Want to get organized but don’t have a small fortune to spend on containers? You’re in luck! You have some free and fabulous organizers right in your kitchen: your cereal boxes! Read on to discover how you can make DIY organizers out of cereal boxes for every room in the house.
If you’re like most families, you go through boxes of cereal pretty regularly. Save up those empty boxes and use them to help organize your home and office. Whether you’re trying to organize on a budget, or looking for clever ways to reduce waste, reuse boxes, or recycle cardboard, we have some great DIY projects you can make out of basic cereal boxes–that won’t break the bank!
You’ll be amazed at what you can make with an ordinary cereal box. With a little tape, glue, paper, and fabric, you can turn a free cardboard box into a beautiful organizer for your home or office. Read on for some fun and functional ideas to get you started.
Cheap & Easy DIY Organizers out of Cereal Boxes
Try one of these ideas to transform an ordinary cereal box into something useful for your space:
1. DIY a Box to Capture All Your Loose Papers
Are you tired of all the paper clutter taking over your kitchen counters, drawers, or cabinets? It doesn’t get any easier than this simple DIY idea to get those papers in order. Make a magnetic paper bin for your fridge to hold your kids’ artwork, important numbers, menus, or anything else you need to keep handy in the kitchen. You can use many different-sized cereal boxes, and easily cut them into the perfect shape to coral all those loose papers.
2. Organize and Store Your Magazines
Sometimes you want to keep the magazines you pick up to reference a recipe or an article. But it can be hard to find the one you want in a stack of past issues. Don’t go out and spend money on a plastic magazine holder. Create a gorgeous upcycled magazine box instead of out of an empty cereal box, craft paper, and black felt. Great way to eliminate those stacks of magazines on your tables!
3. Say Goodbye to Messy Drawers!
Once you’ve purged and organized your junk drawer, dress up some empty cereal boxes and give them new life as decorated drawer organizers. This simple hack gives step-by-step directions for taking different-sized boxes and making cute no-cost dividers so that you can find everything you need quickly and easily.
4. Inexpensive Washi Tape Gives New Life to Boxes
These washi tape cereal box organizers could be useful both at home or at the office. Without a desk organizer, my desk quickly becomes a mess of papers, notebooks, pens, and post-its. This DIY desk organizer helped me clean off my desk and create a usable workspace. With the side-by-side organizer, I have places to sort my files and it’s all neatly organized. Bonus: The washi tape helps reinforce the boxes, so they’re stronger than organizers that use scrapbook paper.
5. Create a Cereal Box Organizer to Sort and Handle Mail
Make this super inexpensive (yet versatile) cereal box mailbox to keep incoming or outgoing mail all in one place, until it’s ready to be sorted. Set it on an entryway table, a desk, or hang it on a wall to avoid that dreaded clutter.
- large cereal box
- ruler
- pencil
- scissors
- painter’s tape
- permanent spray adhesive
- scrapbook paper
- precision knife
- decoupage glue and brush (optional)
- washi tape
- self-adhesive letters
6. Use Small Cereal Boxes for Organizing Small Items
Don’t forget you can use mini cereal boxes to create organizers with, too. They are the perfect size to sort and store pens, pencils, scissors, crayons, and other office supplies–especially if you don’t have a lot of space to work with!
7. Create a Whole Storage Container with Different Size Boxes
This is a more complex DIY project, but worth the extra effort to create a beautiful and functional drawer unit. It’s really amazing what kind of cereal box organizers you can create!
It may take some effort to find a combination of boxes that work to make this project, but a cereal box, plus some smaller tea boxes (or anything you have on hand) can be made into a beautiful drawer for jewelry or mementos.
8. Clean Up Your Cluttered Purse
Give yourself an afternoon to get your own purse, bag, briefcase, or tote in order! Can you believe that this super practical, super pretty purse organizer is made from a cereal box?! I love that you can custom make all the pockets to fit exactly the things you always carry in your purse. It’s perfect for you if you like to change purses frequently–you just lift out the organizer, and move it to the new bag you want to carry!
9. Make A Cute Organizer for All Your Letter-Writing Supplies
I’ve tried to create a new habit of writing letters and sending out cards for every occasion–and I’ve even found a new pen pal. When I sit down to write cards or letters to send to friends, I hate having to keep getting up to retrieve things I’ve forgotten. Stamps, my address book, or matching envelopes–UGH! If you are like me, you can keep all your letter writing tools in this neat and tidy stationery organizer made from cereal boxes. The flower embellishment on the front is a cute touch, isn’t it?
10. Clever Idea to Store Your Makeup
Raise your hand if you have a small bathroom and lots of makeup. When you have a tiny space, and a small budget, use this trick to help. All you have to do is cut and stick decorative contact paper onto a cut-up cereal box and bam, you have a brand new organizer for all your lipsticks and brushes.
11. Stash Your Pens and Markers in Colorful Boxes
If you are a pen and marker junky like me, you may want to find a more convenient and stylish way to display them. Pretty duct tape plus a cereal box equals a cute and cheap way to stash your office supplies and keep them handy. That way you can buy more pens!
You can get duct tape in all different colors and patterns to match your space. This ideas is handy for teachers or crafters, too!
12. Organize Your Spices or Your Pantry
I have a ton of different spices that I like to cook with, but I used to have them crammed in a cabinet or drawer. When I wanted to pull one out to season a dish, I had a super hard time finding what I wanted. Try this creative and easy way to keep your most-used spices together and easier to reach in a pinch by making a small bin out of a cereal box bottom. Then, slide it in a cabinet for each access–no more rummaging around to find the one thing you need that’s been shoved to the back. In fact, organize your entire pantry with cereal boxes! You can make them pretty if you want, but it’s not necessary if they’re hidden out of sight.
13. Sort Your Tupperware Lids in Cereal Box Organizers
Don’t you hate it when you want to put leftovers away, but you can’t find the right lid to match the bottom? Sort and store your Tupperware lids in cereal box organizers so you can find them more quickly in your cabinets or drawers.
14. Creative Storage for Children’s Storybooks
Children’s books are so thin and flimsy that it’s hard to keep them upright and organized on a regular bookshelf. Make a book organizer for them, instead, to make life easier. This is a great way to display your most loved books, or to rotate different books from a bookcase, into regular reading. Make a different bin for each kid, or organize books by reading level. You can make as many cereal box organizers as you need, without spending more money!
This is a GREAT hack for teachers!!!
15. Make Cute Wall Files from Cereal Boxes for Next to Nothing
All it takes is just 10 minutes to make these hanging wall files out of empty cereal boxes, to put up in your mudroom or entryway. Make and hang them up to remind you to grab important papers when you’re heading out the door. What a difference it can make in your home! Not only are they handy if you have kids, but they are also super cute, too! And, you can make them for almost nothing while using some of those cereal boxes you have lying around.
Discover MORE Ways to Repurpose Items to Organize Your Home
Creating organizers with cereal boxes is a great way to upcycle something you normally throw away, and it helps you save money, too! It’s amazing how many different ways there are to organize with cereal boxes.
Just look around to see what else in your home can be repurposed and upcycled. Check out these other money-saving ideas to organize your home with items you can reuse:
- 16 Creative Ways To Organize With Pegboards
- 15 Brilliant Uses For Your Old, Recycled Towels
- Recycle and Repurpose TP Tubes
- 17 Useful Ways to Repurpose Your Cookie Sheet
Which cereal box DIY organizer ideas have you tried? How did it turn out?
0