DVD Organization from Upcycled Kids' Shoeboxes

No matter how much storage we have in our homes, it seems to never be quite enough.  Everywhere I look, there is poorly used space.  One space that has always bothered me is the cabinets in our living room.  I love having storage there, but I feel as if we don't use it well.

Here is what our DVD/VHS storage looked like before.

It took up two drawers.  I just felt like it was a huge waste.

A few weeks ago, my kids got shoes for their birthdays from my mom.  They were precious little converse sneakers.  I hung onto the boxes thinking surely I would be able to use them for something. 

I was pondering how to fix the messy DVD area when I decided, by chance, to see if one of the DVD sleeves would fit into a shoebox.  It DID!  Of course, that set off the whole project.

Here is what you need:

One or two child size shoeboxes
Decorative duct tape
DVD sleeves
Scrapbook Paper
Alphabet Stickers

Now that you have what you need, we can get started.

Go ahead and cut the flap top lid off if the lids are not already separate.  If they are, great, you are already a step ahead.

Wrap the decorative duct tape around the box.  I just did this one time because the top portion of the box was already black.  If you want to cover the entire box or if you box isn't as pretty repeat until you get the desired amount of tape on.

Now you will make your alphabetical dividers.

I just used 12x12 scrapbook paper in black and grey.  I cut the paper into 6" x 3" rectangles.  Then I placed a letter sticker at the top of each  card.

You are now ready to start loading your DVDs into the new system.  Just remove the bulky, plastic covers, slip the movies into the sleeves, and place them behind the appropriate letter card.

When you finish filing the movies, it will look like this.

Now just pop the boxes back into your storage area and rearrange the existing drawer.

Ours was condensed to one single drawer from two overflowing ones.

I actually was able to clear half of the third drawer as well by filing all of our Wii Games behind our movies in the same way.

Did you do a project similar to this at your house?  Let me know about it.