Dumping Ground Gone Rouge

Our living room and front entry way has become a dumping ground for mail, keys, garbage from another project, scatted shoes, left over Christmas decorations and the dog towel.  It drives me absolutely bonkers. And while it's not the main door we use we pass though here from everything. This space is the mail hub of the house, if you will.  Hence the trash/junk/whateverelse collector. 

I had two extra bookshelves that I was trying to find a home for. They are cheap and look even cheaper, so they needn't be anywhere on display. But they are very functional, so I didn't want to get rid of them.

So they were collecting dust and taking up space here - The collector of all random things

I really wasn't sure what the heck to do with them at first.

The ugly front door and lack of closet door are kind of distracting to the creative process 

So I got this cute mail folder and bulletin board from TJ Maxx for $19.99 each to help organize

 

Then I mixed some vintage finds that I already had, with a few more TJMaxx finds to create this:

(For a full list of my finds look below)

• The cubbies are two separate pieces from Target, I already had them from a previous organization at my last house. I turned them on their side and put them together.  They are cheap are $45 each.
• The two wooden floating shelves are from an garage sale. I paid $1 for all three.
• The small chalk board is from Michaels. $2.99
• The tall glass colander is from TJMaxx and was $12.99
• The small clear glass jar is from and estate sale and was $0.50
• The teal glass thingy ma-bob is actually an old insulator from an electrical line. I picked up a ton of these around $0.50 a piece 
• The orange vasey and black metal ball are from TJMaxx and were $12.99 and $6.99 respectively
• The three ducks were from The Container Store and were $15.99 for all.  Not only do they hold mail, but they hold keys too. Amazing. I know.

• The two teal glass jars on top of the old wooden floating shelf are both from estate/garage sale. I got them a while ago and can't remember the price. But I never pay more than $2
• "Wag More Bark Less" is from TJMaxx (Have I told you how much I love that store) for $4.99
• And the tiles on the other old wooden floating shelf is from an estate sale. There are more where these came from. They were $1 each (they tried to charge us way more, but ooops the original price [I'm sure from a long time ago] was still on the back of the tiles)

As you can probably tell, I'm obsessed with both estate sales and TJMaxx.  Estate sales are great because everything you get from there has a history, or some sort of story.  If you search and bargain hard, you can get great prices on many things.  TJMaxx carries such an assortment of things, you never no what you are going to find there. Plus, you can find some really great deals.  Basically great deals and unique things give me a tingling sensation.

So there you have it. A place to collect everything while looking pretty.  Now, to replace that ugly front door, the closet door, and add back some molding and we will be in business.  If only.