I found this amazing, HUGE card catalog on Craigslist. Apparently it used to be housed in the UCLA Life Science Library.
I bought it on an impulse, and figured I'd learn how to turn it into my masterpiece later. I am not the "handy' type so I fully expected to outsource most/all of the work. But when asked a few handymen if they would help me, they all said it wouldn't be economically worth it.
Crap.
Luckily, my father in law is the perfect combination of Handy, Retired, and Bored. Oh happy day! He agreed to sand all the drawers for me. He took home 8 at a time and used his power sander. It took him about a month.
Next, I bought some Ebony paint stain. Here's how it looked after the first stain. It took up our whole backyard to let these drawers dry after each coat.
After 3-4 coats, it was done!!
Now I have a one-stop shop to store all my miscellaneous items. On the top half, I store my not-so-kid-friendly items like the:
- Batteries (A different drawer for each size)
- Scissors
- Tape
- Glue
- Nails & screws
- Lighters
- Mailing supplies
- Hand sanitizer
- Permanent markers
- Camera accessories
- Sunscreen
Toward the bottom, the kids store their stuff. We have drawers for:
- Band-Aids
- Bubble Wands
- Chalk
- Coins
- Face Paint
- Flashlights
- Hairbrushes
- Headbands
- Markers
- Notepads
- Paint (3 kinds)
- Paint Brushes (2 kinds) :)
- Pens
- Pencils
- Play Doh Tools
- Rocks
- Rubber Stamps
- Measuring Tape
- Sunglasses
- Swim Goggles
- Thermometers
- Umbrellas
I definitely recommend you alphabetize completely or at least into 2 parts (adult + kid) like I did.
Funny how you don't realize until you're organized that you, for example, have 8 pairs of scissors.
And now I know where they ALL are!!!
