Organizing Idea: Recover boxes for Storage

Today I thought I'd share with you an organizing idea....on the cheap. (I love those words.) I've been working on organizing the bedroom closet, yes, it is taking quite a bit longer than I thought. Audrey has had some rough nights leaving me with little energy to do anything else besides brush teeth, have coffee and care for Audrey (not necessarily in that order.....coffee first?) So, as I've been working on getting back on track with that I realized I needed some pretty storage boxes to keep in the closet for random small things. I looked around at what I have as I always do anytime I need something new. I realized we had many boxes lying around and I had some old hatboxes that have seen better days. Rather than buy new storage boxes, I thought I would try recovering some of what I have with wrapping paper and see how it goes. I have to say I am happy with the result. Although I am rethinking my choice in paper. But I figured this is a pretty good start and I can always change the paper later...if I get the time.

I thought I'd give you a step by step on covering the hatbox, as that was a challenge at first to make it look nice.

Here are the hatboxes before:

The first thing I did was cover the bottom of the box. I traced it on the back of the paper and cut about an inch outside the line.

I glued the bottom using a strong glue stick and cut the overhang into strips.
Then I glued each strip separately in order to ensure it fit nicely around the bottom.

The next step was to cut a long strip along the side, again leaving some overhang that will be glued just inside the box.

After gluing the long strip around the box I cut the top overhang into strips again and glued each down into the box.

You can use the same method to cover the top of the box. And here they are:
I also covered a regular box we had from some shipment we received.
And I used the flaps that I cut off to make a divider in the middle.

So, that's how you do it. It's really not hard once you get started. I didn't even use a tutorial. I just started covering. This is a great way to reuse any boxes you may have from ordering things online, or if you've moved recently.

Have fun!