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EcoFriendly Organizing

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Ideas for Ecofriendly Organizing.

How to organize and still stay true to your desire to be “green.” These ecofriendly tips will cover how to get FREE storage containers from upcycled materials and beyond.

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Organizing Green

Buy Smart, Minimally: A big part of organizing in a green way means NOT buying things that will get tossed. Stay away from cheap items and when you need something, spend the extra money for a quality item that will last. Less is more.I struggle with this a lot, mostly because I don’t want to spend sooooo much money on higher quality items- to combat this, I make sure to keep an eye on pricier items that I want, then purchase them when they’re on sale. By doing this, I can get the best product for a price I can stomach. I also read reviews extensively before buying items to make sure that I don’t get a bad product.

Fix Broken Items: The other thing I try to do is FIX things that are broken. If I fix the item, I don’t create more clutter by purchasing lots more items to serve the same purpose. With fabric items, this is simple. I can sew new knees on my children’s pants, put a patch on, etc. This extends their lives so we don’t end up with 1000 pairs of pants, half of which have holes in them.

With wood, we’ve occasionally had to get creative. My dogs destroyed the storage ottoman below… the cats had clawed up the leather tops… the kids had spilled food on it. It was really beat up. But we finished it, added some new wood, and it looks great now. It’s also great storage for toys.

This is an old ottoman that we updated after my dog chewed it.
Check out the “after” pictures for the ottoman upcycle!

Organize Using Upcycled Materials: I have found that there are lots of fun ways to organize items with upcycled household goods. Glass and plastic containers, the plastic bags from bed linens, and old fabric scraps can all be made into storage containers. This saves you a ton of money and saves items from the landfill.

Here are a couple of my favorite projects that allowed me to stay true to my desire to be green while also obtaining “new” storage containers:

Upcycled drawers turned into a side table or organizing bin.
Old drawers were used to build this small side table or storage unit.
Braided fabric basket, made from upcycled clothing.
This storage bin was made using scrap fabric. You can actually use cut up old tshirts or other clothing that is too worn to reuse or donate, selvedge from fabric, or strips of fabric that were too thin to use otherwise.
Use plastic zippered bags for storing toys and other items.
Zippered bags from linens work GREAT for toy storage. I use a small binder ring to hang them from a rod.
Store beads and more in upcycled glass jars.
Glass Jars Upcycled for Sewing Room Storage
Reuse large containers for children's toys.
I frequently save old food storage containers from Costco purchases because they’re large enough to be good for organizing. My only difficulty is getting labels off (it drives me nuts when the stinky residue is left behind!). But these are from animal cookies and they’re easy to stack which make them perfect for smaller kids toys.

Do you have any other ideas for eco friendly organizing bins?

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How to make storage bins using upcycled materials.


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Thanks for Reading! -DIYDanielle

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