Super Simple Storage Solution

During the summer I drink a lot of iced tea. A lot.

Sometime ago they started packaging Crystal Light products in new containers, these containers:

The labels come right off, they aren't glue at all - which means they can go from how they look above to this:

They are the perfect little storage solution for all kinds of little things... little things like this:

So now, in addition to feeding my iced tea addiction throughout the summer, I can collect these to use for all kinds of storage.

Thirft Store Find: Old or New? Trash or Treasure?

I had an amazingly productive morning at work. Almost too productive, to the point where by lunch I felt like I couldn't do another thing - to help clear my head I decided to take a walk.

I ended up at this very hit or miss thrift store across this street. Turns out, it was a good day. I've never been one of those people to really have an amazing score at a thrift or antique store. Well, today - I found this:

I've gone so long with such bad luck at thrift stores I'm questioning my own judgement a bit. I had a coworker look at it and she agreed, total treasure.

But, I'm insecure and I'd really love your opinion. On 2 things actually - did I find something good here? And is it really old or did someone recently make this. The hinges seem new-ish, but everything else seems old. There are NO markings on it anywhere, well except where someone has drawn in pencil in a few locations.

What do you think? Old or New? Trash or Treasure???


What do do with it now, when I first spotted it I thought I was going to paint it, but if it is really something old, it seems somehow "wrong" to paint it. Plus I love the metal pins on the door, I don't want to mess with those and they would be hell to cover and paint.


I really appreciate ANY and all comments on this one!!!


(Oh, and by the way - this piece, cost $40, did I pay too much?)

Custom Trash/Recycling Bins

As part of the Kitchen Renovation we lost the space where we had our trash can: See that shinny thing over there...

Yeah, that. It didn't have a home in the new plan of the kitchen since we were putting in almost 8 linear feet of cabinets on a wall that was just over 8 feet didn't leave any room for a trash can. And in reality there wasn't really any other place to put one. We could have limited the amount of cabinets we were putting in, but I really didn't want to do that.

Then, the perfect solution presented it self when we found the cabinets... one of the base cabinets came without drawers and doors:

I remembered seeing a Trash/Recycling piece over at Knock-off-wood. I figured I could modify those plans to suit our needs.

So, without further rambling here is what I started with:

• Base cabinet
• 2 trash cans the fit (harder to find than I thought, but not impossible)
• Left over 1x10" pine from another project
• Left over 1/2" plywood
• 1/2" "L" molding. I don't know if that is what it is really called, that is what I'm calling it
• Piano hinges
• Wood glue
• Nails
• Clamps
• Jig saw or hand saw
• Compound miter saw or miter box
• Palm sander or sand paper
• Wood filler
• Primer
• Paint
• Cup hooks 
• Chain

To start, I needed to cut the cross piece off the base cabinet that would have separated the drawer from the door with a jig saw:

This allowed for the trash cans to be able to fit and tilt out:

To construct the tilting door, I took a piece of the plywood that I had cut to the width I wanted for the door and attached it to a piece of 1x10" for the base using wood glue and then nails. You'll see the door and base are different widths. This allowed the door to extend past the width of the opening while the base fit inside... it also allowed me to use reclaimed wood that we already had on hand, rather than spending money on new.

Additional support was needed for the structure so I miter cut a 3" wide section of the plywood:

The supports were attached to the outside of the base and the back of the door using by applying wood glue, securing with clamps and following up with nails.

The problem with using left over materials... they often look like left over materials. The plywood edges were raw and that is putting it mild.

That is where the "L" molding came in, I miter cut the "L" molding to fit around the edges of the doors. Those were secured with wood glue while things were clamped I nailed them in.

See the difference - the trimmed door on the right, the untrimmed door on the left.

This was as far as I could take the building of the unit until the base cabinet was installed. Which meant it was time for painting. Prior to painting the seams around the molding were filled with wood filler on the door and everything was sanded and sanded and sanded.

With the base cabinet installed in the kitchen, but BEFORE (very important) the counter top was on, I attached the piano hinge to the bottom of the door and then while very carefully standing IN the base cabinet the other half of the hinge was attached to the opening of the base cabinet.

And then the counter top went on.

Then it was time for the support hinge, something that Ana at knock off wood used. Well, I tried to find the exact same support hinge at a variety of stores here, and I couldn't. The guys at Ace suggested "Friction Lid Support" hinges:

We tried them. They didn't work - the return of the hinge kept the door from completely closing.

So I went back, returned the support hinges and went pretty basic, safety cup hooks and chain:

I cut the chain into a length that would allow the door to open, but keep it from falling all the way open. Cup hooks were attached to the inside of the base cabinet and the back of the door and the chain attached to each:

Still with me??? We're almost done!

Last: Hardware!

And now, we've got the perfect Trash/Recycling bins.

In some ways I wish I'd gone with new materials, but it feels good to have saved money and saved items from landfills. And we've gotten exactly what we needed and wanted.

Sneak Peak: New Trash/Recycling Bin

The space where we keep our trash can in the kitchen is being taken up by new counter space - as a solution to this we are converting one of the "new" cabinets into a trash/recycling bin.

Here is a sneak peak at how it is coming along:

Hopefully the 1st section of the kitchen will be done in the next week and I'll be able to post the full details on this and a few other fun projects.

Coloring Book Holders

We've got a lot of coloring/activity books in this house. I've found that if left uncontained these little suckers will multiply and fall to pieces. It isn't pretty.

A little while back I found this solution at Beach Brights and have been wanting to do it but I never, ever make it anywhere to pick up mail boxes. Well as luck would have it I was cleaning out our front hall closet where I used to store materials for a little business I used to have... Years ago, I had a kids craft business. I would purchase kids crafts in bulk, and repackage them for parents in monthly kits with a project for each week.

And what did I find... 5 kits in the back of the closet, all packaged up in priority mail boxes. Perfect!!! I wasn't going to be sending them out, the business has been closed for 3 and a half years. Felt good to recycle something from that long ago. (And now I've got a BUNCH of crafts for Bug and Baby bear... bonus!)

So, here is how I did it...

Materials:

• Mail box (Recycled priority mail boxes or recycled FedEx boxes are perfect for this.)
• Spray adhesive
• Nail polish remover (to unstick your fingers after you over spray and touch too much adhesive.)
• Box cutter 
• Fabric, contact paper or scrapbook paper to cover the boxes (using contact paper will eliminate the need for the spray adhesive and nail polish remover.)
• Straight edge

Step 1: Mark on the box where you want to cut, if you plan ahead, you can actually get 2 coloring book holders per single box, which is what I did. One ended up shorter than the other, but that was perfect for the smaller books we had.

 

(Look how old these boxes are??? They've completely changed the branding to flat rate boxes now... that is what happens when you don't clean out your closet for over 3 years.)

Step 2: Cut the boxes along the lines with a straight edge and a box cutter.

Step 3: Lay the box on top of your fabric/paper and cut around the box leaving about 2" around the edges. (You'll also note, that because my fabric was light, I had to spray paint the box with a bit of lighter paint to knock down the contrast, otherwise the blue would have shown through...)  If you have a patterned fabric like I did, you might want to plan a little when cutting in step 3 so that you get the portion of the pattern you want, on the face of the box.

Step 4: Fold the ends of the fabric in and secure with adhesive so that when you wrap the box, much like you would a present, a toile photo box or cream and black box top...you'll have nice finished edges all the way around.

 

Step 5: Wrap the box like a present.

Step 6: Use a credit card or other smoothing tool to make sure you've got all the wrinkles out and make sure everything is secure. Especially important if your boxes, like mine, are going to be used by kids.

And there you have it... I was able to make 7 finished coloring book boxes out of 4 recycled priority mail boxes. All I had to pay for out of pocket was 2 yards each of 2 types of fabric. For me, black and cream toile ($8 and this is now my 3rd project with that same fabric) and black linen ($6 for 2 yards with coupon.

 

  

$14 for 7 coloring book holders - I'm thrilled.