We used to use some plastic drawers as storage for my crafts. When the baby came, my crafts became homeless in order to make room for cute little socks, bibs, burp cloths, blankets, hats, and so on (Seriously, who knew something so small could need so much gear!). My poor homeless crafts were sitting around making the laundry room look junky, when my mom suggested turning some ice cream buckets she was going to throw away into storage.

We spray painted the buckets with flat black spray paint on all sides (even the bottom and lid!). Missing the handles was the hardest part, but dipping a rag in paint thinner takes care of any escaped paint.

Originally, I was just going to do the “chalkboard” lettering with white paint, but mom had some chalkboard paint left over from my wedding, so we did a final coat with that.

Once the buckets dried, we filled them with craft stuff, wrote what was in each bucket in our best handwriting, and placed them on shelves above the washer. Much better than having fabric and yarn all over the laundry room floor!

NB: These have held up really well. It’s been almost three years since I made them, and the paint has hardly chipped. The lettering needs to be redone periodically, but they’ve survived a move from Alaska to Utah and are still kicking!