Thursday, August 20, 2009

DIY dishwasher indicator

james and i have been having some issues lately with trying to remember/communicate whether the dishwasher is currently loaded with clean dishes or dirty dishes. since the dishwasher is magnetic, i decided a magnet indicator was in order.

i decided also to show you how to make one for yourself! this only took me about 20 minutes (takes me longer when i photograph); it would be a great project to do with kids and to personalize as you like!

1) choose an unused magnet off the fridge (reuse!)

this one looks good (it's my high school hotline number...i graduated quite some time ago and live about 5 states away...perfect!)
2) gather your supplies: mod podge, sponge-brush (sorry it has paint residue on it), scissors/paper cutting tools, brownish paper, white paper (plus stamps and pads, we'll see these later)
3) cut white paper to proper width. you'll only be covering half of the magnet with each color.
4) glue the white paper to the magnet.

5) repeat the cutting and gluing with the brown paper.


this is what you should get:
6) here's where you can really personalize it. i got out the stamps! i wanted to keep it sweet and simple, so i used my lil' letter stamps:


7) stamp "CLEAN" on the white side of the magnet:
8) stamp "DIRTY" on the brown side, upside-down from the word "CLEAN". that way when you have clean dishes in the dishwasher, you face the "CLEAN" side of magnet up (so it can be read), or visa-versa when the dishes are dirty.
you should now have this:
you can really do anything on either side! a little picture of stacked dishes versus dirty dishes would be cute, use your imagination!

here's mine in action:
shoot - now i have to unload the dishwasher...

♥E

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