Simply DIY // Easy Mail Organizer

I've been doing a happy dance all week, guys. I'm so excited to introduce a new series here at Simply Liv! It's more of an "ongoing" series- with no end in sight, but I can't wait to start sharing it with you all.

I'm calling it my SIMPLE LIVING series (you never saw that title coming, did you?) and over the course of a few months (or forever maybe), I'll be sharing practical ways to simplify your life and live with intentionality. I'll share everything from DIY's, to recipes, to random life hacks about parenting and marriage. Since this is more or less the theme of my blog, I thought it would be fun to have more posts be specifically about practical ways to live simply. I've been rounding up ideas for a long time and decided this would be a great first post, since I haven't done a DIY in months, and my creative brain needed some release.

Raise your hand if your dining room table is overflowing with stack of bills and other random pieces of mail? Mine too. It's been driving me crazy for months- having to push everything to one end just to make room to sit down to eat. I've been brainstorming ideas for how to solve this problem and I think I finally came up with something that will work!

This mail organizer is super simple and can be made with basically anything you have around the house. I used pegboard, fabric and an old chalk board because it's what I had lying around- but the possibilities are many, my friends.

Here's how I did it:

Materials:

-Peg board (Or any kind of board. I thought about using a bulletin board.)
-Fabric scraps
-Super glue
-Left over paint
-Scissors
-Sharpies
-Magnets (I actually ended up not using them- but I think it would be awesome to make one of these for your fridge!)

1. First I sewed the fabric into little pockets for the mail to go in. Don't be intimidated by the word "sew". I literally hand-stitched up the sides and tops to make sure it wouldn't fray- super quick and easy. If you're anti-sewing though, you could just pin or glue the fabric pockets on without sewing up the sides.

2. I painted the pegboard with left over paint from our walls. One of the good things about remodels- LOTS of paint.  Here's what it looked like after one coat:

I ended up doing three coats.

3. Attach the pockets. I picked the easiest thing I could think of for this- super glue- and I don't think those pockets are going anywhere soon. I made the little labels with cardboard, because I'm super fancy. Then I painted them white and used the sharpie paint pen to trace around the edge for a little bit of distinction.

4. Superglue the chalkboard on and trace around the edges. I recycled the chalkboard from another piece of art I had around the house but wasn't crazy about- but you could also just use chalk board paint and another (super fancy) piece of cardboard or thin board.

And there you have it! Your dining room table suddenly has room to be used as nature intended AND you have a super cute (super cheap) way to store all of those bills that you've been ignoring.

 

What are some simple solutions to clutter in your home? I'd love to hear your stories of simple living success! And as always, be sure to let me know if you try this one out! 

Ps. to see my DIY TV tray makeover from the picture above click here

Simply,

Liv

We Bought A Home!

Happy Monday! I've been waiting to write this post for months now, but I'm so excited to finally announce that we signed on our first house!

We've been in the process of buying it since January, but as every homeowner I've talked to has told me, these things rarely go as planned. There were lots of complications on the seller's end, and the house was a repossessed foreclosure to make things more complicated. But AJ and I fell in love with the little house's old charm and potential (and the price we could actually afford) the first time we saw it, so we decided to see it through and not give up. I'm so glad we didn't!

Most of these pictures were taken during our final walk though, so pardon the blurry focus- they were snapped in a hurry!

Aj and I share a love of old houses and antiques so we knew we wanted to find an older house and fix it up. This one is DEFINITELY going to require lots of work, but we've hit the ground running and can't wait to turn it into our home.

I will be sharing pictures of the remodel room-by-room as we fix it up, but I thought it would be fun to give you a little sneak peak of what we're working with at the very start so you can follow along with our vision for it.

Before we move in our goals are to refinish the hardwood floors (which were covered up by layer upon layer of carpet, tile and plywood...what were these people thinking?!) and paint most of the rooms. That should get it to a point where it's safe for a pregnant mama and 1 year old to live in without having to breathe in nasty chemicals and dust.

 The stair case is one of my very favorite parts! The house was built in 1910 so there are lots of original, unique features, like the french doors and tiny details in the light fixtures and door hinges, that you wouldn't see in a newer home.

The view looking down from the stairs

This room pictured above is one of the stranger parts of the house. We decided we are going to keep all of the cabinets, refinish them and turn the room into a craft/brewing room :) Every house needs one, right?

The upstairs has nicely finished floors and newer paint, so we aren't worrying too much about it for now. Three of the bedrooms are pictured below.

This obviously wasn't a full house tour, but I wanted to show you a little peak into our new home, and then save the rest for a surprise as we slowly but surely renovate it!

 

I'm in full remodel mode now, so I'm always looking for inspiration. If you have any stories/advice/blog posts that you want to share, I'm all ears!

Thanks for letting me share a little peak into our new home, friends! :)