The Repurposed Driven Life

MANILA, Philippines - When you live in a house filled with knick knacks, you tend to be more creative in tweaking something seemingly useless by adding something from the hardware store and making it more functional. Repurposing is the new trend on how to make your home even more beautiful – turning some simple everyday household items to something more useful. This is a better way of getting rid of something rather than just throwing it out. Don’t worry, you don’t need handyman skills to pull off some of these ideas, all you need is a basic knowledge of these materials and you’re good to go.

We women have an inexplicable love for handbags. More than just containers of our everyday must-haves, they also serve as our arm candy. I sometimes get a new handbag every other month, matching it to whatever clothing phase I was getting myself in to. The only problem with these babies is that it’s hard to store all of them. I already filled up a whole cabinet with just several purses resulting in misshapen and odd-smelling bags. This is the sad truth, we’ve invested on these things and a storage problem could ruin them easily. Here is an idea on how to give them the right amount of space they deserve. First, find a necktie lying around in your house, probably something unused or out of fashion (but you still find cute). Take your pick and make sure it’s made out of sturdy material, nothing silk. You would also need well-built Velcro strips, an easy hook that can hold weight – both of which are readily available in any leading hardware store. Lastly, you need the basic thread and needle combo. First, cut the Velcro five inches long, enough to wrap around the straps of your handbag. Next, stitch the top inch of the Velcro in the upper portion of the necktie. Test by pulling on it, it should be able to endure the weight of your bag. Then, approximately 12 inches below the first Velcro, stitch another five inch strip. Continue doing this, until there is still space in the necktie. Install the hook at the upper portion of the back of any door and tie the tip of the necktie to this hook. Ta dah! You now have a bag organizer! Just wrap the Velcro strip on the bag handle and you are sure to never again have a weird smelling, distorted purse.

Another thing that we love to buy without knowing how to properly store them are the long necklaces that are so in nowadays. Some have big beads, enormous pendants and some just really have long chains that when you put them all in a drawer, they easily get tangled up and it would take you at least ten minutes to pull out one necklace. Although it’s such a hassle, we still sometimes just can’t get enough of the colorful and fancy necklaces. This is why I had to come up with a proper way of storing them, a way that would give me easy access and would also decorate my room. Materials needed are: old wire hangers, pen holder, pliers and a wire cutter. First thing is to cut the hanger so that when you straighten it, it will look like a wire with a hook in the end. Make sure that the way you cut it leaves a flat wire and not a pointed one. Place the wire hanger with the hook on top, on the pen holder and see if it’s stable. Ensure that the hook portion of the hanger is angled enough so that it can hold necklaces. Lastly, try putting a necklace or two on the hook portion, and see if it balances well. If not, adjust or cut the wire more if needed, if it’s already good then you now have your necklace organizer. The key to this repurposed item is the length of the wire hanger. You can have more wire necklace hangers, depending on the capacity of your pen holders. Now you have a hassle-free and decorative way of keeping your dear gems. Don’t forget to decorate your hangers, surely, you’ll be able to find the perfect color that goes well with your taste.

Lastly, for the bookworms like me out there, do you also find it a hassle not having enough space on your bedside table for your precious books? Here’s an idea, why not instead of putting the shelves on the empty wall across your bed, put the bookshelf about five inches above your bedside? This will make your life a lot easier. There will still be enough space for a lampshade, alarm clock, and a glass of water on your bedside table and yet you have about five books on that side as well. A bookshelf is most commonly found in the living room or anywhere far from the bed, making it inconvenient for us book lovers to browse through our favorite literary works before snoozing out. But now hardware stores have a wide variety of sizes of wood that anyone can easily find the right size they want. Installing a shelf also isn’t hard work, bookshelf supports can be nailed to the wall with just one hit of a hammer. Just find the perfect height and length of your bookshelf and slam away.

Make do with what’s available at home and don’t always go shopping for new things. Hardware stores nowadays are always coming out with new products that are more user friendly. Every once in a while, they release good finds that have various uses like the Velcro strips or rolls and the easy hooks. And sometimes, when you can’t find the perfect piece of furniture or decoration in the mall, it’s probably because it’s easier to find it at home, you just need to do a little repurposing with it.