I’ve been meaning to make a dollar store phone charging station for awhile now. I was going to design a project that looked more like this, but when I found an endcap of metal desk organizers at the dollar store, I knew they would work for different kind of docking station. You can make this station slash organizer for less than five dollars, and it will take you about an hour to put together. (I know, it doesn’t look like it, but gluing all that ribbon on takes a bit of time!)

Project Materials:

• 2 metal upright paper organizers, $1 each
• Metal tray desk organizer, $1
• Sheet of craft foam or felt, $.50 or on hand
• Ribbon, $1 or on hand
• Power strip or surge protector, $5 and up or on hand
• Glue (I used both Aleene’s Quick Dry and hot glue), on hand

Total: $3 and up

Because this starts out as three separate desktop organizing pieces, I added craft foam on the bottom as well as pieces of ribbon to stabilize and keep all the pieces together. You can omit the ribbon if you don’t like the look, but I suggest connecting the different pieces together another way, like wiring them together.

To Make:

Start by gluing ribbon all the way around the tray organizer, overlapping at the edges of the ribbon, and gluing securely.

Place the three pieces together in desired configuration on top of the craft foam and trace around them on the foam to create cutting template. (I had to add a couple of small pieces on the ends where the craft foam didn’t quite reach).

Cut out craft foam. Glue to the three pieces.

Add ribbon around the tops of each of the rows of the upright organizers. Add ribbon to inside of tray organizer trays, if desired.

Add a power strip behind the docking station, and either glue or wire in place (if you wire it, be sure to keep the wire clear of any outlet on the strip, of course!)