Re-Purposing Unused Items to Get Organized
Reading time – 3 minutes
When you are sorting through your items, unused items may need to go to the garbage, recycling or can be repurposed. Finding a new life for your things might save you money. It is good for the environment, keeping non-biodegradable items out of the landfill.
- A pegboard can make a great place to hang jewellery or medals. Paint it the same colour as the wall. If you prefer, decorate it and make it a piece of artwork to hold your items.
Use a pegboard to hang jewellery or medals
- A magazine holder can be used on a shelf, standing up or lying down, to hold paper products in your kitchen, wax paper, baggies, parchment paper, plastic wrap, etc.
- Muffin tins can be used to hold paints, small craft items, or office supplies.
Muffin tins can hold paint for those touch up jobs around the house.
- Egg cartons are good for jewellery or small craft items, beads, “googly eyes”, stickers, and glitter. It also makes a good desk drawer organizer for tacks, paper clips, binder clips, keys, etc
- Plastic containers from fruit, vegetables, take-out food, and baby wipes can be used to hold markers, pencil crayons and pens. They are great for giving leftovers to friends. You don’t need to worry about washing and returning the container.
- Dressers make great entryway storage places. Paint or decorate it to match your entryway and then use the drawers to store keys, sunglasses, sunscreen, scarves, mitts, hats, baseball caps, pet supplies, etc.
Use a dresser in your entryway to provide more storage
- Icing containers. If you buy icing in the grocery store, the containers are great for storing pens and pencils on your desk. Once the label is removed, it is a beautiful white container with straight sides so pens and pencils stand up.
- A cleaning caddy can be used to hold art supplies. Use the icing containers to hold crayons, rulers, pencils, stamps, and glitter glue. Add scissors, glue, tape, and a stapler, and you can take your art supplies anywhere.
Use a cleaning caddy to hold art supplies
- Laundry hampers can be used to store extra pillows or blankets. It is a great way to keep them neat, clean and out of the way until they are needed for company, watching TV, or lying by the fireplace.
- Picture frames can be turned into chalkboards, whiteboards or magnetic boards by painting the cardboard or wood insert with specialized paint. It comes in lots of colours.
- Mount a cooling rack on your wall to provide extra storage. You can paint it to match the wall. Use 3M hooks to mount it temporarily.
When I travel, I have seen lots of items repurposed. I hope you enjoy reading this blog too.
Leave a comment and let me know what the best thing you have repurposed is and its new use.
Julie Stobbe is a Trained Professional Organizer and Lifestyle Organizing Coach who brings happiness to homes and organization to offices, coaching you virtually using Zoom. She has been working with clients since 2006 to provide customized organizing solutions to suit their individual needs and situations. She uses her love of physical activity to reduce clutter, in your home and office. She guides and supports you in managing your time. If you’re in a difficult transition, Julie can coach you to break-free of emotional clutter constraining you from living life on your terms. Online courses are available to help instruct, coach and support your organizing projects. Get started by downloading Tips for Reorganizing 9 Rooms.
Contact her at julie@mindoverclutter.ca
The handle cracked on one of my favourite coffee mugs, so now I use it as a pen holder.
It is great to be able to keep your favourite items and keep using them in a new and practical way.
I finally let go of the mug when I received a couple of beautiful, small ceramic vases, which now hold my pens.
One of the benefits for re-purposing an items is you get to see it and enjoy it rather than it remaining packed away.
I love re-purposing furniture as well as other non-biodegradable items. Your suggestions and tips are easy to implement.
The easier it is to implement, the more likely someone is to repurpose an item. If it takes too much cleaning, people will throw it away instead of repurposing it.
I repurpose Tupperware without matching lids as containers for office supplies or other small items. I have repurposed a copper container with a lid that I got from a farm and was told it had been used to make apple butter – I use it as a bar to hold liquor.
I love your suggestions and have seen some of my clients use them.
I like the idea of repurposing Tupperware. It is a very durable product. It may be possible to contact a distributor and get replacement parts. I have gotten new lids. They are usually a generic clear colour instead of the colour matching the container.
I love repurposing as well. I have a dresser in my front entry, and another at my side entry. I find them to be very helpful in these spaces for holding things we use in those locations.
Looking at objects with “fresh eyes” is really the challenge. Especially for objects that are hard to get rid of, or which can’t be recycled, why not consider where else an item might be of some use, right?
When my daughter went to school, we got her a rolling cart to hold various things in her dorm room. She no longer wanted it afterwards, so I’ve put it into a closet and it holds lightbulbs and cleaning supplies. Because of the wheels, it is easy to roll out and access. I don’t think I would have thought to purchase it for this purpose, but it works great!
I have met a person who will take old pianos and make them into other pieces of furniture. He is very creative.
I love the idea of painting a pegboard or dresser the same colour as the wall. What a great way to create storage without making it the focus of the room!
For some people, repurposing would be easier if it blends in and others won’t notice its new purpose. I think repurposing shows creativity. Some may feel it has a stigma attached to it, e.g., ” I’m cheap. “
These are great items to repurpose, Julie. I am a big fan, so much so that I do upcycling craft projects on my blog to help others see the potential of organizing with repurposed items. I love your suggestion of using muffin tins are great for painting – brilliant.
Thanks for sharing your upcycling craft page. Once people see what is possible, it makes it easier for them to think of their own ways to repurpose.
Repurposing items is a creative option and good for the environment, too. We have a ‘shoe cabinet’ in our entryway that has been transformed more than once. It came with the house and was originally a dresser. Before our first child was born, we retrofitted it (or my husband did) and transformed it into a diaper table/dresser. Eventually, it was turned back into a dresser for our kids. And in its current rendition, it’s a shoe cabinet in the entryway. It’s been different colors and has had knob changes more than once. The piece is a workhorse and still looks great!
Growing up, my folks had a piece of furniture my dad made that they called the “Green Monster.” Originally, it was green. It was everything from a record player and record holder to a diaper table. It was in the family for decades. We had it last, and when we moved into our current home over 40 years ago, we finally let it go. It had a good run.
Your comment brought up many memories of things my dad repurposed for me. He took a TV out of the cabinet. The cabinet had a set of doors put on and it was used to hold blankets. We had a door at home that went to an apartment with me and was installed to make 1 room into 2 rooms and then later brought to my house to be made into a much smaller door for a crawl space.
The cooling rack idea caught my eye — I had never thought of mounting one on the wall for extra storage. I turned an old wooden ladder into a blanket rack in our living room, and it works so well that it looks like it was made for the spot. I also like the tip about painting a pegboard the same colour as the wall; that would make it blend in instead of looking like a workshop leftover. Thanks for the reminder to look at things with fresh eyes before sending them to the landfill.
Recently I saw ladders that are used to pick fruit (3-legged) mounted near a ceiling to hold lights. It looked beautiful. Thanks for your ladder suggestion.