{"id":514,"date":"2016-03-21T19:31:04","date_gmt":"2016-03-21T19:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/movingaheadcommunications.com\/blog\/?p=514"},"modified":"2016-04-15T17:55:16","modified_gmt":"2016-04-15T17:55:16","slug":"magazine-racks-tame-the-freezer-7-more-free-diy-hacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movingaheadcommunications.com\/blog\/magazine-racks-tame-the-freezer-7-more-free-diy-hacks\/","title":{"rendered":"Magazine racks tame the freezer & 7 More Free DIY Hacks!"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Stacey Freed<\/a><\/p>\n

\"rrr\"<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0Don\u2019t let your old stuff freeload! Put it to work. Use that old suitcase, file cabinet, magazine rack \u2014 even items you might ordinarily pitch into the recycling bin \u2014 to help organize your home. You\u2019ll save money, and your family will benefit from unique storage solutions that fit your lifestyle. Go on: Unpack your creativity and pack up your clutter into old stuff you never before thought to use as storage.<\/p>\n

1. Tin Cans Become \u2026 Winter Gear Storage<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hats and gloves and boots, oh my. With three young children and a small entryway, Clare Fauke gets desperate to see her floor each winter. \u201cI needed a way to contain things in a spot everyone could reach,\u201d she says. While cooking chili one day, she had an aha moment. \u201cThose 28-ounce cans of diced tomatoes were the perfect size to [use for stowing] a couple of baby gloves,\u201d says Fauke who lives with her family in Chicago.<\/p>\n

She washed out the cans and made sure there was no torn metal around the edges. Then she screwed the cans to a piece of scrap wood and attached the whole thing to the wall by the door. \u201cIt really helps discourage the kids from throwing their things everywhere,\u201d Fauke says. And the cost is minimal if you wait until those tomatoes are on sale.<\/p>\n

2. Old Strawberry Containers Become \u2026 Organizers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Berry-lover Mickey Mansfield of suburban Charlotte, N.C., found himself knee-deep in plastic strawberry boxes. He decided to use an empty one as a first aid kit in the garage. Like berry vines, the idea grew.<\/p>\n

Now, he uses them to store crayons, markers, and craft supplies. \u201cThey\u2019re \u2018free\u2019 (just the cost of the strawberries), easily replaceable, and see-through,\u201d Mansfield says. \u201cThe kids can see exactly what they\u2019re grabbing.\u201d He finds they can hold up for years. They\u2019re stackable and strong enough, he says, to store batteries and Matchbox cars.<\/p>\n

\u201cI even leave the cars in the container, which has holes, and dunk the whole thing in a bucket filled with a solution of water and bleach to disinfect them,\u201d he says. \u201cThen I just tip them over to drain and dry.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. Old Suitcase Becomes \u2026 Charging Station<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even chargers deserve a nice home. With four kids ages 7 to 17, Brenda McDevitt was finding chargers, tablets, cords, and cell phones all over her suburban Pittsburgh home. She wanted a centrally located storage center and looked no further than the perfect-sized container that happened to already be in her home: a vintage suitcase she was using in a decorative display.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always loved the look of them,\u201d says McDevitt, who admits to collecting old suitcases from mostly roadsides. \u201cI\u2019ve never paid for one, and I always have a couple of suitcases laying around for things like magazine storage. Or I\u2019ll put them under a bench or on top of a cabinet.\u201d<\/p>\n

McDevitt relined this vintage case with a cheery fabric to make the inside of the charging station as chic as the outside. She then drilled some holes in the back for the cords to exit and left a power cord inside so everyone can plug in their devices out of sight.<\/p>\n

4. Plastic Magazine Racks Become \u2026 Freezer Organizers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anyone who has ever had something fall out of the freezer onto his toes knows the dangers of rifling through bags of frozen vegetables, packages of meat, breads, and leftovers. The fix is so simple \u2014 plastic magazine racks. (If you don\u2019t have some lying around, you can find them at an office supply store for $6 or less.) Slide them in your fridge and fill them up. Your toes will thank you.<\/p>\n

5. Window Frame Becomes \u2026 Hanging Bathroom Storage<\/strong><\/p>\n

Who says a window can\u2019t be a door? Erica Hebel wanted to create a rustic-looking storage cupboard for her \u201citty bitty powder room that is ridiculously shaped and hard to get into\u201d in suburban Chicago. She began with a $3 wood window purchased at a barn sale. \u201cA bit worn, but that adds to its character,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Hebel cleaned the wood and the glass panes. Then she built a cabinet box with three pine boards for shelves, plywood for the back, and a few small hinges using a brad nailer, a stud detector, and a Kreg jig.<\/p>\n

6. Stool Becomes \u2026 Gift Wrap Organizer<\/strong><\/p>\n

When the cardboard box housing Sarah Ramberg\u2019s wrapping paper finally gave out, she remembered a photo she had seen of an upside-down stool used to corral fabric bolts. That led her to an idea.<\/p>\n

The Greenville, S.C., \u201cbiologist by day\u201d spray-painted an old stool, slathered on a coat of sealant, and put four casters on the seat so she can \u201cwrap and roll from room to room.\u201d Ramberg cut a \u201ccrazy print\u201d thrift store pillow case in half to create catch-all pouches to attach to the side. \u201cIt\u2019s a \u2018low sew\u2019 project,\u201d she says. And low-cost, too: The stool was from a Habitat for Humanity ReStore, and four swivel casters cost as little as $6.<\/p>\n

7. Filing Cabinet Becomes \u2026 Garage Workbench<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yay! Renee Fuller of Midlothian, Va., got a chain saw for Mother\u2019s Day. Where to put it? When she saw how expensive a new tool storage solution would be to buy, she thought of an old lateral filing cabinet stuffed with junk sitting in her garage.<\/p>\n

Fuller spray-painted the cabinet with grey Rust-Oleum and made two rectangles in chalkboard spray paint for drawer labels. Then, she put inexpensive wheels on the bottom. The top is a laminated countertop a neighbor had thrown away. Fuller attached it with SPAX multi-material screws. Total cost of the project: $35.<\/p>\n

8. Kitchen Cabinets Become \u2026 Dining Room Storage<\/strong><\/p>\n

Who knew unwanted oak kitchen cabinets plus old fence wood could equal a built-in dining room buffet? Pulled from a kitchen Connie Harper\u2019s husband was helping a friend remodel, the cabinets fit perfectly along the wall in the Harpers\u2019 Tyler, Texas, dining room.<\/p>\n

The cabinets were in good condition, so the Harpers lightly sanded the doors, painted the interior and exterior with white satin paint, and bought new, bronze-finished metal hardware and hinges. The top is old pine fence board from a fence they\u2019d taken down. They laid the pieces side by side, sanded them lightly, and sealed the top with a coat of polyurethane.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives me satisfaction to see something that\u2019s headed to the dumpster, bring it home, and give it new life,\u201d Harper says. The project took about two days and cost $25 for the hardware.<\/p>\n

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Visit HouseLogic.com for more articles like this. Reprinted from HouseLogic.com with permission of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS\u00ae.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Stacey Freed \u00a0 \u00a0Don\u2019t let your old stuff freeload! Put it to work. Use that old suitcase, file cabinet, magazine rack \u2014 even items you might ordinarily pitch into the recycling bin \u2014 to help organize your home. You\u2019ll … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[130,68],"tags":[131,132,134,133],"class_list":["post-514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diy","category-home-improvements","tag-diy","tag-diy-tips","tag-free-diy","tag-home-improvement-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movingaheadcommunications.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movingaheadcommunications.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movingaheadcommunications.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movingaheadcommunications.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movingaheadcommunications.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/movingaheadcommunications.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":520,"href":"https:\/\/movingaheadcommunications.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514\/revisions\/520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movingaheadcommunications.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movingaheadcommunications.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movingaheadcommunications.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}