Napkin holder organizers

A couple months ago, at IKEA, I fell in love with the Liksidig napkin holder.  We don’t use paper napkins, but I was sure I could find another use for it.

As soon as I got home, I knew it would be perfect to hold the stack of papers on my desk.  If you get 2 or 3 of them, they make a great mini filing system right on your desktop.  Even better if you put pretty file folders inside them like these.

Yes, I went back and got more of them.  They’re only $4 a piece.

In addition to the rest of the storage issues I have, I’ve been trying to think of an efficient and non-ugly way to store my empty shipping boxes.  I knew I would like to store them behind the door somehow, because they would usually be covered–by the door.  But they needed something to hold them up, so I hung a few of the napkin holders on the wall.

Here’s how to do it:

Pick out two little areas in the pattern where a screw head will fit snugly.  Place the napkin holder on the wall and put at least one of those areas over a stud (or avoid a stud if you will be using dry wall anchors).  Make sure the napkin holder is level and mark the two spots on the wall with a pencil.

Since most power drills won’t fit inside inside the pattern, pre-drill the holes so you can use a nice and skinny manual screwdriver.

Screw them to the wall and then fill them up!

I knew the boxes wouldn’t be pretty, so I got a couple sheets of poster board to cut to size and place in front of the boxes.  I think I might eventually get poster board in a color closer to the wall color.  Not only would the boards blend in better, the pretty holders would stand out more.

These would be great for storing all kinds of things.  I could see using one at the front door for holding mail or using several as a magazine rack.  Whatever you put in them, these napkin holders are also awesome $4 wall shelves.