Don’t answer that. (Besides, now recycling is cool.)

Well, that same sense of pride still wells up when I find uses for would-be tossers. Like jars! Sara Vahle got me started with her recycled jar centerpiece. Since then I pretty much save every jam, salsa, and spaghetti sauce jar I empty, figuring I’ll find some use for them.

Jars have taken on a new level of excitement now that we have zero containers (only packed clothes and electronics). So I’m pretty happy with my two little salsa jars

that make my earrings easy to see, grab, and put back,

(which beats the gift box I stuffed them into for packing… even though it IS a Tiffany’s box… that came with a free key chain from the grand opening I covered as a reporter… because I’m not actually a Tiffany’s kind of girl… though I do love their signature turquoise…),

and that keep my wine bottle stoppers from rolling around in the classy/handy cardboard box I repurposed from some Ikea purchase,

and a garbanzo bean jar that makes my art supply shelf look charming enough to belong to Van Gogh, or someone. (Nevermind that my art supply shelf has one box of tiny acrylics, one jar of paintbrushes, and a few tiny canvases (not shown).)

Exhale. There.

Any other ideas on how to use empty jars?

I read an article a while ago about a woman who was organizing her closet, and got rid of 2/3rds of her clothes. She only kept what she loved. In moving, we sort of did the same thing. We only brought the clothes we could fit in our 200 pound baggage limit, which amounted to just our favorites.

Good thing, too, because our new closet isn’t the spacious expanse our closet at home is.

But! It’s my new favorite thing!

The closet is in the hallway right off the front door. Ees stylish, no? However, upon opening the doors, my immediate reaction was, “That’s all the hanging space??”

But then I started unpacking our clothes, and realized I can fold and stack most things.

There’s even plenty of room for our fall and winter, on the very top shelves, and in the side cabinets with cool push-doors.

And these collapsible Ikea boxes are awesome. They’ve become impromptu drawers for underwear, belts, socks, etc.

And last but not least, I’m loving the full-length mirror on the inside of the door. So smart! Right where you need it, right when you need it.

Next up on the “My New Favorite Thing” list: open shelving!

It should probably read:

“How To Pack for a Move Overseas”

“How Do You Pack for a Move Overseas?”

“How the Heck Do You Pack for a Move Overseas??!?!?!!”

Shall I back up just a bit? The husband and I are moving to Prague. (Follow this link to read all about it, and this one to see our apartment!) We leave in two and a half weeks, and I just started packing last night.

With a total allowance of four checked bags at 50 lbs each, plus two carry-ons, I’m not entirely sure how to pull this off.

Shoes seem like a good place to start. Maybe I should leave every pair that pinch, pull, or make my toes look fat (after all, cobble stone isn’t terribly forgiving), even if they are the only pair that go with the funky bohemian skirt?

How ’bout my heels? Tote only my favorite pair, because they’re black and bound to go with everything, and I only wear them twice a year as it is?

PJs: take one winter and one summer set? But what about the cute ones that remind my husband how adorable I am? That’s a key ingredient in making a marriage last through culture shock, right?

Under-britches: pack only the ones that don’t give me wedgies, which will mean doing laundry more than once a month?

Suits: since I don’t know what kind of job I’ll have, do I take all 11 of my favorite suits and blazers that have gathered a fine coat of dust across all the shoulders because I haven’t worn in more than a year?

And how to decide which knock-around T’s and tanks are essential? They’re knock-arounds. They’re all essential!

What am I missing? Favorite recipes handwritten by Mom, computers, cameras, that rubber lid taker-offer for the jars I seem to be powerless to open, my hair straightener. How’s it all going to fit? What to pack now? What to bribe friends to bring on a visit? What to pay to have shipped (ahem, $250/50lbs, thankyouverymuch postal service). What to buy there?

Wait! Dangit. I forgot about the husband. Where’s his stuff going to fit?

In the meantime, our upstairs bathroom is UH LOT better!! Whoever installed the toilet apparently liked asymmetry because it’s practically in the tub, and about a baseball field away from the sink.

So one of our improvements was to balance it out by installing a standing cabinet (Ikea, via Craisglist.) We bolted it to the wall over the weekend, so I finally got to fill it!

I used all these ceramics I found at Goodwill in exchange for one crisp $10 bill. Cute organizers… my favorite.

Here’s my golf ball bowl full of extra travel size lotions and potions.

My shelf ‘o luxury. (Thanks for the fancy bubble bath, Kim!)

My extra tooth cleaners. (If you don’t keep extra toothbrushes on-hand, please go buy some. Then, next time I come over and forget my toothbrush, you don’t have to put up with my breath. It’s happened more than once.)

My cute tulip bowl ‘o hotel soap, and glass compote ‘o Q-tips®.

And my jar ‘o loofahs, and cup ‘o … follicle removers.

Now. Wasn’t that fun? Or maybe I just got a new camera and think everything is beautiful now.:)

When it comes to storage and shelving, my go-to option is always a crate. I love the look of the natural, rough wood, and they’re much easier than a bookshelf to move around should you want to rearrange your room. I’ve also been able to find them for uber cheap or free. Can’t beat that!

Here’s how I use my crates:

You might remember these from my last post. These planter boxes serve as a shelf for my printer and lamp, while organizing my art and office supplies. I bought them for $12 at a thrift store. They’re a bit sturdier than a wine box, so I was okay with paying a bit more for them.

With these, I decided I wanted a little color on the backsplash of the boxes, so I went to Hobby Lobby and found this scrap fabric for $1. I eyed the back of the boxes for measurement (making sure they had about 2 inches extra fabric on the width) and cut out the pieces of fabric. Since the pieces were a bit big, I folded the sides on the length to fit the box.

I turned the crate over and used a staple gun to secure the fabric to the back. Now I’ve got a bit of color and interest on my desk that also serves a very functional purpose.

My wine crate was acquired at my local grocery store. I just asked the gentleman in the wine department if they had any extra wine crates and he just gave this to me. Right now, it serves as my bookshelf (more like book holder, really) for my small book collection.

I also use it for a quick-access end table next to my chair for the books/materials I’m currently reading, because I don’t like to clutter up my end table next to my bed (I’m weird like that). The pretty vineyard logo isn’t visible at the moment, but that’s the beauty of this crate – I know I’ll find another use for it at some point where the sides might be displayed a bit more.

This next crate does not have a very glorious function at the moment, but my shoes would be much more disorganized without it. I had some space below the bottom shelf in my closet, so I decided it would be a great place to make an extra shelf for my shoes. This crate was a gift of sorts from a lady who ran a wonderful mid century décor/furniture store around the corner from my house in Austin. They were closing down (unfortunately) and she saw me eyeing it, so she offered it to me. Super nice! It was actually mounted to the wall in the store and used as a wall shelf. Another brilliant crate use! But, for now, it is a helpful organization tool in my closet!

I may have been a bit of a priss.

But as much a girly-girl as I was, I didn’t turn out to be high maintenance. Case in point: every now and then I catch a good look at myself in the mirror and realize my eyeshadow is slightly off, or I have a little smudge of mascara above my left eye. To blame is the fact that I slap my makeup on in 7.3 seconds flat, apply it in low-light (I hate overhead light in the morning), and/or stand at least three feet from the mirror from behind our bulgingly large bathroom vanity. So really, the smudge above my left eye is the bathroom counter’s fault.

But recently I discovered the joy of sitting down and doing my makeup!

While our bathrooms were torn apart for updates, I plopped my hand-me-down free Clinque bag next to our full length mirror, and sat Indian-style on the floor to put on makeup.

Oh man! Do you sit down to do your makeup? Because if you don’t, you should. Suddenly the chore turned into a relaxing ritual. I lingered.

So with this new-found discovery, I dragged my old school desk from what is now my favorite nook in the house, put it in front of our closet door which always stays open anyway, and unloaded my hand-me-down Clinque freebie into drawers.

With organizers! You know how I love containing things.

Then I put hair stuff and extra make-up in the bottom drawer.

(Including the Max Factor eyeshadow kit I dug out of a box in the basement sometime in middle school and thought I’d struck gold. It was my mom’s. I can’t seem to get rid of this 30-year-old eyeshadow.)

This folding case that came with foot spa accoutrements has been even handier for organizing extra makeup.

Now I sit on my little thrifted storage cube, pull my hair dryer from the door handle…

daintily open drawers full of oh-so-organized beauty products…

and primp. And I take my time. Oh, it’s good to sit.

For a while now, I’ve needed more space on my walls surrounding my desk for notes, inspirations, and photos that have been piled up for ages. I had a lovely Decoder Ring print hanging in the space above my desk since I moved into my house, but I recently acquired a much-needed drafting lamp that covered about half of the print, so it officially became time to move the artwork and create a practical, yet visually appealing version of a bulletin board. Corkboards are great, but I wanted something that would add a bit of color and would fit well into the wall space left by my monstrous lamp.

I decided to create a series of panels out of paper that would allow me to attach items to it via paperclips.

Here’s what you’ll need:

1. Thick paper (watercolor or cardstock)

2. Watercolors, paints, markers, etc (optional)

3. Exacto knife and cutting board (optional)

4. Flat push pins

5. Jumbo paper clips

6. Your photos, notes, postcards, magazine clippings, etc – whatever you need to post on your wall!

First, I painted a plaid pattern with watercolors. I knew I was going to cut the paper into strips, and most of the paper would be hidden with my notes and pictures, so I didn’t worry too much about what it looked like. I just wanted pops of color. You could also buy colored cardstock or color thick paper with markers or map pencils – it’s completely up to you!

After the paper dried, cut the paper lengthwise into 8 strips. I made 4 rows on my wall connecting 2 strips to give it a bit more length.

I bought flat, white pushpins to mount it to the wall. I also found some jumbo paper clips at the grocery store (these were seriously the biggest paper clips I’ve ever seen!). I thought the oversized clips added a bit of visual interest up close, and are so thin that they almost go unnoticed from a distance. They also don’t seem to bend the photos (or put holes in them like those pesky push pins!). I also used an exacto knife to cut some of my clippings, because I can never cut straight with the scissors.

I then hung my photos, magazine clippings and (in my case) some vintage typography to the paper panels. I liked that the vintage type clippings added some consistency to the “bulletin board” so it didn’t look like an overwhelming mish mash of unrelated items. This is just a suggestion, and I say make it as mish-mashed as you like.

The final product created a clothesline effect on the wall. I think it works well with the space, and finally gives me a place to display important items that were piled up on my desk. The pictures and papers are also easy to change out, adding to the functionality. Hooray for an organizational victory!

Coffee table AND gift wrap storage! This baby’s pulling triple-duty. (If you count its previous life as a Marine’s footlocker.)

A few years ago I decided my foot locker/coffee table/gift wrap storage needed a legs to really kick its style meter up a notch. Just so happened, my then co-worker and partner-in-crime, Ed, was a welder before he became our newsroom’s favorite cameraman. So I sweet-talked him into “teaching” me how to weld. (Read: I stood next to him, ready to “help,” while he welded this frame for me.)

Here we are morphing from a news crew into super heros. Sorry, I didn’t get a photo of the completed transformation.

Back to the footlocker. And the organizing of one of those things you never know what to do with: gift wrap.

Trunks are really quite easy to come by. In fact, just yesterday I saw not one but two at Goodwill.

They don’t all come with my dad’s cool American flag sticker, but they’re good multi-purpose pieces nonetheless.

I particularly love the removable top tray, where I keep…

…ribbons,

…bows,

…and boxes. Most notably, the necklace box that holds a pen, tape, and scissors so I don’t have to make three trips to retrieve them once I’m indian-style on the floor with my arms tangled in wrapping paper.

The bottom level is deep and wide enough for wrapping paper tubes, gift bags,

…and my handy, oh-so-organized shoe box of tissue paper. (This is the corner of the foot locker that brings me the most joy.)

So. Even if you don’t want an old beat-up footlocker as the centerpiece of your living room, use one as a side table, or at the foot of a bed, Marine-style, and you’ve got yurself an attractive, functional gift wrap station.

These cabinets always have doors. Very out of date. I’m not okay with that.

But without the door it looks like a built-in shelf. Now in the open and easily accessible, my cabinet houses:

• A basket to stow toilet paper (out of sight but not out of reach)
• A sea sponge with travel size shampoo, conditioner, lotion, and disposable razors for guests
• Febreeze. Don’t ask – it seems to be a necessity in a man’s bathroom!

Note from Amy: Mom – When can I have that sea sponge? I’ve missed it since I growed up and moved out.

Since it’s just a half-bath, there’s very little we actually need to store in here, so we use it as our medicine cabinet, too. Here are the three things that make this space so functional and organized:

Lazy Susan. Growing up my Mom always had a lazy susan in the medicine cabinet. It’s great because you don’t knock over the rubbing alcohol reaching for the pepcid. One in the pantry would also be great; the spice cabinet; the linen closet… no such thing as too many lazy susans. (Tho lazy sallys… they’re good for nothin’.)

Boxes/Bins. I used shoe boxes for years to organize sundry things. They weren’t pretty, but they worked. Over the years I’ve collected  a number of these wood crates as I come across them at thrift stores. You can also get them plain at craft stores, which would be fun to paint. And they’re very affordable; under $5.

Like with Like. In this cabinet, I keep all the first aid in the crate on the far left, all the allergy meds in the next crate (we live in Austin — yes, we require an entire armament of allergy meds), and all other medicinal accessories on the lazy susan. So whether it’s your nail polishes, your extra razor heads, or your sunscreen, wrangle them together and find a way to contain them together (even if in shoe boxes!).