I’m not a hoarder of all things; I don’t like to have a lot of possessions, but I do tend to hoard notebooks and sketchbooks like a madwoman. I know I’ll use them, so if I find good ones on sale I’ll buy them. Before I know it, I have stacks of them all over my desk. No one hates piles of stuff more than I do. That’s when I decided I needed a desk organizer.

I thought about buying one, or ten, but thought, I can make that myself. If I can upcycle something to make it, that’s even better!

I started digging for cereal boxes and found one that would fit (size wise) most of my notebooks. Perfect.

If you want to make one, you can follow along with my tutorial below. You don’t need much and it doesn’t take long.

DIY Desk Organizer Materials

• scissors
• weights*
• cereal box
• Duck Tape
• Hot melt glue and gun

*Weights are optional.

Step 1: cut the cereal box

Cut the cereal box at an angle like in the image above. This is going to serve as the base for your organizer.

Step 2 (optional): add weight

You don’t have to add weights if you don’t want to. I was worried about the notebooks being too heavy and causing the organizer to tip over.

I used small tiles, but you can use whatever you want.

Step 3: Duck Tape

Layer the Duck Tape onto the cereal box. Start with the solid color and then add the designer tape. Keep going until the box is covered.

I added tape around the rim as well to polish it off.

When you’re finished, you’re notebooks and papers will have a home and your desk will be organized! For me, that’s a huge sigh of relief.

I’m thinking about making a few more. What do you think? Do you have a favorite Duck Tape design that you might use for this?

I was considering the woodgrain or black and white flower design.