Pin the Pin...

Walk the Walk.

Um, so, that doesn't really work does it? I thought I found gold and planned to coin the phrase "Pin there, done that." Witty right? Perfect for showcasing your Pinterest success right?

Before giving it a go, I went ahead and plugged it in Google in the back of my head hoping that I was indeed an original but knowing that surely someone else picked up on that pun. As it turns out, yes, there is an entire blog dedicated to it. Heck, there may be several blogs.

So until I come up with something better, pin the pin, walk the walk will just have to do. ;)

I've been really trying, bit by bit, to tackle the ideas, recipes, crafts, to-dos that I keep pinning in attempts to spice up (and organize) our life. This week it's a little less spice, and a little more organization.

Simple math. A toddler + a growing number of puzzle = how the heck do I store these stinkers (the puzzles, not the toddler.)

I stumbled upon this:

Source: countingcoconuts.blogspot.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

I actually put "plastic containers" on my grocery list a couple of weeks in a row before it clicked that we have toddler puzzles. Do you know what size Glad containers I'd have to obtain to store those chunky pieces? Some of the puzzles would work. Others, not so much.

Then I thought, hey, I can achieve the same purpose with ziplocs. For free! Grab some leftover Mardi Gras stickers, a couple of boxes of ziploc bags, the puzzles, and in a few minutes you've got your hands on some organization, folks. The wee bit doesn't even have to be asleep. W played with puzzle after puzzle as I was working on the storage.

The idea is to place the puzzle's pieces in a bag and "label" each with a matching sticker. When the little one wants to play with a puzzle, you check the back of the puzzle, find the matching bag, and get after it. W will initially need some modeling, but I'm hoping we move past trying to peel off the stickers to actually understanding how to locate toys. We'll see. In the future, we can use numbers as well.

With this storage idea, I can stack the puzzles in a pile:

and house all of the pieces in one basket.

We're still working on the execution of "playing" puzzles by finding the pieces first, but I see good things in our future.

And then I found this:

Source: madincrafts.blogspot.com via Gretchen on Pinterest

So maybe we'll be starting all over.

And because my inspiration was Oh So Pinteresting to me and I love Michelle's link-up, I'm grabbing a button and making myself a part of The Vintage Apple's Oh So Pinteresting Wednesday!