By Smith

I don’t know about you, but I always seem to forget bin day. Having moved house a lot in the last few years, I’ve had bin day on a Monday, a Wednesday and a Thursday, and my brain just doesn’t compute that now it’s a Wednesday again.

I also have the dilemma of remembering whether it is black bin day (general household rubbish) or red bin (recycling) day. Although the council kindly send me a little calendar, I usually go by what my neighbours are doing. However, this is a little unreliable when I can’t even remember what day the bin goes out and if I leave the house before my neighbours are up and putting theirs out.

The reason I’m telling you all of this is because I’ve come up with what I think is an ingenious idea to help me and Tim remember which bin day it is!That’s right, I’ve made felt, red and black bin magnets for the fridge! (pictured above – apologies for the fuzziness, the glare off my shiny white fridge seems so have made it go a bit funny).

We now put the magnets on the side of the fridge when not in use and put that week’s colour bin on the front of the fridge to remind us which one to put out for the dustmen to collect!

They’re a little on the “home-made” side as I knocked them up late one evening whilst watching the telly but they work a treat and I quite like the effect. If you want to make your own bin magnets (I know you’re dying to!) then here’s my handy how-to:

You’ll need

• Red and black felt
• Magnets (I used a strip of lightweight magnet that Tim had in his toolbox. I’d check out ebay for little magnets or similar strips)
• Coloured thread
• Needle
• Scissors
• Sewing pins
• Paper
• Pen

1. Draw the outline of your bin on some paper and cut it out

2. Lay it on top of one of your sheets of felt and pin to it to keep it in place

3. Cut out the felt bin following the edge of your paper bin

4. Repeat to get two felt ‘bins’ of the same colour and then repeat on the other colour felt so you have 4 ‘bins’ in total

5. Place the matching coloured bins on top of one another, so they form one ultra-bin and slide the magnet in between like a sandwich

6. Pin the felt ‘bin’ sandwich together to secure and make sure the magnet doesn’t fall out whilst you sew

7. Thread your needle with your chosen colour of cotton thread

8. Hand sew around the edge of your ‘bin’ sandwich in a short running stitch

9. Knot the ends when you’ve stitched all the way around and cut the loose thread off

10. Repeat for the other colour bin and then display on your fridge

Have you made any crafty things to help solve a little problem like forgetting to put the bin out? I’d love to hear about them!