With Earth Day right around the corner, I’d like to offer some tips for re-purposing. During a recent move of my home office into an unused bedroom, I worked to declutter and better organize my desk top. The key to this strategy was to have a place for everything right where I need them, especially the items I use most often.

Besides re-organizing, I also wanted to add some personal touches to my desk top. I started by heading to Goodwill to look for re-purposing items that would offer storage solutions for all of my paper clips, pencils, push pins and other small items.

For $2.00, I found a divided basket and an old jewelry box with pink velvet compartments. It’s perfect for all the little miscellaneous supplies.

Modifying the box was easy; black spray paint and 15 minutes changed these items into brand new desk accessories.

The whole idea of upcycling an old item is to make it pretty, personal and useful. In my opinion, plain old black is just too boring, so I downloaded some free clip art of office supplies to dress things up.

I attached the pictures to the top of the jewelry box with decoupage glue. You could make a collage by covering the entire top with pictures from magazines, adding decorative ribbon or applying children’s art work. Use your imagination!

You can see on this basket, I used oversized paper clips to identify what’s inside. The graphic print-outs turn the basket into a little work of art. In the end, I’ve decluttered my work space AND upcycled some items from Goodwill. Now that’s a win-win solution!