , thankfully!!

Happy Saturday everyone, I am looking forward to sharing some new things soon!