Hanging Chalk Tags

"Everything in its place."  


I probably say that to myself seven thousand times a day.  I get twitchy when things are out of order.  When I go to find something and it isn't there, my blood immediately begins to boil.  I love to be organized!

We are anticipating and hoping for lots of help when the baby arrives, so I could already imagine her clothes becoming a hot mess after the first load of laundry.  How would anybody know where to put things?  I thought for about two seconds and came up with this solution: Hanging Chalk Tags.


Not super original.  Not super creative.  Not super exciting.  But super duper functional.  And super duper budget-friendly.


Which brings us to last Saturday.  I went to AC Moore to track down some cut-out wooden luggage tags.  I couldn't find any, so decided to make my own.  The most inexpensive way to do this was to buy a six-pack of these small sheets of wood.  I used a 50% off coupon and picked up a pack of twine.  Less than five bucks for both.  I already had a quart of chalkboard paint on hand, which is why I got the idea in the first place.


I wanted to finish this by the time Ben got home from work, so I decided to use the hand miter saw to half the pieces.  Before I made any cuts, I quickly ran up to the nursery to see what the sizes would look like in comparison to the baskets.  

Once I made the cut, I sanded down the rough edge with a heavy-grit sandpaper.  As you can see, they were pretty snaggled (made up word alert).

Next, I used a power drill to make the holes for the twine.  I just guessed on the bit size, I probably should have gone another size up, because when it came to threading the tags, it was a little trickier than it could have been.

So with the edges sanded and the holes drilled, it was time to paint.  I laid down some heavy paper (I use old architectural plans that I get from my boss's dad, who is an engineer...we also use these for wrapping paper!) to protect the table, and got to it.

First, I painted all of the edges of the tag, so that I didn't get fingerprints all over the place.  Then I laid them down and painted three coats on each side.

The wood soaked up the paint very quickly, so it wasn't long until they were ready to thread.

I left a good bit of length on each, because I wanted to be sure I had a lot of flexibility when it came time to hang.  Re-threading them was not an option for me!


Finally, I went upstairs and made a list of what was in each basket, trying to keep things in a cohesive style.  This is what I came up with:


Accessories (I didn't know babies had accessories either...)
Jammies
NB Onesies and Outfits
0-3 Onesies and Outfits
Pants
6-9 Onesies and Outfits
Skirts and Bloomers
9-12 Onesies and Outfits
Holidays


We have an extra bin, so I left that one blank.

You can see that they definitely aren't perfect, but that is a vibe that works for us.  When it comes time to change up the tags, we can just wipe them off with a damp cloth, and once it has dried, re-label.  


And ask us in a year where we will store her clothes once they are larger than the size of my socks.


I can't wait to show you around the nursery!  Hope you've enjoyed the little glimpses of the built-in that Ben made with his bear bare hands.