Easy and cheap DIY fridge coaster

Last week, I saw a project on Pinterest that I had to try: DIY fridge coasters (the original project done by It’s Organized Chaos).

Naturally, the first place I thought to get plastic placemats from was IKEA.  They are always adorable and they only cost $3 for 4 placemats.  I picked up 2 four packs of complimenting patterns.

You could easily cover all of the shelves in your refrigerator with these placemats turned coasters, but I was mostly concerned with the door bins.  We purchased our fridge new less than two years ago, but the bins are already really scratched up from the containers that sit in them.  Once they are scratched, spilled liquids settle in the grooves and stain.  Ugly, and hard to clean.

Here is one way to turn placemats into fridge coasters:

First flip over your bin.  If your plastic placemats are see-through as mine were, place one on top of the up-side-down bin.  (If your placemats are opaque, you’ll need to use tracing paper to make a template.)

Trace the outline of your bin onto the placemat.

Cut out along your outline.  Test fit your new bin coaster.  Mine took lots of additional trimming to get it to fit just right, but once it fits (assuming all of your bins are the same size), you can use the finished coaster as a template for the rest.

Trace the pattern from the finished coaster onto a fresh placemat.  To save time, I used binder clips to hold two placemats together so I would only cut once and have two more coasters.  It is harder to cut through, but it was worth it for me.  Be sure to use binder clips if you try two at once though, as the placemats really like to slide around.

And here is the finished product in action:

No more new scratches!  And if something dribbles, we only have to clean the coaster, not take out the whole bin.

To cover the 6 bins in my fridge, it only took 3 placemats.  I paid $6, but I have 5 placemats left to do other projects with, or I suppose I could actually use them as placemats.