Wine Rack School Supply Organizer

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We’re in the mommy-cries-in-the-car-on-the-first-day-of-school phase in our house. I’m sure in a few years, it will turn into mommy-has-a-full-on-hour-long-booty-shaking-session-on-the-first-day-of-school phase when the kiddo hits grade school. But no matter what phase we’re in, the school supply clutter is one thing I’ll never miss.

Right now, since Olivia is in preschool just 3 mornings per week, we end up doing more of the arts and crafts type “homework” at our house. Since last school year, we’ve had a basket on the top shelf in our pantry that has begun overflowing with random pencils and stickers and paint brushes and glue and good golly enough is enough.

So when I stumbled upon this castoff wine rack at the thrift store the other week, I knew I could make it work as an organizer. And it showed up just in time for this year’s Operation: Organization Back-to-School Edition that Amy and Christy from 11 Magnolia Lane always graciously host.

Supplies Used: (Affiliate links are provided below for convenience. For more information, see my full disclosure here.)

• Thrifted wine rack
• Fusion Mineral Paint in Casement
• Medium grit sandpaper
• Water bottles from the dollar store (These fit perfectly.)
• Spray paint (I used Rustoleum Forged Hammered Pewter.)

Besides the water bottles, I luckily already had all of the other supplies, so it ended up costing me about $15.

I gave the entire wine rack two coats of the Fusion casement paint, and I gave it a rough sanding to distress once it was dry.

My original plan was to use galvanized pipe for the storage compartments… but then I discovered how much galvanized pipe cost. Yowza!

I guess if you really wanted a funky fun industrial look, you could hit up the hardware store for galvanized pipe fittings, but it definitely wouldn’t be cheap.

Once I found these water bottles at the dollar store and spray painted them though, they ended up getting the job done.

And really… how fancy do you need to get to organize school supplies anyway, right? Function matters the most. And this rack is most definitely functional now.

A lot of times Olivia is coloring or painting at the kitchen table while I make dinner in the evenings, so it’s perfect to pull this wine rack off of our pantry shelf and have an entire portable craft station ready to go for her. And we can just put all of the supplies back into their compartments to put away quickly when it’s time to eat.

One day, I know, the sweet toddler paintings and artwork for mommy and daddy beside her school supply rack will turn into algebra equation worksheets and paper mache volcanos and English essays about Shakespeare. But until then, I’m going to soak up every little finger painting and handprint sketch while I can.

Do you have any great back-to-school organization ideas that you use? Or have you found ways to repurpose thrift store items into solutions to clear the clutter?

If you’re wanting more inspiration, you can pop over all of the other bloggers’ posts for Operation: Organization for Back-to-School too.

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