Friday, April 22, 2011

28 IHeart: Our Earth and a Good Challenge

I am very excited about using this blog in a positive way to promote positive green living.  Am I the most eco friendly gal out there?  Nope, I have a lot of improving to do.  But I try.  I try big.  I want my kids and their kids and their kids, to have a lovely place to call home.  A place that's beautiful and green and smells good.  So we try and do our part and I also try and share the things we are doing to make a greener effort.

So how does living green play into organizing?  Well, a lot actually.  There is a lot we can do when we begin to organize our homes, to ensure we are being green at the same time.

Of course the obvious, which I have been mentioning this month as part of project purge, is to donate/sell your belongings vs. placing them in a landfill.  If you are unable to sell an item, you would be amazed at how many people wouldn't mind taking things off of your hands for FREE.  Try placing things curbside with a giant FREE sign and watch it disappear in moments, or list things on great websites, such as freecycle.org, and keep your goods from going bad.

Once you purge in a great green way, it's time to organize in a great green way.  How do you do that?  Well, reuse the common everyday already owned items, to be an organizing genius of course!

Ready for some awesome green organizing inspiration?


Pop some cork into an old frame to create a memo board!


Use an old Kleenex box for packet storage!


Use empty paint cans as in-boxes!


Use an ice cube tray to corral small jewelry pieces!


Mason jars are extremely versatile for any organizing project!



Use small dishes as drawer dividers!


Use clothes pins as memo clips!


Use berry baskets to corral toiletries!


Use a cardboard drink carrier as a utensil caddy!


Use muffin tins to organize small crafts!


Use soup cans to corral just about anything!


Use paper product rolls to corral cords!


My challenge for you today, find something in your home, and re-purpose it to organize your home!  Next week, I am going to hold a link party to share what we came up with!  Time to get creative!  I hope you all take a moment to be green and join in on the fun!  And I can't wait to see your incredible ideas for reusing common goods to organize!


28 comments:

  1. wow what great inspirations. thanks

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  2. I have never heard of the toilet paper roll/cord control thing- what a great idea!
    Lots of good organizing eye candy too :)

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  3. I love the muffin tin. I have one I was thinking of getting rid of but now I think I'll paint it/mod podge it and use it for crafts.

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  4. We have a lot of cords and as of right now their all 'somewhat' organized in a small box [notice I said... somewhat]. I have never seen or heard of that toilet paper roll to use with the cords. Im gonna have to try that!

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  5. I love your Blog!!! I like putting 'old' things into a creative use, both inside and out! Here's an awesome special on green, safe, cleaning products!($90 value) for $30.
    http://srkindred.myshaklee.com/us/en/about_specials_.html

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  6. Love the corkboard idea! So fun!!

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  7. WOW, you are GOOD!
    Thanks for the great tips!!! It is always a work in progress over here..
    blessings~
    Janet

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  8. Love these ideas! The ice cube tray idea seems so simple, but it's truly genius. LOL!

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  9. I'm completely useless at finding these sort of ideas. But I'm desperate to organise my house and I'd like to do it in a earth friendly way, so I'm going to try.

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  10. Great ideas ... your blog is so inspiring :)
    I have used an extra ice cube tray for my kids to put paint in while painting.. not sure if thats a good idea but it works for us...
    Another item that i just reused today was the ketchup plastic bottle! i reused it for honey ... we get our organic honey from a farm and they come in a 1.5 liter glass bottles. while that is eco friendly it always left a mess. But now the kids can just squeeze the honey without leaving any mess !

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  11. You always have such great ideas. Not only are they great, they are cute!! I always look forward to checking out your new posts. :)

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  12. I found your blog through Erin (sunny side up) and I just love it! I'm your newest follower! I SO need some organizing tips for my home! With nine kids and all their stuff, plus mine and my husband's stuff...it gets super cluttered around here!

    Katrina
    www.theyallcallmemom.com

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  13. Oh my gosh. I LOVE these green ideas. I'm going to have use alot of them in my house. Thank you for posting about using green items. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT!

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  14. Happy Earth Day! Love these! What kind of paint do you usally use for your projects? Like the clothes pins or the muffin tin?

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  15. I think yours might be the blog, Jen, that the toilet roll idea came from for the cords - put that one to work right away (well, before the next toilet roll disappeared to the worm farm lol - they're quick those worms *wink*) and really found it a great cord-helper - thankyou!

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  16. ps if anyone else has any 'before and afters' using reclaimed products I'd love to see those too.

    I recognise yours in this post Jen - thanks for putting a whole heap there for everyone to get the ball rolling in the ole noggin ;)

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  17. The corkboard frame is a fantastic idea!

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  18. Do you have any information on how the mason jar idea was done? My husband is building me a new home office/craft area and I love the idea!

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  19. I hate to be Debbie Downer but those paint cans were not repurposed. Yes, they are cute but they were purchased empty. Plus, I don't want people to think it is ok to rinse out old paint cans to reuse them. It would absolutely not be green or earth friendly to have old paint running down our drains and sewers or seeping into our lawns. Again, cute idea but if you want to recreate it you should buy new, empty cans.

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  20. I love the toilet paper roll idea and am totally stealing that for my 60/300 challenge! I just got done redoing my bathroom and reused tupperware and tumblers to make it really cute! You can check it out here

    http://adayinthelifeofafreg.blogspot.com/

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  21. Those are wonderful suggestions. Shows that pretty stuff doesn't have to be expensive, or cost something. I used an old coffee can to put my wooden spoons in a while ago and blogged about it. Check it out if you want:) Hope you had a nice Easter!
    Natacha

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  22. It just takes a new pair of glasses to she how to reduce, reuse, recycle within our own homes.

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  23. First of all,I LOVE LOVE LOVE your blog. I totally remodeled my office because of you and I have found a new sense of peace. I can't wait to show you pictures!

    In the meantime, check this out. I saw this post about making a paper organizer for toddlers using cereal boxes. I bet you could do something similar, wrap it in fancy scrapbooking paper, and it would be a great adult paper organizer!

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  24. Oops, forgot the link: http://www.toddlertoddler.com/todaysorganizer.htm

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  25. Great ideas!!! I'll have to start saving empty cans and see what I can do with them!

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  26. I've been following your blog for quite awhile and wanted to tell you I love it! Organization is close to my heart :)

    Thanks for posting these great ideas. I especially love the idea of using toilet paper/paper towel rolls to organize cords. I am so doing that!

    I love the ideas for organizing jewelry. And putting corkboard in a frame??! Genious!

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  27. I just found your blog and I am already inspired to get organized, decorate, and reuse items I already have! I was just about to buy a bunch of organizing containers on Amazon and decided to search for how to use things I already have. I'm so glad I came across your site to get ideas. Thank you!

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  28. These are such cute ideas. I pinned some to my Pinterest Organizing board! :)

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