Hi everyone.
It's Alejandra.
And in this video, I'm going to show you how to set up a homework caddy.
So this is what a homework caddy is.
I'm going to go into more detail in a second.
But basically a homework caddy is for kids who are in elementary school who come home
from school and they do their homework in some kind of communal area in the house like
the kitchen table, dining room table, or family room, somewhere where like you need to bring
all the supplies to that one area so they could sit down and you can watch them or help
them with homework.
So a caddy has all the school supplies all together gathered in one bin that you just
bring over to the kitchen table or whatever and they have everything right there ready
to go to be more productive, more efficient, and you're not flying over the house trying
to grab all the things.
So let me show you exactly what I have inside this homework caddy that I set up.
OK.
So this is the homework caddy I put together.
So this is actually just a shower caddy that I got from Target.
I got it in the back to college section.
It was $3.99.
It was a great price.
And it came in pink, black, and gray.
Hot pink was the most fun color.
Is that a word, most fun?
Yeah, funnier is the one that's not a word.
OK.
So anyways, it's the most fun color so I got that one.
But I like to have everything that's just open like it has a lot of open compartments
so everything is within reach so you just pull something up and it's just really easy
to access.
Now, the only con of having everything open like this is if your kids tip this over and
everything falls out then it's like a big mess.
But I feel like yeah, just open compartments are nice.
All right.
So let me just start in this side and show you exactly what's inside here.
So for the bigger compartments like these two sides, I want to find jars that would
just fit really nicely inside.
And so, what I found was these quart-size Mason jars, now, they're really hard to pick
up because they are puttied down.
And I'm going to show you the putty in a second.
But these are just the quart-size Mason jars.
They just fit nicely.
So I just stuck pens and highlighters.
This is a fun pen.
It's a peeps pen.
Yeah, inside of the jars here.
And then at the bottom, everything is puttied down so you can kind of see my putty.
Now, this is called Museum Putty.
I always talk about Museum Putty.
It's awesome because it holds things in place so when I just stick that down there, when
it's puttied in place, it's not going to move so it's not going to like shake around or
wobble around, tip over or anything because it's puttied down.
Now, let me show you what Museum Putty is.
This is Museum Putty.
I talk about this a lot.
Now, you can get it in the stores like Container Store, where else can you get it?
You can get it online.
It's like five or six bucks.
It's kind of expensive but it's like the best stuff in the world.
I love this stuff.
It's great for fragile items if you don't want them to tip over like if you have kids
running around and there's something fragile in the coffee table.
Put this stuff underneath and the thing is not going to tip over unless you really pull
it up like what I did here with this jar.
Now, let me show you another alternative to Museum Putty.
This is Target brand mounting putty made by Up & Up.
It is a $1.69 at Target.
I found this in the back to school or back to college section but I bought it to test
it out and see how well it would compare to the Museum Putty brand.
And it works just as great.
This stuff is maybe a little bit stickier but you're going to pay a little bit more.
But for the price of $1.69, this stuff is awesome.
And then I found when I was at Wal-Mart recently, Fun-Tak which is I guess it's like the same
thing but it was $1.50 so it's $0.19 cheaper than the Target brand.
And I tried this out also and it sticks wonderfully like this brand or this brand is a great price
for a great product.
So you can check this stuff out if you are looking for mounting putty.
OK.
That was a really long explanation.
Let me move on.
So in this Mason jar right here, I have colored pencils and regular pencils.
So basically, it's all the supplies your child might need to do their homework.
And then I have a thing of crayons right here hanging out on the side.
And on this side, I have a little pack of reinforcements for paper.
Now, I put them in a plastic baggy.
I always reuse plastic baggies but I put them in a plastic bag because I feel like reinforcements
always just fall off and end up on the bag or they end like somewhere where they're not
supposed to be.
So putting them in a bag will prevent them from falling off the sheet.
OK.
And then on the side of the caddy, I just stuck binder clips.
Binder clips, they sound kind of weird.
In case you might need them to clip homework together or something.
And then there's a little calculator just like that hanging out on the side also.
In this little compartment here, I have a glue stick and a bottle of glue.
I have a mini stapler.
And actually, I meant to put staple refills in here and then I forgot.
And then back here, I have a pencil sharpener for sharpening pencils, a thing of flags,
and then a small thing of post-it notes in green and in blue.
This is actually like the soap compartment so they fit perfectly inside.
OK.
And then on this side, markers, black Sharpie Marker.
I feel like you always need a black Sharpie market, colorful markers, scissors.
Now, inside this tin for scissors, I put this floral - what is this called?
I don't even know what this is called.
But this is like - I find it in the floral department at Michaels.
I had no idea where to get this and then a lot of people commented on where to get it
and then organize like Jen posted about it in her videos.
And so, I realized that that stuff is great and that could just hold the scissors nice
and in place like that.
OK.
And then there are more binder clips on this side, on this tin, these are just random tins
I found around the house.
This is actually a really cute tin.
I got it from IKEA like two years ago.
It came nested with two other tins inside.
OK.
And then inside here, there is a bendable ruler.
I thought this was so cool.
It just bends in place so you can just keep it like it's not just like long and out of
place like you could just bend it in place.
So I thought that was kind of cool from Target.
OK.
So that's everything inside.
So let me share a few more things about this.
So on this side of this homework caddy, now let me make sure this is going to be shown
in the camera.
Can you see that?
OK.
So on the side here, I put - these are wall decals, kind of like wall stickers.
They stick really nicely to the shower caddy and it kind of just adds a popup color.
You can kind of personalize your homework caddy.
When you're putting this together with your kids or if your kids are doing this as their
homework assignment, have them just decorate with stickers to kind of personalize it and
make it more fun so they kind of get excited about doing their homework.
All right.
Oh actually, on the bottom, you can't really see so I'm just going to show you what I did
to the bottom.
So on the bottom of the shower caddy, I keep saying shower caddy, it is a shower caddy
but at the bottom of the homework caddy, I put these magic sliders.
These are magic sliders.
They just make everything slide or glide really nicely kind of like butter.
It's kind of weird.
But all you do is you just stick these things on.
Now, the reason why I put them on the bottom is because this is actually kind of heavy.
Like its' filled right now and if you have it in the middle of the kitchen table where
all the kids are doing homework, it's kind of heavy to move and stuff.
And so, if you put these gliders on the bottom, it's just going to slide really nicely and
you're not going to need as much as strength to move it.
So this is just a double-sided adhesive putty.
Just put this on the bottom of this and then take the backing off and then you just stick
it to the bottom and it glides.
These things are so awesome.
You can get them at Target, Home Depot, Container Store, Bed Bath & Beyond.
They sell them in a lot of different places.
OK.
So that's everything that I wanted to share about setting up a homework caddy for your
kids.
I hope that you found this video helpful.
I love this idea because I feel like it would just make doing homework for kids a lot easier
because you have everything you need right here so you could just focus on your homework
assignment and not focus on running around the house looking for the supplies you might
need.
So I hope this video was helpful.
If you want more back to school organizing videos, you can check out my website, Alejandra.TV
or you can subscribe to my YouTube channel.
And I will see you soon.
Bye!
1