Make a Free, Customized Desk-top Organizer During Your Lunch Break!!

i got tired of all the clutter on my desk, and tired of waiting for the logistics department dragging their feet in ordering my requested desk organizer, so i took 30 minutes out of my day to make my own. i made this on October 6, 2010.

Materials needed:
- 1 Medium FedEx shipping box
- 1 1/2 hot glue sticks and/or scotch tape
- and of course, your office supplies that are cluttering your desk

Tools:
- 12" ruler
- Hot glue gun
- box cutter/scissors

Step 1: Making the Cups and Trays

all you have to do in this step is to take a few seconds to categorize all the stuff on your desk, writing utensils, rulers, stapler equipment, stamps (if you have), thumb tacks, paper clips, binder clips, glue stick, etc.

once you've categorized all your things, you need to figure out how many boxes, trays and/or cups you'll need. this is what i figured i'd need:

- 2 cups (1 short, 1 tall)
- 1 box tray for stamps
- 1 tray w/ partitions
- 1 tray for my stapler
- 1 tray for the staple remover

i wanted my cups to be big enough for all my writing utensils, so i made them 3" in diameter each.

remember that old formula we learned in math class, C = 2π (r)?

well, if my desired diameter is around 3", the radius is going to be 1.5". so to get the desired circumference length, i want to calculate C = 2 x 3.14 x 1.5.....

my circumference is going to be 9.42 inches. to make this easier on me, i just brought the measurement up to 9.5"...after all, i'm not designing manifolds to an ICBM.
small cup: 9.5" x 5" rectangle
tall cup: 9.5" x 6.5" rectangle

the next thing i made was the box tray for the stamps. i briefly took the dimensions of the largest stamp so that i could work from a "No Smaller Than" size. the largest stamp i have is 2.5" x 1.25" x 3", so i mage the box just slightly larger than 4 of them standing abreast.
Stamp Box: 8.5" x 6"

i wanted a tray with partitions so i could throw in my miscellaneous small stuff, like taks, pins, paper clips, etc. so i made a tray with these dimensions:
Partitioned Tray: 7.5" x 6"

the last 2 things i made were for the Stapler and the stapler remover:
Staple Remover Tray: 5" x 5"
Stapler Tray: 6.5" x1.5"

Step 2:

in this step, you want to assemble all of the trays and cups and subsequently tack them onto a base, i made my base 10" x 10".

after i cut a base, i use a piece of cardboard to create a makeshift compass, here's how:
get a small rectangular piece of cardboard, punch a hole through one end (that'll be the center of the circle you're trying to draw. get a ruler, and at the length of the desired radius, punch another hole... once you've made this, you'll anchor down one end with a ball point pen and with a pencil through the other hole, you're going to swing it around 360 degrees until a full, even circle is drawn.