So, if you are like me, you have lots of paint supplies and cans and bottles and jars and more crammed in your storage area of choice. And if you are like me, this storage area is a complete disaster!
This is where my friend Becky can help. Becky is the brains behind Organizing Made Fun. She has some great tips and ideas on her blog for keeping your home and life organized. I hope you’ll take a moment to browse her site.
Without further introduction, please welcome Becky:
I’m Becky, from Organizing Made Fun! I hope to movitate you today! So hang on…
Brittany has graciously asked me to help you get motivated to organize! Since I LOVE to organize and it’s fun, I said “of course”! Today, I’m going to show you how I organized all my household paint recently.
It may not seem so bad, when you first look in here. My paint stash isn’t THAT big, is it? Well, it is…see this is where I was storing half of my paint supplies – in my basement.
The other half are in my shed outside! My goal: keep it all in one location! I prefer having it in the basement so I did a little bit of re-organizing. My other goal: don’t spend ANY money on organizing bins. For Pete’s sake, this is paint in the basement! It doesn’t need to LOOK pretty! But, I DO need it to function practically!
I got all my paint, spray paint, paint brushes, anything related to painting, and put them in the basement on the floor.
Wow, that’s a LOT of paint. I even attempted to try and get my friends to take some – a small amount was actually taken! But, there is still a lot left.
My cardboard carry-all box was not functioning as originally intended. It had now become my “throw it in there and forget about it” box!
A couple of years ago, I was smart and bought many small, quart-sized paint cans at the hardware store. They aren’t expensive and I had a couple left. I use those to pour that last little bit left from the big gallon paint cans of paint into.
I highly recommend you dab your finger with the paint, mark the date, the formula or name of paint color, and brand. This way, if you ever DO need more you can have it mixed exactly the same.
More importantly, write down the date and the room you used it in. I can’t tell you how many cans of paint I forgot to do this with and the colors all start to look alike! Was this the kitchen yellow, the bathroom yellow, or furniture yellow? It’s also amazing to realize – “wow, it’s been 8 years since I painted the kitchen?” – and realize that it might be time for an update!
My resources for organizing were simple, old containers. I used a small coffee can, a Doritos can, Feta cheese container, a couple of cardboard box-bottoms, and some aluminum left-over containers. All of these I found in my stash of containers in my overflow pantry.
The large aluminum roasting pan was used to house all my spray paint {it was a tiny bit big, so I smooshed it in the front and back to be able to close the door}. A smaller aluminum pan for the rollers. Two existing plastic boxes for sand paper and rubber gloves {they WERE “organized” paint supplies in the shed but got unorganized}.
Then, the feta cheese container to contain my stir sticks…
A coffee can for holding foam brushes…
A Dorito can for my Purdy brushes!
And then, I put all the quart-sized paint cans into the cardboard box-bottom and stacked another box-bottom on top of the cans to make a “shelf”.
This removable “shelf” would hold all the roller handles. I’ve got a lot – a lot more than I remember!
I used the third pre-existing plastic box {minus the missing lid} for housing other small, miscellaneous paint supplies {tape, small foam rollers, paint can openers, etc.}.
I also moved out some other entertaining supplies in order to make room for the larger gallon-sized paint cans. Then I simply used the last of my existing plastic boxes to hold my de-glossers {TSP, stone sealers, etc.}.
Last, I wanted to keep my rectangular, cardboard box for my paint trays and liners. I like to use this box to “load” up everything and carry upstairs for my paint job!
In the end, I decided to get rid of a bunch of paint. Now, keep in mind, you can’t “throw away” paint! You must let the can sit out in the sun and completely dry before throwing out. Or, better yet, our city has a “hazardous waste” round-up every August that I plan to take all this paint to!
You can see here, before and after, it’s not drastically different, but I actually added MORE stuff to it and it’s more organized. My goal of not buying a single organizing container was also accomplished! So, I would say it was a success! I’m the only “painter” around here, so the mess was mine and I can’t blame anyone else! Now, I’m going to keep it nice.
I really like that Becky used common household recycling to organize her paint storage! Very eco-conscious storage. I’m definitely motivated to organize my painting supplies now. Hmmm, I bet I could use that soy protein shake container I just threw away.
I wanted to share with you that Becky also has a great post about organizing your weight. In her post she mentions a phone app called Lose It! I downloaded it right away and already lost one pound this week! Woot!
http://www.loseit.com/
Another one of my favorite bloggers, Donna from Funky Junk Interiors started a series called Junk Loser.
Click to Join the Facebook Group
She’s been posting some inspirational stories and a link party for healthy recipes to help her readers lose weight.
Between Becky and Donna, I’m committed to shedding these last 10 pounds that I’ve been hauling around since October of last year. So, hopefully as the months progress you’ll be seeing a lot less of me. LOL! Get it?!
See ya later. Gotta go get some exercise now that I’m feeling better.
