Rope It Off
An ordinary apple basket goes from humdrum to Pottery-Barn-cute with a coat of gold metallic spray paint, sisal rope, and hot glue. After you paint, wrap your sisal around, securing with dots of glue as you go. Now use it to store anything—from fresh towels to old magazines, as Dwell Beautiful has here.
Related: 18 Brilliant Ways to Decorate with Rope
Back to School
Would you ever guess that these "vintage" locker bins started out as neon green plastic tubs? But with a little Rust-Oleum spray paint (in Flat Antique Nickel), they look utterly transformed. For an extra special touch, Chic California added these tags (which she sells at her store) by poking a hole in the plastic.
Related: 10 Unexpected Uses for Spray Paint
Bathroom Boutique
Without bathroom organizers that work for you, it's only a matter of time before clutter and chaos take over. To make this simple and cheap solution from Saved by Love Creations, you'll only need three glass dollar store jars, scrap wood, a strong adhesive, and a few basic tools.
Related: 12 Easy Ways to Boost Bathroom Storage
Fun & Functional
Kids can add a lot of love to a family, but they add clutter too. For easier cleanup, head to the dollar store and pick up colorful baskets. Then adorn with custom labels like these from Useful Beautiful Home to give their favorite toys and games a home.
Related: 13 Unexpected Uses for Baskets
A Novel Idea for Book Storage
Stop overcrowding your bookshelves and break up your library using fun and bright bookends. Love Grows Wild replicated the style of trendy bookends using just a couple of plastic animals from the dollar store, scrap wood, and a unifying paint color.
Related: Dos and Don'ts of Arranging a Bookshelf
Tidy Up After Tub Time
Sort out the kiddie toys after tub time by dropping them into dollar-store baskets suspended over the side of the tub. The trick to keeping these horizontally hung? Blogger Heather Drive slipped them onto an extendable shower curtain rod lowered to arm’s reach!
Related: Supersize Your Small Bath with These 8 Pro Tips
Perk Up Your Pantry
For the storage of dry goods, easy-open glass or plastic containers eliminate the visual clutter that mismatched packaging would otherwise create. Great—so what's the problem? Well, to accommodate your various spices, rices, and grains, you'd likely need dozens of kitchen storage accessories, and at most stores, these essentials don't come cheap. Take a cue from The Social Home and shop your local dollar store for a bargain!
Related: Recipe for Success—10 Easy Kitchen Storage Hacks
Tame a Mess of Tights
Packaged in bulk at the dollar store, clothespins are good for oh so much more than laundry, as Lana Red Studio knows. This blogger revisited a messy closet problem—how to organize an overflow of tights—and sorted her legwear out by clipping them up on a wall.
Related: 10 Novel Uses for the Classic Clothespin
Separate Out Your Studs and Earrings
When not on-duty in your freezer, an ice cube tray’s pits work well to hold small, loose items. Try separating out pairs of earrings in a cheap tray from the dollar store, like this solution from Yesterday on Tuesday—then tuck away in a shallow nightstand drawer until your next outing.
Related: 10 Thrifty DIY Ways to Organize Your Home
Make Boots Behave
If you own several pairs of tall boots, then you know and loathe how their shafts inevitably flop over, turning the bottom of your coat closet into a heaped mass of leather. Lucky for us, Practically Functional shared a simple, if unlikely, solution—pool noodles. Simply halve a dollar-store pool noodle, then slide the pieces into your bending, bowing boots. Presto! Now your would-be floppy footwear takes up no more closet space than it should.
Related: 11 Smart Ways to Organize Your Winter Footwear
Magnetic Magic
The popularity of flat top ranges and gas stoves have almost made the use of burner covers obsolete. However, with a little imagination and just a pinch of creativity, you can transform ordinary metal covers into magnetic memo boards. Madigan Made outfitted hers with printed paper and matching magnets to post memo notes.
Can Storage
Pantry organizers can be quite pricey, ranging anywhere from $10 to a whopping $150 depending on your exact needs. Skip the expensive organizers and save some major bucks with these dollar store wire baskets. My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia keeps her baskets tidy and efficient with customized labels.
Related: Storage Sanity - 15 Ways to Make Your Pantry Functional and Fabulous
$1 DIYs
Getting the house organized doesn't have to cost a lot.
Don't Miss!
If you have the money to hire a handyman for every household woe, go ahead. But if you want to hang on to your cash and exercise some self-sufficiency, check out these clever products that solve a million and one little problems around the house. Go now!
