Mail Needs a Resting Place, Too

A mail graveyard on our living room floor has been gathering dust and claiming the lives of other pieces of mail for the past couple of weeks. I've been wanting to make something to organize our mail overflow issues, and I attempted the project last weekend. I wanted to use materials I already had on hand in order to save some scratch and use up some fabric remnants. I took a bunch of pictures of the project to show how the project evolved from start to finish. Enjoy!

Ack! It's a horrible mail graveyard!

To begin, I flattened a box and cut it in half.

I used the structure of the cardboard to guide the design of the organizer.

At first, I tried to cut the cardboard with scissors. I ended up switching to a razor blade, which offered me much more control and precision when making cuts.

I kept my measurements very simple, using the width of the ruler to measure where I needed to fold and/or cut.

This is a view of the early organizer from the bottom up.

And now we're looking top down...

To put the mail slots together, I decided to go with masking tape. I basically folded the pieces together and then used the tape to bind them.

Mail slots one and two!

I decided to change up the top of the organizer and create a place for magazines.

That top space is all ready for magazines!

I then ironed fabric scraps I've had laying around and cut them to fit the areas I wanted them to cover.

I used my go-to glue Mod Podge to adhere the fabric to the cardboard. I wasn't quite sure how well the Mod Podge would work with the fabric and cardboard, but it ended up being a good choice. The fabric bonded smoothly to the cardboard with no issues.

I used two different types of fabric to break things up a bit.

At the back top of the organizer, I attached, using hot glue, a fabric hanger. I then glued a piece of newsprint to the back of the organizer to help smooth it out.

To finish things up, I printed out labels on my computer, laminated them, and used fabric glue to adhere them to the organizer. And voila! We now have homes for magazines, Erik's mail, and my mail.