Homemade/handmade headboard

Since moving into our new house we have not collected a lot of furniture.  We bought a new mattress and boxed springs and a hollywood frame.  While I like that look I did kind of want a head board.  I was thinking on how I could make one that wouldnt be costly and could be easily dismanteled if I chose and this is what I came up with.

Mollie and I found boxes that were similar in size in our stored things and used them as the base.  I had this lovely quilt that my mom's cousin made that is a full size and therefore would not fit my bed so we draped it over the box's and pinned it.  I ended up killing two birds with one stone so to say.  I was able to put some things I had in storage in an out of the way spot as well as be able to see the pretty quilt that had previously just sat on a shelf.  The only problem I can see with it is some day I may want to find some of the things that are in the box's and I may not remember that the head board is really a stack of box's.  lol  My grandmother moved around a lot when she was a young married woman and she got to where she didn't even unpack everything.  The things that were keepsakes she left boxed and just used sheets to hide them.  She then used them as room dividers, end tables and so on.  I thought if she can do it so can I and so can you.  If you lack storage space just put your keepsakes in similar sized boxes and stack them into table sizes, or head board sizes and so on.
Do you have unusually ways you make storage where there previously was none?

New shelves

This is the paper side of the storage room. It was not this messy, but Jeff was moving stuff so he could add a shelf for me and I didn't get a picture before he got started.


Now the paper side of the storage room is nice and neat.

This is the pan side of the room. It did look like this and was a mess. It was hard to get to the pans I wanted and I could not organize it, there just wasn't enough room.

Jeff added a shelf and now look how neat it is. I am so pleased. Thank you Jeff.

I feel so special

I feel really special right now because a friend of mine wrote a paper about me and my simple life for her college financial class.

She said she's better get an A on it because she actually knows me and its not just research she did on someone somewhere that who knows if they really live like that.

I didn't tell her that we are actually trying to simplify our life even more and downsize even more than we already have. She would get a kick out of that I bet.

I told her I would like to read the paper she wrote. Hope she lets me.

We are realizing that Jeff may not be able to work forever, and in case he isn't able to we need to be able to live as simply and cheaply as we can. He has no plans to retire but life sometimes throws curve balls at you and you have to either duck or get hit in the face. We would like to duck if we can. We figure that by learning to live more simply now it wont be such a shock if and when the time comes that forces us to do so.

I am stocking up on non perishable things like toothpaste, mouthwash, toothbrushes, beans, rice and the like when I can get them killer cheap so that I never have to buy these things at sale price let alone regular price with out a coupon.

I rarely buy things we don't regularly use except when its an item someone I know can use and I always use what I store and store what I use in all departments.

You would be surprised how much you can store in a 5th wheel. I am actually pretty good at organizing and finding space where most people don't see potential storage space. While its true that I cant store years worth of products or be like the Extreme Coupon people I can store enough to tide us through hard times. Which by the way seem to come more frequently these days. I am also able to buy cheap or free items I can then pass on to friends who have a need for them.

An example of creating more storage space: Lets say you have 4 box's of band aids. Those 4 boxes take up a fair amount of space, but if you dump the 4 box's contents into a zip lock bag you have much more space. You already know how to apply a band aid and I have never even looked to see if there are instructions on the box so obviously you don't need the box's. And get this, those 4 box's of band aids can actually fit in a snack size zip lock bag. Thus you have created much more storage space.

Look around your bathroom, utility closet, and kitchen to see if there are items there you can store in a different way.

Do you have a unique way of storing something? Tell me about it.