I love large organizing projects. Last fall, I re-organized the basement and made space for the kids to have an art studio. In January, I re-organized the kitchen shelf by shelf, drawer by drawer. Next will be our spare room closet which has turned into the catch-all. While I do love these projects, I don’t always have the time to dive in to something on such a large scale. That’s why I love organizing on a small scale. That is something I can do everyday and fairly quickly. You know, like organizing your junk drawer or finding a creative stash to hide and organize all your candles. I like to use non-typical storage containers for these projects. This gives me a great chance to be creative. Here are some of the small scale organizing projects that have been going on in our house lately.
We have beads and beading supplies all over the house thanks to my daughter and her jewelry business. After struggling to keep all the little bottles and boxes together, we started looking for a better solution. Bead stores and catalogs have great storage units, but a not so great price. As I looked at some of them, they reminded me of the storage that my dad used to keep nuts and bolts and other small items. So, we headed to the local hardware store and found this great storage chest on sale for $9! It is very similar to the one we saw in the bead catalog for $50!
I hate opening drawers and seeing it littered with little stuff. I like things contained. These plastic storage dishes fit right into my kitchen and bathroom drawers. They are great for holding everything from medicine cups to lipstick to paperclips. Since I am slowly switching my food storage over to glass, I needed a way to recycle these anyhow.
My daughter’s room is by far my biggest clutter challenge! I have found she does much better when she comes up with clever organizers herself. She is always writing and always creating, so she needed something to hold her pens and pencils and her scraps of ribbon which are always all over her room. This adorable pink pail with brown spots was a favor from a recent baby shower. It’s the perfect size for holding writing utensils on her desk. The container on the right is a quart glass jar that my daughter decorated with some of her ribbon scraps. Perfect for storing the rest of her stash!
What are your favorite small scale organizing solutions? Got any creative containers to share?
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
The jewelry organization is impressive! I’m constantly checking out http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.com/ for organizing ideas! She always finds the coolest ways to re-purpose the ordinary!
I have a bin that hangs in the kitchen for mail, baskets in almost every room for magazines and a creative card holder in our study for invites, baby announcements & more. Little things that make a collective big difference and keep me feeling sane. :)
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Lucy
http://dataentryjob-s.com
I like the dollar store for different style baskets. I have matching ones in our bathroom cupboard for hair clips and a basket for each persons toiletries. If they are small you can only put the necessary things in and you have to get rid of old things if it starts to get to full.
Totally love this. My that’s seriously a lot of containers… ha!
Great ideas!
I was just thinking how great the storage system you use for the beads would be as a jewellery organiser too!
Thanks for sharing your ideas
Trude
My new organizing thing is baskets. I am trying to get away from plastics and back to natural materials, and woven wicker and reed baskets are really nice. I have a shallow one with wooden dividers that holds our kitchen phone, checkbook and bills, small items (hair clips batteries, stamps), writing utensils in ball canning jars, and scissors (fabric and paper). I also have a picnic basket with the top that flips open on either side for my knitting yarn stash. I keep it on top of the book case to admire and to keep my bamboo needles away from the kids.
You pushed that organizing button in me with this post! :) But I am trying to pare down the number of items we own so I don’t have to spend so much time organizing. It seems so much simpler to keep things neat and tidy when there are fewer.
Great post Marci!
If you know someone who has a baby or does daycare, ask them for their PLASTIC babyfood containers. They are clear and uniform in size. They are stackable and they work great for screws, paperclips, and my favorite – the sharp corn-on-the-cob handles (with the lid on, of course!). I store toothpicks in them too. Considering a 2-pack costs roughly $1 they are comparable to actual storage containers in price, and of course, if you got the applesauce puree or something you could make that food into muffins or something w/o wasting it. Really, they are great – I hung onto my containers after I realized how useful they were – and I’m NOT sharing!
I stumbled on your site via the simplescrapper blog. I have been looking for something like the storage unit you found at the hardware store for my son\’s legos! Would you mind sharing the brand — maybe I can find another one online. :-) Thanks so much for sharing your ideas!