Tag Archives: storage and organization

October 24, 2018 · 8:50 am

13 Cute Crocheted Basket Patterns

One of my favorite ways to use up yarn in my stash is to make baskets. I can always use them to store and organize, and they’re super easy to work up on a lazy weekend.

Crocheted baskets are great for cleaning out any leftover yarn you have lying around, and they also make wonderful hostess gifts for the holidays!

So get out those hooks and make one or more of these adorable crocheted basket patterns!

13 Cute Crocheted Basket Patterns

crocheted-basket-patterns

  1. Easy Crochet Basket
  2. For the Love of Baskets
  3. Apple Bobble Basket
  4. Long Storage Basket
  5. Mini Crochet Basket
  6. Crocheted Nesting Baskets
  7. Granny Square Basket
  8. Rainbow Crochet Basket
  9. Birchbark Basket
  10. Diamond Stitch Basket
  11. Sweet Granny Square Basket
  12. Beaded Crocheted Basket
  13. Mini Storage Baskets

Celebrate creativity every Wednesday with a “Creativi-bee” post, where I share easy craft tutorials, project ideas, and craft collections.

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May 12, 2016 · 10:22 am

10 Clever Uses for Bundt Cake Pans

They may be vintage in design, but Bundt pans can prove to be very beneficial both inside and outside of the kitchen.

If you’re not a fan of cakes with holes… My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 movie funny comedy family

You can use Bundt cakes for several other things!  Great for organizing and decorating, a Bundt cake pan can come in handy all over the house!

10 Clever Uses for Bundt Cake Pans

Bundt-Cake-Pans

Make an Organizer: Stack Bundt pans of different sizes to create a decorative organizer for food, craft supplies, or other nick-knacks. Personalize it further by spray painting the pans to match your décor.

Make a Wreath: Spray paint an old Bundt pan to look like an apple, pumpkin, or peppermint candy. This is a fun and unique decoration that will surely add character to your home.

Organize Makeup: Keep your counter clean of clutter with this cute makeup organization idea. Use the hole in the Bundt pan to hold your makeup brushes and place your must-have’s right in the bowl.

Roast a Chicken: This is a genius way to roast your chicken. With the chicken standing upright in the oven, the fat will drip off the chicken and into the bowl, making this a clean and healthy roasting alternative.

Peel Corn on the Cob: Not a fan of eating corn ON the cob? Remove it from the cob by placing the bottom of the cob in the small hole in the Bundt pan. Run your knife down the cob and all those sweet little kernels will collect in the bowl of the pan.

Create a Wind Chime: Old antique Bundt cake pans are great for this project. Attach ropes of beads, bells, buttons, or charms to the Bundt pan and hang it outside for a cute, eclectic decoration that will liven up any garden.

Make Wall Décor: Arrange Bundt pans of various sizes and shapes on the wall for a cool 3D decoration that is great for both living rooms and kitchens. Color the pans if you’d like, or leave them as is for a cool rustic touch.

Create a Party Sandwich: Don’t worry about ordering subs for your party, create a party sub right in your kitchen with a Bundt pan! This could easily feed 8 to 10 people, depending on the size of your pan, and it’s a fun activity to do for family dinner night!

Make a Decorative Ice Cube: Keep punch and other drinks cold with a Bundt pan ice cube. Use a small Bundt pan to create a decorative ice ring and place in punch bowl to keep your drink cold. For an extra decorative touch, drop cranberries, flowers, or herbs in the ice cube for added color and flavor.

Create a Garden: Create fun planters using old Bundt pans. Try herbs or succulents for a cute garden decoration. A Bundt pan with succulents would also make a great housewarming gift for friends and family.

Knowledge is power!  Learn fun facts, hints and tips, and creative ways to use every day items with “The Buzz” posts on Thursday.

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January 7, 2016 · 7:23 am

How to Properly Freeze Foods

Using your freezer to store bulk food is a great way to save on money and space, but be weary of what you freeze…some foods freeze beautifully while others can’t quite take the cold.

Not All Fruits and Veggies Are Equal

While most berries freeze wonderfully and have a much longer shelf life frozen than they do fresh, not all fruits and veggies are granted the same luxury.  As a general rule of thumb, if a fruit or veggie has a high water content, it won’t freeze well.  Foods like watermelon, cucumber, celery, and oranges just get mushy after freezing.  Fresh cheeses and yogurt can also sour and become unusable if frozen for too long.

Bakers, REJOICE!

However, foods with higher fat content (butter, avocado), grains, and meats are great for storing in the freezer (great news for you bakers out there!  You can keep all your baking materials fresh for months in the freezer!).  Most freezer-friendly food should be consumed within 6 months if possible, but you could stretch the lives of some foods to last you up to a year if stored properly.

Here are some foods that can stand up to the chill, and some that should just be left out of the cold.

what-to-freeze-printable

Freezing Ready-Made Meals

Prepping and freezing is also a great way to portion out meals and plan food in advance so you’re not scrambling last minute to come up with something for dinner.  Casseroles and pasta dishes often freeze easily and don’t change in taste or consistency when defrosted.  You can also bake and portion out cookie dough and bake cookies as needed for a warm, fresh cookie whenever you need one!

As always, check food labels before freezing anything…and make sure anything you store in the freezer is protected from frost by storing items in air-tight containers.  I also suggest labeling and dating anything you store in the freezer to keep track of what you’re storing.  If you find that you’re freezing a lot of food, it might be worth it to invest in a vacuum sealer to ensure freshness.

 

What foods do you keep in your freezer?  I store my chocolate in the freezer to help with portion control!

Knowledge is power!  Learn fun facts, hints and tips, and creative ways to use every day items with “The Buzz” posts on Thursday.

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December 19, 2012 · 8:27 am

Stashbusting Crocheted Basket

I’m notorious for gathering and saving those little shampoos and soaps from hotel rooms.  Why?  I have no idea.  It’s not like I do a ton of traveling where having a stock pile of tiny soaps would be beneficial to me, but for some reason I just like collecting them…I like knowing I have them should the need for a little conditioner arise.

Ironically, these little shampoos have taken up more space in my closet than a full bottle of shampoo…so I needed to find some way to store these supplies that was convenient and space-friendly.

Enter the amazingly large, easy and cute Stash Buster Tote!  This crocheted tote can literally hold tons of stuff…and the V-stitch allows it to keep its shape while you stuff it with anything and everything you can imagine.

Made with 2 strands of yarn, this tote is durable and strong…and it works up quickly, so it’s a great project for a weekend or a rainy or snowy day spent inside.

This tote would also be great for storing fruit and veggies, craft supplies, toys, jewelry, makeup, and other little essentials.  You can make them in different sizes and shapes by altering the pattern just slightly.  Continue round 5, just increase an additional dc in each round (so the next round would be ch 2, 2 dc in first st, dc in next 4 sts) for a bigger basket, and omit round 5 for a smaller one.  You can also make the basket walls as high as you’d like by continuing or halting rounds when you get to round 7.

Stash Buster Tote

d

Stash Buster Tote

Materials:

  • 2 balls Red Heart Super Saver yarn
  • 6.5 mm [US K-10 ½] crochet hook
  • Yarn Needle

f

Special Abbreviations:  V st:  (dc, ch 1, dc) all in the same st. or ch.  As you can see, you’ll be making little V’s all around the basket.
k
V-stitch close up

d

Instructions:
This pattern requires holding two strands of yarn.  Ch 2 does NOT count as a st.  Ch 4 does count as dc and ch 1.

  1. With 2 strands of yarn held together, ch 4, sl st in first ch to create ring.
  2. Round 1:  Ch 2, 12 dc in ring, join with sl st to first dc.  (12 dc)
  3. Round 2:  Ch 2, 3 dc in each st around, join with sl st to first dc.  (24 dc)
  4. Round 3:  Ch 2, (2 dc in first st, dc in next st) 12 times, join with sl st to first dc. (36 dc)
  5. Round 4:  Ch 2, (2 dc in first st, dc in next 2 stitches) 12 times, join with sl st to first dc.  (48 dc)
  6. Round 5:  Ch 2, (2 dc in first st, dc in next 3 sts) 12 times, join with sl st to first dc.  (60 dc)
  7. Round 6:  Chain 4, dc in first st, sk 1 st, (V-st, sk 1 st) 29 times, join in 3rd ch of ch-4.   (30 V-st)
  8. Rounds 7-15:  Sl st into first ch 1, ch 4, dc in same ch 1, (V-st in next ch 1) 29 times, join in 3rd ch of ch 4.  (30 V-st) if you want your basket to be higher, you can continue this for five more rounds, for a total of 20.  I thought 15 was plenty for me.
  9. Round 16:  Ch 3 dc in each dc from previous round, join in top of ch 3.
  10. Weave in ends.

Celebrate creativity every Wednesday with a “Creativi-bee” post, where I share easy craft tutorials, project ideas, and craft collections.

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November 7, 2012 · 1:35 pm

How to Decorate an Old Tin Can

I’m all about reusing and recycling.  I love thinking of new ways to use old materials and using things like jars and cans to better organize my crazy life.

If you ask me, an aluminum can is just too valuable to toss into recycling.  There are about a billion ways that you can use it to organize everything from your craft room to your bathroom.  For this project, I used an aluminum can to make a nifty container for all my crochet hooks and knitting needles.  I also attached a piece of elastic band around the can to hold smaller items, like tapestry needles.

This is an easy project that anyone can do!  You could even gather a group of cans together to create one heck of a desk organizer.

Needle and Crochet Hook Can

Materials:

  • 1 aluminum can, washed with label removed
  • White paint, or paint color of choice
  • Mod Podge
  • Elastic band
  • Hot glue gun and glue sticks
  • Large paper embellishment or embellishment of choice

Directions:

  1. Paint your can the color of your choice. Once paint is dry, cover with 1 layer of Mod Podge. Let dry overnight.
  2. Add a dab of hot glue on the back of the can and secure one end of the elastic band. Wrap the band around the can and secure the other end with hot glue over the previous end. Pull band a little tight when you wrap it around so the needles will stay secure against the can.
  3. Embellish with a paper flower or embellishment of your choice. Fill with your crochet hooks and knitting needles and you’re good to go!

Celebrate creativity every Wednesday with a “Creativi-bee” post, where I share easy craft tutorials, project ideas, and craft collections.

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April 25, 2012 · 1:22 pm

Framed Earring Storage

This past weekend was one of my favorite quarterly projects…Spring Cleaning!  I love spring cleaning so much that I do it once a season…sometimes twice.  Yes, I’m THAT person.  I’m that much of a nerd.

To be fair, I do have a lot of crap…and I live in an apartment with hardwood floors, lots of books, and windows that stay open quite often…so there’s lots of dust.  I also live with a boy…and, well, we all know how that goes!

So when I do my spring cleaning, I like to start one room at a time and just take my time going through things and throwing stuff away.  This year I started with my jewelry.  I needed a way to store all my earrings so I could see all of them at one time.  I had some left over wire shelves from my craft unit I showed you a few weeks ago, so I tied a ribbon to those and was able to hang hooked earrings on them.  It looks oh so chic!

As for my studded earrings, I needed a way to store them that wasn’t in a little bowl in my dresser.  So I decided I’d do double duty and create a storage system that was also decorative…bada boom!

These sweet earring frames are so easy to make and they’re a great way to store your studded earrings in a way that looks professional and stylish.

Earring Frames

Materials:

  • Wooden frames (I got mine at IKEA.  I think they come in a package of 5 or 6.  I only had to use 2 for this project.  These frames are 4 x 6)
  • 1 8 ½ x 11 sheet of felt, color of your choice
  • Scissors
  • Glue gun
  • Felt flowers (optional)
  • Ribbon

Instructions:

  1. Take the backing off the frame and remove the glass/plastic part.  Lay it on your felt and cut out a felt rectangle, using the glass/plastic as a guide.
  2. Hot glue the felt piece to the inside of the frame where the backing used to be.  Don’t put the backing back on because you want to be able to poke your earrings through the felt.
  3. That’s really all there is to it.  You can add felt flowers if you’d like to give it a feminine touch.  Then hot glue a ribbon to the back (if there isn’t a wall hook on the back of the frame) and you’re ready to go!
  4. To attach your earrings, poke them through the felt and secure them on the other side of the frame.

Done and done!  Moving on to necklaces…

Since I’m a renter, I can’t really drill massive and awesome storage units into my bedroom wall.  And since my apartment is small, I can’t really afford to waste space with units that sit on the floor and take up room…and since I’m a bit of a crafty minded person, I have a LOT of necklaces.  I needed a way to store and display them so they wouldn’t get tangled and messy.

I have to thank my brilliant man friend for this idea.  I had these great mini hangers that I also got from IKEA, but they put huge holes in the wall, which I didn’t want to do.  He suggested simply attaching them to my dresser, also from IKEA, and hanging my necklaces there.  Um…genius.

Instead of having to drill screws into the wall to hang up these awesome hangers, all I had to do was push a thumb tack through the hole and into the dresser.  My necklaces aren’t super heavy, so that was all the support they needed.  This is a great space saving idea for ladies who live in little lofts and flats.

As for my bracelets, which I don’t wear too often, I simply threw them on some glass vases (wait for it…ALSO from IKEA!) and threw some fake flowers inside the vase.  Boom.  Storage with style!

I was so excited with my jewelry plans that I really didn’t have time to finish much else!  I did clean up the bathroom, though…and next week I’ll have a helpful tip for renters who are looking to add some color and style to a bathroom they can’t really do anything to…

Celebrate creativity every Wednesday with a “Creativi-bee” post, where I share easy craft tutorials, project ideas, and craft collections.

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March 14, 2012 · 12:06 pm

DIY Craft Storage and Organization Idea

I’m pretty OCD when it comes to craft storage and organization.  I think there are times when I’m actually too organized to the point where I can’t find anything when I need it!

After my recent move, I wanted to downsize my craft supplies.  Like all my fellow craft lovers, I stashed scraps, beads, and pieces of paper…hoping I’d use them for something.  Needless to say, they sat in a box for a good 2 years, unused and unloved.

I had some leftover storage bins from Target and I decided to use them to store my craft supplies.  That way, whatever fit would stay…whatever wouldn’t fit would go.  I had a unit that would hold 6 bins…so whatever didn’t make the cut was donated to other creative minded people.

I also decided to use various scraps and embellishments to decorate my storage containers.  I mean, why not?  If they’re going to hold craft supplies, they may as well be pretty!

Today I’m going to show you how I made my yarn bin.  It’s very easy to do and great if you’re looking to rid yourself of a few fabric scraps!

Craft Storage and Organization:  Yarn Storage Bin

Materials:

  • 1 folding fabric drawer (you can find these at Target or Walmart)
  • Fabric to cover drawer (optional)
  • Needle
  • Embroidery thread
  • 2 pieces of fabric scraps to create needle pocket
  • Sewing machine OR hemming tape and iron
  • Hot glue gun
  • Ribbon

Directions:

1.  Gather your supplies.  Make sure your piece of fabric is long enough to wrap around the box without you having to cut it.

2.  With your needle and embroidery thread, stitch the fabric to the bin using whatever kind of stitch you like.  If you’d rather not hand sew, you can hot glue it and then decorate the seam with ribbons.  I just stitched on the four sides, trimmed off the excess, and hot glued the fabric to the top and bottom of the bin.

3.  To make the pocket, measure one piece of scrap fabric so it’s the width of your bin and about half the height.  Measure the other piece of fabric so it’s about an inch shorter on all sides.

4. Use either your sewing machine or hemming tape to seal the two pieces of fabric on the bottom, left, and right sides.  You could also use a glue gun if you’d like.  Make sure to leave the top open for your needles.

5.  Place your needles loosely in the pocket.  With a needle and some embroidery thread, thread small pieces of yarn between the needles like so.

6.  Tie the string together and move the knots to the back of the fabric.

7.  The front of your pocket should now look like this:

8.  Hot glue your pocket to the front of your bin and place your needles, crochet hooks, and other little tools inside.

9.  If you’d like, you can hot glue a ribbon to the front of your pocket to hide your little stitch marks.

10.  Glue the ribbon right below the top edge of the fabric so as not to close any of your needle holes.

And there you have it!  Wanna see my other bins?

Here’s the one we just made, for yarn and yarn supplies:

Here’s my bin for stamps and embellishments (as you can see, you don’t have to cover the bins with fabric if you don’t want to):

Here’s my bin for beads and buttons:

Here’s my bin for paper:

Here’s by bin for scissors and misc. stuff:

And here’s my bin for paper embellishments, die cuts, and other things of that nature:

And here’s the whole thing, organized and put away!:

Celebrate creativity every Wednesday with a “Creativi-bee” post, where I share easy craft tutorials, project ideas, and craft collections.

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January 18, 2012 · 1:21 pm

Clay Trinket Bowl Tutorial

The thing that I love most about clay is that you can turn it into anything!  Jewelry, decor, art, even cute little bowls to store your ridiculous collection of buttons!

This clay bowl is super easy to make…the hardest part is actually just rolling out the clay.  You can make this bowl any size you’d like, but the smaller the better.  Use it to store jewelry, buttons, or nick nacks.

Clay Bowls:

Materials:

  • 1 package of Studio by Sculpey clay (I used Peapod, #6452)
  • 1 clay roller
  • 1 plastic bowl from a deli
  • Wax paper
  • Aluminum foil

Instructions:

1.  Condition your clay by working all the little squares in your hand piece by piece.  Once the clay is warmed up and workable, roll it out into a disk shape, as big as you can make it!

2.  Cover your plastic bowl with wax paper and carefully lay the clay disk over the bowl, open side down.  Work the clay around the bowl until you have it in the shape you want.

3.  Carefully wrap aluminum foil around the clay bowl and press gently to secure.  Remove the wax wrapped bowl from the clay (the aluminum foil will help the clay bowl keep its shape as it bakes).  Bake according to package directions, removing the aluminum foil during the last 5 minutes of baking.

4.  Let the bowl cool completely after baking.

5.  Decorate the lid however you’d like.  I used a colorful ribbon and wrapped it around the lid several times.

Celebrate creativity every Wednesday with a “Creativi-bee” post, where I share easy craft tutorials, project ideas, and craft collections.

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January 11, 2012 · 1:13 pm

How to Organize Charging Cords

Electronic devices are awesome, but what’s not awesome is keeping track of all those dang charging cords!  Some companies have gotten better at having the name of the company on the cord itself (thanks, Kodak!), but when every charging cord has a USB side and a wall charging side, it’s sometimes hard to keep track of what’s what.

That is, until you run out of toilet paper.

Here’s an easy way to keep cords labeled and untangled so they’re easy to find and use.  All you need is a toilet paper roll, some scrapbook paper, and a glue gun.

Cord Storage

Materials:

  • Toilet Paper Roll
  • Scrapbook paper
  • Ribbon
  • Glue Gun
  • Pen
  • Scissors

Instructions:

1.  Gather your materials.

2.  Lay the toilet paper roll on the scrapbook paper, pretty side down, and measure where the paper needs to be cut by making a small mark with your pen on the paper on either side of the toilet paper roll.  Cut the paper and set extra paper aside.

3.  Glue paper to toilet paper roll and add ribbon, if desired.

4.  On the scrap paper you set aside, write what the cord storage will be holding.  In my case, it’s my cell phone charger.  I just used the other side of this scrapbook paper, which was double sided, but you can use whatever you’d like.

5.  Place your cords inside and store away!

I’ve done this for all my chargers now, as well as  my extension cords.  It’s also a great way to use up leftover paper scraps that are too small for anything else.

Celebrate creativity every Wednesday with a “Creativi-bee” post, where I share easy craft tutorials, project ideas, and craft collections.

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December 14, 2011 · 9:03 am

Clever Storage for Yarn

Here’s a useful and decorative way to store your yarn in plain sight!  Gather some bottles, jars, or containers and wash them thoroughly.  Here’s the collection of bottles I used.

My collection of random jugs and bottles

Take your yarn and tie one end loosely around the top or bottom of the bottle and wrap it around until everything is covered.  Then take the remaining yarn and feed it into the bottle.  You can also just fill the clear bottles or jugs with the yarn, like I did here.

Jug filled with yarn!

With a cardboard circle and a piece of duct tape, create a top for the jug and feed the end of the yarn through the top…so now you can still craft with the yarn as it sits pretty on your shelf!

Top of jug

Now you have cool decorative pieces that are doubling as storage!  You can also adopt this idea when storing buttons and beads.  Use baby food jars or mason jars to store items of the same color and arrange on a shelf for a colorful (and organized!) display!

My collection!

Celebrate creativity every Wednesday with a “Creativi-bee” post, where I share easy craft tutorials, project ideas, and craft collections.

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