Pinterest Challenge: Magnetic Refrigerator Organizer

Last week, John and Sherry, and Katie Bower announced the winter edition of their Pinterest Challenge! I've been waiting a long time for this moment because I've always wanted to join in on the fun but couldn't until now because I didn't start this little ole blog until last October. Let's just say I'm psyched to be part of this edition.

The Pinterest Challenge is really simple. Basically, you find something on Pinterest (or pin it yourself from another site) and use it as inspiration to do your own thang. It can be anything you want. The only real rule is to link back to the original pin and site. You know, to share the link love. 

With Operation {Re}Organization in full swing, I knew this project would involve organizing something (duh, right?). One big, glaring need we have is something to help corral our paper clutter. I decided that since we pretty much walk into our kitchen from the front door of our apartment, I'd use that space as a paper drop zone. To avoid just throwing it on the counter, I knew I'd need some kind of storage. Preferably vertical, on-the-wall kind of storage. 

The "aha moment" and solution came when I was shopping my new favorite thrift store last week. I was perusing the aisles, not looking for anything in particular, and BOOM. I came across the perfect item to make my paper drop zone: a magnetic fridge organizer! I had recently pinned a couple of images relating to vertical paper storage and magnetic containers for the fridge so this was a perfect find!

Here's what my "pinspiration" looked like:

{Martha Stewart via Chaney Widmer on Pinterest}

{Noodlehead via Cindy Battle on Pinterest}

And here's what the fridge organizer looks like:

Oh yeah. Awesome. It has a little wear and tear around the edges, but for $3.63 (such a random price), I snatched it up. It looks like a part of the Real Simple organizing collection. Can anyone confirm that? And is it a little crazy that I would recognize that without any tags?

I stuck it up on the fridge when I got home, just to make sure I liked it.

I do. :)

So I decided to customize it a little bit and make it functional as our paper clutter corraller (not sure that's a word?) by adding label tags and a pad of paper.

It has some great organizing features including two large pockets, a pen holder, a handy-dandy list-holder, and a small pocket. I'm not sure what the little elastic band is for on the bottom right, but I like the little bit of color it adds.

I made the tags to designate a purpose for each pocket (inbox, coupons, grocery list) and paper-clipped them onto their respective pockets. Paper-clipping them makes it easy to change them out if I decide to use the pockets for something else in the future. You can see them better in the close-up shots below:

And since we all love a tutorial, I made one for these tags. These took me a grand total of 15 minutes since I had all the supplies on hand.

Supplies needed:

• Cardstock (I used blank notecards)
• Alphabet stamps
• Ink pad
• Washi tape
• Scissors/paper trimmer

I used this set of alphabet stamps (found at the same thrift shop as the organizer):

Grab a 4x6 blank notecard and stamp out your word/phrase - "grocery list" in this case. I placed my words about 1" down from the top of the notecard to allow room to add the washi tape.

Add a length of washi tape along the top edge of the notecard that is slightly longer than the width of the card. See the extra length on either side of the card?

Fold the edges of the washi tape to the backside of the card. This gives a nice, clean edge to the tape and secures it well to the card.

Trim the notecard down to size. I used a paper trimmer to give the tags a straight edge, but scissors work just as well. You'll end up with tags like this:

Then just stick 'em onto the appropriate pockets and you're done!

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Don't forget to visit the lovely Pinterest Challenge hosts and check out their projects too!

John and Sherry from Young House Love

Katie from Bower Power

Michelle from Decor and the Dog

Megan from The Remodeled Life

Also linking up to:

Creative Crafts Thursday

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This post is a part of the series "Operation {Re}Organization." To see other posts in the series, click the tab at the top of the page.