Itso Bins - Perfect for Storage

 I love to wander through the organization section of Target, the area that has the shelf units, fabric bins and plastic bins.  I usually examine every item and dream of the day that we have our "forever house" so that I can invest in all kinds of fits-perfectly-just-in-this-spot shelves and cabinets. Since moving is still in our future, thanks to the military, I usually just dream and then walk on to pick up the everyday, practical stuff my family needs.                                          

But today was different. I saw this simple plastic bin.  A bin that I really wanted. 





 I had already started talking myself out of it before I even reached to pick it up.
   But as I was reaching my hand out, I saw this

Made in U.S.A. Woohoo! Now I could justify buying it since it's Made in the USA. I happily added it to my cart of boring everyday stuff and headed for checkout. (I'm conveniently leaving out the part where I had several, the exact number remains in dispute, in my cart. I wisely turned around and returned.....several of them, taking just one home to try out first.)



As soon as I got home, before I unpacked anything else, I quickly put my new Itso bin to work in the freezer. It was a little too tall to fit under the shelf where I'd hope to use it to replace my GoGo Squeeze box. But the Itso bin fits well on the upper shelf and can hold taller items, keeping the contained neatly.


  I like that the clear containers don't need labels since you can easily see the contents.  Sometimes I find labels to be nothing but visual clutter.  I do need to either label my GoGo Squeeze box or treat myself to another Itso Made in U.S.A. box.  Hmm..... a dilemma.

Repurposed Tins and a little Mod Podge

I found a couple of great tins recently.  Of course, they were square.  Square is so much better for organizing stuff.  Square fits on shelves or in drawers without wasting space.  And if you're going to do an organizing project, isn't not wasting space your goal?

                                                     Look for a tin that has a lip like this.  It makes decoupaging the paper onto the tin much easier by clearly marking where the paper should end and the lid will fit.





Supplies List:
metal tin or plastic container
decorative paper
Mod Podge
letters or stickers, if desired
paper cutter
corner rounder

Cut your decorative paper to fit the vertical height from the bottom of the tin, just above the the lip on the bottom of the tin, up to the lip where the lid will fit.  You'll have a long strip to wrap around the sides of the tin.  Overlap the ends of the strip about 1/4 inch and cut the paper.  Mod Podge the decorative paper onto the tin and let it dry.

Cut the decorative paper to fit the top of the box.  I rounded the corners before I Mod Podged it onto the lid.  I used my Cricut to cut vinyl letters out to add a little more decoration to the lid.

While the box looked cute with the decorative paper and "notions" on the lid, it still looked a little plain.  I decided to cut strips of the pink vinyl to add stripes around the bottom of the box and the edge of the lid.

I decorated 2  tin boxes and one round plastic jar.  These were all repurposed items that fit together perfectly.  Three containers saved from the landfill.  Three cute, useful, organizing containers.  Win. Win. Win.

Organizing My Fridge with Binz - Made in America

Walking through Costco for me is like a gambling addict walking through a casino.  My knuckles are white and my jaw is clenched.  I walk with my head down, trying not to look at any items not on my list.  I make a beeline to the items on my list, one after another without looking up so as not to be tempted by all those thousands of other items calling my name.

Last week I broke my focus, I looked up at one of the end cap displays.  This time I'm thrilled that I did give into the siren's call and actually looked at the item.

It had me at the name "binz."  A humble name, "binz," not a pretentious "Bins" or "Binz," but a humble and attractive "binz."

Then as "binz" continued calling my name and I looked closer, it was a match made in heaven when I saw this  


MADE IN THE USA!!!

That was it, I took my very own box of binz home with me that day. 






There were 4 bins; 2 larger and 2 narrower. I put 3 in the refrigerator and 1 in the freezer.

                                                                                I'm lo-oving these bins named binz.  They're made of sturdy plastic so they can hold a heavy load of food in the fridge or freezer.  I really like that they're clear so I can easily see what's in them.  I tend to go light on putting labels on bins because sometimes it just adds more visual clutter.  With these clear bins, no label is needed. 

I used my new binz bins to replace the repurposed lids I had been using to organize the fridge. 

As I explained in my {post}, I had been holding off on buying bins because I never know if the bins will work in the "new" fridge after our next move.  I feel good having bought these bins since they're well made and functional, Made in the USA and if they don't fit in our next refrigerator, I can use them in the linen closet or in a dresser.   Yea binz!

Cozy Repurposed Sweater Pillows

My friend, Karen asked if I could help her with a project.  She'd bought several XL men's sweaters because she got a great deal on them and loved how cuddly they are.  She'd seen large throw pillows made out of sweaters and wanted to do the same for her family room. 


I did a little research and could only find small accent pillows made from sweaters but nothing that really fit the bill for what Karen had described.  So being a simple girl (with a short attention span), I figured "Who needs a pattern? Let's just do this."

I washed the sweaters to let any shrinkage happen.  I figure that these will need to be washed in the future if they're going to be lounge-y throw pillows. 

Then I laid the sweater out and cut the sleeves off just outside armhole seam. 

I wanted to leave the seam to keep the rest of the sweater from unraveling. 


I considered keeping the sleeves and tucking them into the sweater, but it made the pillow too lumpy to be a cozy lounge-able throw pillow.


I just turned the armhole seams under and hand-stitched the armholes closed.  The sweater is so thick, that the thread disappears into the fabric of the sweater.

After stitching the armholes shut, I inserted the pillow form. 


To find the pillow form, I took the sweater to the craft store and tried it on over different sized pillows until I found one that fit the best.  I like that the pillow form holds its shape better than loose fiberfill.

Next I stitched the neck closed. I left the collar sticking up because it added more casual character.  But for a more finished look, you could easily turn the neck under.



Finally, I sewed the bottom of the sweater shut.   I had wanted to leave the band out for a more casual look.  But my pillow form wasn't large enough and it would have looked sadly droopy. I ended up turning the band under and sewing it shut. 

I'm happy with the way they turned out. I really like the neck of the sweater on the top of the pillows.  And the buttons on the sweater on the right are such a great accent.

Karen was really happy with the way the pillows turned out on her couch. We decided to simply place the second sweater (the one with the buttons) over one of the existing couch pillows. It fit perfectly.

Her children love cuddling up on the soft sweater pillows. I understand that there are occasional scuffles over them.  She has three children and sadly, there are only two cozy sweater pillows.

She's now on the hunt for more sweaters.  She wants to cover the other tan couch pillows with coordinating sweaters so that all the pillows are soft and cuddly.  I can't wait to see it.

On-the-Go Yarn Keeper Made from a 2-liter Bottle

With 3 kids, I spend too many hours to count at practices, games and activities.  Most of my time is spent waiting.  I can't stand to just sit and wait, I have to be doing something.  I usually spend my waiting time crocheting.  One of the hassles of crocheting on-the-go is that the skein of yarn gets tangled up in the carrying bag.  I spend as much time unraveling the tangles as I do crocheting on the project. 

About a month ago, I received an e-mail newsletter from allfreecrochet.com and it mentioned a tip for preventing your skein of yarn from getting tangled. {here}   The tip involved repurposing, so I was interested and gave it a try.

First take a 2 liter bottle and cut the bottle in half.  After inserting the skein of yarn, the directions said to tape the bottle back together. 

 Since I was repurposing the bottle, I hated to use the tape (I  know, I know).  So instead,  I cut the top 1/3 of the bottle most of the way off, leaving part of the top connected like a hinge.  This allowed me to "close" the bottle over the skein of yarn without using tape.

Once you have your bottle opened,  simply insert the skein of yarn  into the bottle and pull the yarn from the middle of the skein through the mouth of the bottle.

The bottle gapes a little but it stays closed and contains the yarn.  Even with the gap, the yarn pulls out smoothly without getting tangled.  Of course, if that gap bothers you, you can use tape to secure the bottle all the way closed.

I was using 2 skeins of yarn for my project so I put them both in bottles and stuck the bottles in a canvas bag.  I was able to crochet at my son's practice with no tangling and no problems at all.  This is a great solution to prevent yarn projects from tangling, especially for busy on-the-go crafters.

Clorox or Lysol Wipes Container to Store Plastic Shopping Bags

In the past couple of months I've found my house swarmed with plastic shopping bags.  Although I use cloth bags when I do my grocery shopping, those plastic bags still sneak into my home somehow.  I keep plastic shopping bags around because we use them to line trash cans.  In the past I've stored the plastic shopping bags in a larger bag hanging in my laundry room.

Although my laundry room has been pretty well organized, I've been working on better organizing my laundry room.  It's tiny and .... well, I'm just going to say it, ugly.  If it was my house,  I'd do something (a lot of something) to this room. But since I'm a tenant, I've been trying to grin and bear it. There are too many things about the room that I can't change, so I've been doing small, non-permanent improvements to make it more bearable.

 Make an Embellished Grocery Bag Container!!
at Tater Tots and Jello 

I stumbled upon this projects at Tater Tots and Jello {here} to store plastic shopping bags.  Since it involved repurposing an item I already had at home,  I jumped right in.  The directions were super easy on how to fold and wrap the shopping bags so they'll "dispense" from the container.







In place of decorative paper I used a card front from a Christmas card that I liked .  If I'm going to repurposed the wipes container and the plastic shopping bags, it just seemed appropriate to repurpose the decoration, too.




I also liked the picture because it reminds me why my family reuses plastic shopping bags. 

I'm really pleased with the way it turned out.  And even better,  it works well; the plastic bags are easy to pull out.








In fact I was so pleased with this one that I quickly made another! That I like even better!
                                   Slowly my ugly laundry room is starting to look better.  Small non-permenant changes are helping.   The repurposed wire basket holding the hand towels was the first step.   I have a few more non-permanent projects planned to make it more grin-able and less just bearable.  I just need to find some time to get on those projects. 

It's funny how one small change can improve my opinion of a teensy tiny, ugly laundry room.

It's especially funny when the next day I made another trash bag keeper....

... and then made a few non-permanent improvements.

I'm now feeling more charitable about this laundry room.  More on that later.  Oh, and the original trash bag keeper moved upstairs to the linen closet to spread a little happiness there.

 

Update: I had so much fun with repurposing the wipes container, I had to do find another purpose for a new one.

Organizing My Kitchen with Repurposed Packaging

Sometime in the midst of our 5 moves in 6 years, I decided that it wasn't wise to buy a bin that fit perfectly in a kitchen only to find that it wouldn't fit at all in the next kitchen. It felt wasteful and was definitely annoying. I purchased a few small, multi-purpose bins that are able to fit in any kitchen. When we move, those bins find a new home and purpose quickly. But for larger storage, I've chosen to repurpose items I already have. Lately, I find myself repurposing a lot of food packaging materials.

One of my favorite repurposed organizing bins is the lid from plastic vegetable containers.

Plastic lid corrals jars on the top shelf of the fridge.

A plastic lid contains loose items so they don't get lost in the back of the fridge.

Plastic lid catches the drips from bottles in my cabinet, keeping the cabinet from getting gross and sticky.

Since every house we've lived in has had a different sized pantry (and a bunch had no pantry), I repurpose containers for organizing the food and snacksin my current pantry.

 

                                      I use jars that popcorn comes in to store noodles and pastas.  (see my earlier post about these great jars).   

Gotta love Costco for supplying an organizing mom with an amazing selection of organizing boxes! I'm currently using a Jif box to hold my breads and rolls. I'm on the lookout for something prettier, but the Jif box works just fine for now.

I use a Go Go Squeeze box to hold different fruit snacks for my family to take in their lunch boxes.

I use another Costco find, an empty animal cracker jar, to store individual serving lunch box snacks. The jar is perfect for my pantry because 1. it's square and conserves space on my shelf  2. is clear so we can see what snacks are available and 3. has a large mouth so it's easy to reach in and grab the snack you want.

That Go Go Squeeze box is a great size. I use another one in my freezer to keep bags of frozen vegetables together.

I'm also using the bottom of the produce box (the one I took a lid-tray from aearlier) to hold bags of chopped spinach. 

Using the boxes to hold bags of frozen food helps keep the freezer organized and prevents everything from falling out on me every time I open the freezer. It also help prevent a bags of vegetable from getting lost in the dim recesses of the freezer.

More Costco boxes help me store items on the top shelf of my cabinets.

I also reuse plastic buckets from ice cream, laundry detergent or my favorite Zippy's Chili!

 

                                                                                  


















It may not be glamorous, but it's useful AND cost effective, oh, and earth friendly, too.

 



 



Earring Holder for $2, If You Repurpose, or $3 If You Splurge

I was in the Dollar Store killing time several weeks ago and saw this sink mat.  I really like the bold grid pattern.  Simple. Clean. Compelling.




It's been knocking around in  my head  for weeks.  I finally figured out what I wanted to make with it - an earring holder.

Dollar Store Shopping List:
Frame
Sink Mat
Wrapping Paper (Couldn't find any I liked)
Paper Napkins   (ended up not working, read on)
It cost $3 + tax ($2 + tax since I repurposed, keep reading).  I couldn't wait to get started.


Supplies at Home:
Craft Paint
Foam Paint brush
Mod Podge  (ended up not working, read on)
Scissors

I removed the glass from the picture frame and quickly painted the picture frame with white craft paint.  I had craft paint left over from when my son made a Captain America shielf for his Halloween costume last fall.  (Now I've got to find a use for the glass from the frame. Hmmm....)

I cut the sink mat to fit inside the frame.

My original plan was to Mod Podge the napkins to the cardboard back of the frame.  Unfortunately, that didn't turn out very well.  I know I've seen where people have decoupaged paper napkins and they turned out well.  I don't know what went wrong, but I moved onto idea number two (or number three since the wrapping paper didn't pan out.)

Fortunately, I'd just been emptying out my son's school folder of papers.  See my post {here}.



 And "bing" the light bulb went off. 


Why not use the beat up old folder for the pop of color behind the white grid? 


And when I say "beat up", I mean "BEAT UP!"

I cut the folder to the same size as the card board back. 


The inside of the plastic folder was clean and bright, so I made sure that side was facing up when I reassembled the frame.

 Ta da.

My 16 year old daughter says she likes this earring holder better than the store bought one she has because the holes for the earring hooks are bigger and easier to access.  Woo hoo.  A compliment from a 16-year old!!!


Revised Shopping List
Frame
Sink Mat
Plastic Folder     or     Wrapping Paper    or    Gift Bag     or     Paper you can decoupage   (the options are wide open)