Snow Day Project, or Holy Crap I'm Bored!

For those of you that didn't know, a large and vicious ice/snow storm has crippled a large portion of the country.

Therefore, I am stuck in my d@mn house. And there's nothing to do but either: A.) Sit on the computer and play Facebook games all day long, or B.) Clean and organize things in my house. While I'd much rather choose Option A, we're nearing our data plan limit for this billing cycle, so I've had to resort to Option B.

Last night, while organizing my toiletries, I realized that I have a lot of loose hair styling basics, such as hair elastics (or ponytail holders, to some of you), bobby pins, and simple metal barrettes. I use these items on an almost daily basis, and they are forever p!ssing me off because I just throw them into a large container all together and then they get all tangled up together.

I needed a way to keep them together, yet not all tangled. So, since I had nothing better to do, I kind of searched through all of my crafting odds & ends to see what I had lying around that would enable me to come up with a better system.

I ended up with a pretty nifty (and inexpensive!) little organizer.

If you want to make one for yourself (or perhaps your daughter, niece, whatever) here's what you need:

• 1 small plastic storage container -- I chose a 3" x 3" square-shaped container that I'd picked up at the Dollar Tree for 50 cents a few months ago.



• 1 bag of magnetic "buttons" with sticky foam backing -- find them at Wal-Mart or craft stores for around $1.50




• Magnetic strip with sticky backing -- I used only one for this project because that's what I had on hand, but you can use more if you need to.
  
  


• Cable Clamp or similar -- these are available at Lowe's, and I had them on hand. The metal rings for flash cards will also work (get them at Wal-Mart or any office supply store).




• Metal barrettes, bobby pins, hair elastics, etc.

Here's a picture:

STEP 1: Apply magnetic buttons to the outside of your container.

STEP 2: Apply magnetic strip(s) to the inside of your container and stick bobby pins (also larger barrettes) to them. Mine is shown outside of the container for illustrative purposes, but I think you get the idea. You may also need more than one depending on the number of bobby pins and barrettes you need to store.

STEP 3: Stick barrettes to buttons. One button holds two smaller barrettes or one medium-large size barrette. Cover all sides of container if you need the extra storage space.

STEP 4: Open Cable Clamp

STEP 5: Put hair elastics on clamp

STEP 6: Close clamp

STEP 7: Drop Cable Clamp with hair elastics into container, and enjoy your new organizer.