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Organizing school supplies so they’re easier to find and use, with a handmade tabletop organizer.
Our basket full of shared school supplies was a jumbled mess. Each child has their own school supplies which they keep in their school bags, but we also have some shared supplies that everyone uses, such as the markers, special colored pencils, and craft scissors.
Organizing School Supplies
I came across an idea on several websites for making a tabletop organizer using a wooden turntable. It looked so easy and cute that I decided to make one!
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Supplies Needed:
- wooden turntable
- metal pails (6 fit nicely on my turntable, but it depends on size)
- glue gun and glue
- button magnets
How to Make It:
1. First, decide on the placement of all the metal buckets:
I just tried to space them as evenly apart as possible, with 5 on the outside and 1 in the center.
2. Use a pencil to mark where each magnet should be glued down:
3. Use the hot glue gun to glue down the magnets.
The metal pails just rest right on top of these, and the magnets hold them down.
4. Fill up the buckets and admire the beautiful, orderly, colorful sight!
I just love the way this turned out, and it was such a simple project!
My children felt very loved when I gave this to them.
Seriously, they were so excited! They kept saying how much they loved it, and my youngest daughter started sharpening pencils right away. And my older daughter started drawing and coloring and exclaiming over the markers.
I made this a couple of months ago, and it’s still working well for us. When we’re not using it, the whole thing is stored in the pie safe that sits next to the kitchen table, where we do most of our schoolwork and all of our art projects.
What a simple and satisfying solution to the jumbled mess we had before!
Favorite Art Supplies:
Here are a few of our favorite supplies to keep in our organizer.
- Lyra Groove Colored Pencils
- Lyra Waldorf Selection Giant Triangular Colored Pencils
- Prismacolor Colored Pencils
- Ticonderoga Pencils
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Related Post: Organizing School Books
This is very inspiring- we have two plastic boxes, about shoebox size, one for pencils, one for rulers, and the like They are a mess! Thank you for sharing this idea 🙂
So glad it was helpful! 🙂
Love it! What a great idea. I have some containers of pens and pencils, but that is a wonderful stand to use.
Thanks for stopping by, Dawn!
Wow, that's a fabulous idea and so appealing for the kids! I love that you store it in a pie safe.
Thank you, Dianna!
I did something like this awhile back, what a life-saver!
Since we don't have a table to leave a lazy susan out all the time with our supplies, I made something similar to works great for us!
I bought a cleaning supplies carrier for a few bucks at Target and put some plastic cups all inside it. I then filled the cups with our markers, scissors, colored pencils, etc in it. Now, our supplies are easy to carry from shelf to table and the cups can be removed to use particular supplies. It's fabulous!
I love organizing supplies!
Ginny, I LOVE your idea for using the cleaning supplies carrier! That would be very convenient and easy to store, and probably cheaper, too. Thanks so much for sharing!
Hi! Found this on Far Above Rubies Blog Hop. Love this! My daughter is only 20 months old, but she has a slew of crayons and I myself collect pens and different color sharpies, so I could use something like this. Now following you via FB.
~Jackie @ The Non-Martha Momma
Thanks so much for stopping by and following, Jacquelyn! Yes, this would work well for any kind of art/office supplies, and even for moms!
I need to do this! Great ideas.
Thanks, Nita!
Can I ask where you found the little metal pails?
Kelly
I found them at Walmart! And they were cheap. I think they were in the section that has some floral arrangement things. But I've also seen similar pails at Target and other places. But I liked the look of the plain metal ones.
I LOVE this idea!! I am SO not an organized person and I just love reading the skills and talents and imagination of others. I'm going to try this one! Coming over from Far Above Rubies link-up.
Thanks, Kate! It's super easy to make. Thanks for stopping by!
I love the idea. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Thank you!
Looks great. I did something similar last week using Plastic jam jars. 🙂
Thanks, Abbie! Plastic jam jars sound like a great idea, too. 🙂