A tall canister decorated and holding a ruler and long straws.

A Totally Tubular Upcycling Project

A tall canister decorated and holding a ruler and long straws.
Organize all your rulers (or reusable straws) with a repurposed potato crisp can (Credit: NOAA).

Organizing supplies can be a great way to start the school year, but it can also be a source of additional waste. A great way to get organized without purchasing new items is to use what you already have! We've put together a fresh new take on desktop organization with this special container to wrangle your rulers - Using a potato crisp can! 

Supplies: 

  • Potato crisp can
  • White paint (plus other colors if you'd like to paint your organizer!) 
  • Paintbrush(es)
  • Decorations - I had trouble deciding how I wanted to decorate my organizer... You could use paints, stickers, collage, ribbons, or almost anything you might think of!
The supplies for the project laid out, including scrap ribbons, pom poms, a white crisp can, paint, and a paintbrush.
The only supply you really need is a potato crisp can! You can use almost anything to decorate your organizer. Plus, your project comes with a ready-made snack! (Credit: NOAA).

Steps: 

  1. Clean and dry the can. 
  2. Paint the can white (if you are covering the material with a collage or ribbons, you could skip this step, but I liked starting with a blank canvas).
  3. Decorate! I used some repurposed planner pages to create a double-sided look (artwork by Katie Daisy) and accented it with ribbons and pom-poms. 
A desk set up with the organizer, a laptop, notebook, and empty crisp bowl.
After a successful project (and satisfying snack), the organizer is ready to put on your desk (Credit: NOAA).
 
Last updated Tue, 08/27/2024 - 09:42 am EDT