Saturday, February 19, 2011

Think INSIDE the Box

My daughter wanted to ride the quarter-horse machine at the grocery store today. She had behaved well, and we had some extra time. She said she wanted to put the quarter in the box by herself. And so she did. Just think of all the excited little kids that have put the coin in the box to ride that horse machine! I was one of them-25 years ago when it only cost a dime. Today that silly song didn't seem so annoying. It was fun to giggle with her. I'm glad I could take the time today to let her put that quarter in the box, because all too soon she'll be too big to do so.

As always, I'm looking for a few new ways to keep things organized in our house. I ran across some awesome organization bins at tatortotsandjello  the other evening. Love, love, love the polka dot fabric she used, but I needed to use up some fabric that I've had on hand for awhile. We don't have any scrap wood in our garage, but we had a used priority mail package in our recycling bin in our garage. A-ha! So, this was my attempt to make a wall organization bin-

and on the topic of "in the box"....

(1) I found a first priority postal box, taped it closed with packaging tape, then cut it down to 10" with an xacto knife. I kept the end scrap, because I had an idea for that too.

(2) Next I applied fabric around the large box, using good ol' Mod Podge! Then I did the same thing to the extra end piece. (I'm not a fan of the fabric, but it will eventually look good in the hubby's office corner. :))

(3) I found a recipe card and stenciled FILE on it (kind of crooked though), then used double-sided sticky tape to hold it to the fabric. 
(4) I hung the box to the side of our kitchen cabinet using Command velcro picture hanging strip to see what it looked like.  I'm not posting the pictures of our current office workspace-still working on organizing that.... :)

Click here  for coupons to save $2 on Command hooks and picture hanging products. 






Here's what I did with the end-nothing fancy, but functional
(1) empty pill bottle for paper clips
(2) glass case for flash drives
(3) containers and other small office supplies




*I made my own magnetic paper clip catch-all by sticking a small piece of magnet to the top of the lid then I put the lid back onto the pill bottle (upside down/ non-childproof).






The Review: Easy but does take a half an hour or so. Will definitely make another one.

Thought for the day: "No empty, used box is useless"

1 comment:

  1. How cute Mindy Lou (and I LOVE that you still use that name)...... you are my Mindylouann always!

    Anyway - your project is so functional! Gives me some ideas! I am a sucker for cute totes and organizational bins, so I might have to find some cute fabric and copy this one down!!!

    Glad to see you started a blog!

    Hugs n Loves, Kellie :0)

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