Mano-mano Recycling: Ribbon Organizer
So. Last Monday I was feeling kinda useless, having not accomplished a single thing all day (I have this recurring issue about not being able to contribute to the household income. Which runs contrary to the fact that I love staying home, playing with the kids, making up things for them to do, and most of all, getting to sleep in every single day, not just weekends). So Tuesday, I paid some bills, ran errands, had the electric fan fixed, and didn't feel too useless anymore. Wednesday, I told myself, I'll make some Christmas gift cards using my old calling cards. But I spent all afternoon looking for my old calling cards and I couldn't find them. Thursday, yesterday, I still couldn't find them so I decided to clean my clutter cubby hole. It's where I dump ribbons and small bags, and pieces of card, cloth, pins, just general junk that's too pretty to throw away. I was guessing my calling card were under the disorganized pile. Well, I cleaned it, and no calling cards! Frustrated, I bought a ribbon organizer.
I collect ribbons. I buy rolls whenever I see them on sale (P50 a roll in Market! Market!). So I bought a box for them that had a slit for the ribbon to come out of. They look so nice and neat, I wanted to organize my pile used ribbons too. See, I also keep all the ribbons that our gifts come in. From my kids birthdays, from packaged food and stuff. I think I have ribbons from our wedding gifts pa. It's a family affliction, this collecting bits of ribbon. My mom does it, so does my Nana. I guess I should watch out for Lia or Desi. Anyway, they're all just dumped in assorted paper bags or boxes and are very disorganized. I still had no place to put my used ribbons. So today, since I still can't make recycled gift cards, I decided to make myself a ribbon organizer. I didn't know if it would work, but I took pictures anyway, in case it does, and makes for a cool blog post.
Materials: A Big&Small box. If you receive a gift from this store, it would usually come in a square box with a handle. Gingersnaps has something similar. Anyway, I keep all these gift boxes. Also, some cardboard. The ones I used are dividers from nursing pad boxes. It seemed like such a shame to throw away. I know, I keep a lot of junk, but see, I use them too. Anyway, you can use anything cardboard, like old folders of cereal boxes. Some tape and scissors.
(I know, product placement. I don't know the owners of Big&Small, but I love their store, I shop there all the time. I've even breastfed in one of their branches, so ok lang.)
I cut the cardboard in half, to just less than the depth of the box.
And then cut in the middle, halfway. I should probably used a ruler or something. And while cutting I realized my scissors aren't straight. But oh well, I was too tamad to look for a ruler. Looking for stuff is really frustrating. You never know what you end up doing.
And then I put two pieces of cardboard together through their slots to form little Xes.
Put the little X in the box like this.
And fill it up with little Xes! You could make long strips of course, to go the whole diagonal lengths of the box, especially if you're using cereal boxes. But that takes measuring, and I didn't have a ruler. Just small, pre-cut pieces of cardboard. So I made plenty and made them overlap. Looks messy but I didn't want to use tape so that the little diamonds can expand and contract to fit the ribbons I put inside. Anyway once it's filled...
It looks like this! Yay! It's super easy. The box took maybe 20 minutes to do. It was the rolling up of all the ribbons that took a whole episode of Martha Stewart, and some Amazing Race to finish. Btw, the tape wasn't actually for the box, it was to secure the rolls of ribbon. And now they're neat and ready for Christmas gift wrapping!
Now if only I could find my calling cards so I can make those gift tags... Hmmm...
I collect ribbons. I buy rolls whenever I see them on sale (P50 a roll in Market! Market!). So I bought a box for them that had a slit for the ribbon to come out of. They look so nice and neat, I wanted to organize my pile used ribbons too. See, I also keep all the ribbons that our gifts come in. From my kids birthdays, from packaged food and stuff. I think I have ribbons from our wedding gifts pa. It's a family affliction, this collecting bits of ribbon. My mom does it, so does my Nana. I guess I should watch out for Lia or Desi. Anyway, they're all just dumped in assorted paper bags or boxes and are very disorganized. I still had no place to put my used ribbons. So today, since I still can't make recycled gift cards, I decided to make myself a ribbon organizer. I didn't know if it would work, but I took pictures anyway, in case it does, and makes for a cool blog post.
Materials: A Big&Small box. If you receive a gift from this store, it would usually come in a square box with a handle. Gingersnaps has something similar. Anyway, I keep all these gift boxes. Also, some cardboard. The ones I used are dividers from nursing pad boxes. It seemed like such a shame to throw away. I know, I keep a lot of junk, but see, I use them too. Anyway, you can use anything cardboard, like old folders of cereal boxes. Some tape and scissors.
(I know, product placement. I don't know the owners of Big&Small, but I love their store, I shop there all the time. I've even breastfed in one of their branches, so ok lang.)
I cut the cardboard in half, to just less than the depth of the box.
And then cut in the middle, halfway. I should probably used a ruler or something. And while cutting I realized my scissors aren't straight. But oh well, I was too tamad to look for a ruler. Looking for stuff is really frustrating. You never know what you end up doing.
And then I put two pieces of cardboard together through their slots to form little Xes.
Put the little X in the box like this.
And fill it up with little Xes! You could make long strips of course, to go the whole diagonal lengths of the box, especially if you're using cereal boxes. But that takes measuring, and I didn't have a ruler. Just small, pre-cut pieces of cardboard. So I made plenty and made them overlap. Looks messy but I didn't want to use tape so that the little diamonds can expand and contract to fit the ribbons I put inside. Anyway once it's filled...
It looks like this! Yay! It's super easy. The box took maybe 20 minutes to do. It was the rolling up of all the ribbons that took a whole episode of Martha Stewart, and some Amazing Race to finish. Btw, the tape wasn't actually for the box, it was to secure the rolls of ribbon. And now they're neat and ready for Christmas gift wrapping!
Now if only I could find my calling cards so I can make those gift tags... Hmmm...