Using Kitchen Items Throughout the Home

Cookie jars, utensil holders, salt cellars - they're not solely for the kitchen anymore. You can repurpose kitchen supplies to work for you outside of their standard tasks, too.

It was this Mario Batali salt cellar we spotted recently that got us thinking about the subject. Originally for keeping two different types of salt at hand, we'd use it for holding jewelry or desk supplies.
Keeping this classic cookie jar stocked with baked goods is nice, but filling it with a collection of shells, a few rolls of toilet paper, or a homemade terrarium sounds just as sweet.
A utensil tray is a pretty bland object for the most part, but you can give it new life with this project for organizing your jewelry.
Open up our medicine cabinet or peek around our desk and you're bound to see a few shot glasses. No, we're not booze hounds, we just think the small decorative glasses (like this one from Rare Device) are perfect for holding make-up brushes, toothpicks, and the like.

What kitchen tools have you repurposed to use throughout the house?

Comments (6)

Some nice ideas.
Spending $50 on a shot glass to store make-up brush may not, however, be on my next shopping list. (That glass actually looks like a lot of glasses I come across at thrift shops or flea markets...)

posted by hessilou on February 18th 2009 at 8:43pm
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I have a cookie jar just like this one and it is full of unwrapped Dove soap bars, which is my hubby's bath product of choice. The white bars look pretty and my husband never has to ask where the soap is.

posted by Calidaho on February 18th 2009 at 8:48pm
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I'm currently using one of those fabric memo boards (with the ribbon that goes criss-cross across it) with pretty flower head pins to display/store jewelry. If I put jewelry in a box, it is out of sight/out of mind. This way I can see chains, pins, earrings and they are just as easy to put back.

posted by BayRidger on February 18th 2009 at 9:55pm
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I'm using two kitchen storage jars (mouths are too narrow for flour storage) to hold epsom salts in my bathroom. They look nice on the toilet tank.

posted by madampince on February 18th 2009 at 10:56pm
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Open up our medicine cabinet or peek around our desk and your bound to see

YOU'RE. you are.

thank you.

posted by paragraphloop on February 19th 2009 at 6:02am
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I use shot glasses for things in the bathroom like visine & mini cosmetics & little serving bowls work great in nightstand drawers for holding lip balm or lotion or whatever else you want. Word is born.

posted by AngelaPeregrina on February 19th 2009 at 6:50pm
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