Sunday, December 7, 2025

Bin Plus More

Years ago I purchased two huge (70 quart) Sterlite storage bins. Back then I had artwork that I rotated seasonally, and one of the containers stored the extras. The other held non-Christmas wrapping supplies.

When Hubby Tony and I downsized to our condo it only had a fraction of the wall space, so I culled the much of the artwork, but there was still to justify bringing both containers. They were stacked in the storage room downstairs between the tubs of Christmas decorations and the box with the Christmas tree. It was always a chore to get to the wrapping supplies, so several months ago I brought it upstairs. I had to wrestle the container onto a shelf in the office closet. It was so difficult I decided I would look for something smaller. That idea never made it to a list and I quickly forgot about it.

When we pulled out the Christmas things last week I looked into the large container and figured out most of the things in there were no longer needed; I emptied it out and staged it to donate to the thrift shop.

This afternoon I happened to be driving by the thrift shop (of course without the container 😠) but popped in to see if I could find something to wear to a holiday party a couple of days from now. I nabbed a lovely red sweater, then decided to look around the rest of the store.

In one of the aisles an associate was struggling to find a spot on the shelf for a long, thin storage container. It looked to be the size I was looking for and I hustled over to take a look. I found out it wasn't just a container; it was a container filled with supplies!

My find back at home

The bin contained six partial rolls of paper, a large stack of gift bags, and an even larger stack of tissue paper, along with some random ribbon. Now I have a perfectly-sized bin to hold my non-holiday wrapping supplies, and I'm set for Christmas wrapping materials this year and probably a couple after that!

Five years ago: Sock Seam Solution

17 comments:

  1. You were in the right place at the right time! Score!

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  2. Dandy! Try storing it under a bed somewhere. Makes it much easier to fetch than high on a shelf. Linda in Kansas

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    1. The office has two closets, one of them converted into nothing but shelves. My new treasure is approximately waist level :-)

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  3. A large stack of gift bags would make it a worthwhile buy.

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    1. Especially since within the family we tend to recycle them from year to year.

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  4. ...and it all came together just as if you had made specific plans. Merry Christmas.

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  5. This is a win win combination of goodness. You got rid of some items and yet you found what you needed for future storage. My kind of day!

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  6. I love hearing about great thrift finds like that!

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  7. I have two of those bins for Christmas wrapping because I love to make very fancy wraps, and I reuse a lot of the materials. My non-Christmas wrapping stuff is stuffed in a drawer any old how. Hmm. Not too consistent there.

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