Keep Your Home Office Organized With This Genius Egg Carton Hack

While one study in Psychological Science suggested a messy desk may be the purview of geniuses, not all of us are lucky enough to function well around clutter. Among the items you can use to organize your desk, the humble egg carton is one you probably haven't given much thought to. But those egg cups just happen to be perfect for paper clips, and that long lid somehow seems purposefully designed for holding pens, pencils, and markers. 

At its most basic, all you really need to do for this DIY is clean out the egg carton, open it out flat, fill it with stationery and other office-related bits and bobs, and pop the whole thing in your desk drawer. Now, while you don't need to do anything at all to the egg carton to use it as an organizer, making it unique (and longer lasting) isn't hard. In our humble opinion, decorating the carton is worth the minimal extra effort.

You might simply look at an egg carton and think it's already clean and ready to use. However, eggs are notorious for harboring harmful bacteria, most notably salmonella and avian influenza. If these microscopic nasties are on the eggshells, they're possibly in the carton, as determined by a 2021 study into packaging cross-contamination in the Journal of Applied Poultry Research. Health and agricultural authorities worldwide recommend farmers and backyard chicken owners use only new or clean cartons for fresh egg storage and distribution. So one thing you should always do before using egg cartons for home DIY projects is clean and disinfect them. This involves flushing them out with warm, soapy water and letting them dry completely.

You could use the up-cycled cardboard container as is, but that's no fun! This is the egg carton hack your home office desperately needs, after all, so you may as well theme it with your existing office decor. Probably the easiest way to decorate your egg carton is by painting it with craft paints. Go cute with a pastel-pink or mint-green base overlaid with white polka dots or gold highlights — a set of six Testors pastel paints is about $22 from Walmart. For a dreamy aesthetic, try watercolor paints. They act like a dye because the material egg cartons are made of is ultra absorbent. A 24-color palette by Master's Touch is a little under $7 at Hobby Lobby. Finish it with a spray-on sealer, like Aleene's Spray Acrylic Sealer for about $11, to ensure your organizer lasts.

You could also decoupage your carton by sticking torn pieces of colored tissue paper or scraps of fabric to the outside with Mod Podge. Bonus: Mod Podge is a glue, sealer, and finish in one. If you get the Outdoor formula, your finished organizer will be highly water resistant — Plaid sells an 8-ounce jar for under $10. 

Once your decorated egg carton is completely dry or cured, it's ready to go inside a drawer or sit atop your desk. The cups are perfect for all your wee things — the aforementioned paper clips, erasers, batteries, and even small technology items, like ear pods — and the long channels in the lid work for rulers, writing implements, scissors, and highlighters. Really, how you organize your organizer is up to you!