Greetings from 10,000 feet! I’m on a flight to LA to visit my sister and my 6-week-old niece. I can’t wait to meet her, but I’m also a bit terrified – this is the longest and farthest I have ever been away from R&B. Luckily, I have picmonkey and in-flight WiFi to keep me distracted. Now seems like a perfect time to share an organization solution I came up with a few days ago.
R&B love puzzles and stacking toys, but each one of these toys comes with half a dozen pieces, and they are never all in the same spot. I started stacking the puzzles on the kitchen table, so I could try to monitor where all the pieces went. This only resulted in me having a pile of toys on my kitchen table. Not exactly easy on the eyes. So I devised this $3 solution.
Sadly – this picture is the organized version of the problem. On a typical day, none of the puzzle pieces would be in the right spot, and the puzzles would be filled with cheerios.
I really wanted a shelf for the puzzles. I have seen wire ones, but I wanted something a bit… cuter. I opted to make my own shelf from an Office Max file box.
My supplies included:
- A cardboard box – I used a file box, but you could easily use a large diaper box.
- Extra cardboard for the shelves
- Clear packing tape
- Duck tape
- Wrapping paper
- X-acto knife
Step 1: line three sides of the box with duck tape.
Step two: line the bottom of the box with wrapping paper.
Build your first shelf. Cut out a piece of cardboard to match the dimensions of your box. Decide the height of your shelf and secure the cardboard with small pieces of packing tape. I used the packing tape first to make sure the shelf was level and where I wanted it to be. When the shelf is in the right position, line the corners with duck tape.
Step Three: line your new shelf with wrapping paper. I bought my paper at Target on the day after Christmas. It was on after-Christmas clearance, but it doesn’t seem very Christmas-ey to me.
Pro-Tip: If you scout the after-Christmas sales, you can find great paper products that can be used year-round!
Repeat: build as many more shelves as you would like.
Wrap it up: cover the outside of your box with wrapping paper, and cover the edges with duck tape.
That’s it… You’re finished! For the cost of a roll of tape and some wrapping paper, you can make just about any organizational shelf you would like. And the best part: since I invested a whopping $3 and 45 minutes into this project, I won’t be too upset then the twins inevitably tear it apart 🙂
LOVE IT!
What a great idea. Thanks for the tip and al inspiration on your blog.