In the great garage clean out of '18, I (Vicki) let go of many ordinary and sentimental items, as well as a lot of junk! Once the dust cleared, I was still hanging onto an ordinary well-worn file cabinet. I just couldn't toss the cabinet which I saw as a reminder of the time my RVing parents made my home and garage their home base.

My dad set up a little workshop in the corner of the garage (that is now the storage space) and that little file cabinet was part of his set-up. The cabinet was a reminder of how much time I got to spend with them before they retired from RVing and moved into a house in south Florida. My dad moved almost all of his workshop stuff into the garage in his new home. The little cabinet was left behind.

Steph came up with a perfect idea on how I could keep part of the cabinet as a memento and trash the rest. Read on to see how we made a little art piece out of part of the cabinet.

Step 1: Watch the Video

Step 2: Deconstruct

Using a reciprocating saw, fitted with a metal cutting blade, we removed the front of one of the drawers. We like this Makita compact saw as it is lighter in weight and gets into tight spaces.

Step 3: Clean Up the Sharp Edges

Cutting the front left a lot of sharp edges. We cut off the rough edges with a multi-tool and hammered down other edges.

Step 4: Clean Up the Front

We used WD-40 with a green Scotch Brite pad. The rust around the little label holder cleaned up exceptionally well. The sticker remained as that is the part I really wanted to keep!

Step 5: Style It

We made a little label for the holder which is actually the name and registration number of a plane he used to fly. We added pictures of him in my garage as well as in his new space. We are using the tiniest wrenches we could find to use as magnets.

Step 6: Hang It Up

I love that we were able to trash the file cabinet but save this part. It's now a true "trash to treasure!" It now hangs in my garage as a reminder of the time my dad had his little space in my garage. That's my dad in the picture in his little workspace in his garage.

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