Inexpensive Storage Boxes

To organize many of our belongings before we moved, I bought these storage boxes from an office supply store for about a dollar apiece. They were not pretty enough for me, so I tried painting them (see box on the right), but that didn't work well, as the paint didn't cover the generic black labeling of the boxes. So one evening I took my stack of mail-order catalogs and cut pictures out of them, sorting the pictures into groups of clippings with similar themes or appealing color combinations. From these collections of harmonious clippings, I then created rectangular collages and stuck them to the ends of each box with clear adhesive paper. Now much prettier, I have these sorts of boxes tucked away in many closets in my new home.