We’ve all been spending more time at home than usual, so it’s no surprise that home projects have flourished. You’ve likely been busy with home quarantine projects such as cleaning out closets, and generally decluttering and re-organizing your home.

As you go through your home, exploring boxes of whatnots, you’ll find plenty of things to throw away, for sure. But you may find items that you can repurpose and reuse. Here are a few home quarantine projects that can keep you engaged, entertained, and even organized during your time at home.

1. Remake an Old Rug

In addition to providing a bit of softness and breaking up floor space, rugs can create cohesion in a room. Beautiful rugs can be expensive. But you can make an old rug look like new with a simple—and inexpensive—box of dye.

Clean the rug first, then follow the directions on the box. Just be sure that you pick out the appropriate dye. You won’t want to buy a synthetic dye for a rug with natural fabric or vice-versa. Pour the dye into a spray bottle. You only need to spritz the rug, although you may have to go over it more than once.

2. Transform a Light Fixture

If you have some silk flowers, there’s more you can do with them than just put them into a vase. Turn them into something new and magical simply by twining them around a lighting fixture to create a fabulous floral chandelier. This repurposing trick works best with hanging fixtures, but you can also transform other types as well.

3. Refresh Your Entryway with a Window

Old windows are a recent mainstay in the world of decor. People snatch them up from antique shops and curbsides. If you’re lucky enough to have one (or find one on the cheap), you can turn it into a entryway organizer.

Paint one (or two) panes with chalk paint to create a blackboard surface. Paint another white or attach a fitted sheet of cork to form a corkboard. In the other frames, you can affix family photos or other images. Glue, nail or screw a small piece of wood to the bottom of the frame to create a shelf. Attach hooks to the bottom of the shelf and you have a spot to hang your keys.

4. Get Creative with Wine Corks

DIY cork crafts were all the rage just a few years ago. They were popular as wedding decor and shabby-chic home decor. If you have a collection, then you can repurpose them into something practical rather than counting them as clutter and tossing them in the trash.

Cork makes the perfect bottle stopper. You simply need a topper, such as rock crystals, gemstones, or small animal figurines, which you can paint a different color. Using hot glue, affix them to the tops of the corks, and voila. They make excellent gifts, but save a few for your home bar, too.

5. Make a Mirror into a Tea Tray

You can never have too many mirrors, but mirrors that hang on the wall do take up more than their fair share of real estate. The good news is that mirrors are easy to transform. Framed mirrors are particularly fun to repurpose. If you like, you can paint the frame itself. You can paint the mirror as well.

Chalkboard paint will turn the mirror into a reminder board. Or you can leave it be to make a tea tray or a tray for a candle display. It’s also possible to cover the mirror with a resin composite, complete with any colors or details you choose, and use it as a cheeseboard or tray to contain miscellaneous items, so your counter or coffee table doesn’t get cluttered.

6. Turn Jars into Organizers

Got a cabinet full of mason jars? To repurpose mason jars, you simply need to think outside the box—or the jar, as it were. Jars make handy organizers. With a simple paint job, you can turn yours into charming, vintage-inspired apothecary jars.

Use them to declutter your hobby room or keep them in the bathroom, with or without their lids, to hold everything from cotton swabs to toothbrushes or a place to store makeup brushes. Larger jars will be at home in the kitchen, where they can hold utensils. Or screw a row of lids under your cabinets, fill the jars with dry goods such as popcorn, beans or grains, and reattach the jars to the lids.

You make be stuck spending time at home while we’re waiting for the coronavirus vaccine, but that time doesn’t have to be boring. Have you done any fun home quarantine projects during the pandemic? Please share!

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Katie Tejada is a writer, editor, and former HR professional. She enjoys writing about decorating trends and innovations for the home, but also covers developments in HR, business communication, recruiting, real estate, finance, law, and investing. If you like this article, you might want to read Katie’s previous guest blog post about How to Organize Your Kitchen.

Photo by Carolyn V on Unsplash

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