Hanging Storage Bins (made from recycled containers) | Make It & Love It (2024)

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January 18, 2013 - By Ashley Johnston 73 Comments

In case you saw my quickie post yesterday, and read where I mentioned I’d be back on later in the day…..ACK, sorry about that!! Whew, what a whirlwind of a day. Today too, for that matter. I should know better than to put a time frame in writing. Because something will for sure come up! ;) But one day late is better than never, right? Well, unless you’re talking about a paycheck. Or a baby delivery induction date. Or something… ;)

Anyway, I have had a little fun doing some organizing in my craft room.

And made some hanging storage bins to stuff full of sewing notions and supplies. And guess what?!?! They’re made from OLD plastic containers. Hooray for cheap! :)

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Remember my little cell phone holder (made from lotion bottle) that I made over a year ago? Well…..this idea stemmed from that.

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But instead of a flatter lotion bottle…….I used several rounder disinfectant wipe containers.

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And hung them on knobs, which were attached to strips of wood. Now I have more of my most used items, right next to me while I sew.

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I can also easily grab the whole container and use it elsewhere if needed, and then return it to its hook. Simple.

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Originally, I was going to use some slightly bigger containers and hang these up on the wall in Connor’s room. Then he could fill them with cars, action figures, balls, legos, etc. But I needed it more than he did. :) And, well, I need to save up some bigger containers for his room. (I’m thinking liquid laundry detergent bottles. Any other ideas??)

But couldn’t you just see toys hanging in here? Or pencils/markers/scissors/crayons/office supplies/etc??

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I know you go through a zillion of these containers of wipes during the winter like we do, right? (We’re constantly wiping down door knobs, railings, car seats, etc.) Why not put them to good use? Or any other plastic container that you use a lot of. Hmmmm……take a look around. You’ll never even notice they were previously meant for something else. Well, unless you take a peek underneath, I guess.

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I attached mine to the wall between my sewing table and craft table. So, instead of pulling out a pile of elastic colors and pieces, I can just grab the whole container and place it on my table, while I decide which color/size to use. Or just grab what I need while seated at my sewing machine. Ahhhhh……organizing feels so good!

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I guess you could always buy some sort of wall mounted organizational system……but who wants to spend money on that. Especially when you have a little spare wood, paint, and find some knob pulls on sale at Target. Oh yeah, and a bunch of empty plastic containers.

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Would you like to make a few storage bins to simplify YOUR clutter?

Like I mentioned above, I transformed these old containers just like I did with my cell phone holder. So if you have more questions than what I share here, check that tutorial out.

You could use any shape/size of container for this project and if you like the color of the original bottle, you won’t have to do much transforming. My containers were white, so I left them alone. The cell phone container is covered in fabric and mod podge. But you could also use special spray paint (made for covering plastic), to keep it simple.

First, remove all labels from your container. Mine tore right off.

***If you have a sticky label attached to your bottle, use Goo Gone. That stuff works great!

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Then, I used a piece of paper to cut out a shape for the back part of each container, so that it would be straight and uniform. Then I traced it onto each container, with a permanent marker.

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Then I used kitchen shears to cut off the extra plastic. (You could use a utility knife, but be careful. You’ll have less control. I found kitchen scissors to be much easier.)

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For the hole, I poked one point of the scissors into the center of the circle, and then cut around the marker line.

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If you have jagged lines or rough edges, use sand paper to smooth it all out.

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For the main rectangle piece of each wall hanging, I used a 2 foot long piece of wood that was 1 inch thick and 6 inches wide. Then, I drew dots where I wanted my knobs to be and then drilled them out.

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Then I attached hooks to the back of each piece of wood.

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And to finish it off, I spray painted my wood, let it dry, sanded the edges of the wood a bit, attached each of the knobs, and hung up my new piece of organizational beauty! :)

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Edited To Add: The knobs that I used are the kind that you place the screw in through the back and then screw the knob onto the end of the screw poking out the front. Make sense? So all is hidden and the back is flat.

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images taken from here

Enjoy!

-Ashley

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