Category: Repurpose

Budget Friendly Ways to Organize Your Home

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Shop Goodwill for double-duty (and budget friendly) organizing ideas for your home.  Think outside the box!  

Shopping for new boxes, bins, baskets, and Lazy Susan’s is expensive.  However, a budget friendly way to organize your home is through creative Goodwill finds.  Wander around your local Goodwill Store to shop for creative solutions.  Here are 10 double-duty organizing ideas. 

1.  Goodwill is a great place to find used furniture. You might find a beautiful piece but don’t have room for it in your home.  Consider re-purposing the drawers as under-the-bed storage.  Just add wheels for easy access.

2.  My trip to Goodwill in search of storage items turned up mason jars in all shapes and sizes.  Jars are fantastic for storage of dry ingredients and non-perishable items for your pantry.  For instance, use the jars for tea bags or spice packets.  You can also use jars to organize office supplies like paperclips and push pins.

3.  Eyeglass cases serve as a creative way to store things while traveling. Use a vintage case for holding jewelry or earbuds and your phone charger.

4.  With summer being the time for travel, organization is important to make your trip less stressful.  For instance, pill holders can be used for earrings, rings and so on.

5. Many times I see bags of craft supplies at Goodwill, and in those bags are dozens of mismatched buttons.  Try putting your earrings through the holes of the buttons to store them  This will help keep them together.

6.  Cookie jars of all shapes and sizes can be used to store things like nail polish or kids crayons.

7.  When you find a beautiful frame at Goodwill but don’t love the art contained in the frame, consider using the frame for something creative. First, it can easily be painted.  And then, attach several rows of string or ribbon on the back, and use clothes pins to display photos or greeting cards. This could also make a creative family chore / reward chart!

8.  Find an old shutter from a home?  Use it to display cards or mementos.

9.  Is your kids bathroom a place that is in need of serious organization?  A tiered mesh basket (usually used for fruit in a kitchen) makes bath toy organization a breeze.  Hang from the curtain rod.  It keeps toys contained and allows them to dry.

10.  Two-drawer metal file cabinets are a regular find at Goodwill.  These gems have so many uses for organization in your home. Toss a pretty throw, scarf or table cloth over the top and you have an instant end table with hidden storage.  You can also paint it and apply a stencil to give the storage unit a new look   Do a Pinterest search on re-purposing metal cabinets and you will be shocked at all the ideas!

This months guest blogger is Cathy Fairchild from Say Yes to Less.

Get in touch with Cathy at:  http://www.sayyestoless.guru  

https://www.facebook.com/sayyestoless.guru/


Spring Home Project – Easy DIY Terrarium

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Spring Home Project DIY… bringing a little outside inside

Bringing the outside into your home with plants is a great way to (literally) bring some life Into your Spring home projects.  There are a ton of resources available at your local Goodwill to create an amazingly easy DIY terrarium!

With Spring upon us, I have been anxious to test my green thumb.  But at the same time, terrified the temperature changes will result in mass garden casualties! So, this easy DIY Terrarium is an easy indoor plant option.

Not only are terrariums perfect for our unruly weather, they’re also a beautiful option for decorating with thrift store finds. If you like budget friendly home décor options, you’ll love the Easy DIY Terrarium!

Easy as 1-2-3

To get started on your own Easy DIY Terrarium, here is what you will need from your local Goodwill for this project:

  1.   Glass Tray
  2.   Terracotta Pots
  3.   Glass Cloche Domes.  What is a cloche?  Simply put, it is a translucent cover used to protect plants. You can use any clear glass for this project. Be creative! Just be sure the class is tall.  This is key. Your plant needs room to grow. Some things that might work: glass jars, glass bowls, mason jars, or a fish bowl.

Get some potting supplies too. If you’re a plant expert, feel free to set up your terrarium however you’d like. If you’re not sure where to start, check out my full post HERE to see how I “layered” my Easy DIY Terrarium. I also shared a trick for finding house plants for cheap!

Once you have your supplies from Goodwill,  start putting together your Easy DIY Terrarium.

Step 1

It’s super simple. First, get your plants into the terracotta pots.

Step 2

Then, arrange on your tray.

Step 3

Finally, add the domes!

Tips

Tip 1:  Because the covered terrariums create a greenhouse effect, there will be some moisture build up. Which is why I highly suggest the glass tray like I used.  This will create a moisture barrier between your Easy DIY Terrariums and whatever surface you’ll be putting them on.

Tip 2:  When you pick out your supplies at Goodwill, make sure the dome fits over the terracotta pots you use. A couple of mine were a pretty snug fit, and I had to experiment with which dome worked best with each pot.

Tip 3:  Goodwill has a ton of great glassware options that would be perfect for Easy DIY Terrariums! You could also try tall vases for open terrariums, or jars and bottles for a more Boho look.

Tip 4:  This can be a fun project for kids to get involved with. Let your kids help choose the plants, and get their hands dirty potting.  They will love watching something they created grow throughout the Spring and Summer.

 

 

 

 

This month’s guest blogger is Amanda DeVries.  Get in touch with her at This Growing Home or find her on Facebook.

 

How To Make T-Shirt Flowers

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Today I wanted to share with you an easy and fun project you can create from some common items that you can find at your local Goodwill Store. Today’s inspiration came from a bag of clip on earrings that I found when browsing through the jewelry section of the store and the sea of endless t-shirts in every variety of color that you can find on their racks.

For this project you will need a t-shirt (any size), spray paint in a contrasting color, clip on earrings, hot glue, glue sticks, scissors, a piece of card stock to make your template, and one piece of felt.

  1. To begin, you will need to cut out eleven circles out of your old t-shirt. I used a large circle punch and created my template out of scrap card stock. You could also just trace a lid to a canning jar, if you don’t have a circle punch handy.

  2. Grab your piece of felt and cut a heart out for the base of your flower or you can cut a simple felt circle.

  3. Let’s make some flower petals. Fold your circle in half as shown.

  4. Fold up one side of the circle that has been folded in half.

  5. Fold up the other half of the halved circle and have it meet with the other side to form a petal.

  6. Now hot glue the seam just a tiny bit together where the petal is gathered and then hot glue the end of the petal to the felt heart.

  7. Repeat this with all four ends of the heart.

  8. In the spaces left, fill in with three or four more petals.

  9. Spray paint your clip on earrings in your favorite color. Allow this to dry.

  10. Remove the back of the earring with a pair of pliers. Hot glue the earring to the center

  11. On the back of your fabric flower, you can attach a simple jewelry pin that you can find in the jewelry section of your favorite craft store.

  12. Wear your thrift store pin proudly!


Have you ever done anything fun with thrift store t-shirts? Feel free to share your ideas for ways you craft with Goodwill supplies here. We would love to hear them!