DIY Custom School Bag Hooks
The beginning of the school year is right around the corner, and everyone wants to start off by being organized! Let’s face it, this desire usually falls apart around April and turns in to “I just hope we can survive”, but I wanted to take advantage of the organization bug while it’s here!
My nieces have matching school bags for their preschool, and my two year old niece has some trouble telling which bag is hers. I thought that if she helped decorate a custom hook, she would be able to remember where her bag was hanging. Plus, if the bags get put in the right place when they come home it can help eliminate part of the mad morning rush! (Granted there is still the problem of finding a dress that is sufficiently twirly, but that’s a topic for another post.)
To make these custom hooks, I simply purchased about $10 worth of supplies from my local craft store and went to work!
I spray painted the wooden hangers white.
I looked for wooden letters that we could paint a different color and then glue on, but I couldn’t find any that were the size I wanted. So, I bought sparkly letters instead. However, I didn’t think they would show up very well on the white paint, so I drew a black square with a permanent marker and tried to make it a little more even by going over it with black paint. I’m sure it would have looked nicer if I had used acrylic paint, but all I had was kid’s paint so I went with that. Then, I stuck the sparkly letters down.
I added the command hooks to the hangers next. I bought the kind that will hold 3 lbs, so they should be fine for the kids’ preschool bags. The hooks might need to be updated by the time they’ve got algebra books in their backpacks, but I think we have awhile before we need to worry about that!
Finally, I let each child pick two colors of “gems” to put on their hanger. I thought this would be especially helpful to my two-year-old niece who doesn’t know her letters yet. This way she will know her bag is the one on the hanger with pink and purple gems!
