I’m a big fan of upcycling, so I’ve written this post to help you turn your old cardboard boxes into beautiful storage bins!

I often wonder why people go buy boxes for storage when they probably have some waiting to be recycled. I guess it’s a matter of convenience, but I’m pretty sure I made 2 storage bins before I could’ve made it back from the store.

No joke. It took me about 10 minutes to finish these boxes. You only need a few supplies to get started and you probably have most of them already. If not, I have links to all of the supplies I used below.

DIY Storage Bin Supplies

• scissors
• box cutters
• cardboard box
• chevron contact paper

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Step 1: cut the flaps off of the cardboard box

Using your box cutter, slice the closing tabs (what do you actually call those?) off of the box and set them aside.

TIP: You can use these as separators inside of the box for extra organization. Cover them in contact paper too!

Step 2: measure and cut the contact paper

Set your box at the edge of the contact paper to measure how much you will need. The best part is that the back of the contact paper contains gridlines so you don’t even need a ruler!

Cut on the right lines.

Once you determine how tall the box is, you can cut the contact paper to that height and just use one long strip to cover the whole box. It’s much faster than cutting 4 pieces to fit each side. You can always cut down the paper where the top of the box is uneven.

Step 3: apply the contact paper

Apply your contact paper to all 4 sides of the cardboard box. Press down firmly and continue to smooth it as you go.

The upside of using contact paper is that it’s sticky but not uncomfortably so. When you peel the back off and apply the paper, you can lift and reapply if it’s not perfectly straight the first time, so don’t stress about perfection. 🙂

When you’re finished, you’ll have a beautiful new storage bin. AAAAANNNNDDD you can feel good about upcycling at the same time!

Have you tried this before? Would you try it? Have you tried a different method? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave them in the comments below.