I made myself an early Christmas present.
You may not need this gift. Your children may drink from color coded cups, or drink a full 8 oz. at once and then put their cup in the dishwasher, or only use one cup a day, rinsing it between milk, water and juice. You may run loads in your dishwasher that don’t look alarmingly full of only cups.
You are a better mother than I am.
I have lots of lovely counter space in my new house. This is a good thing for when Ashleigh and I made 4000 mini cupcakes and 600 cookies in my kitchen last week (which is a whole other post).
But, it’s not a good thing when you have 8 bodies drinking their recommended 8 cups of fluid a day. The beautiful counters are then littered with various drinks and the children are shocked when you put “the cup I was drinking” in the dishwasher.
The idea, sweet children o’mine, is to put your cup on the coaster with your cute initial. So that I know you are still drinking it.
It was very easy and inexpensive to make. I used ceramic coasters from the hardware store at 18 cents each. Modge Podged paper and initial onto the tiles. Glued the tiles to the painted wood board with E6000 glue. I applied several more coats of Modge Podge since we are lucky to keep it to one spill a day around here. I glued some little wood legs on and screwed in some handles. It may not be so easy to get the kids to actually use it.
I was pretty pleased with myself for actually trying to fix a problem that drives me nuts instead of just periodically huffing and puffing about it. I thought it was self explanatory. Then my dear husband asked if I made this contraption for the kids to put their backpacks on….. Ummmm…..Does he actually live here? I guess he has harder problems to solve at his job. I’m just taking motherhood baby steps here. Next on the list…get the baby to stop coloring on himself.
I LOVE this idea!! Maybe you can solve the shoe dilemma at my house! Shoes everywhere!
A baset for each child ( mom and dad too) by the entry door. Leave your shoes in your basket on the way in, take them on the way out. If you have too many shoes or dont want to sqash them. Do the PVC pipe ( 4" x12" ) and glue them together. Or shelves. Mom of six. All gone but two and we still do it this way.
I am a mom of 3 and we have a "shoe basket" also. It is only one though, not one for each of us. We have a small house and 5 shoe baskets would take up too much room. I found the largest basket I could possibly find and put it near our door. When the shoes come off that is where they go. It makes finding shoes much easier.
I love this idea. Long over due in my house. My youngest is 18 but we still have six people in this house and still have this problem. Thanks for a great idea.
Oh my…that is just BRILLIANT!!!My husband and in-laws always leave out their cups. Now….there will be a place to put them.
Brilliant!
bex@
http://kawaiikrafts.blogspot.com/
I knew exactly what it was at first glace because we have the same cluttered cup problem. Great idea.
What a great idea!!
That is so cleaver! I have the same problem constantly, but my oldest likes to leave her's by the couch.
LOVE it!!!! GREAT idea!! Ihave tried the color coded cup…we actually have written their names on glass cups…taking all the cups out of the cabinet and ONLY having their color or named cup. My gang of misfits will grab mugs when they cannot find THEIR cup (because they left it in THEIR bedroom) or will just drink out of someone elses!! I have given up!!! I am trying not to sweat the small stuff. One of these days they will be off to college and there will only be two lonely cups on the counter…I keep reminding myself:)
Happy Friday:)
Kristin
Love this idea! Our youngest is 17 now, but STILL like you said, the dishwasher is always 3/4 full of cups!! Thanks for sharing your creativity.
Great idea!!! It looks great. Congrats on making your life a little bit easier!!
Love it! What a great idea! On my way to the hardware store, well, perhaps after Christmas. Thanks again for this!
I think every mom in the world NEEDS one of these! Brilliant. Let me know how it goes getting your kids to use it. 😀
I really think that I will be making one of these. This is a constant problem at our house. I thought I was being such a thoughtful mommy by moving all of the plastic cups to a lower cupboard for easy kid reach…nooooo….all I did was enable them to use every last cup on a daily basis! Great idea Kathryn!…..oh and the back pack comment…I could totally see Grant saying something like that. ha ha!
That is a GREAT idea!! You just solved my prolbem..since they(4 kids) will be out of school for christmas vacation..Hopefully it will reduce cups too!! Thanks!!
I really, really , really love this.
how cute is that? We have cups all over the house, I end up collecting them before bed.
I need to make one of these! Except it would just have a bunch of S's… for all of Scott's cups! I think I wash about eight on any given day just from him! Haha.
Oh my goodness–LOVE it!! If I had a dollar for every cup on my counter… 🙂
Great post, I really like your blog.
My blog is going to change your life. Hahaha.Just kidding♥
my blog♥mfashionfreak
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Very nice. Love the colour and the initials on the coasters. Great idea.
I love this Kathryn. Pure Genius!
Amazing! This is an ongoing dilemma at our house. I had thought about doing individualized coasters, but you took it further by mounting them on a board. How clever. Thanks for sharing!
Absolutely brilliant!!!- and really cute too! 🙂
Thanks for inspiring!
Blessings!
Jill
This is awesome – Every house should have one. This will be the next HOT trend.
So happy I happened upon your blog.
Oh goodness, this is a great idea!
I just use a Sharpie marker, but this is way cuter:) ♥Jill
What an awesome idea!!!
Great idea. Where did you get the wood board and how did you put the bottom pegs on it?
Great idea! And love the BYU cup
LOVE this idea but I have limited counter space… wish I was creative and could build one that attached to the wall and had a little lip to hold the cups in. This definitely has me thinking of a solution to our own cup problem!
I just wanted to let you know that I featured this today on You Sew Rock Me Fridays. Here's the link if you want to check it out: http://wp.me/s1VAkT-1183
Ahhhhhhhhhh, so brilliant yet so simple!!!!!
How's it working out? With 6 of us, the counters are littered with glasses. Confession: I even do it because I can't remember where my glass is 🙂
I love this! Anything to keep me from having to find one more week old sippy cup of milk in the bottom of a toy box or hidden in piles of clothes in the back of closet!
My kids do drink from color-coded cups (most of the time) and we still have a ridiculous number of cups in the dishwasher every night. I made one of these last night & I'm hopeful it will help us cut down on that. Thanks for the great idea!
genius!! Thank you for sharing!
Great idea,think I will try this, I have also bought each person their own special cup and put all the others away for guests, then if they wanted a drink and their cup is not clean, then I guess they have to wash it first. It sorta worked for a while then cups go missing and "guest" cups keep appearing and no guests, lol…I think this idea might be a great addition to my already plan in action! Thank you.
This coaster tray is totally genius. I found your blog from googling for something totally different than what I found here. But I'm so super happy I found you two. I am adoring the blog and I think I'm a little addicted. 🙂
WOW!
Nice problem solving 🙂 I'm going to have to borrow that!
I went to Lowes to try and buy the things needed to make this. I couldn't find any ceramic coasters. Would you mind telling me where you bought them and the dimensions of the wood? I think this is such a great idea and really want to make one for my home! Thank you!
Sorry I should have said ceramic tiles. Basically any cheap tiles that have a fairly flat surface to cover with your patterned paper. (Or you could leave them be if you like the look of the tile). Once I found the tiles I wanted I went over to the wood section and just looked to see what would fit the tiles best. My finished coaster tray is 5 1/2 inches wide and 31 inches long. I had to cut down the board I bought so it would fit the 6 tiles I needed for my 6 kids. I think they will even cut the board for you if you place the tiles on and roughly measure there at the hardware store. Good luck! Hopefully it will solve the problem of the ever multiplying cups on the counter. 🙂
I've purchased plain white ceramic tiles at Menard's before–they're usually really cheap because they're so plain, and often even those go on sale so that they're even cheaper.
I am trying to think of a way to do this in an even simpler manner for a family reunion at my house. We can do the marker on paper cups but those seem to get scattered so no one except the very mindful remember where they put theirs. I am thinking of some kind of strip to lay at the back of the counter with everyone's name alphabetically for them to place the paper cups on. Any ideas on how to do this attractively. I guess I could just line up 40 tiles right on the counter top with the names though.
What a brilliant idea! I definitely need to do this in our home. Thank you for sharing.
definitely going to be doing this!!!
LOVE IT!!! How can I put this on Pinterest?? I went to your Pinterest page but didn't see it on there.
Your husband sounds exactly like mine. Backpacks? Really?
Great idea! My quickie method used to be to grab a piece of construction paper, draw 6-8 circles on it, label them, then slip it into a gallon ziploc bag. Presto! Instant "coaster". But yours is so much prettier and longer lasting! 🙂
Now…to figure out how to "Pin it".
My dad got so tired of cups everywhere in our house when I was growing up. He finally just bought a drinking fountain and told us no more cups! I think this idea is great and I am going to make one for my four kids. Thanks!
Are the letters attached to the pattern that you Mod Podged onto the tile, or something separate?
I used cut out letters or you could use letter stickers. You could do whole names, whatever works for your family! Good luck!
Cute idea! I Pin'd it. 🙂
i just finished the second load of dishes— mostly cups! I am going to be doing this a.sap! thanks for the idea and sharing.
http://plushiepatterns.com
http://patchworkposse.com/blog
I have wanted to do this but wasn't sure how to get started. Thanks! For the backpacks I was thinking about putting them on coathooks. You should do it and take pictures of it since I may never get around to doing it and I don't have a following.
There are only two people in my Brooklyn apartment and we still have this problem. What a great idea!
Erin – ekcantcook.blogspot.com
This is fantastic! What a great idea!
What did you use for the legs underneath? Did you cut and make them yourself or did you find them in the hardware store? If so, where about in the store?
Jen- What I used was called wood acorn dowel cap. I found them at a craft store. Here is the link to the ones I used. I wasn't picky I just wanted something to keep it off the counter a bit in case of spills so it wouldn't be sitting in water and I'm glad I did after using it for almost a year. But any little wooden piece with a flat end would do. I glued it on with E6000. Good luck, hope it solves the cup problem at your house 🙂
http://www.joann.com/wood-shapes-acorn-dowel-cap-2-per-package/prd1686/
You inspired me to make one for my home! It really solved our problem of having cups all over the place. Thanks for sharing your idea and the process 🙂
I first wana thank u for this idea! Amazing! I have a family of 8 (6 children but only 4 in the household) so i know exactly where u are coming from with a ton of cups being used. Until now, I always had the kids leave their cups by the microwave to reuse them. This has usually resulted in fights over whos cup was whos, so i loved this idea! For the wood board, i used an old wooden cutting board and had my husband split it in half. Was easy because its made in sections. Each piece was just big enough for 3-4×4 ceramic tiles (no handles but i loved that idea to easily move it). So i decided to put the names of my 4 children in the household on 4 and leave the other 2 blank for my husband and i to use or the other 2 kids when they are over. Heres what i used:
6 ceramic tiles $.78 (Home Depot)
Elmers Glue-All $1.38
Pink/blue glitter letters $2
Poka Dot wrapping paper $1 (Dollar Tree)
Brown paint $.57
Paint brushes $.97
Cutting board my grandmother gave me Priceless
Total Spent $6.70!!! (+tax)
I also made my own Mod Podge (found recipe on Pinterest) that so far is working out great (but my kids will definitely be the test of this!) It is 50/50 Elmers glue & water. On her cite she suggests the Elmers Glue-All for projects that cud possibly get wet. She even showed her tests for it so i thought what the heck! Ill save $7 lol And lastly, for the legs my daughter gave me some of her craft wooden beads that i painted & glued to the bottom!
Oh and another idea i had for the ceramic tiles, i saw on pinterest where ppl are using Sharpie Permanent markers to write on plates, mugs etc and baking them at 300° for 30min. Wonder if u could do this same affect with the tiles…
LOVE this idea! Thanks.
I love this idea too! I am not the only crazy organized mom!
ok so I need help on length. I want to make one for 7 cups and five cups. i am so bad at figuring out measurments. How long was the wood you used for 6?
AWESOME IDEA!!! I blog over at http://www.2crafty4myskirt.blogspot.com/ Every Friday I feature a fellow crafter. I would love to feature you and this project in an upcoming Friday. If you are interested please let me know toocraftyformyskirt@hotmail.com
Thanks for the fantastic idea! The glasses-all-over-the-kitchen situation has bothered me for years! We copied you, but used leftover white tiles on a painted purple piece of wood. We bought $1 coasters from Ikea to place on top of the tiles. Also got little knobs from Ikea for handles and used little feet that we had leftover from another project. Looks cool — though not as cool as yours. I am not as crafty as you. Now to get the kids to use it . . .
Sorry — the coasters were $6. Forgot we chose the more expensive ones!
I love your idea and had a chance to use it as inspiration today! Thought I'd share my project with you!
http://simplygwen.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-little-diy-thanks-pinterest.html
I can so relate to the comment your husband made! Love the idea. Just may be the lifesaver my kitchen needs with 5 kids and their cups. I swear at the end of the day every cup from the cabinet needs rounding up! Thanks!
Love it! Such a simple idea but I'm sure it makes all the difference.
Hi I found your site by a search on color coding. I use color coding with a family of 6, it just makes things easier. I tried everything to get my family to reuse the cups they were already using. So after several failed attempts I designed a cup that changes names. So no more trying to find that one cup with your color/name. All cups can be changed to your name. Its called the MyColourCup, check it out at http://www.mycolourcup.com.
Shelly
Bwahahaha! Awesome! I'm totally doing this. I could not think of a clever way to do it, but had thought of initialed coasters.
Well done, lady. Well done.
Excellent idea!
I made this for our family of 6…it actually gets used and I get TONS of compliments! Thanks for the idea!
My kids are grown and out of the house, but what I wouldn't give for hubby to use just one glass. This is a great idea though, and it's super cute. I can see using bigger tiles and putting canisters on it.
This is brilliant. We use color coding for our 5 kids but lately it hasn't been at all effective. I think I'll try this. Thanks so much for the great idea!
clipping mask
your idea is great
Thank you so much to give a excellent idea. This is very effective idea.
photo retouching
Did you use a sealant on this, or just several layers of the Mod Podge?