Lined Basket

You know how you (or your darling husband) come home and want to get into comfy clothes, and all the stuff in your pockets--receipts, credit cards, chapstick--needs to go somewhere, but you're too tired to figure out where it SHOULD go, and it gets dumped?

THIS...

is NOT what the top of our dresser used to look like.

No. It was MUCH WORSE.
*shudder*

There was a huge pile of my husband's receipts (once I got them all IN a pile, that is) that dated all the way back to July. But I have my dignity. I'm not showing a picture of the full-scale mini-disaster!

I decided something needed to be done. I've been really into organizing lately.

I was browsing at Dollar Tree, and found these babies:

My mind took off.

With a leetle spraypaint...

And a little lovely fabric (and awhile at the drawing board and sewing machine)...

I was able to make this!

It's hard to tell, but I included two credit-card sized pockets, one on each side, for Jason to put his tons-o-cards in so they stay more organized.

If you're interested, Ashley from Make It and Love It has a good tutorial on making square basket liners (of course! :)).

I'll be honest with you, folks. I started trying to "briefly" explain how I made this...and maybe it's because it's late, or because I didn't take pictures to illustrate, but it just seemed too complicated.

I'll tell you what. This really was not hard once I figured out how I was going to do it, and though it's not perfect, I've been really happy with the result. If any of you are actually interested in knowing, please holla and I will totally explain it. Shoot, I'll make another one and do a picture tutorial of it if someone actually asks me to, I'll be so happy! Plus, I'm thinking these could be good gift ideas. Who doesn't like a nice lined basket that didn't cost $25 at the store?

Here it is, junk-ified:

By the way, total cost of this project:

$2 for 2 baskets!

I already had the fabric and the spraypaint (which my wonderful friend GAVE me after she'd used just a little on a project)--so all I paid for was the baskets! (I did make two liners, I've just only shown the one here.)

And here is the wonderful "after" photo of the now-clean, calm dresser top:

Yay!

Or should I say, Ahhh...