Cheapskate's Guide to the Universe

Ok, I covet organization. Yet it mysteriously eludes me and chaos reigns. Looking at cool websites and magazines doesn't help. And the best ideas cost real money. But the homework situation was getting out of control when the kids start fighting and whining about crayons. Its a never ending cacophony of "I can't find blue" then "but she has the only sharp brown" and "I can't do this without red, all the reds are broken." I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that the crayon box looks like this.
I am constantly buying new boxes of crayons but it always ended the same way...the crayons were sentenced to a sad life in the crayon box. So I start thinking that I can use a crayon organizer. A kinder teacher at school has the coolest ones, but her husband made them out of nice wood and it apparently wasn't cheap. So the next stop, naturally, is the web. Lakeshore Learning and a couple of other places have some really nice ones. For $20 plus dollars! Like this one. I am way too cheap for that. So this is what Frankenstein Mommy comes up with....a $1 plastic shoe box from Target and a set of $2.99 acrylic purple glasses (they came in many colors, but the fighting over that is a story for another day!). You can even put the plastic lid that comes with the box on to keep the whole thing from getting out of whack! Throw in a cool sharpener, and all my troubles are over, baby!Next stop......the shed. Its a tomb for broken, sunbleached and cracked outdoor toys.