Organization Station

This is more of a Back to School tip rather than a huge DIY. The kids brought home so many projects, permission slips, book orders, fundraisers, you name it - we were swimming in paper and needed to get organized! While shopping at WalMart I came across a cardboard divided Banker's box and decided to grab that for organization - except, as you'll see here, I took it one step further and customized it to work for my family. The best part? At the end of the year, I can recycle the box if it's worn out, and save the letters for a cute wall hanging for the kids room!

You Will Need:

* 2 Wooden Plaques

* 2 Letters for Initials (or I for incoming, O for outgoing if you want to use for mail/files)

* Paint in your choosing

* Glue

* Divided Banker's Box

Step One:

Paint the plaques, I asked each kiddo what their favorite two colors were, Boose said pink and orange, Bubby said red and blue.

Step Two:

Paint the letters, use the alternate color that you didn't use in the first step - or go for a very tonal look and paint it the same color. Make sure you paint the sides of the letters as well.

Step Three:

Glue the letter to the plaque. I used low heat hot glue, but you can use whatever you prefer.

Step Four:

Assemble your Banker's Box (no picture for this), and poke two long pins with large decorative heads in the center as shown.

Step Five:

Hang your letters from the pin heads, and now you have a divided, organized area for storing the kids school papers. These boxes hold a lot but you'll probably need to de-clutter them every month or two. And yes, these boxes are meant to sit so that you can use them almost like shelves, but the space I have for them works much better as a drop in organizer.

Final Verdict? I don't have tons of school papers flying everywhere with the chance that I'll lose them, so in my opinion, a great semi DIY, Back to School tip for staying organized!

Kid Friendly? Yes, the kids can paint their own plaques and you can use this as a way to introduce organization to them - anything new must be filed in their proper slots once they get home from school.