I learned a valuable lesson when we moved out of our last house. After painting the walls, I kept the leftover paint "just in case." After 6 years of sitting in the garage, the paint dried up. So naturally, one day when we were cleaning the garage, I looked inside each can and figured, "Why have I been keeping these cans? There's barely any paint in here!" (*toss*)
When we moved out, I pulled pictures off the walls and realized I needed to touch up some of the paint in almost every room of the house. (each painted a different color) I quickly remembered throwing the cans away and was kicking myself, wondering how I'd get the hardware store to match a color that I couldn't show them! I actually had to take pieces of the dry wall in with me...it was a disaster.
So when we painted the kids' rooms and my craft room when we moved into this house, I wised up. For two of the rooms, we used every drop of paint in the can, so I just kept the lid in a Ziplock bag. That way, when I need touchup paint, I can bring the lid into Lowe's and they can mix the formula on the tag on the lid. I felt like a genius for coming up with that!
This came in VERY handy yesterday when the painters came to paint over the dry wall repairs they did the day before. I handed them the Ziplocks with the paint lids and they were able to match the color exactly. One of my neighbors had such a problem matching a color in his house that the painters had to re-paint the whole room in a similar, but different shade of green. They did it, but it was a lot of unnecessary work.
Also, if there's just a LITTLE paint left (that will likely dry up soon) you can transfer it to a smaller container (I used an empty baby food jar) for smaller touch ups.
That's my big tip of the day. Save the paint lid, not the whole can (unless there's a bunch of paint left in it, of course). It totally worked for me!
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Ok, seriously, were we fraternal twins separated at conception? I live by this rule, too! Except I think I have the paint sticks I used to stir the can, and then I wrote the brand, item number, name, etc on the non-painted end of the stick. (maybe I did that so I could take fully closed cans to the dump?)
I love reading how similar we are! It's no wonder I love you so much! :-)
xoxoxoxoxoxo
PS - I've found the most amazing birthday gifts for both you/Mike and Ryan (still waiting for inspiration for Kaylin). I'm bringing them with me to the States for the summer, 'cause you know how painful international shipping is. So get prepared, you will have some 'Happy Whenever' gifts arriving.....sometime!
If you store your paint in the house, it won't dry-up or discolor like it does in the garage. When you need it again, take the can into the home improvement store to have them reshake it (paint stirs don't do as good of a job, especially when it has been sitting for years). It'll be as good as new. The new paint they mix up may not match as well as the well-preserved paint you already used (learned that one the hard way). For that reason, it's always best to have a little extra when painting a room than to have just the right amount.
Yes, paint, Oh so important. I actually keep the swatches from the store and write on them where the color was used and tuck them all in an envelope and keep them in a file called "important stuff!" That way I can match the swatch or buy the exact color, whichever I need. Like the idea of keeping just lids- I need to do this, but not until Jan when I clean out the garage- HA :)
Great ideas! This post has motivated me to get a grip on the paint cans in my garage. I used to keep the cans with whatever was left in them on the shelf in the closet where the paint was used - that helped me remember what color went where and they were out of the way. But, for some reason I moved them all to the garage (keeping like things together) and failed to label anything. Uh oh ...
You are a *Genius*!!! What a great idea...
another idea is to write all the info on a small piece of paper or on the wall behind a light switch plate. That way the info is always there. No keeping anything or losing any info.
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