DIY Life

We all have pairs of jeans laying around the house we no longer wear. There are many ways of re-purposing them. Everything from denim purses, reusable shopping bags, messenger bags, to just about anything.

Here is another idea: an organizer made from an old pair of jeans! This organizer goes on the back of a door. It can be your bedroom, laundry room, bathroom, or any other door in your home.

All you need for this project is a pair of old jeans, scissors, glue, tape measure, thread, sewing machine, and a trouser hanger. Measure and cut pockets into the jeans depending on the size of the objects you are going to store in them.

I have some really interesting jeans I haven't been able to wear in years with all sorts of patterns, ribbons, embroidery work, and embellishments on them that I'm thinking of using. You can also jazz up a pair of plain jeans with sequins, patches, scrap fabric, paint, embroidery, ribbons.

I'm all about instant gratification, and this quick and easy cereal box organizer delivers. It's a fun craft to do with your kids, a perfect way to reuse cereal boxes, and a great place to store your magazines. My son and I had an awesome time making this magazine rack.

The project couldn't be more inexpensive -- you probably have all the materials you need lying around the house right now. All you need is a cereal box, glue stick or double-sided tape, sturdy paper, and scissors or an exacto knife.

Simply measure and cut the desired angle on a cereal box large enough to house magazines. To cover the box, I used leftover wallpaper; contact paper or heavy wrapping paper would also work well. Check out the gallery for more details.

Things always seem to get lost in my purse. When I want to find something important, it isn't easily accessible. There has to be a better alternative than spending 5 minutes looking for a Kleenex that I needed 10 minutes ago.

There is a better alternative, thanks to this sewing tutorial on The Giving Flower. You will never again have to dig in your purse to find anything. Everything is accessible and within easy reach. Kim has a PDF File that you can download and make your own purse organizer. Follow her easy instructions, and customize your organizer to hold all your necessities within easy reach.

Do you know a pretty lady who is always trying to find their cell phone, lipstick, tampons, or hand wipes in their purse, but always seem to come up empty handed? This sewing project is perfect for them, or if you are feeling generous, why not sew it for them and give it to them as one of your many handmade Christmas gifts?

All of us at one time or another have had too much clutter. Our closets and our cabinets can become virtually overrun with clothing, bedding, or food that we just throw in because we don't have time to properly put it in its spot, or we are just to lazy to do so.

If you're running out of room to store all your clothing or food, and are having a difficult time cramming any more items into your closets and your cabinets, then check out this article I found on Gomestic.com. Ruby Hawk tells us 10 ways to organize those messy closets and cabinets.

From over the door pantry racks, multi-tiered can dispensers, hooks and utility racks to under the bed storage boxes on wheels, the article has it all. If your closets and cabinets are so cluttered that you dread the idea of even tackling them, maybe it's time to donate to charity or your local food bank. Gather up some boxes and start tossing in what you can live without. You'll be amazed at how much space you end up with!

If you've ever bought a planner, you know that the inexpensive ones often come with badly-designed pages and a bunch of things you don't need, and the ones you can customize tend to be on the pricey side; then it's easy to neglect to use them, because they're inconvenient to lug around. Some people use their PDAs or similar integrated cellphone functions in place of a big brick of paper, but many still prefer to keep track of contacts and appointments with a paper and pen.

In the last few years, there has been a trend in geekland: handmade planners tailored to their owners' needs. The simplest of these is the "Hipster PDA," a stack of index cards secured with a binder clip or elastic band, or kept in a small card carrier, popularized by Merlin Mann on his site 43 Folders. But if you want something more complex, or you would like formal templates for your cards, you should check out the DIY Planner.

The DIY Planner site offers free downloads of printable planner pages, templates for making your own, and a beginner's guide to help you get started. The pages come in various sizes, including 3"x5" and half-letter (the classic size for planners in the US), and you only need to use the ones that work for you. In some formats, there are well over 100 options. Be sure to visit the rest of the site, too: it's full of information about journaling and taking notes, and has an active forum.