Paint Can Solution

Good Morning to All You Thrifty People:

Today's post is about space. How many times do we let paint cans pile up in our valuable garage space? There may be paint from the last house we lived in out there. There may be paint cans in which the paint has totally dried up. Cans can take up a lot of space. Space which you could to use for things which are needed now.

So what is the solution? Enter ziplock containers! Most of the time the paint we are keeping is only going to be used for touch ups not to paint an entire room. If this is the case all you need to keep is a little bit. Now you can take the gallon paint can and pour up enough to fill a ziplock container. Then take your window scraper to remove the color coded label off the top of the can and place it on your new ziplock container. You have kept the most important information so if you do need another gallon you can take the top of the ziplock container with you and have then mix it.

These containers stack so well. Now the space needed for all your paint has been reduced to a small spot instead of half of your garage shelves. Who knows what all you will find as you rumble through those shelves. We found a bunch of stuff which had been lost for, well who knows how long?

Be sure to dispose of the leftover paint properly. The garbage dump usually accumulates it in hazmat containers so as not to pollute anything.

Now that is has turned a little cooler it is a great time to get out in your garage and purge that paint!

 

So long old paint and hello organized garage shelves.

Surprise Yard Sale Curtians

Good Afternoon Thrifty Friends,

Several months ago my oldest granddaughter showed me the opening between her bedroom and walk through closet which goes right into her bathroom. She really wanted to put up some curtains which would block that area off and make a dressing room. Well my thrifty mind began to think of all sorts of options. Maybe we could find some ready made curtains but the opening was 96 inches tall. The chances of finding some cheap 96 inch curtains were slim and none. We took off to several stores just to make sure but couldn't find anything reasonable. My next idea was to get a king size flat sheet and make it into a curtain but guess what? They don't sell individual sheets anymore. So on to the think tank to come up with another solution.

Both of us had been on the lookout for at least two months without finding even a big sheet at a yard sale. But thrifty folks have to be patient. We can not give up. We have to keep looking and thinking. This past weekend while I was visiting a yard sale in a very ritzy area, low and behold there they were a pair of champagne colored 102 inch fully lined drapes. The best thing about them besides being long enough was the fabulous price... only $12.00 a pair.

So Thrifty Sissy swooped down on those puppies and bought them. We worked some magic and got them put up in her apartment. She is one happy girl with her new dressing area. So the moral to this story is don't give up. Be patient and keep your eyes open. There are still thrifty things out there.

Stay thrifty this week!

Repurposed Girl's Dress

Hello Thrifty Folks,

Have you ever had a chair cushion you wanted to recover? Upholstery material can be costly, especially linen. This little girl's dress had a stain on the front of it but the rest of the dress was in really good shape but it was being added to the throwaway pile. It just happened to be white linen and it had a ruffle on the bottom of it. So out comes the thrifty in me and I decided maybe it would work for a chair cushion recover. Well it was enough material and the ruffle was just the right amount to use around the edge of the cushion.The only tools I used were a staple gun, a needle and some white thread to sew the ruffle on the edge of the cushion. Here are the pictures of the cushion before and after the recover.

 

It's a lot more girly looking now. This is a true thrifty... cost... zero. So never forget you can repurpose, reuse and redo so many things. While this was a little girl's stained dress originally it has become somewhat of a shabby chic item now. Keep your thrifty eyes open for good material which can be reused for another purpose like a cute cafe valance, a table runner, or one large place mat for center of the your table, maybe even a chair cushion or a new cover for an old toss pillow. 

You all be thrifty today!    

More Thrifty Fall Decorations

Happy Fall to All!

Well it is another thrifty day at our house. You simply must get ready for fall in all areas. The patio and our often forgotten front porch are two places where I try to add a little season.

It is amazing how many decorations you can accumulate over the years adding a little here and there, especially when the seasonal stuff goes on sale. These decorations can be used over and over for many years to come. Yard sales are a great place to pick up a few things to add to your stash. By the time things make it to the yard sale they are usually 25 to 50 cents because people are ready for them to move on. You can even take pieces of decorations at that price and make them into something else. So here is the 2014 Fall Porch, Patio and Yard Reveal!

                                   
                                                    It's time to get your thrifty fall on!!