Turn Old Toilet Paper Rolls Into Stylish Storage Pouches With A Crafty DIY

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Most people put conscious thought into their big storage solutions — bathroom shelves for toilet paper, linen cupboards for towels, and so on. But there's no need for bulky bathroom organizers when smaller solutions exist. Items like baskets in a drawer become the compartments which, when utilized correctly, keep the contents of hairbrushes out of the bristles of toothbrushes. Turns out, an even smaller storage solution exists, shared by Merry Craft on YouTube: The practical-yet-stylish organizing pouch, a DIY which can be made from old toilet paper tubes and leftover fabric. With one or two of these in your drawer, you'll never lose a pair of tweezers or your favorite makeup brush again.

Most of what you need for this project comes from your craft scraps. TP rolls, fabric, and felt merge together to create a surprisingly cute pouch that's closed by a fancy zipper and finished off with lace ribbon. A few pieces of scrap cardboard close off the ends of the tube. Like most DIYs worth doing, this one relies on a few tools to turn your craft scraps into a treasure pouch. A ruler, a pencil (or pen), and some scissors will be used to measure, mark, and cut the paper tubes. Your trusty glue gun also plays a big part in this DIY drama, helping you pull everything together.

Start by placing your ruler longways on the toilet paper tube. Use the ruler's edge to draw a line down the front of the tube, and then cut along the line. Next, lay the tube on your fabric. You'll use the tube to measure that fabric; it should be enough to cover the roll, with some extra material hanging over both the cut side of the tube as well as its two open ends. Cut the fabric out and roll it around the tube. Glue each end of the felt onto the inside of the TP tube with the glue gun, covering the cut in the tube in the process.

Then, use the toilet paper roll to measure the felt for the pouch's liner. Glue the trimmed felt onto the walls inside of the tube. Next, glue the zipper between the two sides of the opening. Using the ends of the tube as a guide, draw a cap for each end of the tube and cut them out. Cover them with fabric and felt before gluing them to the two ends of the tube.

If you want to make the final product prettier from here, you can cut a piece of ribbon and glue it onto the tube, having it run parallel to the zipper. ToBeIT Cotton Lace Trim would be a pretty option for this. Make sure you don't overdo the glue on the lace, as too much adhesive is — ironically — less effective at keeping the lace attached to the tube. Finally, glue some ribbon around the bottom of the tube to create a more polished look for this organizer.

Although this is an inexpensive craft to make, thanks to its upcycled raw materials, it doesn't have to look cheap. You can lean into the stylish potential of the storage pouch by choosing nicer fabrics or opting for wool felt instead of synthetic craft felt. You're also not limited to using one color of fabric to cover the tube. For example, you can embrace pattern drenching on a smaller scale when you wrap the body of the toilet paper roll in a pretty floral pattern and cover the end caps with a thin pinstripe in pink.

Additionally, it's possible to use the fabric to change the basic shape of the tube's construction. For example, don't close up the end caps with the cardboard. Instead, cut the fabric so that it extends past the ends of the tube. Twist the fabric at each end of the tube so that it looks like the wrapper of a Tootsie Roll and tie the fabric closed with some elegant ribbon. The extra cloth on each end is a plus when you need to store makeup brushes or eyeliner pencils that are longer than the usual fare.

Lastly, decorative embellishments amp up the perk factor in this DIY. Glue some wooden FINGOOO Butterfly Buttons to the body of the pouch, or tie one to the hole in the zipper with a small chain. This dresses the storage pouch up even more, which is something you may want to consider if you use it for items like makeup. Depending on what you store in it — and whatever other custom touches you add — you could even add this to the list of ways to reuse toilet paper rolls in the kitchen.