For the Home

Trash to Treasure: Cute Little Storage Bins

What is it about finding someone else’s junk and making it better? I get a bit of a high from it.

I found these storage bins at my local thrift store, and even though they were in sad shape, I love the idea of having storage for a lot of little things. Just think of the possibilities! It would be great in your craft room or for jewelry. Your kids would love to use it to store teeny tiny toys.

I took each drawer out and spray painted the frame’s exterior with a blue color. Once it was dry, I replaced each drawer and scraped off all the stickers.

I felt like it was still in bad shape, so I covered the little boxes up with laminated paper numbers. You really could do so many different things here. Doesn’t it look better?!

Have you been thrifting lately? Isn’t it fun?!

Kami Bigler is a regular contributor at Make and Takes. She’s the thrifty maven who runs the blog: no biggie – a montage of her three favorite creative outlets: crafting, cooking, and thrifting. Her interests include portrait and tabletop photography, paper crafts, decorating and experiencing the thrill of the thrift find. You can follow Kami on Twitter at @kamibigler.

9 comments

  1. I love digging through old houses & starage sheds to find things like this! My sister, sister n law & I once dug through a family members old shed for hours! We were up to out waist in old rat nests & bugs! We found so many antiques and treasures! We were like kids in a candy store! I will be on the look out for one of these next time I go scavenging! I could really use it in the classroom! Sorting, classifying, organizing….What a neat find!

  2. I have got to find one of these. I have a jar of random little things that my grandkids love to play with and group together. They would love to have the drawers to put things into. I’m going to share this idea on my website.
    Thanks

  3. I remember the exact same storage unit from my childhood. I think it was originally something used in the garage to store screws and other small tools. My grandmother used it in her bedroom to store her jewelry. It was something that stood out to me then so I remember it fondly. :)

  4. I wish there were 25 little boxes, instead of 20, because it would be perfect for and advent calendar!

    What day would work for you two to go thrifting all day? I’m excited just thinking about it!

  5. I was thinking Advent calendar too, Holly! My kids would go gaga over those drawers.

    And I want to go thrifting with you and Allison soon!! We need to still do a day all across the valley, hitting up all the thrifty places to shop!

  6. I love this idea! I would use it for an advent calendar and store little treats in the drawers for each day as a count down to Christmas! Too cute!

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