Today marks a Very Special Day for me and my little blog! Today's the day I have my very first Guest Blogger!
Hannah is a friend from way, way (way) back in middle school. She's a lovely woman who has played a large role in my life (she's also The Gentleman's sister!) and I've been charmed by how she's embraced adulthood and married life. She's currently not a blogger - though she used to be, and I'm hoping she will be again someday.
I asked her to write about how she's decorated her apartment. I didn't realize it, but I'd asked her to write the article as she was in the middle of a move - sorry about that, dear!
And now, I'll let her charm you herself.
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Moving from apartment to apartment can be stressful. Especially since it seems like there is always something you overlooked in the new apartment that you won’t find out about until you’re half-way through the moving process. For my husband and I, that one thing always seems to be a lack of storage space. The past two times we moved we’ve had to find creative ways of storing things that, when I was younger, I wouldn't have ever thought about! Where to put the magazines, the extra blankets, the crafting supplies, the board games…the list seemed endless. So it seemed we had two options, buy pieces of furniture exclusively for storage, or rearrange our house so we could have one piece of furniture that served multiple purposes. Seeing as we try to not focus on having an over-abundance of material possessions (not to mention we would have no place to put those pieces), that left us with the latter choice.
We started with our lack of a proper coffee table (apparently the carpet “isn't a good enough coffee table”). I looked around on Pinterest for a bit and decided that a rustic, pallet look would go best with the look of our house, and give us a place to put those pesky magazines! So we acquired the pallets from my parents farm (although it’s fairly easy to find free pallets on Craigslist or at a furniture store) and simply stacked three of them on top of each other. Thankfully, pallets are heavy enough that there’s no need to bolt them together to keep them from sliding around. From there we put anything we didn’t want to look at all the time into the slots and put a Webster’s Dictionary and a few candles on top for decoration.
Next we needed a place to put extra quilts and crafting supplies. My parents-in-law had given us a dresser that, even though was a beautiful antique, was far too massive to fit in our bedroom. So we simply took the mirror off, decorated the top with an antique typewriter, my DIY origami wedding bouquet, a dried flower arrangement, and an original painting found at Goodwill. And then voila! We found a new use for a dresser and turned it into a buffet where we now store blankets, biking accessories and craft supplies.
And I know there are girls out there who have the same problem I do of not having a great place to put their jewelry and it seems to only get tangled and in the way. Well there is hope! An easy way to fix that problem (if you’re like me and aren’t really interested in having a more traditional jewelry box) is to find an old picture frame, take out its contents and hot glue/staple ribbon across. your necklaces can hang down from the top of the frame and the ribbon is the perfect place to put earrings! So there you are, a 30 minute job and it clears up the clutter of jewelry from whatever drawer it was being stuffed. Definitely a great weekend project!
So if you don’t have the money/space to spend on buying something to store your bike tire pumps or sewing material in, never fear. Just look around in thrift shops, garage sales and antique shops to find inexpensive ways to clear up your house. I find it the most peaceful when I can come home from work, light some incense, make some tea...and NOT be forced to stare at random piles of books and DVDs. Don’t let the stress of having a messy house rule your life, take charge and find ways to clear things up, once and for all!
♥ Hannah
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