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Wednesday, February 11, 2015

What Do Wednesday: Organization

Favorite comment on my last post had to be "you're adulting so hard right now" haha! Loved it! Thank you ALL for the + thoughts though! I'm pretty nervous about being a real real person with stuff and things to do & like knowing I have the blogging community right thurr with me.

Speaking of stuff and things....Spring is right around the corner. I can feel it. Barely, but I can feel it creepin'. With the Spring comes the cleaning (sidenote I feel obligated to inform y'all to NOT google "spring gifs"...what even...my eyes). I for one, LOVE cleaning (its a sickness) and finally getting all the winter grime off all my things is liberating! The problem with me is that I also love organizing. But I don't really have anything to organize into.

Me.
Most barns have cubbies, lockers, racks and trunks for all their precious's but I have a ratchet barn thats about 1000 years old and no real system of organizing my plethora of wraps, boots and saddle pads.

Its a tragedy.

For one, said old barn means it looks dirty even when its clean. It really needs new paint and a new roof. I also wish all the birds that live in the rafters would vacate. My chickens do not assist in cleanliness. It also IS always dirty. Its like dirt seeps in through all the holes. It won't leave. Ever.

To combat the dirts, all my fluffy stuff (pads, wraps, polos) lives in giant bins you can buy from walmart for $8. They're hideous and large and annoying but, no dirt leakage! My horse boots live in plastic drawers you can also find at Walmart, organized by types of course. My odds and ends (clipper blades, studs, rubber bands, rags) live in a smaller version of stackable plastic drawers. And my leather goods (bridles, breastplates, etc) live in a tiny ass utility trunk thats approx 13 years old. Not even joking. Covered in bumper stickers my 12 year old self thought would be wonderful decorations.
Bridle house

Boot apartments
The saddest part of all of this, is that the dust COVERS the plastic. I'm pretty sure it settles into the plastic and permanently lives there because no amount of fierce hose spraying can get my containers clean. So while everything has a home, they always look dirty. In addition, the plastic drawers DO NOT protect against dirt. So everything that lives in them are forever dirty. Literally defeating the purpose of having a home.



The other part of the problem is I have like 7 bins of stuff. And then I have special bags for my riding boots and helmet. And then I have a grooming bucket. And then I have halter hooks. And then I keep my saddle in the garage on the ATV. I JUST HAVE TOO MANY PLASTIC CONTAINERS & LIVING PLACES FOR MY THINGS.  I realize I could get rid of half of it (GASP) but I can't because packrat.

That being said, I would really like one of these to organize my most relevant shit. Meaning, the stuff I use everyday, or the most often & leave my other crap in plastic containers, in the barn rafters.

I'm pretty confident I could make one & intend to try (see: goals). Not only is it swanky and gorgeous, but it organizes ALL THE THINGS. Removable grooming tray/tote for grooming things and odds & ends, rack for polos/boots/wraps, hangers for leather goods, room for saddle pads, riding boots AND helmet. And you can paint it however you want AND adorn it with a shiny brass nameplate.

I've asked for one for Christmas since I was like 14 so I think its time to organize in style now that I'm adulting.

So dear readers, its your turn...What Do? How do you organize your tack/boots/grooming tools/etc? Do you have a tack trunk? Cubby? Plastic bins?

Feed me your secrets!


14 comments:

  1. I have two wooden trunks. Id always wanted one when I was little and I convinced a tack store to sell me their display trunk at 50% off. The second trunk I bought a little later for $75 on consignment. All it needed was rescrewed with proper screws and some wood glue (and a name plate). I hang my pads on hangers on a display thingy (that I also bought from tack store). Bridles all hang in their own bags on hooks above my trunks. Saddles on stands next to said trunk. One day I will have a "my tackroom" blog post to show it.

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  2. Built a tack locker: http://www.cobjockey.com/search/label/equestrian%20woodworking Best decision ever. It houses what I use on a daily basis, everything else is in plastic bins in the attic upstairs in long term storage. Things just get buried in tack trunks, it always drove me crazy.

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  3. Check out http://elitetackdesign.com/ they have plans for all kinds of horse organizational structures. My friend has the double door armoire and it's pretty awesome.

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  4. I have a metal cabinet that is screwed into the wall and we fill it with odds and ends. I leave boots and bridles out and exposed to the dirt, which is sad, but I'm way too lazy to keep them inside something. You can get these plastic cabinet/wardrobe type things at Home depot and then you could hang bridles in them.

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  5. Haha... I have a trunk+saddle racks and three bridles at the barn and I'm not afraid to commandeer the entire tack room as blanket drying space.

    At home, I have another saddle rack. And a number of reasonably well organized rubbermaids that I refuse to count.

    I DON'T HAVE A PROBLEM GO AWAY

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  6. I have my own tack room, but I also have an awesome tack locker the people who ownedy farm before me built. It's 2.5 feet deep and 11 ft tall, split into two sides. About 8 feet wide. It has big doors that swing open and shelves at the top and saddle racks at the bottom. It's seriously the nicest thing ever.

    Next best to a wood trunk is a Stanley tool trunk. Affordable with wheels and awesome for shows and lessons.

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  7. I have a giant vinyl trunk and everything that doesn't fit in there goes in the back of my car or the top of my dog crate. Not super organized.

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  8. I have a small trunk, plus some plastic drawers that I use to keep things organized :)

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  9. I have three saddles I don't use stacked on one saddle rack, one saddle I do use stacked on another saddle rack, and my two bridles hang on hooks. That's about all the organizing I need, sadly.

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  10. i have seriously lusted over sweet sweet tack trunks and organizational gizmos for forever... but i try not to fall down the rabbit hole too deeply since i don't even have my own horse and therefore have no true 'personal' real estate at the farm for trunks/lockers/etc... so sad!

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  11. I made the move from rubbermaids to a Husky toolbox (about $60 at Home Despot) and have never looked back. I moved the rubbermaids to the loft storage where I just keep things I use less than twice a month (shipping boots, hay bag, fly sheets in the off season). I don't have many boots or much extra tack though, so I'm not exactly a good example.

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  12. I have plastic drawers, tubs, the back of my car, a whole tack room, a locker in a second tack room, the back of my kitchen chairs, sometimes the track barn tackroom, ummmm I think I should stop now.

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  13. I have an ANCIENT trunk I took to Girl Scout Camp as a child that became my tack trunk in high school. (I, too, covered it with bumper stickers!) I keep horse boots, first aid kid, spare lead ropes, fly masks, etc in it. It isn't very big! I have a lot of random stuff in big Rubbermaid tubs that live in my horse trailer. That trailer is the only reason my house/garage/tack room isn't covered in more stuff.

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  14. Organize? What's that? All of my stuff is thrown in the back of my car.... and it all fits.... seriously, even his blanket. :)

    Also why did you tell us not to Google spring gifs??? You know that's the first thing I did.... ew!!!!!

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