How to Use Upcycled Cabinets for Organizing

There’s really no better time to tackle some organizing and decluttering around your house than these last few weeks of Winter before Spring arrives. Once the sun comes out and trees start to bloom, indoor projects will hit the back burner. While you’re neatening and tidying your nest, consider these helpful tips from organizing extraordinaire, Jen of iHeartOrganizing. See how she repurposes old, used cabinet doors and keeps her busy family-of-five organized. 

Read on for her easy, how-tos and organizational tips. Take it away, Jen!

Any cabinet door can be transformed to be a fabulous organizational tool.  It may seem hard to believe that something so simple can be a total game changer, but here are a couple of ways that we use them in our home to stay organized.

To start, you need a cabinet door.  Any will do.  I like to search my local Habitat for Humanity ReStore for options that can be up-cycled.

How to DIY a Chalkboard Menu Planning Board:

I am a busy mom and wife, and one of the areas we are really organized in, is the menu planning department.  By planning out our weekly meals on Sunday, we are not over purchasing at the store, we can plan based on our family’s schedule {making quick meals on our busy nights} and ultimately save money.  The menu board that we created allows us to keep a quick at a glance reminder of what we have planned for each day, so the Mr. and I are always on the same page.

To start, I began with a blank cabinet door:

Then, using some painters tape and Rustoleum Chalk Board Paint, I painted interior panel of the door:

The paint went on wonderfully; I just made sure to follow the directions on the back of the can:

I also grabbed a tester size of my favorite paint color for the outer edges of the cabinet door:

And screwed in some picture hanging hooks to the back of the cabinet:

Of course the best place to hang it was in the kitchen!

To hold the chalk for the menu board, I added in a drawer pull {just placed up-side-down to act as a cup}:

I could have called it complete at this point, and use the chalk board for anything such as memos or keeping track of our weekly schedules, but I knew that I wanted to use it for our menu planning, so I added in some vinyl decals with the days of the week:

Now, we can easily erase the previous week’s meals {leaving the weekdays in place}, and add the new week’s meals each Sunday!

How to DIY a Children’s Art Display:

If you are a parent, you may notice that kids love to craft and create artwork.  And keeping it all organized requires being selective about which pieces to save and store away.  For all of the pieces I don’t decide to keep {I wish I could save them all, but space does not permit this}, I keep them on display in our playroom for a period of time, so they can be organized, admired and cherished.  Then, I snap a photo to keep the memory and recycle the artwork.

Once again, I started out with a blank cabinet door {actually three since I did one of these for each of my boys}.   I used a foam roller paired with some playroom friendly paint colors to paint both the inside panel and outer perimeter.

Once the paint was dry, I attached a standard office clip to the top of the cabinet {making sure to pre-drill the hole first}:

I  predilled the bottom as well, this time to add a label holder:

Making a great artwork display for the kids!

After installing more picture hanging hooks to the back, they cabinet doors were hung on the wall and created the perfect gallery to show off the kid’s masterpieces!

Both of these projects were completed on a very small budget and are of entry level DIY skill set, but are a couple of our favorite ways to stay organized as a family!

Thanks for an awesome post, Jen!

For more organizing tips from Jen of iHeartOrganizing, visit her blog! All photos via iHeartOrganizing.

[Editor's Note: DIY Décor is a series about small, affordable design and décor projects for home and garden.]