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It’s spring and we’ve been doing some Spring cleaning including the garage. I wanted some containers that would fit on our shelves and hold the objects that tend to clutter up spaces. The cat litter pails worked awesome! They were very simple to prep and label. Now our balls, sand toys and play tools have a place. I think I may be adding some to our collection…..there’s chalk, bubble toys and maybe even my gardening tools.


Our cat is at least 15 years old….we think. We got her from the Denver Pet Adoption Center called the Dumb Friends League. We were not sure of her age when we adopted her. Kitty has been in our family for 15 years so we know at least that. We have used the same litter since we got her and we are not about to change now. I don’t think the cat could handle it. Anyway we use Tidy Cat litter in the 35 pound pails. They are heavy when full of litter, but can hold a ton of odds and ends.

We typically would toss the cat litter pails into the recycling bin and move on. One day I finally realized that these containers would work great for storage and organizing. We started using them for random stuff in our garage last fall like sand for the ice. Then winter came and the pails in the garage didn’t get used as much, except for the sand for the ice. This spring we cleaned out the garage and found more uses for our bins.DIY Organizing Containers made from upcycled and reused cat litter pails.

Let’s get down to it

I was tired of looking at the cat litter label and wanted to label them my own. Here’s the steps on how to remove the label with ease. All you need is a bottle of Goof Off  , rubber gloves and a rag. Make sure you are in a well ventilated space, like outside. Also as a side note if you do this on your grass, like I did, you may want to lay down a drop cloth. The Goof Off will kill your grass.

Start by squirting your Goof Off on the label and let it sit for a few seconds.

DIY Organizing Containers made from upcycled and reused cat litter pails.

Rub the label with your rubber gloves, don’t use the rag yet. Your gloves should loosen up the label pretty well.DIY Organizing Containers made from upcycled and reused cat litter pails.

After awhile it will look very messy. If it you can’t get it all loose, just squirt a little more Goof Off and keep on rubbing. It will quickly look like this. DIY Organizing Containers made from upcycled and reused cat litter pails.

Now grab your rag, squirt a little bit of Goof Off into the rag and rub off the container. Until the surface is clean.DIY Organizing Containers made from upcycled and reused cat litter pails.

Super duper no more label!

My upcycled cat litter pails are going to be in my garage and I wanted them to be rather straight forward. I grabbed my stencils from scrap booking and a classic black Sharpie. Labeled those buckets and fit them just right on the shelf. You could always fancy them up with some material and Modpodge.DIY Organizing Containers made from upcycled and reused cat litter pails.

This make it Monday worked out great for me and I hope it will for you too. After I made a few of these I got the idea to use them for more items. Hopefully this will help me to organize more areas of our garage and maybe even our basement.

DIY Organizing Containers made from upcycled and reused cat litter pails.