Paper, Paper, Paper

Like most other households we have paper piling up everywhere!  We do a pretty good job of only keeping what is important/necessary but we didn't have any method of sorting that out.  For example everything went into one "it's important" spot .. bills, things to be filed, things to be kept etc.  Also, Kevin never looks at the mail so everything with his name on it .. important or not was piling up, so I decided to get organized.  I have wanted to paint our the door to the garage/basement(which is in our kitchen) with chalkboard paint for awhile.  I thought it would be neat to have a place to write notes, lists and the week's menu, plus it looks cool.  So I decided to combine that idea with my need to get organized.  Enter in magnetic dividers from Target and some magnetic primer and chalkboard paint.

I bought a quart of magnetic primer and a quart of chalkboard paint from Lowes.

And then just followed the directions on the can, after prepping the door (tape on the trim, removed the door knob and put a drop cloth down).  The magnetic primer is nasty stuff to work with.  It is really really thick (you have to make sure it is stirred really well), and it splatters everywhere when you paint (I recommend wearing gloves!).  That being said, I think it ended up working really well, and I like having the door magnetic.  The directions said two coats, but I ended up doing 4 thin coats and allowing them to dry for about an hour in between each coat.  I let the last coat dry for 24 hours before moving on to the chalkboard paint.

I then applied just one coat of chalkboard paint.  It went on really well, and you had to wait 24 hours before applying another coat, so I cleaned up after the first coat and then decided it would be ok without another coat.
So here are the results:

It's hard to get a good picture because it's a tight space.
You can't see in the picture but the bottom two "slots" are for coupons/gift cards (I have an envelope for the grocery store, one for target and one for miscellaneous) and bills that need to be paid.  The "mail" slot isn't for outgoing mail, but just holds our return address labels, stamps and envelopes.  The "greet" slot holds thankyou and greeting cards (I like to keep some birthday, baby and congrats/wedding cards on hand).  The "important" slot holds things that we need to keep and know where they are, for example my mom and I have tickets to the ballet in May, so they are in there as well as miscellaneous info (like trash pick up times and other village info.).  The "file" slot is obviously for things to be filed.  Lastly our slots are for incoming mail, or other stuff that just pertains to us (including stuff Kevin leaves on the table and I want him to put away!).

 

I really like the way it turned out, and I have plans to paint the trim in that room white (and the cabinets a light grey), so I think it will look even better then.