Simple Storage Ideas

One thing that can be a struggle, especially after residing in the same home for years, is eliminating cluttered spaces. The counters, cupboards, closets and cabinets become so packed, it evolves into a daily frustration for many. It can be overwhelming to know where to begin, so here are a few quick and affordable storage ideas for the little things, just to help you get started:

Create Extra Cabinet Space – An inexpensive solution to create extra space under your sinks, is to install a small tension rod. These allow you to hang your cleaning supplies or other items, freeing up shelf space. For even more added space, affix a small wire basket or shower hanger to the cabinet door to hold hair care products and other small bottles. This will help get them out of the way and prevent them from falling all over the place when you’re looking for something else.

Mail Baskets – Having mail baskets is a wonderful way to reduce the paper clutter around the house. Forcing yourself to toss the junk mail as soon as you bring it in and sort the rest easily, is a great start. While you can purchase pre-made sorters, you can also create and customize your own, inexpensively, to fit the needs of your home.You can find baskets on clearance, a yard sale or possibly even the dollar store and make your own labels. Make sure you put them in a noticeable and convenient location so they don’t get forgotten and go unused after a couple weeks.

Organize Lids – Plastic lids. Everyone has that cabinet they keep all of their plastic food containers in and sometimes, those cabinets can be a terrible mess. Lids constantly sliding and falling every time you open the door or grab a container. A cheap solution to this problem is to find a plastic basket and place a metal cooling rack on top of it. The slots on the rack are large enough to slip the lids through and keep them upright, in place and allows them to be stored in more organized rows.

Clip-on Desk Organizers – If you’re looking for a desk organization idea that won’t take up desk space, this idea from Brit + Co might be just what you’re looking for. Purchase a 5 pack of Grip clips such as these. Next, find some small containers around the house or dollar store such as tin cans, loaf pans etc… Attach the clips and paint the fixtures your desired color. Affix some small felt pads on the inside of the clips to keep from scratching your desk. Finally, fill them up with pens, note pads, plants or anything else you might need.

Kitchen Wraps – An alternative, space-saving solution for storing all of your kitchen wraps, such as aluminum foil and plastic wrap, is to install a wall mounted rack. An inexpensive way is to find a magazine holder and attach it to the inside of a cabinet, freeing up your kitchen drawers for other utensils.

Pegboards – Pegboards are a versatile organizing tool that can greatly reduces the amount of clutter on your surface areas. They are wonderful solutions for storing tools, art supplies, coffee cups and kitchen utensils, keys and so much more. What makes them great is the endless customizable options they afford you. They can be painted and you can attach  many different types of accessories on them to suit your storage needs.  After installation, you can add hooks, trays, shelves, rods etc… This site has several different uses for pegboards.

Closet Organization – Often times our closets become jam packed with clothes that we cannot utilize them to the fullest. One thing to consider is to condense the amount of space they take up. An important first step, is to eliminate some of the items that you know you are not going to wear. There are two things that I like to do when going through my clothes are these: 1. Determine if I haven’t worn it in the last year, chances are I probably won’t in the future (unless there is a very specific outfit such as a suit that you only wear one special occassions) and 2. Try on the items I want to keep and make sure I still like the way it looks. Further condense the space by investing in some layered hangers such as these. Looking for a DIY alternative? You can create a similar effect by either using a small chain with an S hook or slipping a can tab over the hook of your hanger creating a loop to hang another hanger on.