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A word to the wise: Be on the lookout for craft supplies as you’re cleaning out your closets this spring. There’s more to your clutter than meets the eye, and sometime down the road when you’re feeling crafty, you won’t have to leave home to find material.

Lurking in the depths of your closets, cupboards, nooks and crannies are a wealth of fabrics and other materials that, once identified and organized, make great craft supplies and give you a head start on spring cleaning.

Here are some things to look out for as you’re sorting through giveaway piles:

Fabric, fabric, fabric! It starts in your closet: you know you will never wear that loud flower-patterned skirt again. Looking at it today, you believe you must have been possessed by some fashion demon when you bought it. But, with each passing clothing trend comes an emerging home décor trend.

Floral patterns and stripes are in when you’re talking pillows, not so much when you’re talking pants. Large clothing items, like dresses and skirts, often provide enough fabric to make a pillowcase or seat cushion. Flip through a new home décor magazine and look through your own junk pile for a few fabric treasures! You could even try your hand at decoupage. You can turn an old table or stool into a beautiful piece by using fabric and a little creative vision to decoupage them. There are some great fabric hardeners which can turn the piece into a work of art!

Dishes and glasses: Give your tableware a second life. Colorful dishes make fantastic wall art, and if they aren’t colorful already, you can make them colorful with glass paint available at your local craft store (okay, so maybe you won’t be able to completely stock your craft bin from your closets, but they’re a good start!)

Glasses make great vases, pen holders and bathroom accessories for cotton balls or toothbrushes. Jazz them up with a ribbon and your hot glue gun, and you can banish the plastic cotton-ball bag for good! They also will make great hostess and birthday gifts!

Picture frames: So what if your old frames don’t match your new living room theme? That’s why they invented spray paint! Visit your local hardware store for a can of spray paint and transform your dinged-up or irregular frames into perfect accents. Be sure to remove the glass before you paint. If you can’t remove the glass, use newspaper and tape to cover it before you spray. Let them dry thoroughly before you hang them! Add a picture of the kids, and grandma will be thrilled!

Old shoes: Believe it or not, shoes make great flower pots. Be selective, though. If you hate the way the shoes look as shoes, you’ll hate them as flower pots, too. Fabric shoes are best for this.

Old greeting cards: How long should you keep a holiday card from someone you know at work? We’re no etiquette experts, but we do support exploring the beauty of recycling. The fronts of Christmas cards (that are blank on the back) will make fantastic gift tags for next year. Or, you can attach a tiny bow and make a whole new card out of it. Send it in a handmade envelope for a special touch.

Leftover wallpaper: If you still love it, use leftover wallpaper to cover matte frames, creating instant wall art. Simply secure the paper to the matte with a staple gun. Please don’t hang them on the same wall as the wall paper covered! You can hang them within a reasonable distance of the wallpapered room to connect rooms visually. Leftover wall paper makes great wrapping paper, too.

Boxes: Depending on what they were used for, boxes offer a lot of crafting potential. Shoe boxes can be covered in fabric or leftover wallpaper and used as a desk organizer for bills or as a pretty storage box for photos.

Before you rent a moving company to haul away all the “junk” that has over-wintered in your home, take some time to go through your closets and other areas destined for cleaning, scouring for opportunities to reinvent, recreate and recycle. Almost everything can have a second purpose, and when you’re feeling creative, there is no limit to what you can do with "trash."

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