Thrifting: My Treasures

I consider myself to be a pretty organized person, and I seem to function a heck of a lot better when everything is organized and doesn't feel chaotic. However, with my new job, I get a TON of paper handouts (and email, for that matter) that seems important and I always reference, but I just don't have a way of organizing it without going too far over line and OVER organizing it (which, in my opinion, is almost even harder to deal with than not being organized). I mean, look at this mess:

THIS is why the dish drainer solution appealed to me as much as it did. And after searching (it seems like a lot of searching, but really, it wasn't that bad), I found this really cool-looking yellow dish drainer, for only $3.50. And that includes the cool mat thing that came with it! You know, if I was using this as an acutal dish drainer.

But before I could fill up my pretty new treasure, I needed to go through and file everything and THEN label my folders. It turns out I had a lot of folders already in place, but they were so overwhelming to use because I had to open each one to see what was in there. So I got out my trusted label maker and got to work, reworking folders and relabeling folders and all around having a good time. Here's my before picture (and yes, that's facebook in the background. I love distractions.):

Now, I know what many of you are thinking, and that's "Well, you know how they make these things called filing cabinets? You could maybe invest in one..." Let me tell you--we DO have a filing cabinet, but it's all the way down in the basement. And I love this solution because these are files I use on a daily basis, and while opening a drawer every time I need something might help me build some arm muscle (a girl can dream!) this solution gives me easy access to everything I need. And I mean, come on, how cute does this look?

I have to say, I didn't love the yellow color at first. I thought about spray painting it pink, until I realized that if I ever decided to use it for actual dishes (novel idea, right?) the spray paint + something you eat off of would probably = a no no. And then I overanalyzed even further: This room will become a nursery when we way down the road have kids, and when it does, I will have more yellow incorporated (yes, of course I've thought about how cute a nursery inspired by my childhood blanket my mom made me would be!) and as it turns out, dish drainers are also great for storing puzzles! So, that is how I eventually accepted the school bus yellow color.

Now, I said I went out with two missions: the dish drainer and a utensil tray. As it turns out, people who have super cute utensil holders don't give them away. Only people who have not-as-attractive plasticy ones (like us) donate them when they've outgrown their usefulness. So I had to find another solution for the keys, because Nathan was really desperate for one. And I didn't find anything I liked at the thrift stores, so I bought this cool white square bowl thing at Target for .  . . $3.50! That's right, the same price as my organizer, but new. It matches our dishes, and I think it looks pretty nice on the table here.

But I have one other thrift store find, and it's my favorite. A friend gave me a book by Sophie Uliano, and I found her health- oriented book there for $2. For a hardcover! Too fun. I can't wait to read through it and see what I can do to "live lean and green."

Now tell me: what's your favorite thrift store/garage sale/antique store find? Or even etsy find!