Recycled Toiletry Bag
- Sep 15, 2016
- 3 min read
The Story
Like many girls I know, I have an abundance of nail polish. So much so that I hardly know what to do with it all.
When I was still in school, I had "sorted" it all into three different make-up bags. The largest one stayed at home, and held all of the polish that I didn't really use. The other two remained with my at my apartment. I had one for my nail tools, top coats and base coats, and the other held the actual colours themselves. Eventually, even that wasn't enough, so when I went to the dollar store to buy a basket to help me organize my make up, I also bought one for my nail polish. Trust me, after four years of constantly getting bored with what I had, my collection got a little out of hand.
Then it was time for me to move back home. I had so much stuff, and of course, no one wants a bunch of tiny glass bottles filled with a sticky, smelly semi-liquid just floating around, so I needed to come up with a way of packing my polishes all together.
But I didn't. I just kind of threw them in my suit case and hoped for the best.
Back at home, however, I knew I didn't want to go through that again - searching through a basket full of nail polish, not knowing where anything was, and hoping that I'd find a colour that I liked. No. Something had to be done. I wanted to have everything in one place, and in a clear container so that I could see exactly what I had.
Enter a gift I got for Christmas, just before my trip to Europe. My family knew I was going to be travelling, and so they all got me items that they thought would help. My Aunt and Uncle got me a hanging toiletry bag from Mary Kay. But guess what - I decided not to use it for travel. It was super great because of how it folded up, and everything could be compartmentalized, but it just wasn't right. I didn't want to put my shower things into plastic bags. Do you know what plastic does when it gets wet and can't dry properly? It moulds.
I couldn't just not use this Christmas gift though. So as I was reorganizing my bedroom (read: trying to fit an apartments worth of stuff into an already full bedroom), I noticed that the bags I currently had my nail polish in was about the same size as the ones in this toiletry bag. And those bags were clear.
BAM! It hit me. If I use this to store my nail polish, not only can I then hang my polishes somewhere on a wall so that they're not taking up precious table space, but I can also see everything that I have. And so my nail polish hanger was created!
Recommended Items
hanging toiletry/cosmetics bag (you can find them at the dollar store)
hot glue
fabric glue
ribbons
fabric scraps
fabric paint
Things to try
You can either leave your hanger the way it is, or dress it up and truly make it your own. For me, I decided to leave mine as it was, because the only time the outside would ever be seen is when I was transporting my nail polish. I may end up using hot glue to glue the smaller, clear bags to the main body (just to ensure that the velcro will hold the weight of the polish).
If you wanted to, you could cover the case with scraps of fabric and glue the sides down to create your own custom design. You could do this with a single fabric, or use multiple fabrics to create a collage. You could use fabric paint if you wanted to as well!
Just have fun with it, and remember to share your own creations on Instagram with the tag #diyandtry
P.S. You can check out the video here!
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