Condo Blues

Sunday, February 1, 2015

6 Smart Strategies to Organize a Garage and Workshop

Our garage and workshop was an unorganized mess!  I put the organize the garage project off for long time because I was overwhelmed by the clutter. Where do I start? Ack!

six steps to an organized garage

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By accident or design (I’m going to go with by design because it sounds like I had a plan all along instead of a make it up as I go along series of happy accidents) I broke my big garage organization project into several smaller, less overwhelming projects.

Guess what? Three days later (I had a lot of stuff to deal with) I had an organized workshop I can use without tripping over anything. I discovered some things I thought were working weren’t and why. I made changes according my needs and organization style. My garage is now neat and stays that way.

Yay!

This method worked so well on helping my clear my garage clutter madness that I’m using it to organize other parts of my house. You can too!

Thursday, January 29, 2015

20 Warm Winter DIY Clothes We Love

Trying to buy warm winter clothing and accessories after Christmas is difficult because all of the stores are selling bathing suits!

Which is great if you live somewhere warm enough to wear a bathing suit during the winter.
For the rest of us, if we want warm winter clothes it’s recycling and DIY or die freezing time!

20 winter DIY recycled clothes projects
 Save these ideas to your Pinterest boards for later! Share them with your friends!

20 DIY Must Haves to Keep You Warm This Winter

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Dog Coats and Boots for Dogs Who Hate Wearing Clothes


Lacey, our snow warrior princess loves to romp and play in the snow. Her dachshund side goes into overdrive. She investigates every little foot print, crack, or hole in the snow when she goes outside and take care of business.

Being part Cavalier King Charles Spaniel means her natural fur dog coat is longer than a barley there dachshund’s but Lacey doesn't last very long in low winter temperatures, nor should she when the temperatures are so dangerously low.

Girlfriend needs a winter dog coat.

coats for dogs that hate to wear dog coats


Too bad my dog hates to wear a dog coat.

Thursday, January 22, 2015

DIY Glass Bead Valentine’s Day Wreath

I’m doing something different this winter. I get a case of the blues most winters after I put away our Christmas décor. The inside of the house is almost as colorless as the overcast gray winter days outside and will stay that way until everything starts blooming in the spring.

I’m trying something new and adding a bit of color to the house by decorating for Valentine’s Day.
I found a metal heart shaped wreath form at Joann’s. I used that as my inspiration and with a little upcycled fabric and a whole bunch of glass vase fillers (also called glass craft rounds) I made a heart shaped Valentine’s Day wreath.

Glass bead Valentines day heart wreath
Even better the metal wreath form is sturdier and less likely to break than the not so eco friendly foam wreath forms. Yay!

How to Make a Heart Shaped Valentine’s Day Wreath

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Organize Your Garage in Three Easy Questions

I make most DIY projects harder or take 10 times longer because I have to hunt for stuff in the jumble of crap the tool shelves eventually become in my garage. It needs to change.

three questions to answer for an organized garage and workshop

Welcome to my nightmare.

It’s time to face the fact that while tool storage shelves work for some people, they aren’t working for me. I have tons of garage organization ideas on my Pinterest boards (follow Condo Blues on Pinterest, pretty please?)

I have even more people telling me I should create/build/buy garage organizers like the kind they like.  I appreciate the helpful suggestions. But  I have some of those suggested organizers and they aren’t working for me right now.

I need to learn how to determine how to organize my workshop and garage according to my habits and organizing style first before I go crazy installing the slat wall of my dreams or whatever.
 

How to Make a Garage and Workshop Organization Plan with Three Simple Questions


Sunday, January 11, 2015

17 Resources that will Motivate You to Declutter and Organize


17 easy way to motivate yourself to organize and declutter
 Pin this list of ideas to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!


Winter is a great time to get organized. Since most of us are stuck inside because of the snow and the cold and a little restless, why not use that energy to clean and organize the post Christmas carnage in my craft room, right?

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Small Space Industrial Open Pantry Yay or Nay?

A worn valve on our water heater flooded the utility, laundry, and kitchen after Husband started the dishwasher on Christmas Eve Eve morning.

Husband shut the water heater off while I called plumbers. Apparently plumbers are crazy busy with smart people who have plumbers do pre-emptive work on their pipes before overloading their plumbing with guests, cooking, and cold weather. It was a Festivus miracle I found a plumber during regular business hours that day!

That didn’t make my cranky feeling go way as I mopped the rest of the water, hoped we didn’t need to buy a replacement water heater (fortunately we just needed to replace a valve – whew!), and pulled a mountain of chaos out of the utility room so the plumber could find the water heater had room to work.

how to find organize pantry space in a condo kitchen