Stranger Organizer Box - Lyna Riahi

Struggling to organize your stuff ?...

Annoyed to only have drawers to put your stuff in an organized way?...

Tired of rearranging it every single week ?....

...Then let me help you :)!

This is a huge worldwide issue affecting mostly students and adults. However, I found a very creative solution. Let me tell you all about it!

This summer, I got inspiration from seeing a lot of people making their own personalized and customized organizer boxes on Pinterest. I decided to combine it with my passion, which is Stranger Things, an exciting and thrilling series on Netflix. The TV show had a huge impact on me where I discovered a new music taste.

Moreover, I want to combine all of my passions/objectives into one thing where I decided to turn my shoe box, which is also a handbag, into a box organizer/handbag Stranger Things themed, including their music.

In fact, here are the success criteria that I set in order for the product to be achievable and successful:

• The product can be used as a box and a handbag.
• It is a creative design that is not from the internet.
• The product is efficient and can be used on a daily basis.
• It is Stranger Things themed.

This product took me two days to make because I really took my creativity to another level. I had so many tries with the different materials but I ended up being happy with the outcome.

Finally, in this instructable, I am going to share how I built an organizer box out of a shoe box where you will see plenty of tips, tricks, and simple, but yet detailed explanations, in order to get the best result. Mistakes will be mentioned throughout the instructable because you can't improve without them!

Tools :

• Paint brushes (about 3 different sizes)
• Cardboard cutter
• Glue stick
• Hot glue gun

Materials :

• Shoebox (it is at the same time a handbag) : I got this from the Shoe Boutique called "Westies". It is in Monterrey, Mexico.
• Printer with white paper.
• Mechanical pencil
• Sharpie markers
• Clay
• Acrylic paint : black (get two bottles), yellow, red, orange, brown
• Paint Palette
• Glue refills of the hot glue gun.
• Fun Stickers (no more than 50)

I attached links to some products if you want to buy these materials.

Grab your shoebox/handbag and paint all sides in black using paint. Leave the handle of the box as it is. Try not to put paint on it so I would suggest being careful.

Tips :

• I would grab a bigger paintbrush to paint the big areas because it will be faster and more efficient. If you don't own one, I would suggest buying one because it is totally worth it. It will not waste your time.
• I would also grab a smaller paintbrush in order to paint the areas of the box that the bigger paintbrush can't. For example, you would absolutely need the smaller paintbrush for the corners of the box.
• Feel free to rotate the box however you want if needed.
• Optional: I put two trash bags under the box

I - Now think about what is the stuff that you would like to organize the most...

Since I chose the theme Stranger Things, the music is such an essential representation of the show that I decided to include the famous music tape from Max, a character in the TV show. Since I don't have one, I will be researching its measures online. I also want to include my AirPods because I always carry them everywhere I go. Earphones could also be added if you don't own wireless earphones.

I would like to include my personal stuff as well such as my wallet, phone, and pens.

II - The Measures (that I searched on google or that I already have and measures it myself) :

• Music tape (standard): 10cm x 8 cm
• My iPhone (iPhone 12 Pro): 14 cm x 7cm
• My Airpods Pro: 4cm x 6cm (there is enough room for earphones)
• My wallet : 13.1 cm x 13.5 cm
• Pens : 2 cm x 15 cm

Tip :

• Make sure to add in some additional cm in order to have some space. I added one or two cm because it depends on the material.

This step is some sort of check to see if all the personal and music stuff you want to put, fits in.

1. Start thinking about where you want to place your stuff in the box. Make sketches and select the one that you prefer the most.
2. After that, inside the box, draw with a pencil where you would want to put your stuff. Think about where you would place your pieces of cardboard, which would represent the dividers. Their purpose is to separate your stuff.
3. Leave about 0.3 cm between each place of each stuff. Those lines would represent where you would place your cardboard.

*Suggestion: See the images in order to have a clear understanding of this step.

Next, take a big amount of cardboard and with that, you will need a cardboard cutter in order to cut the cardboard easier because scissors will be very hard. Suggestion: I would warn you to be careful!

The measures of each cardboard would differ based on its placement. However, the length would remain the same for all cardboard pieces. It is determined at 5 cm.

Tips :

• Make sure that the organizing section is a rectangle.
• You should have 4 cardboard pieces.
• Verify that the cardboard pieces fit in the placements that you drew in the last step.

Paint all sides of the cardboard pieces red. Let them dry for 20 mins.

After that, glue the cardboard pieces in their places (inside the box) with a hot glue gun.

Disclaimer: Be careful when you use the hot glue gun! Its temperature is really hot.

1. Make an oval shape with clay that looks similar to the outside shape of the gate in the series.
2. Make around 20-25 medium worm shapes and put them all around the oval shape. Use water to make sure the clay stays on.
3. Let them dry for 2 hours in order to make sure all the pieces of clay don't fall off.

Tips :

• Have a reference photo of the Stranger Things gate from the internet.
• Be creative with this design! You can make the worm shape differently and put them on top or under each other.

Paint the Stranger Things Gate with brown acrylic paint. I would suggest using different paint brush sizes (only 2). Use a smaller paintbrush to paint small areas that you can't paint with a medium one.

Let it dry for 20 mins.

Take out your hot glue gun and makes some, of what I would like to call, "spider webs", in the Stranger Things Gate.

But HOW?

1. Place your hot glue gun on a random side of the oval shape and press it in order for the glue to come out.
2. Once it does, move the hot glue gun to another side of the oval shape. Keep doing this numerous times until you feel like you are satisfied and that the result looks like spider webs inside of a portal/gate.

Tips :

• The biggest mistake you can do is letting the glue touch wherever you did it. For example, I did it on top of a cardboard piece and I had it stuck where when I grabbed it to put it in my hands, some of the glue detached and created a hole which meant that I had to redo it.
• I suggest you don't rush with this step in order to not create the mistake mentioned above.

With the brown acrylic paint, hide the dried hot glue on top of the oval shape. Use a small paintbrush for this. You can use it also if you find some unusual white spots on the clay.

• Let that dry for 20-30min.

After that, paint the spider webs, the ones inside of the oval shape, in the color red. Be creative with this step. I would suggest adding red highlights to the gate. Add them wherever you want :) !

• Let that dry for 20-30min.

Carefully and gently, take out the Stranger Things gate from the cardboard piece and turn it around.

Now, take out the hot glue gun and glue the Gate on top of the middle of the box. Suggestion: you would have to be extremely fast when gluing because the got glue gun dries up very quickly.

• Go to your Spotify account, and create a Playlist by naming it Stranger Things. Add songs that you think would relate to the series. Here are some songs that I added (there are 24 songs on that Playlist) :

1. Running Up That Hill - by Kate Bush
2. Should I stay or Should I go - by The Clash
3. Master of Puppets - by Metallica
4. Stranger Things (intro) - by Kyle Dixion and Micheal Stein
5. Spirit of the Night - by Tesla Boy

Suggestion: feel free to add songs to it if you want!

• Once you're done with the playlist, copy the link and paste it into this Website Spotify QR Code maker. Customize it however you want. For example, I decided to make the banner of the QR code red and black in order to relate to the theme.
• If you want, here is the link to a website that has a tutorial on how to make one in order to better understand it.

1. Download your Spotify QR code and print it out. Take a normal glue stick and glue it right above the Stranger Things Gate. Add gold accents to it with gold acrylic paint!
2. Optional: I decided to name my Box Organizer/Handbag, "Stranger Organizer" in order to relate to the theme.

• Take a sheet of paper and write down in big letters (in any font that you like), the word "Stranger " with a red sharpie. Line with a smaller sharpie in black in order to make a contour.
• Right below the word "Stranger", write down in the middle, the word "organizer" in small letters.
• Finally, take out your scissors and cut the paper after the word "Organizer", and glue it below the Stranger Things Gate.
• Suggestion: Use a normal glue stick. I made the mistake of using liquid glue which left stains.

3. Print out some Stranger Things photos (I printed 4) and glue them wherever you want on the outside of the box.

4. Finally, add stickers (of your preference) wherever you like!

THIS IS OUR LAST STEP! It is also a fun one ;)

1. Print out a Stranger Things photo (this time make it bigger), and place it inside at the top middle.
2. Surround that photo with stickers (of your preference).
3. Finally, add stickers of each stuff's area inside the box. Try to find stickers of that stuff. For example, I was very lucky to find stickers on phones, pens, cassettes, music tapes, and headphones. However, I didn't find one for my wallet so I just added a sticker of a note with a clip to say that you can put anything you want.

And that's it! You are done :)