I would like to add some variety to this little blog, so on Fridays, I’m planning to share things that I have found useful, interesting, and/or helpful. These posts will contain cleaning tips, organizing advice, repurposing suggestions, decorating ideas, etc. My plan is to share things I have found through others, tried for myself, and found successful–not to just give you links to things other people have tried. Today I will share a few organization ideas with you.
Tension Rods in a Drawer
This is a simple and cheap fix to chaotic drawers. It requires no carpentry skills or fancy organizing materials. Simply measure your drawer’s width and buy small curtain/tension rods (about $2 each) to fit your drawer. You can place the tension rods from front to back the way Passionate Penny Pincher demonstrates with before and after photos of her drawer. You can also insert tension rods from side to side in your drawer (pictured above) as I posted back in August.
Mason Jar Storage
I have seen so many cute ideas for using Mason jars for just about everything you can imagine. With four kids in our house, I’m reluctant to use glass jars for things the kids will have access to, but I have found them useful for things I keep in the kitchen. The Burlap Bag shows how to store strike anywhere matches in a jar with a sandpaper lid. Her lid even has a little hole cut out to dispense matches. I chose to simply cut a piece off the side of my match box and insert it between the disk and ring on my lid. I had about half a box of regular matches and needed to use them up. I may buy strike anywhere next time and fully incorporate her idea.
I found the idea for storing muffin/cupcake liners at Life is Crazy Beautiful. The glass jar makes it easy to see that I need to purchase more liners before making muffins or cupcakes again! Storing toothpicks in the Mason jar was my idea. I hate boxes that are partially opened or opened frequently because they tear and wear out quickly. It just made sense to put the toothpicks in a jar too.
Magazine Files
I use fabric-covered cardboard magazine files to hide things in my pantry that are odd shapes and sizes or things I rarely use. One has food coloring and sprinkles, another has a variety of leftover Christmas-themed paper plates and napkins, one holds balloons and curling ribbon, and another holds coffee filters and paper plates. The other two hold packages of solid-colored party plates and napkins because I tend to forget those details when having a party or dinner guests.
I cut the fabric to fit the files and folded it around using sticky tack to hold it in place. I put a strip of Duck Tape on the bottom to prevent the fabric from fraying or coming loose. I can’t remember where I originally saw this idea because I made these a few years ago. I would like to update them with ribbons and tags like I saw recently on BuzzFeed. As you can see, I acquired two of the magazine files after I had covered the original four, and I have yet to cover them with fabric. Maybe I’ll cover those two when I add the ribbons and tags to all of them.
Well, Friday is nearly over, so that’s all I will share this time. I hope you enjoyed this post and will check back next Friday.