Clear the clutter with one of these desk organizer ideas! Make an easy DIY desk organizer for your home office, playroom, kids’ homeschool station, or craft room.
Bonus: Scroll down to the bottom of the post to get a video of how to make several different types of organizers for your desk and office space. You’re going to love them!

When it comes to organizing, it’s easy for me to maintain systems that are already in place. Meaning, if someone sets up a organization system for me, I can keep it going. It’s just hard for me to come up with something!
I need a DIY desk organizer, so I am depending on the brilliant creatives of the interwebs for ideas . . . and I found over 20 that I really like. Now I just have to figure out which one(s) to make!
You can use one in a home office as a desktop organizer, a craft room as a colored pencil organizer, or even in a kids’ homeschool area. There are a lot of super easy options in this post.
These projects range from recycled materials to building from scratch to taking an existing item and repurposing. You’ll see there are many, many ways to organize your desk space on a budget. Take a peek at the projects and let me know which one is your favorite in the comments.
Desk Organizer Ideas
If you are in the market for a clean and tidy desk, check out these 20+ DIY organizer ideas that look good and are budget friendly.
Plywood Mountain
Turn a piece of plywood into an organizer that doubles as a piece of art! To make your cute mountains desk organizer, you will need plywood, wooden glue, acrylic paint, sanding paper, a jigsaw or a handsaw, and clamps.
Pegboard Organizer
Pegboards aren't just for garages! With all of the different containers you can hang from them, they are great for organizing an office desk.
Mismatched & Monochromatic Jars
Pick your favorite containers of various sizes and shapes (like mason jars and tin cans), then bring them together with spray paint and embellishments.
Marbled Clay
I love the colors and marbled look of this organizer! The marbling is easy since she used clay to make this. The clay is really nice to work with because you can customize it exactly as you like. Nice, right?
Mr Roboto Plastic Canvas
Sew plastic canvas for an interesting twist on a standard desk organizer – perfect for kids or adults. It's a perfect project to work on during evenings in front of the television.
Cardboard Catchall
I love this cardboard organizer because it’s easy to make, simple and matches with everything. If you're looking for a simple desk organizers DIY, this should fit the bill.
Drawer Organizer
This post is about organizing a desk drawer for planner supplies. However, you could use this DIY for anything you want in the desk drawers.
Paper Tubes
Use cereal boxes and paper towel or toilet paper tubes along with scrapbook paper and Mod Podge to make this bright and cheerful organizer.
Adjustable Desktop Shelves
My friend Stacey just bought one of these on Amazon and it doesn't even look half as good (and sturdy) as this DIY one. I love how versatile it is.
Poplar Storage
Sarah used poplar for the outside of this organizer and some scrap plywood for the rest. Total cost for her to make this storage ideas? $12!
Chair Organizer
No desk drawers? No problem with this DIY sewing project. Supplies, notes, and papers can be neatly stored in this chair organizer - perfect if you don't really have a desk, but just use a random table and need to clear it off on occasion.
Can Pyramid
Within less than an hour, what started out as canned dog food became a clever desk organizer! Stack up empty tin cans to create a useful DIY desk storage pyramid on a budget.
Cross Stitch Wire Organizers
If you already have wire office organizers but just want to spice them up a bit, you can cross stitch the fronts with yarn. This is a great way to buy inexpensive letter trays or a pencil holder but make it look like a million bucks.
Painted Boxes
Cheap wood boxes can help you get organized, but don't they look way better with a little paint? This is perfect for organizing both work and school supplies.
No. 2 Pencil
This super cool jumbo pencil organizer is made from one piece of plywood. I like that it is thin so it doesn't take up too much space on the desk.
Composition Book Mason Jars
These organizers would go nicely with the jumbo pencil above! It is amazing what you can do with a little paint. Didn't these turn out great?
Colorful Geometric
Colorful storage ideas help me stay upbeat when working. You can't look at this and not smile! I love that when not holding any papers, it almost looks like a sculptural art piece, but is totally functional for corralling all those papers on your desk.
PVC Pipes
For less than $10.00 including paint, you can make desk organizing cups with PVC in whatever color you want to match your decor. Plus the number of cubbies are entirely up to you!
Wall Organizer and Charging Station
Jen made these two desk organizing projects for her little closet nook study area. They are so easy – I especially love the charging station paper tray!
Cork Trivets
This brilliant organizer was made using trivets from IKEA and a drill – and doubles as a corkboard that you can pin small messages to.
Mail Organizer
My mail current sits in a laundry bin – but I’d love a recycled DIY organizer like this one to keep it all together.
I hope you enjoyed these DIY desk organizer ideas! Here is the video I promised – learn how to make several organizers. Just press “PLAY” in the center of the video in this post.
If you want more organization ideas, check out these articles:
Denuli Gomis
Tuesday 10th of January 2023
Very neatly prepared with clear pictures....really appreciate all the work!