Getting Organized

That was the current state of my organization system for my long necklaces.

The bedroom doorknob.

I took the liberty this weekend of attempting to organize the chaos in my life, otherwise known as my room. It's long been time for another purge, and this weekend was it. It was time to rid the Bacherlorette Pad of Awesomeness of non-awesomeness. I want to go into my 30th birthday - less than a month away, eek! - feeling lighter and a little more orderly. The rule this weekend was: if I don't use it daily, if it's not a family heirloom (or won't become one), if it doesn't fit, if I don't read it or watch it, if I don't like it, if it's been sitting in a corner for years, it's got to go. After purging a ton of stuff, I had to put some order to what was left over.

Organizing my necklaces has been a delayed priority. I can't seem to find a system that I like, so I decided to come up with my own.

I went to Goodwill and found a gold frame with a masonite insert that I liked for $4. POTENTIAL! Then I picked up some crimson spray paint for $2.98. I sprayed the frame crimson, and I also sprayed the insert using a deep silver/gray that we already had on hand.

I had help from the maintenance man, who added an extra board to the back of the insert so we could screw in some L hooks. We added some picture hanging wire, and it's PERFECT!!

The next step was to organize my short necklaces. I had a necklace tree that just wasn't cutting it. The decorations on the necklace tree got in the way of the necklaces and made it hard to get them on and off. I was wandering through Home Goods (also known as "The Place Where Almost All of Your Dreams Come True"), when I saw a toilet paper holder.

Yes.

A TOILET PAPER HOLDER. For $12. And, by golly, it works perfectly. You know what else it does perfectly?

It's great for holding BRACELETS!

If you don't have as many necklaces as I do, you could use one side for necklaces and one side for bracelets. I also saw some tall TP holders - around 24in - that would be great for holding long necklaces too.

Instead of using the TP holder to hold my bracelets, I came up with another idea while staring at the rows of glass at Goodwill. My mom has a ring holder for her wedding ring, and I kept thinking that I wished there was something like that for bracelets. I saw a glass bud vase for 75 cents and a round dish for $3. I bought some glass glue for $3, and glued the vase to the dish. For just under $7, I made my own bracelet holder. RAWR.

Here's to being more organized in a fun way! If you've got some ideas on traditional items used untraditionally, I'd love to hear them. Here's another one to pass along: making a chalkboard easel out of an old crib. I LOVE that idea. Here's hoping an old crib shows up outside my door.

By the way, I think I'm addicted to using spray paint. It's so much fun...I want to spray everything in sight. Not inhale it (just to clarify!), but to PAINT. Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!