Keeping your car clean with small kids is next to impossible. The crazy things that you find in your kids’ carseats ranges from insane to downright disgusting. That’s where this DIY car trash can comes into play.

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Collage of photos of small trash cans with text overlay: Keep Your Car Clean with a DIY Car Trash Can

[bctt tweet=”Tame the mess in your van with this easy upcycled DIY car trash can!” username=”diyadulation”]

These is no way I am the only person in the world who can’t seem to keep her car clean. Sometimes it feels like the trash is spawning in your vehicle (especially after my husband drives it).

Even worse? Go on a road trip with 3 small kiddos and you will have no doubt that you need this DIY car trash can, espiecially if you’ve got one of Honda’s new cars for families. Don’t want to get that messy! Take it from someone who loves random road trips on the fly.

Life is messy, especially for busy moms on the go. Keep your vehicle clean and organized with this easy-to-make DIY car trash can!

Materials

Large Lidded Container (I used the container from these Plastic Animal Sets)
2 inch Wide Velcro
Colorful Duct Tape

Step 1

First, pull off any loose pieces of packaging, like the label. This keeps your duct tape from coming off of your container.

Step 2

Next, remove the lid from your container.

Step 3

Now, use your container as a guide and cut your Velcro slightly larger than the bottom of your container.

Tip:

You only need the stiff side of the velco. The carpet of your van acts as the soft side of the velco when you put it in there.

Life is messy, especially for busy moms on the go. Keep your vehicle clean and organized with this easy-to-make DIY car trash can!

Step 4

Stretch your velco across the bottom of your container and make sure that it overlaps onto the sides of the container on both ends. Secure in place with your first layer of tape.

Life is messy, especially for busy moms on the go. Keep your vehicle clean and organized with this easy-to-make DIY car trash can!

Step 5

Continue covering your container by layering rows of duct tape.

Note:

I chose to match up my patterns as best as I could, but this isn’t necessary. I just likes the look of it better.

Life is messy, especially for busy moms on the go. Keep your vehicle clean and organized with this easy-to-make DIY car trash can!

Step 6

Next, cover your lid with duct tape. Do this separately from your container so that you can take it off and put it back on as needed. You don’t want an open trash can floating around your van.

Tip:

Cut your tape edges and fold them around the handle on your lid. This makes it easier to remove the lid when needed.

Life is messy, especially for busy moms on the go. Keep your vehicle clean and organized with this easy-to-make DIY car trash can!

Step 7

Lastly, place in a plastic grocery bag inside of your DIY car trash can, return the lid, and Velcro to the floor of your van.

Life is messy, especially for busy moms on the go. Keep your vehicle clean and organized with this easy-to-make DIY car trash can!

This was so easy to make that I went ahead and made one for hubs too! Of course, I can’t promise that he’ll use it but that’s an entirely different story.

Bonus Tip:

Put a couple of empty bags in the bottom before placing the last one as your trash bag. That way, if you empty your trash on the go, you have a replacement bag ready to go.

This DIY car trash can is not only easy to make, it is also easy to customize to your tastes. Choose a fun duct tape in a pattern you love and the rest is cake. What other hacks do you use to keep your van clean? I’d love to hear about them in the comments!

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Collage of photos of small trash cans with text overlay: Keep Your Car Clean with a DIY Car Trash Can

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Do you have a back-up plan for your digital files and photos that are stored on your external hard drive? If you don’t, you should. That doesn’t help you if your hard drive dies before you get your back-up plan in place. In that case, here are ideas for how to recover photos when your external hard drive dies.

Affiliate links may be used in this post. Ordering a product through these links may result in a commission. Read the full disclosure here.

Desk with computer and decorative items with text overlay: How to Recover Photos When Your External Hard Drive Dies

Newsletter subscribers already know that last month my external hard drive died. After getting over sticker shock at the recovery cost, I grieved again when they were unable to recover it. The data was literally scraped into dust when there was a mechanical malfunction.

Tears don’t even cover the feeling of loss. I lost 3 years of my business, including posts that weren’t even written yet. That wasn’t even the most devastating. It means additional work on my part but I did it once, I can do it again.

[bctt tweet=”I can’t take away the devastating loss of a failed hard drive but these ideas to recover photos will help ease the heartache.” username=”diyadulation”]

The loss that hurts the most is the 10+ years of family photos that are just gone. Photos of holidays, my children being born, and birthday parties… they are all gone. Initially, that weight was crushing.

Take the time to grieve if this happens to you. The fact is that it is a huge loss and you need to take the time to deal with that loss. Eventually you have to pick yourself up and move forward, though. Here are some tips to help you recover what you can when you are ready to take action.

Check Social Media

First, check your social media profiles. The one plus in our era of over-sharing is that a lot of our photos end up on social media. I was able to recover a ton of photos from my Facebook profile. Although the photos will not be the original quality, it definitely helps ease the loss.

Group of People on sitting on a lawn with text overlay: Ask Friends and Family

Ask Family and Friends

Family and friends likely took pictures of the big events and holidays like Christmas and birthdays. Reach out to them and ask if they mind giving you copies of those photos. The bonus is that this is a great excuse to spend some extra quality time together as well.

Camera and photos with text overlay: Check Printing Services

Check Printing Services

Another place that I found a lot of our photos was on Walgreens’ website. I use them to print a lot of my photos for scrapbooking and they save all of them. Unfortunately, there isn’t an option to bulk select and download the photos that I found. It is still nice that you can recover the photos, however.

Baby bathing in the kitchen sink with text overlay: Scan Printed Photos

Scan Printed Photos

This is definitely a last resort because it is incredibly time consuming. However, in this day and age, digital copies are the longest lasting. Scan in the very important ones and burn them to a DVD-R for safe keeping in the future.

I can’t take away the devastating loss of a failed hard drive. Hopefully these ideas for how to recover photos when your external hard drive dies help ease the heartache. Once you get the photos you can recovered, make sure you put your back-up plan in place. I will share tips to do this next month. Until then, if you need a shoulder to cry on, email me and we can commiserate our loss over some wine and Buffy.

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Woman working on laptop with text overlay: How to Recover Photos When Your External Hard Drive Dies

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Why is it that kids’ socks and underwear drawers are always a disaster. I swear I organize them weekly and yet they immediately get tossed about. Start corralling the chaos with this easy and inexpensive DIY kids drawer organizer.

Affiliate links may be used in this post. Ordering a product through these links may result in a commission. Read the full disclosure here.

Welcome to the Drawer Organization Blog Hop! For the entire month of April, 12 bloggers will be sharing the process of cleaning and organizing one drawer in our homes each week. For the fourth and final week of the drawer organization blog hop we are busy in the bedroom. Today we’re sharing our best tips and DIY projects to organize those bedroom drawers.

Drawer Organizing Blog Hop - Bathroom

My Pinterventures • Intelligent Domestications

DIY Adulation • Domestically Creative • Cookies Coffee and Crafts

Domestic Deadline • Across the Boulevard • Michelle James Designs

Mom Home Guide • Centsably Creative • Olives & Okra

Organized Child's Drawer and Pink Drawer Organizer with text overlay: DIY Kids Drawer Organizer from Pink Poster Board

[bctt tweet=”Find out how to finally organize your child’s dresser with this easy and inexpensive DIY kids drawer organizer.” username=”diyadulation”]

My daughter’s top drawer is seriously the worst in the house. She has lip gloss, stick-on earrings, and hair ties mixed in with socks, underwear, and tights. My hope is that this easy system will help her easily organize and find the items she needs daily.

Messy Child's Sock Drawer

Materials

1 Sheet of Poster Board
Utility Knife
Ruler
Hot Glue Gun and Glue Sticks
Pen (or something to mark your measurements with)

Step 1

Lay your poster board on a cutting mat.

Flexible tape measure on pink poster board

Indentation on Pink Poster Board Showing Measurements

Step 2

Measure 3-4 inches from one of the short sides of your poster board. Mark the measurement in 4 to 5 places across.

Step 3

Next, use your ruler as a straight edge along the measurement marks and cut across your poster board.

Pink Strips of Poster Board on a Blue Cutting Mat

Step 4

Continue measuring and cutting until all of your poster board is in strips.

Glue Sticks laying on a strip of pink poster board

Step 5

Now, pull one strip of poster board and add a strip of hot glue to the left side edge.

Note:

The photo above is for reference only, don’t actually put entire glue sticks on your poster board strips. Lol!

Step 6

Add a second strip of hot glue to the center of the strip of poster board and press the second strip of poster board on top of it.

Step 7

Lastly, add a third strip of hot glue to the right side of your strip of poster board and again press the second strip to it.

Glue Sticks laying on a strip of pink poster board

Step 8

Next, add 2 strips of glue where pictured on the top of your second strip of poster board and immediately press a third strip of poster board on top of it.

Step 9

Repeat steps 5 through 8 until all of your strips of poster board are attached.

Pink Drawer Organizer

Step 10

Now pull apart your organizer.

Tip:

If you are having trouble getting it to stay open, push the opposite glued seams together for each section.

Pink Drawer Organizer inside of a Wooden Drawer

Stick-on earrings, lip gloss, and perfume in green pencil box

Cllose Up of Organized Child's Drawer

Since this organizer doesn’t take up the entire drawer, I also added a pencil box and small plastic cup. The pencil box is now holding her stick-on earrings, lip gloss, and perfume. The cup holds bows, hair ties, and barrettes.

Organized Child's Drawer

Can you believe you can create this DIY kids drawer organizer for under a dollar? I’ll come back and update you on whether baby girl actually keeps up with it. Until then, it’s time to check out all of the other awesome bedroom drawer organizers from my friends.

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Organized Child's Drawer and Pink Drawer Organizer with text overlay: DIY Kids Drawer Organizer from Pink Poster Board