Office Drawer Organizing DIY


Office drawer organizing. A DIY project using old boxes. Free, easy and so pretty to look at!

 

Ready for a bit more organizing in 2015? Want to sneak a peak into my drawers?

Well today is the day for you. I have been on an organizing kick ever since Donna inspired  me to think about heaps of change.

I have a few projects in the works, but todays one is all finished and making me so very proud.

So get ready for my Heap of Change

 

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In my first Heap of Change post I showed you how I created more storage space under the sloped roof of my attic landing. It has been working great.

Today we are moving into my craft room itself. My office nook to be precise.

 

Home office in craft room via Songbirdblog

 

In this old image it looks nice and neat. And on a good day it almost looks like this again.

(For a full reveal of my craft room go here).

One thing that has changed is that I moved that small drawer cabinet out into the landing into my drawer puzzle there. I replaced it with an Ikea Alex 6 drawer unit.

It looks quite nice when it is all closed up.


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But when you opened it up, it was a mess….

 

Office drawer organizing. A DIY project using old boxes. Free, easy and so pretty to look at!

 

I had just tossed everything and anything into those drawers, and I could never find a thing.

But now it is completely organized, looking nice and I can find everything and anything at a moments notice.

And it was even fun to do…..

My starting point was this inspiration post by Organizing Queen Extra-ordinaire Jen from I Heart Organizing. She shows us how to create drawer dividers made from cereal boxes and the likes. I rummaged through my kitchen drawers and gathered up boxes from left and right that might work.

 

Office drawer organizing. A DIY project using old boxes. Free, easy and so pretty to look at!

 

I did a dry run until I had a good fit.

A silly design error from these Ikea drawers is that they don’t open up fully, so the back is harder to reach. I solved that by using a bigger box in the back (actually the bottom and top of an old IPad box).

In days galore I had a thing for pink. So I still had a lot of rolls of pink gift wrap. I used that to cover the boxes. It makes opening up the drawers so fun and cheerful.

Makes doing taxes almost fun…..

 

Office drawer organizing. A DIY project using old boxes. Free, easy and so pretty to look at!

 

I organized the content by function (more or less). The top one is for my true office supplies.

 

Office drawer organizing. A DIY project using old boxes. Free, easy and so pretty to look at!

 

There is a place for everything and everything is in its place….

 

Office drawer organizing. A DIY project using old boxes. Free, easy and so pretty to look at!

 

I love that smaller boxes for paperclips etc cannot topple over because they are snuggled together in their own box.

The second drawer is for paper stuff.

 

Office drawer organizing. A DIY project using old boxes. Free, easy and so pretty to look at!

 

All my little bags and labels have a place now. As well as both my label makers. I actually had so much space in this drawer that I wen’t through various other cabinets to hunt down little bags and labels to bring them all together. I could never do that before.

In the bottom drawer I have a small supply of tools, that come in handy from time to time when working on bigger crafts. So nice not to have to go down from the attic into the cellar to get a screw driver….

 

Office drawer organizing. A DIY project using old boxes. Free, easy and so pretty to look at!

 

You can use Jen’s tutorial to see how to make the paper covered dividers.

I just want to add a few tips of my own:

 

Go for various sizes boxes, big small, narrow and wide, that way you will have a perfect fit for everything.

When cutting the boxes to size think about using them sideways too. And often you can use both ends.

Fill up every bit of space. For example I used a lightbulb box to fill up one open spot. It is very small, but turned out the perfect size for my label maker cartridges. When all the empty space is used up, the boxes will have no room to shift and move.

You can shorten boxes by cutting them in halves and sliding the halves into each other, that way you can fill up that last empty slot too.

Jen suggests using double sided tape to glue the paper down. But I found a glue stick to work much faster and much easier. It also is more forgiving for making adjustments.

When cutting your paper, cut it rather a bit too small. That will make fitting it inside so much easier.

Don’t fret and don’t be a perfectionist. These are inside drawer organizers that will be filled up. Any missed spots or creases are hardly noticeable when the boxes are in use.

 

And then go for it and you will have a before and after like this too:

 

Office drawer organizing. A DIY project using old boxes. Free, easy and so pretty to look at!

 

So much storage and clean space created…..

… all from a bit of office drawer organizing……

 

Office drawer organizing. A DIY project using old boxes. Free, easy and so pretty to look at!

 

Ah, I love a good bit of organization.

How about you?

 

 

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Ready for more inspiration than check out the work of my other Heap of Change Coaches.

 

New winter mantel at Funky Junk Interiors

 

A Closet that now works at Beyond the Picket Fence

 

A (no longer) dirty secret at Knick of Time

 

And you can show us yours too! And we will come over and be inspired and share our favorite projects in Social Media Land.

Donna explained it all in her Heap of Change Challenge post, so if you are stumped for what to do go there and read all about it.

You can share your project (and remember it can be a whole room makeover or something as simple as an organized drawer) either with the Link up party below (that is running on all our blogs), or if you are not a blogger you can share it at our Facebook Pages too. Just leave me a message with the deeds on my page Songbird.

 

Show us yours!

 


 

Songbird | Website | + posts

Marianne Songbird is the founder of Songbird, where she hopes to inspire everyone to create a home they love, one DIY project at a time. She shares anything from craft ideas to home decor inspiration and from DIY projects to decorating hacks. Originally from the Netherlands Marianne and her husband Lex are currently renovating a 250-year-old farmhouse in Germany.

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6 Comments

  1. Your storage is so colorful and works so well. There’s no question about where things should go. Good for you! I’ll be posting my Cheap of Change Challenge later this evening.

  2. SOOOO gorgeous! I am HUGELY inspired!

    I had my son try and dump out our junk drawer to organize and he heaped it all back in the same way it came out… because there was nothing to keep it intact otherwise! haha

    I do believe cereal boxes may be in our future on this one… genius!

  3. I love how your drawer re-organization turned out. Such fun and inspiring colors!

  4. I have been looking to corral my craft supplies since I’ve crossed over to the colourful, diy side but could not for the life of me figure out how to use what I have to do so. I have a spare dresser near the area I want to use as my craft station that only has 2/6 drawers being used (for tools). Just the thought of turning those other 4 drawers into craft storage for FREE (my favourite word) is making me giddy with excitement! Thanks for sharing this!

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