DIY Organizer for Hair Accessories

Last week I pulled open a drawer in my daughters' bathroom searching for shampoo - I didn't find any but I did find a jumbled mess of Band-Aids, tissues, toothpaste, lotions, contact lenses, antiseptics, cosmetic bags, and lots and lots and lots of hair bands and scrunchies:

It's pretty obvious that my daughters didn't inherit my love of organization! I know that I should have just closed the drawer and put this disorganized mess out of my mind but I couldn't let it go. Must. Organize. Drawer. First things first - the hair bands and scrunchies that are taking up a good chunk of drawer space. A quick trip to the Container Store, a few scraps of fabric, and... problem solved! 

This is about the easiest DIY organization project ever - I started with a few of these small gift mailers from the Container store that come in white, gold, silver, and all other sorts of yummy colors for a whopping 99 cents each:

I don't like cluttered bathroom countertops (even if it's organized clutter), so I wanted to make a hair band organizer that fit standing up in my girls' bathroom drawers.  The gift mailers were about an inch too tall for their drawers so after taking both of the plastic end caps off of the mailer, I traced a line about an inch down from the top and used my xacto knife to cut off a small portion of the tube. No need for perfection here because you'll end up replacing the end caps, which will cover up the ragged ends.  I decided to give my hair band organizer some pizzaz by covering it with a fun colorful zigzag fabric. Covering the tube with fabric is a snap: cut a small piece of fabric that's about 1-2" longer than the tube, wrap it around the tube,

tuck the extra fabric on each end into the tube, and then put the plastic end caps back on to hold the fabric in place.  Done!

The zigzag fabric that I used was a lightweight flannel so I didn't have to worry about any fraying at the seam that is left along the length of the tube. If you're using a typical weight fabric, to keep from having a frayed seam simply fold over and iron the length of one end of your fabric before you cover the tube with it. 

Even though much of the fabric ends up being covered by the hair bands and scrunchies, the fun pattern and colors of the fabrics have my girls all excited about their new hair band organizers (which means they are more likely to actually use them!). The size of these gift mailers works perfectly for hair elastics and scrunchies - the 2" diameter of the tubes is large enough that the hair bands stay in place but small enough that you can get any of the bands on or off without moving the others.

I even made a short hair band organizer to hold my own elastics and have it sitting on the ledge of my bathroom mirror:

So one problem in that messy drawer is solved - now on to organizing the rest...

Hope you all enjoy your weekend!

Linking up to Our Fifth House!