OPTED Magazine

We all have particular items that tend to pile up and clutter up our space.  For me, it’s wine corks (from my recent love of wine tasting), coasters (from restaurants I visit), and magazines (prior to my transition to reading almost everything digitally).

One day these pesky piles of items triggered my artistic side and the light bulb in my head went off: time to repurpose my clutter into works of art!

I took my 3 cluttering culprits and created three small pieces of art for the front room of my house.  Here is how I did it:

• Wine corks — I gathered my stack of wine corks and picked a small selection that varied in color and type and discarded the rest.  Saving every cork was unreasonable for me, and no excuse I made could justify the clutter and space they were taking up.  I went to Michaels and bought a long, rectangular shadow box and lines the corks up in rows, sealed the back of the shadow box, and presto!  My collection and clutter were transformed into a wall hanging for the care wall near the front door.

• Magazines — The great thing (or annoying thing, depending on the situation) about magazines is how much advertising fills the space.  Colorful ads jump out at you, pictures abound, and many times colorful patterns make perfect collage material.  I had another blank wall to fill, so when I stopped by Ikea I bought two packages of plain, wooden frames for $6 (for 6 frames — a great deal) and painted the frames black.  I gathered colorful pages from my stack of magazines, clipped segments of 6 colors, and recycled the remains of the magazines.  I put together 6 colored collages for each frame, and now my clutter is reflected as art on another wall in my house!

• Coasters — even if you don’t have coasters you’ve collected, and don’t have the money or time to visit so many restaurants, finding mixed packages of coasters on eBay would work for you.  I just happened to have a nostalgic collection already on hand.  I had an old wooden table in my house covered in stains and nicks.  I sanded it down, stained it for a small price, and put on a protective topcoat.  Then I positioned coasters on the surface of the table, using box cutters to trim the coasters to make an exact match.  Later on, I went to my local hardware store and had a piece of glass cut to place on the top.  Coaster clutter creates a memorable table…mission accomplished!

Have you found ways to repurpose your clutter into space-saving solutions or works of art?  I’d love to hear about it!

If you liked this post, you might like::

1. The final step of decluttering
2. Everyone is decluttering their garage, you should too
3. 5 ways to organize your books
4. Consider reading everything digitally