HOW TO MAKE A TIN FOIL HOLDER

Whenever I visit London in December I always seem to come back with an unexpected (and unwanted) Christmas gift.  Three years ago it was Covid, this year it’s a horrible stinking cold.  

Despite looking like Dick Turpin on the 472 to North Greenwich, I left myself open to chance as I wasn’t wearing any gloves so no doubt placed my hands on top of all those bacteria laden, snot laced passenger safety bars that haven’t seen sanitisation since the fall of the Roman Empire.    

TFLu

I guess I should be thankful that it wasn’t anything nastier such as Strep A – there were enough coughing under 5s on said bus to infect the whole of France.  Why don’t people leave their germ ridden little darlings at home when they go shopping?

 

Keep coughing children at home!

As I can just about make out the keyboard amid this pile of snotty tissues then I’m going to leave you all with an extra special Christmas gift (germ free) in the form of this super smashing tip (the other half has expressly forbidden me to use the word ‘hack’) to help you efficiently store all those roles of tin foil in readiness for the great Christmas cook up. 

The inspiration for this super smashing tip came to me in a Woolwich charity shop when I spotted one of these and in that instant had a hallelujah moment. 

Don’t panic – you won’t need to go nuts scouring charity shops to achieve this effective method of storing your spare rolls of foil, cling film or anything else that fits because you can find this very useful little item in IKEA.  It’s called a Skadis storage basket set designed primarily to be used with their holey pegboard but it can also be turned into a kitchen cabinet door hanging organiser.

 

Skadis 3 basket set

Note - This idea only works inside kitchen cupboards where the door is set back from the internal shelves as there needs to be a sufficient gap to accommodate the organiser and still be able to close the cupboard door.  The depth of the Skadis basket is approx. 7 cm so the gap between shelves and doors needs to be of this size or more.

 

Gap needed between shelf and door

To convert your Skadis basket into a hanging cabinet door organiser, firstly you will need to remove the 2 metal hooks on the back.  The other half kindly obliged using a Dremel tool with a disc cutting attachment, slicing the things clean off the back. 

Next work out where to hang your organising basket.  This very much depends on the internal layout of your kitchen cabinet but I found the best way to do this was to consult Mr Gaffer.  Cut a strip of gaffer tape and run this halfway across the back of your unit then literally stick the thing to the inside of the door then close it.  If the door shuts properly then you know you’ve hit pay dirt.  If it doesn’t just keep re-sticking the basket up and down the door until you find the sweet spot.

Whilst the basket is taped to its final position, grab a pointy bradawl tool and carefully make a couple of marker holes in the mesh part of the basket just under the solid white rim.  Screw the basket into place using a couple of small stubby wood screws but remember these must be less than the width of your cabinet door so that they don’t stick out the other side. 

 

Carefully screw into position

Once screwed into position, remove the gaffer tape and hey presto, one tin foil organiser neatly tucked away inside the cupboard door.

 

The perfect place for kitchen rolls

Tucks neatly behind cabinet door

The Skadis basket set costs £8.50 for 3 wire mesh organisers which is a fraction of the price charged by sellers for tin foil/roll holders on Amazon or Ebay which can retail at over a tenner a time.   This super smashing tip will not only save you a couple of quid but you'll also get 2 extra smaller baskets into the bargain.  What’s not to like? 

Cough, cough, snuffle, sniff - Merry Christmas everyone!