Organizing Trim

August 16, 2010 6:21 am Anitra Crafts, Green Crafting, Projects, Techniques and Mediums

By Recycled Crafts Contributor, Anitra from the blog “Coffee Pot People”.

It was the perfect confluence of habits: I love, collect, and acquire a lot of laces, braids, and other trims, our family of two eats a lot of eggs, and I hate throwing things out that look like they could be useful.

I heard that! You’re scratching your head and saying, “HUH?”

Here’s the deal. I’ve been looking at egg cartons for years, trying to think of an afterlife for them. I also groan every time I open the drawer that holds those laces and trims I’m such a magnet for. Hard as I try to keep that drawer tidy, it always ends up seriously jumbled. Yesterday those two things just sort of collided in my brain, and I had an epiphany, just a little-bitty one, but a good one nonetheless.

Here’s what I did. I took an egg carton, in this case one from a five-dozen pack (told you) but a regular one would work as well, cut off the edges, and started wrapping lace trims around it.

The egg cup rows kept the laces in their places, the texture of the paper carton held onto the trims like gentle Velcro, and the rectangles still had just a bit of that nestling instinct. And they fit perfectly into those shoebox size plastic boxes, of which I had several, with room on the ends for a baggie filled with the short bits and pieces left over from past projects.

Now I can either put those boxes in the lace drawer or on a shelf, and instead of trying to riffle through this:

I can pick up one of these and see exactly what I have, without causing a lace explosion!

2 Responses

Bonnie Rabon :

Date: August 17, 2010 @ 4:18 PM

This is very clever. I love it.
Pat Nedbalek nana of 8 :

Date: August 23, 2010 @ 12:45 PM

I found a hint on line that helped me tremendously to organize ribbons bits.
Take a ring that snaps open. Take safety pins put through end of ribbon and pin onto ring. Grab ring to take to crops they stay organized and easy to find and easy to remove from ring then replace as needed.