Making Custom Storage Containers

I needed some better storage options for a busy little space in my home.  I’ve looked around a lot at what the stores and even Amazon had to offer, but it wasn’t quite what I had in mind and the ones that were closer to what I had in mind were pretty pricey.  Then one afternoon I remembered that way back when in my much younger and poorer days I used to make my own containers.  So I jumped up and rummaged around the house and a new container was born.

 

The scrap of fabric with colorful spools all over it was the perfect piece to cover the bin I made to hold all of my serger spools.  But first I needed to make the container.

 

I began by cutting the top flaps off a small Amazon shipping box as well as the two shorter flap so the inside of the box would be flat on the bottom.  I used packing tape to reinforce the remaining flaps.

 

After reinforcing the box with tape I used Elmer’s Glue-All to cover the outside of the box with a thin layer of batting.  This was a perfect use for that stack of scraps I’d been hanging onto all these years.

 

Then I covered the outside of the box with fabric and secured it with more glue.  Using glue instead of a hot glue gun allowed me to work with the fabric and batting much easier.  I’m not that fast so hot glue doesn’t really work that well for me, but it is definitely an option.

 

The fabric piece was enough for me to do the outside and down into the inside sides.  I had a small deficit on the bottom, but I also had a nice piece of coordinating fabric to go with it.

 

I used a piece of cardstock cut to size and covered that to fit in the bottom of the bin.  I secured it with a thin layer of glue.

 

On the bottom I cut a strip, folded the raw edges over ¼ of an inch and pressed them before gluing in place.  The bottom looks nice even though no one is ever really going to see it.

 

To make the pattern boxes I did basically made them a lot like I did the doll bed with cardboard scraps, the ones from the bed actually, and tape.  Then I covered it with Dollar Tree contact paper and went over the edges with clear packing tape, also from Dollar Tree, to reinforce them.

 

I repurposed this pretty pattern box to hold my elastic
simply by creating a new label for it

The red box in the back is an old photo
storage box that now holds my beads
And now I have a new bin I made to hold my serger spools

Need a bin or storage container for something?  Before you head to the store consider repurposing something you already have or making one.  You get a custom storage bin without much expense at all and a fun project to boot.  Give it a try!