Little Collections

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My three-year-old daughter loves to collect rocks.  She is always finding them and bringing them home.  We were storing them in a recycled wipe box on our front porch.  The problem was she really couldn't see or play with them.  They box was getting yucky, too.  Sitting outside it picked up a lot of dirt.

I saw this idea (I cannot remember where - so sorry!) for putting collections into old jars. I had an old plastic container leftover from Parmesan cheese we had bought at Costco.  It was the perfect size to store her collection.  I washed it inside and out and removed the label.  I had to use a little rubbing alcohol to remove the sticky residue from the label.

Then I hot glued one of the rocks on top of the lid.  This would act as a little decorative handle.

I spray painted the lid pink (my daughter's favorite color) and loaded the container up with her rocks.

It turned out so cute.  There is still room to add more rocks and I love that she can see her little collection.  We ended up putting the rock jar in her room on her dresser.  She just loves it!

How do you store little collections that your kids bring home?

PS  I'm linking up over at Delightful Order and Organize and Decorate Everything!

Organizing Baking Supplies - Creating Storage with the Strangest Things

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I love when I can find 5 to10 minutes in a day to reorganize a cabinet or create a new organizing system.  On Monday I found a few minutes to grab all the loose cupcake tins in my pantry and store them in a cute Ball jar with a covered fabric lid (read about that here).  Yesterday I was able to reorganize my baking supplies.  It took about 10 minutes and my daughter got into the action, too!  As I unloaded the contents of the shelf, she put them on the counter.  After a quick wipe with a hot, soapy rag, the cupboard was ready to be refilled.

I had a lot of loose cupcake/cookie decorations that were constantly falling over and taking up too much space!  I thought about picking up a storage container to stash them in, but remembered I was holding onto this plastic bag that contained a baking set my daughter had received for Christmas.  (I didn't want to throw it out - I just felt it would be wasteful).  I decided to store all the loose cupcake/cookie decorations in the bag and it worked out perfectly!  They fit in nicely and I was able to stand it up in the cupboard.  I can not tell you how much room it freed up!

One of the tough things about my kitchen pantry is the shelves are super deep.  Since I don't use the baking supplies on a daily basis, I put them on the top shelf in the back.  I put all of our breakfast goodies (oatmeal supplies, tea, and cereal) in the front of the cabinet for quick access.

And that was it.  All done.  It only took a few minutes to straighten the shelf up and best of all - I came up with a quick, FREE way to organize my cupcake/cookie decorations.


What have you organized lately?  Have you found a way to repurpose something?

PS  You can find this over at the Delightful Order Inspiring Thursday Link Party!

Organizing Cupcake Tin Liners

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A few months ago I struggled with finding organization in my kitchen pantry (you can read about that here).  I've since brainstormed a few ideas on how to re-organize my baking supplies and hopefully create more space on the top shelf of my pantry.

I found a little inspiration this week and decided to tackle storing my cupcake supplies - mainly the liners and decorations.  I was able to whip out a handy storage container for the liners in between making dinner and baking cookies with my daughter.  Sure I neglected the dishes in the process, but you can't beat time spent with the little one while multi-tasking and completing a small organization project!

First I organized the liners by color/theme.  I then stacked them in a clear Ball canning jar that I already had.  I cut a small piece of remnant fabric that I had left over from a different project (a doll house we built - more on that in the coming weeks) and secured it to the lid with spray adhesive.  After it dried, I put the lid back on and voilà - a cute little storage container for all those liners that were floating around in the pantry.

Next up, organizing all those pesky cupcake decorations.  What small organization projects have you recently tackled?  I would love to hear about them!

Barrette Board - Pinterest Inspiration

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I saw this cute storage idea for organizing little girl barrettes on Pinterest (see the original at Attempting Aloha) .  I thought it would be perfect for my daughter.

Source: attemptingaloha.com via Natalie on Pinterest

We currently are storing all of my daughter's hair ties and barrettes in this little box. The only problem was that when my daughter wanted to see (ie play with) her barrettes, she would take them out and lay them on the floor. Her curious little brother would then help himself. Eight month olds and barrettes don't go so well together.

I thought making this barrette board would be a perfect way for her to see all of her hair things, keep them up out of reach, and make a pretty display.  I already had on hand all of the materials (minus the spray paint - $4.99 at our local hardware store).  The picture frame was metal and took about 3 coats of pain to cover.

I used spray adhesive to attach a piece of remnant fabric to the original cardboard backing that came with the frame.  I didn't worry too much about how the back looked because I knew I would cover it with a second piece of cardboard when I slid the fabric covered board back into the frame.

Using scrapbook ribbon I already had, I tied them into place.  Those ribbons that were too short received an extra dose of hot glue to hold them in place.  Then I slid the original cardboard back into the frame.  To cover the unsightly back, I cut a clean piece of cardboard out of an old box and slid it in the frame to close the back off from view.

Then my daughter and I added all of her cute barrettes, rubber bands, and head bands to the board.

I absolutely LOVE the final product.  It is cute and organized.  A huge improvement!

What has Pinterest inspired you to do lately?  I would love to hear and see what you have been working on!

PS  I am so proud of this project!  I have linked up at Organize & Decorate Everything (my first time doing this!!).  So fun!

DIY Fabric Storage Boxes - Pinterest Inspiration

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My sweet husband installed new shelves in the nursery a few months ago.  The idea was to create vertical storage in the room.  We wanted to free up floor space so the kids would have more room to play and create a place to store toys, clothes, and office equipment.  The shelves turned out great, but as we used them I realized we needed more storage containers to hold toys.  I considered buying baskets (I had already purchased four for my son's clothes) but they are so expensive!  Then I saw DIY fabric storage boxes on Pinterest.  They looked easy enough.  The inspiration and tutorials I used were from IHeartOrganizing and PostivelySplendid.

Using the tutorial on PostivelySplendid I was able to VERY EASILY cover the outside of three diaper boxes with fabric.

The inside proved to be more difficult.  I did not want to sew liners so I used the tutorial on IHeartOrganizing to line the inside of the boxes.  Unrolling the fabric as you slowly spray the glue section by section was the secret to getting the fabric to lay flat.  (Sorry - I didn't take any pictures.  I was up to my elbows in glue!)

To create the corner, I used a small piece of scrap material.

Creating the corner.

The biggest problem I ran into when making these storage boxes was getting an even edge around the outside of the box.  I wanted the inside material to make a 1 inch border around the outside.  I had a really difficult time getting the border even. 

Oh, yucky uneven edges.  What to do?  What to do?

I ended up hot gluing a ribbon around the outside of the box where the two different fabrics met.  I wasn't sure if it was going to work, so I selected a neutral color ribbon.  A brighter color would work great, too.  The ribbon really evened out the "hem" and cleaned up the box.

Ribbon did the trick!  Goodbye uneven edges!

Overall, I am happy with the final product.  The boxes were more difficult to make than I thought they would be (mainly because I couldn't handle an uneven edge), but I am happy now that they are completed.  They work great and hide toys very well!

What DIY storage project have you been working on lately?  I would love to hear about it!

Re-Purposing A Soap Pump

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I have wanted to buy a cute soap bottle for the kitchen.  Something simple but pretty that I can store dish soap in on my kitchen counter.  We don’t have a dishwasher so I find that I constantly use the dish soap in the kitchen for quick clean-up.  That means the big, bulky soap bottle always finds its way onto my kitchen counter.  It’s kind of an eye sore!  

I have been looking for a bottle to put the soap in but just couldn’t bring myself to buy one.  Then I had an idea to re-purpose a pre-filled hand soap pump that I had purchased a few months back for the bathroom.  It was clear and much smaller than the bottle I was currently using.  Over the last week, I have been washing/soaking it to get out any remnants of the hand soap.  I had a few minutes today to finish cleaning it up – removing the old label – and fill it with dish soap.  I put the bulky container back under the sink and my new sleek container on the counter.  Much better!  It’s discrete, cleaner, and re-purposed!  I couldn’t be happier.

What have you re-purposed lately?  What do you do to quell the urge to buy something new that you don't necessarily need?  Please share! 

Re-Purposed Storage: Crystal Light Containers

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I love storage containers – baskets, plastic tubs, boxes – it doesn’t matter.  I like them all.  A lot.  My husband keeps telling me that buying a new storage container won’t make our house any bigger.  I know.  He’s right.  They won’t.  But seriously.  It’s an addiction!

I am trying to make an effort to reuse the containers I already have on hand more efficiently or to create storage with materials I already have on hand.  I recently repurposed Crystal Light containers.  These are the best little “boxes” and I have used them before to store teaching materials and colored pencils.  

I decided to cover a few with contact paper (which I already had on hand) and use them to store the chargers for our IPad and IPod.  It took just a few minutes and I was really happy with the final product.

I added a small label with my label maker for easy reference.

Have you recently re-purposed something for storage purposes?  How do you create storage in your small space?