Before and after: ugly bathroom cabinet

Yesterday, I bought some organizers for my ugly bathroom cabinet and, while I was at it, painted and put in pretty contact paper. I just got tired of looking at the ugliness. I had a roll of contact paper leftover from lining the kitchen drawers and paint leftover from painting my farmhouse table. Ahhhh….organization!!!

 

(I apologize for the not so good pictures. My dslr has been out of commission for almost 18 months and I have been using my phone. I am hoping to return to better quality pictures soon with the purchase of a new dslr).

Creative Reuse: Recycling things around the house

I would not label myself a packrat, no…not by any means, but I do like to reuse materials, packaging, boxes and bags whenever I can.  I, like many others, flip through magazines and ooh and ahh over the color coordinated and decorative organizers and dream of having a place for everything!  In many prominent areas of my house, I do use decorative organizers, or baskets, but in places that it really does not matter, I try to recycle different store packaging to suit my needs.  Today, for example, I was looking for a needle and thread and was annoyed when , out of my sewing bag, I pulled out tangled thread, bits of fabric, notions, sewing machine parts, how-to books, etc.  I could not find what I wanted quickly.  So, I pulled out my box of store packaging that I keep.  When I say store packaging, I am talking about those plastic bags that comforters, sheets and curtains come in, or altoids tins, Folgers plastic coffee cans, or anything that I might be able to recycle into something useful.  Today, the plastic bags that misc. curtains came in, the bag that my sheets came in, two altoid tins and a Flash drive box and a couple of labels became organizers for my sewing bag.  The sewing bag itself is a New Orleans conference goodie bag that I rescued from the trash at work.  Yes, I know, pathetic huh?

Anyway, this is how I reused the packaging:

ta-da!

I guess you can tell that I am not a serious sewer.  My sewing is limited to curtains, potholders, finger puppets, doll dresses and light embroidery.  This method would probably offend some serious sewers, but since I am not inhibited with the title of “serious”, this works for me!  I will try to post often on some more creative use/recycling tips.  Recycling does not have to be limited to newspaper or cans.  There are many every day objects that people throw away that can be reused.  I recycle a lot in my scrapbooking too.  I will have to show you different items I use from packaging to make cute tags.  Recycling does not have to be ugly.  If you do it in the right way, you can take something that was going to be thrown away and give it a new purpose.

Check this out, it is a house in New York that was completely remodeled using reclaimed lumber, thrift store and Craig’s List finds, as well as furniture picked up from the curb!  I love it!

Andrea

So, Where’s the Drill At?

“So, where’s the drill at?”  I asked my husband smiling sweetly as I entered the living room.  I know that question is the one he hates to hear coming out of my mouth.  Steven peered up at me over the top of his laptop screen and replied “It is in the kitchen”.  I scurried off to retrieve it before he asked me any more questions.  As I made my retreat, I hollered out his second most hated question “Do you know where the leveler is too?”  I am surprised he did not follow me into the kitchen.  He must have either chalked it up to: 1) She has her mind set on doing something and I am not going to interfere; or 2) I am going to ignore her because if I show interest she will involve me somehow.

I retrieved the drill, two screws, an extra shelf I had lying around and the leveler and headed to the bathroom.  I had just finished cleaning out the bathroom cabinet. I know when you think of a bathroom cabinet, you envision a small little chrome and white thing with two little glass shelves.  No, no, no, that is not my bathroom cabinet.  It is a full cabinet with a laundry hamper behind a closed door on the bottom, and a HUGE open, deep cabinet at the top.  I got tired of rifling through everything looking for Tylenol, a sheet, an extra handtowel, my toothpaste, etc. that I decided to organize it — TODAY!  After I was finished pulling everything out and putting it in stacks, I noticed the reason things became so disorganized.  I have so many little prescription bottles and medicines, tubes of Neosporin, etc. that kept getting lost in depth of the cabinet.  So, I decided to put up little shelf inside the cabinet to set all of the small things on.  I put the shelf on the wall, leveled it, marked it on the wall and used two screws to put it up.  Voila!  Done!  The next step is painting the inside of the cabinet.  I will post an “after”  picture when I am completely done.

Now, my cabinet is organized, everything is neatly labeled, stacked, folded, on a shelf and within easy reach.  My husband finally got around to come and see what in the world it was I was getting into and he swears that when he opens the cabinet door, he hears the heavenly voices sing: “Ahhhhhhhhhhhh” with lights shooting from the depths of the cabinet!  It is that neat, clean and organized.

Andrea