Home and Garden

The following is a guest post from Laura, who blogs over at Confessions of a Serial Cheapskate, you must check out her blog, she shares so many wonderful ideas!

I am so excited to be here at Thrifty and Thriving today– it is SERIOUSLY one of my favorite sites out there.  While I still have a LOT to learn – I always pick up new tips and tricks from Christy.  Thanks for having me today!

Since we’re all friends…

Nope, I still can’t believe I’m about to show you the inside of my closet, but it’s to prove a point so…

Here ya’ go (p.s.- it’s really hard to get good shots of the inside of ones closet).  *Note specifically the shoe portion:

I’m hoping everyone has an area just like this and it’s not just me– a space in his/her closet that could use some extra organization.

(how come it looks like I have so many shoes (and this isn’t even all of them)? I guess I don’t wear a lot of them… actually I see a few pair of shoes right now that I should pull out and donate…)

I just came across the cutest tutorial for a quick, easy and (depending on what supplies you have on hand) FREE shoe hanger project and I just HAD to make some…

Too cute right?! They start as these:

and end up as these:

I can think of a million other potential uses for these cute hangers too– I’ll list them all at the end of this post– after the tutorial.

For purposes of demonstration I used a blue nylon coated wire hanger so that it would show up well on the white background. I would not recommend using nylon coated wire hangers though (as you will see a little later)

It’s super simple to do.

Supplies needed:

• wire hanger(s)– that you can bend with your hands
• needle nose pliers
• diagonal pliers (for cutting)

optional:

• spray paint
• ribbon
• glue
• embellishments

Take your wire hanger and cut off the bottom piece:

Then using your needle nose pliers, curl under each end like so:

Then using just your brute strength, bend up the “arms” of the hangar into a cute scroll-y type shape.

See– easy peasy! And if you wanted to stop there, you can! Insert flip flops and you’re done:

Wow! What awesome flip flops you say? Learn more about them HERE.

OR, you can hang your flats on them too…

And like I said I have a million other suggestions, but they’ll have to wait until the end of the post.

When I was bending my hangers, they started to get a little chipped and “distressed” looking. Now I like the distressed look on SOME things, but not necessarily when my clothing or shoes are involved so outside I went with my handy dandy spray paint.

I highly recommend priming these first– just to be sure the spray paint will adhere properly. And yes– I got super dorky and used my scrap wire pieces to create some additional cheesy sculptures. I actually kinda like some of them …

The spray paint just gives them a fresh feeling and really unifies them all.

From here, I referred back to the tutorial where I first learned of this neat trick and created a little jacket for one of my hangers. It only took a few minutes, but as I was doing this I realized I like the look of them without the jackets too.

In the interest of time, here’s a breakdown of the “hanger jacket” tutorial from the original source at Epbot:

I decided to embellish mine with what else– a fabric rosette (like I used here, here and here) of course!

All in all it was a pretty quick, painless (except for the bruises on my plams from trying to cut the hangers) and brainless craft. Definitely something you can do while in front of the tv — my favorite time/place for crafting.

I don’t really have a great place to hang mine right now, but love how the originator at Epbot used her space. If we could drill into the wall to put in a low hanging bar (stupid apartment), I totally would.

You could also do this in a front hall closet to store some “running out to get the mail” shoes that live in that closet.

And now as promised– the list of 1 million additional ways you can use your wire hanger hooks.

• curl the “arms” in a bit and use to hang dish gloves to dry
• hanging doll clothes
• hanging scarves or belts
• hanging necklaces (like this one)

• hanging aprons
• hanging (light weight) purses
• hanging baseball caps (instead of the scrolly ends you could make a T shape with the ends and spray them navy blue for something a bit more masculine)
• organizing extension cords
• displaying crafting supplies out in the open and within reach (ie. hang via thumbtack on a cork board over a craft desk)

yes, I own a crazy number of scissors (I have AT LEAST 2 or 3 additional pair)

• holding rolls of tape for a gift wrap station (or cute washi tape)
• displaying items at a craft show table
• holding keys
• hanging measuring spoons/cups

OR create different variations of this:

• string beads on it and form the ends into hearts for a little girls room
• cut the hanger just in the center of the bottom portion and create multiple humps on each side for a tie or belt holder

I swear the possibilities are endless (although I only came up with 15 off the top of my head)

And here’s why NOT to use nylon covered wire hangers:
(I thought it would save the hassle of not having to spray paint them, but no such luck)

And just so you leave with happy thoughts of all the new uses you’ll have for the old wire hangers that are no longer worthy of your clothes– take one last look at how cute they can be with just a little TLC.

What would you use these for?

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I currently have a Homemade Holiday series going on, but I certainly didn’t want to leave out Thanksgiving, so this is the first post in our Thrifty and Thankful series.  We will be sharing several ideas to help you celebrate and prepare for Thanksgiving.   First up in the series, is a homemade fall wreath shared by my sister-in-law Shauntel, who is a new contributor here on the blog.   Enjoy!

I’ve always admired the wreaths hanging from my neighbors’ doors or in the craft stores, but never wanted to spend $30, $40, or more for a store bought wreath, that just seemed outrageous to me as a frugal mom.  So I decided to save money this year by making my own wreath – and you can too!

A few things you will need are:

*1 wreath frame – I picked mine up at Dollar Tree for only $1.

*2+ fall garland or leaves – I used my 40% off coupon from Michaels and only paid about $3-4 each, or you might be able to find something that will work at your local dollar store for cheap.

*5-6 Small gourds – Again, I found a package of  these up at my local dollar store and only paid about $1.25.  I did find a package of gourds at Amazon
if you can’t find any locally.

*Plus a hot glue gun and plenty of hot glue sticks.

Putting it all together:

There are two ways to approach that start of your wreath.  You may simply wrap the garland around the wreath frame and use a hot glue gun to secure it where you want it.  Or you may do as I did and remove the leaves off of the garland, position, and hot glue them into position.

The next step is to add the gourds.  Again position them where you think looks best and secure with hot glue.  If you wish, you may also add fall berries or glitter picks, ribbon, etc.

A few tips:

When glueing items onto your wreath, position the item as you would like it, add glue, then let it cool slightly before you move on to the next item or it may slide down or fall off before the glue has time to set.  Also, the more leaves you put on the wreath the better it will turn out.

My Total Cost:$9.25 + tax

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