Wind chimes

I used to work in environmental education back in Portugal and there was this contest (still exists) where children make Christmas decorations using recyclable materials. Once there was a school that made a decoration with tin caps and since I heard the sound of them tickling I have it my mind to make a wind chimes with that!

After more than 3 years I finally started to put it together:

And here is the final result!

Rack with plastic boxes

So you might be left wondering from what other project were the leftovers for the office organizer...

Crazy me again... was storing this big plastic packaging from meat after cleaning them very well, not really sure if I would use them for anything, until I started putting the plastic caps on one of them and the lamps on another and so on and ended piling them up. Crazy idea: why don’t I make like a kind of rack, so this will be stable and neat?

I did it with (still) some of that wood from the closet that broke during our moving, that thing was so ugly that I preferred to use some liner paper to make it with a cleaner look!

Of course this was easier to do with the fantastic handy husbby cutting the pieces of wood the right size and marking… he did most of the job, really! ;)

Plastic caps painting

Someone told me about this great idea they saw in a recycling website - making  trivets  with plastic caps. I thought it could be a good idea but when it involves heat, strength or safety, I rather test it myself: It worked out well for a hot pan but it melted when I put a dish coming out of the oven at 200ºC… So I don't advise you to do it - if you have something hot in hands, you don’t want to be thinking which trivet can you use…

So I definitely suggest that you make this project as a painting instead! No hot plates on it!

Isn't nice?

Clothespins basket

You might have not noticed (of course you didn't that's why I'm showing it here) but while organizing the miscellaneous drawer I made a "clothespins basket" with one of the plastic take away boxes.

I think it fantastic because I can store it in my miscellaneous drawer when I don't need them and just take the wires out and hang it on the cord while putting clothes to dry.

Cool, no?

Organizing the miscellaneous drawer!

I was trying to get some work done but this drawer that I tidied up just a few days ago and was already all disorganized wouldn't let me...

I think it's common in most houses - the miscellaneous drawer; usually in the kitchen!
I had tidied up ours 2 weeks ago but it really didn't look like it - every time we opened or closed it everything would shift places!

I even took a picture so you can see the difference:

For this project I couldn't really take a picture of all material I used - I simply brought the plastic packaging material I had stored and by trial and error got to the solution of what packages to use for what. I took some photos of the evolution:

First step was joining materials by category (batteries, everyday medication, etc.):

Then I started trying to put categories together in a box:

... and tried to put the things we use more closer:

And finally this is our optimal solution!

I hope it inspires you to organize your drawer too! I keep opening and closing the drawer just to be amazed by the fact everything stays at place :D

Happy Father's Day! (office organizer)

This comes a little bit last minute but it's a surprisingly easy project if you have the right tools at hand!
We had already celebrated the Portuguese Father's day (19th of March) but I realised that in many parts of the world - including the Netherlands - today it's father's day! Yesterday evening I said it to my husband as a curiosity and as a joke he asked our 9 months old daughter what was going to be his present and it got me thinking! I was trying to get some administrative work done by the second time that day and just like the first time... I had a sudden attack of inspiration and just had to go do this:

I was quite lucky because the wood pieces I needed were already cut (leftovers from rack with plastic boxes project!), so in an hour I was able to finish it! :)))

Glass jars...

I laugh so much the first time my father in law came visit and said very seriously: "don't throw away glass jars because they can be very useful to store screws and nails..." little did he know that I always keep them to store leafs of various teas and other things in the kitchen...

But this time when I did my spring cleaning I decided to make the jars pretty and use some empty ones to put some candles in for when we are in the garden at night.. summer where are you!?

Pen/chalk holder

I used one of those big pots of yogurt to make a pen holder (actually for my chalk because I have a wall where I can write with chalk in the kitchen and I already had made a pen holder see previous post):

In the middle of the process I thought it would be better to let the yogurt cup for the washing cloth and use a coffee capsule to keep the chalk:

You can hang it on a door lock or something! :D

Photo Frame

We had some very special visitors and to thank them for the visit I made a photo frame to put a photo that we took with them here!!!

I really liked the result!

I have to do two more... that's what you get when your life is full of special people! :)))

"Pen Organizer"

So I have all these pens and scissors, and stapler... I really should organize (also) this... Here is the material I used:

Can I call this a pen holder? Because it´s holding much more than pens... :D

Notebooks

So... great news - I'll be back to work next week and although I'm back to my ex-ex-work, I'll be having training again to refresh my memory so I thought this week the best thing I can do from my recyclables is a notebook. I actually made two - one for my new/old part-time job and the other one for my recycling ideas!

So again, maybe not everyone has these materials available at home but each person can use what they have at home and I'm pretty sure that everyone has old print that are not needed anymore. I kept the brochures from house viewings from the period we were looking for a house so I had very good material to make these notebooks including plastic covers and all!

They have very different styles and I´m not completely happy about the results but practice makes perfect... :D