Junk Organization for a Tiny Space

​by Vicki      ​Sign up to get Mother Daughter Projects updates in your email!

​When my kitchen was remodeled there was a tiny 5.5” space left between the cabinets and door to the master bedroom. That little space was just crying out for some kind of embellishment! 

Steph & I made this a while back: the Intentional Junk Drawer. Since then I’ve been wanting a type of intentional junk drawer for my own home as Steph kept the one we made. 

I have a collection of wood boxes from various yard sales that I thought would be perfect to create some vertical storage in the tiny 5.5” space. Once the boxes were sorted by size, I set out to work!

Materials:

• Wood boxes—mine needed to be no wider than 5.5”. Height or depth did not matter.
• Paint
• Glue (I used E6000)
• French Cleat to hang

Accessories:

• Wood frame with piece of flashing cut to size
• Hinged metal boxes—like Altoid tins
• Cup hook
• Small bucket with handle
• Plastic containers
• 2 Matching cigar boxes
• Magnet hooks

How-to Steps:

Lay out boxes in the arrangement that is most functional for your space.

I painted inside and out with chalk paint.

Mount the organizer to the wall with the french cleat. Follow the instructions on the package. This is the most secure way I have found to hang this on the wall.

Glue boxes together. I glued mine with the front edges lined up when I should have made sure the back edges were lined up. I ended up having to add another box to line up with the deepest box so that the arrangement would lay flat against the wall. There is a significant space behind one of the boxes because it is less deep than the one on the bottom and top of it which ended up being a good place to stash my sunglasses. The wood frames hide the other space issues. ​

Tin snips are used to cut a piece of flashing for the frame. Careful, it’s sharp! This is magnetic so perfect for magnets.

This is a cigar box that has a sliding top that I chalk painted. I used a masking technique with a stencil on the top and wiped the entire thing with stain once the masking spray was dry. (I was experimenting with a Rust-oleum automobile spray used for protecting cars from small dings, but looks like has been discontinued, as a masking spray.) Once dry, the masking spray rubbed off exposing the chalk paint.

What’s in the box?

• Top: metal box houses overflow office supplies.
• The next box holds two matching cigar boxes that have sliding lids.  One box holds small screwdrivers and the other stamps.
• Tissue box: This hold plastic grocery bags.
• This box features a sliding drawer with more office supplies and two boxes that house AAA and AA batteries plus a battery tester. 
• The hinged metal tins are housed in the next box and hold tiny things like chapstick, mini glow sticks, etc.
• A flashlight is housed in the last box specifically because I can never find a flashlight when I need one. I wanted a totally dedicated space for one.
• A cup hook is screwed into the bottom of the last box. The bucket is for the collection of small toy parts which as a grandma, I’m always finding. 
• Keys are hanging on the magnet hooks.
• The space behind the yellow lego brick is where I keep my sunglasses. 

Please note: We are not sponsored by any of the companies/products that we used. These products were picked and bought by us.

FYI: We are not professionals, and we don’t claim to be. This is what we found worked for our project. Yours may need a little different approach. Safety first!

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