8 Ways To Repurpose Cork Boards For Extra Storage Around The House

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Cork boards are a simple way to keep a multitude of information right in front of you, which is particularly great if you lead a hectic life or like to collect and display memorabilia like photos of friends and ticket stubs. Or perhaps that old cork board was the hub of your family life when your kiddos were school-aged and involved in activities like music lessons, baseball, five dance classes every week, and the list went on until it seemed it would never end. And then it did. Now your old cork board is mostly empty and kind of sad. Or it's a little worn out from adding and removing all those photos and other mementos. Those suddenly obsolete cork boards staring back at you could find new life by being repurposed into extra storage around the house as tidy, clever ways to contain much more than what fits on the tip of a pushpin.

The beauty of the cork board, whether a repurposed one or the kind of cork sheets you can pick up at a Dollar Tree, is that it's versatile. You can do something as simple as cover it with some batting, fabric, and ribbon so that you can keep photos and notes organized with a DIY ribbon bulletin board, or you can think bigger and cover the entire side of a refrigerator to create a storage organizer and command center all-in-one. The boards are lightweight, thus easy to hang. They can be cut to other sizes without advanced skills and with common household tools. And they can be glued onto other surfaces with the flick of the switch on a glue gun. Read on for more ideas.

If you love necklaces, you can never have too many places to hang them. Say hello to the repurposed cork board, which can be made into a spacious necklace holder (with room for other baubles, too). One adorable idea is to paint a cork board, then attach beautiful drawer and cabinet pulls to hang jewelry from. Or cover an old cork board with Dacron Upholstery Grade Polyester Batting, which will give it some padding before you cover it with fabric. Hang necklaces from clothespins, ribbons, push pins, or whatever else strikes your fancy.

If you're an indoor gardener, you can certainly use this cork board reconfiguration for its original concept, which was as a plant propagation station, but for anyone who isn't growing new plants, we have a brilliant idea for you. The repurposed cork board can hold as many small glass vials as you wish. These 24 MaxMau half-ounce glass vials will make an adorable spice rack in your kitchen, a collection point for miscellaneous screws and nails in the garage, or a unique pen and pencil holder in a home office.

Lining the inside of a kitchen, craft, or bathroom cabinet door is genius. Aside from finally putting up recipes that have been gathering dust in your drawers, you can also use these boards to hang gadgets, utensils, and even lightweight kitchen tools like hand blenders and handheld graters. No need for drawer storage for that Kruggo stainless steel hand-push rotary whisk you just got for beating scrambled eggs; attach it to a cork board inside the cabinet by the stove instead. You can attach the cork board permanently or with removable tape.

Storage doesn't need to be bland. Transform your old cork board into a more "you" kind of place for stashing whatever needs a place of its own. This easy DIY that uses fabric and ribbon or rope to create a new look to an old bulletin board would be a great storage locale for craft or sewing items, whether it's fabric swatches, decorative sewing pins, or measuring tapes. You could even give yourself a little memory hug by covering the board with a favorite old t-shirt you no longer wear.

You can use adhesive cork crafting sheets to transform your desk storage with a Dollar Tree wood crate organizer DIY. They are easy to adhere to surfaces, but sometimes these cork sheets can be shallow, which would be a problem if your clear push pins are longer than thumbtacks. But if you repurpose a cork board instead, it will give you the thickness you need on the cork side of your organizer. Tack up whatever you want without fear that the pin will fall out the instant you leave the room.

Most people have a whiteboard on the refrigerator, but not a cork board. Even if they do, it isn't big enough. Disliking her plain white refrigerator, one Instagram influencer tried a simple and stylish refrigerator DIY to upgrade her productivity. She used a roll of cork, but a few repurposed cork boards affixed to the side of your fridge will work too (test the adhesive first). This would add storage to tack up anything you need to grab fast — knives, keys, coupons, pens, or the dog's leash.

Repurpose a cork board with colorful sticky notes, washi tape, and extra storage options. The foundation of this DIY is creating a rearrangeable organizer with an old cork board, divided into columns and days of the week, with added tasks and reminders that are jotted onto sticky notes to be moved around as needed. To add storage options to this great idea, take it a step further and add Dollar Tree must-haves, like wire baskets and pencil holders, to keep files and smaller necessary items, like markers or pens, nearby.

If sewing is the craft that makes you happy, you probably have enough spools of thread to make a few hundred rainbows, but you most likely use a couple dozen the most. Those are the ones you want to keep at your fingertips, so repurpose a cork board, and hang it on the wall near where you like to sew, using long nails or screws as spool holders. Thin dowel rods or chopsticks cut to a smaller size also work well. The best part is designing it to match your sewing room.