10 Garage Storage and Organizing Hacks

Fall is one of those busy DIY transition times in the garage. The summer things need to be cleaned and put away for winter and it’s time to dig out the rakes to deal with all of those leaves falling off the trees that make Fall, well, Fall.


Fall is also a great time to reorganize the storage in your garage. Need some help? I have 10 garage hacks to share with you!

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(Not that I pinned all of these hacks to Pinterest (follow Condo Blues on Pinterest, please?)  because I personally need every single one of them. OK. I’ll be honest. I need to all of these hacks to keep our garage neat and tidy.

10 Natural, Reycled, and Upcycled Acorn Crafts

Fall is one of the best times of the year to decorate with nature. A simple walk in the park or, if you are lucky, a few steps from your front door is a whole host of Mother Nature’s splendor just waiting for a little green Fall decorating and craft magic.

 

 Pin these clever ideas for later!

Autumn leaves, pumpkins, and cornstalks (I almost bought some from a farmer’s market on a whim last weekend,) are what I normally think of when it comes to Fall décor.

It wasn’t until I saw Dandelion Patina ‘s  recycled sweater and coconut shell acorns that I thought about decorating with acorns and acorn crafts. I pinned her post to my Fall decorating Pinterest board (follow me @condoblues on Pinterest pretty please?) and fell head first into real, recycled, and upcycled acorn crafts and decorations.

Carve a Life Size Snake Pumpkin for Halloween!

You may not know this but I have something in common with the archaeological adventurer Indiana Jones.

I hate snakes.

I think snakes are creepy, ugly, slimy, and icky! Icky! Icky!

Spiders I can handle, but snakes? Not unless they are incredibly and undoubtably fake.

 

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 Or they light up. Like this guy!

Decorating with Real Pumpkin Topiaries and Mosaics

I appreciate carving and decorating with real pumpkins for fall and Halloween.

Doing it is another story.

 Pin this post for pumpkin decorating ideas!

Carving pumpkins is messy, goopy, and if you do it too early, moldy by the time Halloween rolls around. Besides, if don't carve the pumpkins, we can make fresh pumpkin puree (learn how on my food blog Lazy Budget Chef) and use it to make fantastic food after Halloween. Lacey likes this idea very much.

Lawn Fertilizer Made My Dog Sick

Last week Lacey started her day by vomiting on the carpet. I don’t want to sound callous or unfeeling but life with Lacey sometimes comes with spontaneous barfing. I wasn’t surprised to find grass in the clean up.

Lacey sometimes eats grass as a stress reaction. Our Homeowner’s Association has been repairing sidewalks and damaged roads for the last week or so and her anxiety has been off and on Orange Alert Level Defcon 5.

Following our vet’s advice, we wait a bit to let Lacey’s tummy settle before giving her a small portion of her breakfast. We wait again to see if Lacey keeps it down Then we give her the rest of her breakfast in smaller portions until she’s finished her half cup of morning kibble.

5 End of Summer Projects and Adventures

Just as our unseasonably cold and soggy summer finally gets around to acting  like a normal clear and blazing hot summer the season is officially over with Labor Day weekend. Ohio weather is certainly an adventure!

That’s not to say, Husband and I have not had our share of projects and adventures in between thunderstorms. Since most of them are tidbits rather than full blown blog post I figure why not wrap up the summer with a wrap up of our summer fun?

After spending a little over a year driving past it and silently sending the place “build it faster” vibes

How to Make a Brick Tree Ring on Uneven Ground

After I repaired our crumbling brick garden border (read the tutorial here) it was time to turn our attention to the brick tree ring.

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Yep. The brick wall around the tree in the front yard is falling over too.

Why?

Whimsical and Recycled DIY Flamingo Garden Decor

I have a weird love hate relationship with outdoor garden décor and yard art. I’d love to add a few whimsical pieces to my garden for color that doesn’t die (like our landscaping always does.) The problem is I hate for my garden tchotchkes to be the same as everyone else.

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I’ve been looking on and off for unusual garden decorations all summer. I found a few to poke fun at like the free range garden Yeti we found in Amish country but nothing we really wanted in our yard full time. Or in the case of Sasquatch and lawn gnomes, something which is commonly stolen because it is ridiculous.

Ant Killer Caution: Ant Pesticides Can Kill Plants Too

With the rainiest summer in history (sorry drought stricken folks) everyone I has had an ant problem this summer.

Apparently this year’s ant colonies are particularly devious and tenacious because even after following all the steps in my post How to get Rid of Ants in a Pet and Kid Safe Natural Way some of those little jerks found a way back into my house, although not as many as before.

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The last straw came when the concrete ants bit me because they though I was standing too close to the pot of chocolate mint they use as a summer party pad on my patio.  We’ve been doing our own thing on the patio for years without bothering each other until now. What’s up with that ants? Why won’t you let us use the grill without annoying ant bites?

Landscaping Budget Hack: Use a Tool Lending Libarary

It seems strange to start a landscaping project in late July instead of May but Mother Nature isn't giving us much choice. Ohio has the opposite water problem California has - too much rain.

The number of days in a row Columbus has not had any precipitation this year?

Four.

This we're lucky if we get a 24 hour period without rain once every couple of weeks. If the sun decides to visit us after a 15 to 19 day rainy stretch we learned to drop everything to do outside chores just in case it rains later in the day.

 

Pin this for gardening and landscaping season!

DIY Fire and Ice Fire Bowl

The first time I saw fire stone was in a gas burning fireplace on HGTV. When they lit the fireplace it looked like the cheery orange flame danced above a field of clear ice shards.

It was just the thing I wanted to replace the ceramic fake logs in my gas fireplace.

I put the fire stone idea aside when my research told me I'd have to replace the entire gas fireplace insert to a specific insert that works with fire stone. I put the fire and ice desire on the back burner since it wasn't the quick fix I thought it would be.

Until I read Kim's tabletop fire bowl idea on her blog Today’s Creative Life. She made a fire stone fire bowl for her deck in less than 30 minutes.

Just look at that blue! It looks like ice from the Caribbean ocean is on fire.

Which is a pretty good trick since the only ice I ever saw in the Caribbean has been in my drink from the hotel ice maker.

I can totally do this!

So can you. Read Kim's tutorial

DIY Tabletop Fire Bowl

on Today's Creative Life!



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How to Repair a Quad Camp Chair

One of Husband’s coworkers has a HUGE Fourth of July parade party and cookout.

Food was made. Watermelon cut and cubed. Coolers were washed and ready. The one thing we didn’t double check were our first generation armless folding quad lawn (camp) chairs. (aff link)

We discovered one of rivets holding the chair legs to the seat broke after we set up the chairs at our parade viewing encampment. Whoops!

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Replacing a broken rivet on a folding quad lawn chair is a super simple fix. It takes barely any time at all. If you have a jar of odd nuts and bolts laying around, it could be a zero dollar repair. What’s not to love about that?

How to Fix a Folding Lawn Chair

12 Favorite Summer Craft Projects

Summer is in full swing. I am loving it! Warm summer days are excellent DIY and craft project weather. Here are a few of my favorite summer craft projects that are not only clever but useful too!

 

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DIY Personalized Insulated Wine Glass Tumblers –  Fun and reusable!

How to get Rid of Ants in a Pet and Kid Safe Natural Way

After nine days of consecutive rain my yard is waterlogged. A bunch of ants decided to seek higher ground and wanted to use my kitchen as a summer vacation spot.

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I wanted to kill the ants but I am leery of using borax, conventional ant bait traps, and sprays because I don’t want to kill my dog along with the ants. Death by shoe is more natural and personally satisfying but it not a good long term solution.

Five Things You Absolutely Must Do to Get Rid of Ants

How to Replace a Rain Barrel Spigot

My rain barrel has been harvesting water for the last three years. I couldn’t be happier with it. Even better my rain barrel keeps a soggy side of my house dry.

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The only downside to my 40 gallon bundle of joy is after three years of faithful service the shut off valve on the attached hose broke. I can’t unscrew it and use a regular garden hose with my rain barrel rock because it has a hose instead of a spigot. 

Mother’s Day Tool Giveaway with WORX Tools: 3 Winners!

One of the benefits of living in a condo is having a homeowner’s association that mows our yard. Unfortunately sometimes the lawn guys are more about doing the job quickly than accurately.   Husband and I figure it time to invest in lawn tools so we can trim and tidy up the edging the lawn service hits and misses.




Husband and I checked out the WORX 20V MaxLithium GT Trimmer/Edger/Mini-mower and it’s pretty neat. It take the place of three power lawn tools in your garage, a grass trimmer, an edger, and a mini-mower, very nice for those of us with limited tool storage space. The other feature Husband and I appreciate is the how easily the telescoping shaft adjusts to the user’s height. When it comes to yard work Husband and I trade off jobs as our schedules permit (and who gets tired of wonky edging first.)

15 Unique Garden Border and Edging Ideas

Now that it is officially Spring, I’m ready to start planning our landscaping. I found a bunch of clever, unusual, and some down right weird ideas for garden borders and edging one day while I was researching what to plant and where to plant it.

I thought I’d share because maybe you need new garden borders too.

Or you just like to look at garden p*rn. that’s OK too.

 Save these ideas to Pinterest for later!

21 Drought Tolerant Plants for Your Yard

You are getting excited for the Spring planting season?

Me too!

Although I am not looking forward to how much it will cost us to keep a new landscape watered all summer long.

One way to avoid a high summer water bill is to plan my new landscape with native plants. Since I often forget plants need water to grow, they should be drought tolerant too.

Since I know pretty much nothing about native or drought tolerant plants, I'm cruising over to Organizing Made Fun and reading her 21 suggestions for Going Native: Drought Tolerant Plants for Your Yard.

Check it out now and pin it for later!

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Outdoor Christmas Décor: Modern Lighted Tomato Cage Christmas Trees

For as much I enjoy looking at Christmas light displays you’d think I’d do something fancy outside of my own home.


Nope. I keep it simple.

Why?

Because it is always too cold outside to put up and take down elaborate Christmas decorations!

Peace, love, joy, and warmth. That’s what my outdoor Christmas décor is all about.

And by warmth I mean not freezing my legs off while I’m outside or in the garage building new Christmas decorations.

This year I made a few changes in our outdoor Christmas décor and especially in what I used to display them. I wore the right work pants for the job, my Duluth Trading Company Women's Fleece-Lined DuluthFlex Fire Hose Pants.

Did I mention these multi-pocketed wonder pants are lined with warm and soft fleece, one of my favorite cold weather fabrics? Oh yes, my friends. My new fancy pants kept me warm while installing Christmas decorations. They proved their worth later that evening on a walk with Lacey to look at Christmas lights a local park. We left early because Husband wore jeans and got cold. Me? Not cold at all.

The best thing about Duluth Trading Company clothes is they realize women need just as many pockets in their clothing as men.  DuluthFlex Fire Hose Pants have six packets: 2 front pockets, a zippered thigh cargo pocket, 2 back pockets, and a Pokey Things Pocket (their name, not mine) on the right back thigh.

Recycled Tire Rim Ottoman

In the little fantasy land of my imagination, I would spend endless summer days, lounging in the summer sun with my feet up on fantastic outdoor furniture.

This will probably never happen because whenever I get down time in the summer I use it to build something that is - you guessed it - not fantastic outdoor furniture.  

Instead I'm going to live vicariously through The Charming Farmer and her comfy, ready for a glass of iced tea put your feet up upcycled outdoor ottoman. You will never believe what she used to make it - a tractor tire rim!

Upcycled tractor tire ottoman photo courtesy of The Charming Farmer

A little rustic, a little modern and a whole lot of genius! Learn how The Charming Farmer made her tractor tire rim ottomans here.

What do you think?


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