Turn your shampoo bottle into a caddy!

Have you ever walked out of your home forgetting something like your wallet or your keys? Have you tried to have a designated bowl by the door so you don't forget these things, but then end up with a bowl that contains random things like gum, baseballs, or markers? That's the problem we have at our place. So when I saw this post by ProjectSunlight (after seeing it on the Today show), I figured I'd give it a try! If you want to reuse and make your own caddy, here's what you'll need:

1. An empty bottle (you could use a shampoo or body wash bottle but the flatter and taller, the better!)

2. Scissors and/or a knife

3. Sandpaper

4. A marker

5. Paint, fabric (with spray adhesive), markers, whatever you want to use to decorate it!

Start by taking off the top of the bottle. This will be a little tricky, I'll be honest. I drew a line where I wanted to make the cut, however scissors just didn't do it. I had to use a large kitchen knife and saw at it like a piece of wood. Once you cut through the front of the bottle, the sides and back of the bottle will be a piece o' cake.

Next, draw a square on the back of the bottle about 1-2" from the top. Keep in mind you can always make the square bigger but not smaller. If you have doorknobs, you'll need a wide square.

Once you're done drawing your square, draw lines halfway down the side of the bottle (you can put your phone or wallet up against and see how much space from the bottom to give). Draw a line across the front of the bottle (it helps to remove any labeling you might have).

Just like before, take your scissors or knife and cut out the square and the lines.

Use sandpaper to smooth out the bottle, so you don't have stray pieces of plastic sticking out.

Now you're free to decorate however you want. I tried putting on fabric but it didn't look good at all. It's such an awkward shape, I just couldn't get the fabric to fit on the bottle so I opted for permanent marker instead.

Put it in your kitchen, by your front door, your bathroom, wherever you want, and enjoying using your new/reusable caddy!

TOTAL COSTS: Free!

Shampoo bottle, scissors, knife, sandpaper, and markers all on hand

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 30 minutes

20 minutes to draw, cut, and sand the bottle

10 minutes to decorate 

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 3 out of 5

The hardest parts would be cutting off the top of the bottle and making sure the hole was big enough for your doorknob. I had to make quite a few adjustments before I was able to slip it on. Other than that, this would be a great project for kids to help with, as they learn how to reuse items and can decorate the caddy to their hearts content!

DIY Smartphone Projector

Everywhere I turn I'm hearing about snow storms, schools closing, arctic blasts... and unfortunately, power outages. But if you and your family want to watch a movie to kill some time and you all don't want to crowd around your smartphone, there's a solution!

All you need is a phone (with a hand charger, I hope, so you don't waste your entire battery!), an empty shoe box, a marker, a magnifying glass, some tape and scissors, and you can make a homemade smartphone projector. I found this post on TheMetaPicture and had to test it out!



First, remove all cats from your shoebox. This will be the hardest step because they can be ridiculously adorable. Resist the urge to give in.

Next, take off the handle of the magnifying glass and trace the outline with your marker on a short side of the shoebox.

Take your scissors (or x-acto knife, if you have one) and cut out the circle.

Then take your magnifying glass and tape it to the box. I used electrical tape and it worked just fine.

Now the original post says to use a paperclip and somehow turn that into a phone stand. I must be an idiot because I tried for a good 10 minutes to figure out how the heck a paperclip could be a stand to no avail. So good luck with that, if that's what you choose to use.

And supposedly, that's all you have to do! But there are actually a few more steps I found to make this work. First and foremost, turn the brightness on your phone as high as it'll go. Otherwise, you won't be able to see a thing.

Now there are two ways you can get the image to project correctly. If you don't follow either of these steps, your images will be upside-down.

#1 - Using a mirror, hold your phone above the mirror, which will then project through the magnifying glass an image that's upright. However, I find this to be way too difficult and cumbersome.

#2 - What I recommend is:
     * Lock your phone's orientation so it doesn't change when you turn the phone
     * Turn your phone upside-down so the top is on the bottom of the box and the bottom is up in the air
     * Project the image while it's in portrait orientation (not landscape)

Note that the further back you are from the wall, the bigger the image but... the dimmer it'll be. The photo below was taken with the lens 38" away from the wall and the phone was 47 1/2" away from the wall. The photo of myself ended up being 8"x15". I could have made it bigger but then I couldn't have taken this photo well.

And I'm calling shenanigans on the original post's photo with David Bowie - my husband, a professional photographer, says they probably did a long exposure to get the shot so don't be surprised if you have the lights on and can't see what's on the wall!

However, I can say that it does work! You just need a little patience, figuring out the correct distance from the wall and from the lens but with a little tweaking, you should be able to do it!

TOTAL COSTS: About $4
$1.99 for magnifying glass from Ace Hardware
$1.99 for electrical tape from Staples
Scissors, shoe box, a marker, and phone on hand

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: About 10 minutes
Note that this doesn't include the time to make the paperclip stand... which took way too much time...

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 2 out of 5
The only difficult thing will be figuring out how much distance there should be from the box to the wall and how much distance between the phone and the magnifier. Once you get it figured out, though, you'll be set!