Tame Your Kid’s Clutter! DIY Rubber Band Memo Board

This is the year of the organized me! Or, the *trying to GET* organized me, at least. It’s a work in progress. Somedays I forget to write things down in my momAgenda, somedays the menus don’t get planned, somedays my procrastination gene kicks my butt so hard I land on the couch and suffer from temporary-deadline-amnesia. There are somedays, though, that I actually get stuff done. Yesterday was one of those. (If you’re on my homepage, click through to see what I did!)

My goal for organizing and de-cluttering our lives extends beyond the grown-up spaces. Yes, I still need to tackle my master closet,and the kitchen cabinets are a nightmare of dishes, waiting to attack you (or simply fall on you) anytime you open a door. But, my 3 year old is also beginning to amass quite the pile of “stuff” in his room, and the solution to that was much more fun than sorting dishes or clothes, so I went with that this week.

He’s beginning to collect adorable little mementos, like tickets to baseball games and special cards, and he’s been putting them all in an overflowing bucket of toys on his bookshelf. My husband mentioned getting him a plain ol’ bulletin board, but the thought of leaving thumbtacks unattended in his room made me twitchy. I considered making one of those fabric covered boards with ribbon, but, to be honest, that seemed like way too much work, and I wanted to find an option that would make use of stuff we already have around the house.

Like this stuff…

Here’s what I used to make the Rubber Band Memo Board:

1 plywood board, cut to 20″ x 24″ (Because we had it left over from the floors, use what you have, play around with the measurements.)
Paint (I painted the front of the board a color leftover from painting Kendall’s room so it would tie in. Then Kendall painted on top of it with other paints we had left over from the mural painted in his room.)
GIANT rubber bands (I got this package at Office Depot. It’s the only thing I bought for this project.)
*Optional* Staple gun

If you don’t have scrap wood laying around that will work for this, you can always purchase some from Home Depot or Lowes, and they will usually do simple cuts for you for free. 20 x 24″ seemed to be a good size with this particular pack of rubber bands I bought.

Before you make any cuts, double check to be sure your rubber bands will fit around it without being too tight or too loose. I just stretched them out over the top  of the board and marked where to make the cut about an inch short of the end of the stretched rubber band, to account for them wrapping around the board.

Since I wanted to include Kendall on this, and get him excited about putting his stuff away (hopefully?), I put him to work painting.

The rubber bands I bought were perfect because they came in red, blue and green, but there are giant rubber bands that also come in bright pinks and greens, too, if that’s more your color scheme.

This package came with 8 17″ (blue) bands, 8 14″ (red), and 8 12″ (green) rubber bands. I didn’t use all of them.

I placed the blue bands on the board first. They stretched the length of the board since they’re the longest. Then I wove the red and green bands, alternating them, through the blue bands at the edge of the board.

It’s easiest if you weave the whole rubber band through, then wrap one side around the back. Start at the edge, then push them to the middle and space as you see fit. I randomly placed 2 bands together in a few places, and left a few solo.

I may go back and staple the bands to the back of the board with a staple gun to keep them from shifting. I don’t think it’s necessary, but it will keep things from getting wonky after lots of use. Don’t forget to smooth out your twisted bands after they’re all in place.

Here’s the finished board!

I love how it came out! Kendall is going to be thrilled to have his own art on the wall, and I hope he’ll be excited to put things on his board.

It will hang on the wall above this shelf, and I have a couple other small details to hang in the room tonight, too. Then, I think we will finally be DONE with Kendall’s big boy room. I’ll have to give you all a tour of it soon.

Now I get to go check off “deal with pile of crap in Kendall’s room” on my momAgenda desktop planner schedule for the week!

I’m a member of the momAgenda Council of Media Moms, and this post was sponsored by momAgenda.

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