Frugal Container Ideas

***This is a post I wrote BEFORE I decided to take a break from this blog, so, it's 9 months old, but, ready to be posted!***

As I took a look at the kids' art closet, I sighed, looked away, and almost just closed the doors right away.  

BUT.  I didn't. 

I took a deep, close look at the chaos going on in there and decided to fix it.   But, boy, what a disorganized mess it was!!  I realized that the main problem was that, we didn't have enough containers to put items in.  For instance, all the glue and tape was in multiple places;  the markers overflowed in the container we had, therefore, spilling out everywhere;  the paints and glitter did not have a container and a true home, the "little" things were in multiple bins and hard to find, etc, etc, etc.  It really was:  CHAOS.

I scoured around the house for bins and did find a few, but, fell short of the exact amount I needed.  That's when I started to get a little creative

I looked around the house at what I ALREADY HAVE  (and/or, what I was going to recycle!) and made some super frugal art containers!!

Here's a few things I found around the house, that I re-purposed, to use as storage containers in the kids' art closet:

1.  Red Vines Licorice Container  (and yes, I'm sure I ate most of the contents inside.  Not all in one sitting, though.)

• I made this into a sort-of art project for the kids.  Every morning after breakfast we do an "activity" and this was a fun one for them!  I let them do whatever they wanted to do, and this is what it looked like:

2.  Plastic Milk Container

• This was super EASY-PEASY.  Grab a pair of scissors, poke a hole where you want to start the cutting, and cut away!  Once I cut off the top, I washed the bottom half, and, we used this to store pieces of fabric, felt and ribbon

 3.  Egg Carton

•  This worked well to house a lot of our little things!  

4.  Sour Cream/Yogurt/Cottage Cheese Containers

• These worked great for Pens, Markers, Scissors, and Glue Sticks.  If I were really motivated, I would decorate the outside with paper and Modge Podge, but, this'll do for now!!  :-)

Other ideas not shown:

• Glass jars---These work well, because you can see-through them to see their contents
• Coffee Tins
• Baby Food Jars (Great for the itsy-bitsy stuff!)
• Envelopes--Just write on the front the contents that are inside
• Yogurt containers

The possibilities are endless!!