How to Make a Magazine Organizer – for Free*

*Or, near enough as makes no never mind, as Mom used to say.

We have a bit of a magazine problem at our house. Or I suppose, to be more precise, a magazine storage problem. That’s what happens when someone buys every magazine they see with a motorcycle on the front. 😉

Lots of wheels. :D

At any rate, something must be done!

The materials!

You will need:

  • A large, empty cereal box
  • Scissors
  • A ruler or straight-edge
  • A marker, pen, pencil, etc.
  • Tape
  • Wrapping paper

Step 1: Cut off the flaps on top.

Nice and straight.

Step 2: Mark the box from corner to corner on each side (make sure you have the top of the line on the same side on each side).

Wiiiith many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse!

Step 3: Cut down the line, across the short side of the box (at the crease) and up the other line in one piece. You really need the cut-off portion to be in one piece.

Step 4: Flip it over so the top is at the bottom. Use the magazines to measure how far you need to scoot it over so they’ll fit. Tape the pieces together securely (don’t forget the bottom!) all around, inside and out.

See how they go together?

Step 5: Mark around from the bottom of one “V” to the bottom of the “V” on the other side. (Make sure you’re doing this to the piece you taped on, and not the big piece.)

See the line?

Step 6:  Cut across the line.

Ta-da!

And it works! But, if (like me), you object to Kung-fu Panda and packing tape in your decorating, continue:

Step 7: Wrap the magazine holder. (This will require some wrapping-fu.)

Tricky.

(I made a straight cut down from the top to accommodate the weird  angle. ALSO – be sure to tape the wrapping paper down on the inside, ALL the way around. This will help minimize wear and tear as the magazines go in and out.)

Beautiful!

Is it macho? No. Is it elegant? Ummmmm….maybe? No. But it works.

There's another one! Ta-da!

So there you go! See? No power tools, no problem.

6 comments

  1. mom says:

    For those of us that lived through the wild years of crafting in the 60’s and 70’s, even into the 80’s this craft was done using contact paper. Giving the sturdiness of the plastic paper 😉 and the pre-glued nightmare of sticking where you didn’t want it to.

  2. Gabbi says:

    So THAT is how you do this. I always only saw one box and thought that that would make for a pretty flimsy magazine container. Thanks for clearing that up for me. If only we didn’t buy the cheap cereal in the bag…

  3. Mom says:

    We’re about to make some using contact paper to help organize your baby sisters room – though she thinks it’s fine how it is 😀

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