DIY Desk Organizer

This shop has been compensated by Inmar Intelligence and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #PilotforSchool

School is fast approaching, whether that is your child attending classes in person or remote learning at home. Either way, keeping school supplies organized for homework or all the classwork is essential. I created a simple DIY Desk Organizer for each of the kids using cereal boxes and duct tape.

Custom Desktop Organizer

We are opting to start the school year online instead of at school like we normally do. This means we have more school supplies at home and an even greater need to keep our desktop areas organized and ready for school each day.

The best part of back to school is back to school shopping. There’s something fun about buying new school supplies to start off the school year. This year we won’t be organizing the supplies in new backpacks but instead in our new school supply box caddy.

Back To School Supplies

At the top of our back to school supply list are G2 Gel Ink Pens and FriXion Clicker Erasable Gel Pens by Pilot Pen. Whether you’re taking notes, stocking up on school or office supplies or writing in a bullet journal, Pilot has the perfect pen for you.

Click the image below to add them directly to your cart.

G2 is the #1 selling gel ink pen in America. G2 has smooth writing gel ink which I love. It is the ideal pen for overachievers and supports the local community with a $100,000 G2 Overachievers grant and a $15,000 G2 Overachievers Student Grant.

The #1 selling erasable pen brand is FriXion. This makes sense because there is no wear or tear thanks to the unique, thermo-sensitive ink formula. So you can erase and rewrite until it’s right without ruining the page. My boys love using pens but when doing school work, erasing is important to correct any mistakes.

I often do grocery order pick up from Walmart because I love ordering from home and having my order loaded into my trunk for me. I almost went that route but instead purchased them online with free delivery right to my house.

School Supply Box

With a wide array of fun pens and other school supplies to organize, I knew I needed a simple but effective way to keep things separated and sorted. Rather than buy an office organizer which can get rather pricey, especially for two kids, I opted to create a simple DIY desk organizer from empty cereal and cracker boxes, customized and decorated with my favorite craft supply, duct tape!

DIY Desktop Organizer Supplies

• Empty cardboard food boxes
• Cardboard toilet paper rolls
• Duct tape

The first step in making your desktop organizer is gathering your materials. I used three different sized cardboard boxes to create my design. Start by cutting down each box to fit the supplies you want to store in it. You want the box to be an inch or two shorter than the supplies.

How To Make a DIY Desk Organizer

Stack the cut boxes together by size, centering them together. Use a strip of duct tape on the bottom to hold them together. Now you’re ready to start adding strips of duct tape around the organizer starting at the bottom.

We chose to alternate different colors of duct tape for our design. My boys chose their favorite colors from my duct tape stash. I was a little sad no one chose tie dye or Halloween themed duct tape. 😉

Keep adding strips of duct tape until the entire thing is covered. You can adjust the duct tape somewhat if necessary, as long as you don’t press down too hard when you first put it on. Use a ruler to smooth the duct tape in place and into the corners.

Keep adding duct tape until the entire thing is covered. Keep the strips level or at slight angles depending upon your desired design. If necessary, add additional strips of duct tape to the back of the craft to finish the look.

Now cut the cardboard rolls until they are slightly shorter than the smallest box. How many you fit in will depend upon your box size. These will help keep pens, pencils and markers organized and upright in your desk organizer.

I took the desk organizer design a step further and added my son’s name to it. For this extra detail I used my die-cutting machine to cut their names out. I recommend using parchment paper when cutting designs out of duct tape. Check out my how to cut duct tape post for tips and tricks if you’d like to add this detail to your organizer too.

I sized our school supply organizers to fit pens and pencils in the front compartment, composition books in the middle compartment, and folders and notebooks in the back compartment.