Ah! Spring! Well, not just yet, but there in nothing like being a little bit ahead of the game when it comes to spring-cleaning. It can both be liberating and a breath of fresh air after our long cold winters in New England. During the winter things just seem to clutter up, piling on top of each other, and pour out all over the house. Being raised by my flannel-wearing and frugal Yankee parents, I keep everything! You name it; I probably have several what-ca-ma-call-its, and who-dizzies.  I know this characteristic extends back generations. For example, my grandmother re-uses wrapping paper. I believe my father once said that he unwrapped presents at Christmas that had the same wrapping paper for 10 years. So, being entrusted with this “great quality”, I must find uses for the most arbitrary of things.

        After digging myself out of a perpetual mess that my room had become over the winter, I uncovered so many little trinkets at the bottom of boxes and drawers- old rings, earrings, necklaces, my grandmothers watch, ancient pendants, just to name a few. I also recovered all the items a working desk needs- paperclips, staples, rubber bands, pins, buttons, etc, etc, etc.  All these little items always seem to end up in a big heaping mess or at the bottom of a deep hole, only to be dug out when one is inspired by the smell of spring.

        Here at the Yankee Crafty Bitch research studio, we are constantly reaching out and connecting with other crafty individuals. We hooked up with another crafty New Englander, greenologist (http://www.greenologistboston.blogspot.com/ and gogreenologist on twitter).  In her spring series of blogs entitled “spring cleaning, zero waste”, she posed the question “What to do with all those little jewelry boxes that we all seem to have and never throw away?”

        I looked around at all those little items, and all those little jewelry boxes. HA AH I said out loud! A true frugal-Yankee-crafty moment AND more importantly, my grandmother is so proud. 

What you’ll need:

7 tops and bottoms of small jewelry boxes (if you have more or less, you can make it bigger or smaller)

Super glue

1. 1.Arrange the tops and bottoms of the boxes in a shape you like. Try several different forms. It took me 5 or 6 re-arrangements to get this shape.
   

2.After getting the shape you like, apply a line of super glue to one box, attach to the next box, glue, attach, glue, and repeat until all the boxes are glued to each other. I found it best to work your way from left to right or vice-versa.

3. 3.Place in a desk or in a drawer, or anywhere you see fit, and look, you’re organized! (for the moment….hehe).
   

Check back often as we at YCB take on more greenologist challenges in her “spring cleaning, zero waste” series to find crafty ways to reuse things otherwise destined for the landfill!