Working with what I have

So, in my ongoing battle to get my house in organized, clean and functional shape. Today I tried to repurpose some of what I had around the house (piled in the garage) to help organize some or our ever growing clutter. The before pictures are really bad and honestly they don't usually look like this, but I figured I'd show the worst first. :)

The fridge had gotten a little out of control. My kids love putting things on here, but I hate when it gets this crazy so I needed to get it cleared off for my own sanity.

I had this dry erase board in my garage so and I decided this was an ok place for it. I wanted somewhere to keep a central info station. Still not completely clutter free, but it works for now and I didn't have to spend any money to make it look better.

Another issue we have around here is all our bags. Back packs, shopping bags, lunch bags, and there hasn't been a good home for them yet. So, I'm going to try this system. This is the door to our garage it is attached to our dining room so it is convenient for stuff I need in the kitchen (lunch boxes and aprons) and all our stuff we need for school. We'll see if this ends up being functional. It isn't as pretty as I would like, but it doesn't take up space we don't have and again it is something we had and I didn't have to spend more money so for now I like it.

The last issue I worked on today is shoes. I have my shoes in our front closet (since we have no space for them upstairs). The boys shoes have been in an over the door shoe rack, but I was finding they weren't getting put away. I had an extra three drawer in the garage so I put this in the closet with my shoes. Hopefully this will be easier for them and I won't have to chase down shoes through the house. I'm hoping to use some of the letter stickers I have to make this a little cuter, but house church starts soon so I had to focus on more important things (brownies...) I'm hoping to fix some of our other organizational issues soon (MY DESK) with what I have here. I wish some of it looked prettier, but I do love the price.