The clever $6 Kmart hack for storing your Coles Little Shop collectables.

The dust is finally settling on the Coles Little Shop phenomenon, but in its place, people are starting to come up with ideas on how to re-use their tiny, not-so-environmentally-friendly plastic collections.

Little Shop – the Coles promotion of mini plastic goods that has taken the country by storm – will end soon, and, accordingly, interest is beginning to wane; but one mum has the ultimate hack for that.

Alannah Koch, a mum from Melbourne, has used $6 magnetic tape from Kmart to turn her collection into fridge magnets.

Speaking to Mamamia, Alannah explained that she’s only been collecting the mini items for seven weeks, not realising the craze around them.

“At first we had no idea what they were but found one in our shopping bag when we got home, opened it up and it was a mini Nutella and it was so cute so over the following days and weeks we really got to know what it was all about and were hooked!”

 

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Creative Fridays✌???? So we’ve been getting our creative hats on around the house and turning our left over @coleslittleshop collectables into Magnets for the fridge! With this super easy $6 magnet tape from @kmartaus it’s Sooo easy! The tape is adhesive like normal tape and you just use the cutter on the end to the length you want, then stick it on.. it’s that simple! They look super cute, it’s a fun little activity to do at home and you don’t have to feel bad thinking you’d have to throw them out. _____________________________________________________________ What’s everyone else doing with theirs? #kmart #coleslittleshop #creative #creativefriday #creativedaily #repurpose #reuse #recycle #activities #activitiesforkids #activity #mumlife #motherhoodthroughinstagram #friday #fridaymood #sahmlife #sahm #raisingkids #kidscrafts #mummy #secondhand #magnet #creativity #parenthood #parentlife #parenting #getcreative #motherhoodunplugged #reality #instamum

A post shared by Alannah???? (@new.mummy.life) on Aug 31, 2018 at 1:02am PDT

Alannah began collecting the items in earnest, and it took her just three weeks to get a full collection. She found quickly that her sixteen-month-old son Oakland loved to play with them.

“I’ve just got to watch him as he’s only sixteen-months-old so to him everything is edible,” she laughs.

After some intense collecting, Alannah found herself with some spare items.

“I wanted to do something creative with them as they are so cute I didn’t want to throw them away or waste them,”she explains. But then, inspiration struck.

“I was browsing the Kmart website one day and saw they sold magnetic tape which works exactly like normal tape except it’s a magnet.

“I started sticking it on the backs [of the minis] to make them into magnets, so when Oakland is older he can have them as his magnets for his drawings on his part of the fridge.”

Alannah adds that way, “They will not just be stuck in a collectors case and eventually put in the cupboard but they’ll be on our fridge for a very long time!”

She reports that Oakland is very happy with the new arrangement.

“He loves them on the fridge, pulling them off and throwing them on the floor mostly at this age!”

Hoping that her son will use them for imaginative play when he’s older, Alannah says she also collected the mini trolley and basket.

It’s an inspired idea for upcycling the collection, if the novelty of tiny plastic Nutella and Vegemite jars has worn off in your home.

But if you’re looking for another constructive use, you could consider donating them to a charity such as Distinctive Options, who recently called for the collectables to be donated to them, to help their clients identify the goods they want in the supermarket.