How to organize your pantry!

About a month ago I found this organizer on pinterest.   I decided that Amy from Then She Made is a genius!! I have a cabinet-style pantry in the kitchen and it can get heavy on the cans - so I loved her idea of repurposing a carton from a 12 pack of soda into a can holder!  She used scrapbooking papers, which looks gorgeous, but I had a different idea.

You know I'm a chalkboard spray paint addict, right?!  See where this is going? First, I cut a small rectangle on the back of the top - to reload the cans. 

Then I gave each container a light coat of CB paint all over (I went a little heavier on the top - not so much on the sides, since noone will see them).  The front of each container got 3 coats of CB paint.  After they dried, I brought them inside and emptied my shelves, lol!

you can see the logo through the one coat of paint this got.  I don't care - it will be front-side out in my pantry, so no one will see it!  Cut a rectangle on the top back to drop more cans in as you buy them...

Next time I'll write on the front of them while empty, standing them on their ends.  It's alot harder to write on them from the front side when they are full! I have one for my soups (but my larger cans of soup don't fit in these), one for tomatoes (crushed, puree, small cans of sauce), and one for fruits.  I'll add more for veggies as I gather more of the cartons!   This project took less than 30 minutes and used items I already had on hand, so it was easy-peasy and super cheap!  If you try my version or Amy's please link back with a picture - I love to see what other crafty mamas out there make!

These fit my third pantry shelf perfectly and I think there is room for one more!

And while I'm at it - I am going to show off some of my recycled pantry helpers I got at Goodwill & cheap containers from Dollar Tree!   My Goodwill store has a whole aisle of kitchen helpers & gadgets, which often includes little wire shelves, plastic bins, lazy susans and more.  I stock up whenever I find them!

I've donated to D's school, my husband's food drive, plus taken things to my Nana so I have let my stockpile get low.  I'll be restocking it soon so I took advantage of my almost-empty pantry shelves to move things around today to organize a bit.  I pulled out two of my Goodwill three-tier shelves and a lazy susan (all 3 cost me under $5) and put them to work!   Double click on the pics for up close look...

This shelf holds items for baking.  Three tier shelf in back corner holds smaller baking ingredients, plus extracts and an extra salt grinder.  The container holding my cornmeal mix is from the dollar store - they come in a three pack and I love them!!

Next shelf down holds large soup cans, pasta sauces, olives, dressings, canned pasta, baby food purees (I add these to everything to give us extra veggies!) , bread crumbs and olive oil .  It also keeps my large mason jar that holds all of my cupcake liners! (It's too tall for my baking shelf, so I keep it on the one below). The lazy susan lets me find pizza sauce, dressings, canned chicken or condiments easily. 

Being organized doesn't have to cost a fortune, and you can recycle/repurpose a variety of things or use items from the thrift store or Goodwill to keep them out of the landfill!  I'm back on my Flylady routines starting this week, so getting my pantry back together ROCKS!

How to makeover your porch lights!

A few weeks ago I really noticed how badly faded our front porch light fixtures were! They were black when we bought the house, but now that we've lived here six years, the intense sunlight we receive on the front of the house for 6+ hours a day really has taken a toll on them.  I remembered reading a post on Thrifty Decor Chick's Blog that she had spray painted her light fixtures, so I asked my DH to take ours down so I could clean them up and paint them new again!

When he brought them inside they were so gross! Dead bugs inside (eww!), plus the glass was really dirty, so faded and even a bit of rust - can you say big fat hot mess?  I had gotten a can of oil-rubbed bronze spray paint - my favorite - at Walmart, and a really cool spray paint trigger that keeps mama's hands and nails clean (!!) so it was time to paint these suckers!

I used blue painters tape on the three glass sides after I cleaned the fixtures with soap and water and cleaned the glass.  Here's a side by side shot of one straight off the house, and one cleaned up and ready to tape the glass!

Left: Straight off the house, Right: cleaned up glass & fixture

And after they were painted:

Light fixtures after two coats of spray paint.



Each light got two coats of oil-rubbed bronze paint and they look AMAZING! Can you believe how easy it is to revive something with a little elbow grease and a can of spray paint? LOVE IT!

I can't wait for DH to put them back up tomorrow on the front porch - it's got grey river rock, so the black will absolutely pop off that now! : ) 

Have you done any spray paint makeovers? I would love to see them - leave a link so I can come by and comment! : )

Trash to Treasure: Goodwill Mirror Makeover

Y'all know I can't pass up a deal at Goodwill.  Last month they had this mirror for $4.94 - it was large, framed, and had a small shelf and four screw hooks pushed into the bottom.  I knew I wanted to do something with it - but what?

After playing around with some acrylic paints I had,  I went to Walmart.  I headed for the spray paint section and inspiration hit! Chalkboard paint!!  I painted the frame and shelf black, then spray painted the mirror with three coats of the chalkboard paint.   Randy hung it up in the kitchen and I am in love with this newly made-over treasure!!  

I can post messages to the kids, or the menu for the day - even fun quotes!  And the kids can leave mom messages too!!  The hooks at the bottom hold different things on different days! Today in honor of Fat Tuesday, I have a Mardi Gras theme - a magnet Randy bought last time he was in New Orleans, and a few strings of beads.  There are also a few kitchen tools - a fun whisk and one of my Grandmother's ladles.... I am planning on drying some rosemary & lavender so I can hang bundles of them from the hooks come summer!

It's beginning to feel like Spring here, so I'm decorating like it is!

I've been stalking the glassware aisle at the local Goodwill and I finally found what I was looking for ~ another cheese board & glass dome set! I ADORE these!! I've found a couple of the glass domes by themselves, so this was a treasure! And it was so big ~ much bigger than the last one I found there, and only $4.94.   Time for another Goodwill Trash to Treasure makeover!  I needed something lighter-colored, so I bought some antique white spray paint at Wal-mart and got to work!

Before - just your average cheese board & dome....kind of scratched up too....

Here's how it looks now ~ I added some robins egg/nest vase filler I got at Target with my free Rx gift cards

but it's only $3.99 so I'd have gotten it even without the free gift card! 

It turned out to be so cute and exactly what I had in mind -a perfect centerpiece for the kitchen table! (please excuse the tablecloth - haven't gotten my Spring one on there yet!)

I even repurposed some tree branches from this Christmas project!  I really love the simplicity of this ~ isn't it sweet?! And the color - so nice, such a bright change from winter's darker shades.

Afterwards, I had so many pieces of the filler items leftover in the box that I spruced up my dollar store hurricanes with them, too! I am still looking for the perfect ribbon to tie around the base of each of them.

I'm ready for Spring to hurry up and get here!

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