Easy Like a Sunday Morning...
One thing I love about Summer, Is how easy breezy everything seems to feel.
Life slows down for us for these few months, and Im able to drink in life a little more fully.
While most things may feel easy breezy, not everything turns out that way; such as when a simple "Lets get in the car and go to the lake up the street" turns into an all out battle of wrangling kids, crating pets, sunscreen, towels... and lets not forget.. the coveted sand toys.
For those of you who have been living under a rock, we bought our dream home this past winter. We moved into a gorgeously refinished, 1890's farmhouse in a lovely small community. We have been in heaven and are thoroughly enjoying being out of the city.
However, one thing I was super awesome about when we were packing our old house, was tossing stuff. I legitimately probably tossed a majority of the stuff in our basement. Believe it or not, I tossed half my decor; and along with that, I distinctly remember tossing the giant bin of beach toys we had collected over the year's. Why I did this, Im a little unsure. Im sure in the middle of January, It seemed like a valid idea. I probably even had some fabulous plan behind it. However, 6 months later, I have no clue what that idea was. Insert a trip to Big lots. A local bargain store where I was able to save the day as mom and buy new beach toys.
Our solution at the old house to keep the sand out and toys together was a rubbermaid storage bin. However I recall scary spiders hiding in there, followed by a lake being formed when it would rain.
I needed some simple way to keep them all together. A place to dry and keep the sand. But also a grab and go bucket that either of the kids could carry down to the lake, because lets be real all you mommas out there, We are lugging chairs, the cooler, the beach toys as well as out purses and coveted contigo water bottles, all the while our kids are trailing behind us in their suits. NOTHING in hand, towel around their neck with phrases such as "UGHH are we there yet" "This is such a long walk" ya.. its 50 yards from the parking lot.. and I'm the one with everything but the kitchen sink.
In my determination to solve some of this stress and bring back the easy breezy, I had come across a pin where a mom had hung beautiful baskets with hooks on the wall; holding things such as legos, or yarn, or honestly whatever you could think of.
Why couldn't I put this concept to my porch outside.. why not..
As we were out running errands, we had to stop at the other death trip discount store. Ocean State Job Lot.. perfect place to scour for this project.
I first located a cute lightweight beach basket. Its that resin/plastic style weaving, that can handle the wear and tear of the beach, and any weather my porch may throw at it for only $5. I then managed to find a rather large package of different style cup hooks in the hardware section. They even included this rubber kind, which with children grabbing the bucket, I figured a straight metal hook was begging for meltdowns and bandaids. The package of about 30 different size hooks was a whopping $2.50.
The beauty of this project, is you don't even need to know how to operate a drill or any power tool for that matter. You simple have to know how to twist a hook into a wall.. trust me.. not complicated at all.
In the end, for $7.50- we now have a cute beach toy bucket; light enough for the kids to carry, large enough to store a large chunk of beach toys, keeps the wet and sand out of my house, and my most favorite part of all.. Gives them a home. Im huge on giving everything you own, a home. My poor kids have had it drilled into them.
So there you have it. Easy breezy.
What tips and tricks do you have for keeping the many summer belongings we collect all together?
Blessings,
Shanun
Life slows down for us for these few months, and Im able to drink in life a little more fully.
While most things may feel easy breezy, not everything turns out that way; such as when a simple "Lets get in the car and go to the lake up the street" turns into an all out battle of wrangling kids, crating pets, sunscreen, towels... and lets not forget.. the coveted sand toys.
For those of you who have been living under a rock, we bought our dream home this past winter. We moved into a gorgeously refinished, 1890's farmhouse in a lovely small community. We have been in heaven and are thoroughly enjoying being out of the city.
However, one thing I was super awesome about when we were packing our old house, was tossing stuff. I legitimately probably tossed a majority of the stuff in our basement. Believe it or not, I tossed half my decor; and along with that, I distinctly remember tossing the giant bin of beach toys we had collected over the year's. Why I did this, Im a little unsure. Im sure in the middle of January, It seemed like a valid idea. I probably even had some fabulous plan behind it. However, 6 months later, I have no clue what that idea was. Insert a trip to Big lots. A local bargain store where I was able to save the day as mom and buy new beach toys.
Our solution at the old house to keep the sand out and toys together was a rubbermaid storage bin. However I recall scary spiders hiding in there, followed by a lake being formed when it would rain.
I needed some simple way to keep them all together. A place to dry and keep the sand. But also a grab and go bucket that either of the kids could carry down to the lake, because lets be real all you mommas out there, We are lugging chairs, the cooler, the beach toys as well as out purses and coveted contigo water bottles, all the while our kids are trailing behind us in their suits. NOTHING in hand, towel around their neck with phrases such as "UGHH are we there yet" "This is such a long walk" ya.. its 50 yards from the parking lot.. and I'm the one with everything but the kitchen sink.
In my determination to solve some of this stress and bring back the easy breezy, I had come across a pin where a mom had hung beautiful baskets with hooks on the wall; holding things such as legos, or yarn, or honestly whatever you could think of.
Why couldn't I put this concept to my porch outside.. why not..
As we were out running errands, we had to stop at the other death trip discount store. Ocean State Job Lot.. perfect place to scour for this project.
I first located a cute lightweight beach basket. Its that resin/plastic style weaving, that can handle the wear and tear of the beach, and any weather my porch may throw at it for only $5. I then managed to find a rather large package of different style cup hooks in the hardware section. They even included this rubber kind, which with children grabbing the bucket, I figured a straight metal hook was begging for meltdowns and bandaids. The package of about 30 different size hooks was a whopping $2.50.
The beauty of this project, is you don't even need to know how to operate a drill or any power tool for that matter. You simple have to know how to twist a hook into a wall.. trust me.. not complicated at all.
In the end, for $7.50- we now have a cute beach toy bucket; light enough for the kids to carry, large enough to store a large chunk of beach toys, keeps the wet and sand out of my house, and my most favorite part of all.. Gives them a home. Im huge on giving everything you own, a home. My poor kids have had it drilled into them.
So there you have it. Easy breezy.
What tips and tricks do you have for keeping the many summer belongings we collect all together?
Blessings,
Shanun
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