Last week we were informed that some unexpected visitors were coming in three days. THREE DAYS!!! Look, I'm not a clean freak and I don't have all of my household stuff organized too well. I'm on the hoarder side of the line. I also require small amounts of clutter to keep me sane.
That being said, I do try to put stuff away & organize "out of control" messes when it is brought to my attention. However, three days notice is not enough time for me to completely revamp the place.
See, I get nervous when folks I don't really know come to visit. Why? I think that because I do not know these people well, I want to make a good impression and have everything spic & span so my secret hoarding habits don't scare them away.
One of my problems has been our downstairs bathroom sink. Why?? Because that's where I tend to do my hair which means there are random bottles of smoothing cream, hairspray, brushes and hair paraphernalia all over the place. After mulling over it for a bit, I decided I needed a basket to contain the catastrophe. I went into my craft/decor closet and didn't find a basket that would work. Oh, no! What to do?!? I don't have time to go to the store (not to mention I may not be able to find one in our town-my other baskets are from the Dollar Tree-an hour away!) and a plain cardboard box just wouldn't do!!! Or would it??
This is when inspiration struck. Thanks to my hoarding skills, I have some random fabric I snagged on clearance when our Wal*Mart decided to stop carrying a fabric section (the horror, I know!!!). I grabbed this, and a sturdy cardboard box from my craft closet. I also grabbed double-sided tape and all of my sewing stuff.
I took my pile downstairs, sat on the couch and though about how I was going to sew the fabric so that it fit around the box and created a liner inside. After a few minutes of attempting to be an engineer, I decided that was too far out of my league. Now what?? Okay, I still have the fabric and box. I decided that a liner inside was only necessary if folks were to see the box interior. That's rather unlikely since it is meant to just contain my hair stuff.
Double-sided tape. Surely that was the answer....but it proved to be a bit difficult since I couldn't figure out how to attach the fabric to the interior of the box (no, I do not own a hot-glue gun...if I did, I'm sure I would have burn marks all over, not to mention a large percentage of my limbs would be hot-glued together). Then I looked over at my fake arm and remembered the staples in it, so if staples can hold together a piece of plastic and fabric, why not fabric and cardboard?? So I broke out the stapler and stapled the thing together. Pretty nice, huh??
So here's what you'll need to mimic this creative masterpiece:
A sturdy cardboard box (check the size-I didn't have time to and it's a bit bigger than our sink, so it hangs off a bit. I also used a box inside it's corresponding lid for added support)
A stapler
Double-sided tape
Fabric
Ribbon (for accent)
Follow these 5 easy steps:
1. Measure and cut the fabric for the box. Due to box shapes, you will have some overlap (It's almost like tucking in a flat sheet on your bed) so fold it to make it look pretty. I opted for "the triangle" on the wider edges.
2. Fold fabric around box and pull taught. You may use double-sided tape to hold the seams together.
3. Proceed to staple the fabric to the interior of the box. If the staple goes straight through to the outside fabric, you'll need a thicker box.
4. Add appropriate ribbons & accents. (I didn't have any that matched my box, but I put one on for picture's sake ;)
5. Enjoy!
That being said, I do try to put stuff away & organize "out of control" messes when it is brought to my attention. However, three days notice is not enough time for me to completely revamp the place.
See, I get nervous when folks I don't really know come to visit. Why? I think that because I do not know these people well, I want to make a good impression and have everything spic & span so my secret hoarding habits don't scare them away.
This is when inspiration struck. Thanks to my hoarding skills, I have some random fabric I snagged on clearance when our Wal*Mart decided to stop carrying a fabric section (the horror, I know!!!). I grabbed this, and a sturdy cardboard box from my craft closet. I also grabbed double-sided tape and all of my sewing stuff.
I took my pile downstairs, sat on the couch and though about how I was going to sew the fabric so that it fit around the box and created a liner inside. After a few minutes of attempting to be an engineer, I decided that was too far out of my league. Now what?? Okay, I still have the fabric and box. I decided that a liner inside was only necessary if folks were to see the box interior. That's rather unlikely since it is meant to just contain my hair stuff.
Double-sided tape. Surely that was the answer....but it proved to be a bit difficult since I couldn't figure out how to attach the fabric to the interior of the box (no, I do not own a hot-glue gun...if I did, I'm sure I would have burn marks all over, not to mention a large percentage of my limbs would be hot-glued together). Then I looked over at my fake arm and remembered the staples in it, so if staples can hold together a piece of plastic and fabric, why not fabric and cardboard?? So I broke out the stapler and stapled the thing together. Pretty nice, huh??
So here's what you'll need to mimic this creative masterpiece:
A sturdy cardboard box (check the size-I didn't have time to and it's a bit bigger than our sink, so it hangs off a bit. I also used a box inside it's corresponding lid for added support)
Double-sided tape
Fabric
Ribbon (for accent)
Follow these 5 easy steps:
1. Measure and cut the fabric for the box. Due to box shapes, you will have some overlap (It's almost like tucking in a flat sheet on your bed) so fold it to make it look pretty. I opted for "the triangle" on the wider edges.
2. Fold fabric around box and pull taught. You may use double-sided tape to hold the seams together.
3. Proceed to staple the fabric to the interior of the box. If the staple goes straight through to the outside fabric, you'll need a thicker box.
4. Add appropriate ribbons & accents. (I didn't have any that matched my box, but I put one on for picture's sake ;)
5. Enjoy!
That looks great! I need to make about 20 of these for all of my mess :)
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