I am in the process of cleaning and disinfecting our house.  We have all been sick off and on for the last month and now that school is out, we need to be healthy because there is lots of fun to be had and we don’t want to miss out.

I’m still feeling pretty crappy, but I was determined to clean the carpet in the dining room today.  I had a vision and I was going to complete it.  One of the biggest problems I have with our current living situation is our lack of space and my inability to throw anything away.  When we moved back to California, we kept way more than we needed and most of it was because I didn’t want to have to buy it again.

For example, we had a deep freeze in our garage in Iowa.  It was out of sight, but easily assessable.  We used the freezer all the time and I didn’t want to get rid of it so I justified moving it half way across the country by using it as storage instead of as a freezer.  Instead of being out of sight, it sat in our dining room.  It was a huge eyesore.  It only took me a year and a half to come up with the idea of moving it into the living room, covering it with an old duvet, building a little shelf on top and using it as the TV stand.  It’s not the best looking thing I have ever seen, but it has freed up space in the dining room and the living room.

The TV stand is now a $300 shoe rack that sits in our closet.  The funny thing about this is that I don’t think I have spent $300 total on the shoes on the rack.  My most expensive shoes are my running shoes, but they aren’t on there.  The Pumas may be the only ones that were over $20, all of the others I’m sure were under $20.  I am a big fan of outlets and Target.

There is room for at least 6 more pairs of shoes on there, so I may end up keeping this as my shoe rack forever.  We got the TV stand almost 10 years ago and I hated it after about 2 months.  I can’t believe we spent so much on it, but repurposing it this way kind of makes me like it a little.