How I Organize and Store My Home Decor Items
March 30, 2022
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How I store all of my home decor, candles and knick knacks!
I didn't plan this, but 2022 has become the year of organization in our house and I LOVE IT. I've tackled the HUGE pantry organization makeover, our mementos and photos, and even under the kitchen sink!
We've lived in this house for about four and a half years and I feel like in just the past six to nine months I've really started figuring out exactly where I want to keep things. Not only that, but how I want to organize them.
I know, I say it till I'm blue in the face -- I think you need to live in your spaces for awhile before making any major decisions on how you want to use the rooms. That could just be what works for me, who knows. But I find I make mistakes if I move too quickly.
That goes for organizing too! My latest victim is my decor stuff in part of our unfinished basement storage room. I've been working on this for the past few months and it's been 90 percent done for the past two months. This week I finished up the last little bit and had to show you!
I know...you're sitting on the edge of your seat to see our unfinished walls, cement floors and plastic shelving!
But, man, I love how organized it is!:
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This is all decor stuff -- candles (so. many. candles.), hardware, fabric, fake flowers, etc. I WISH I had taken a photo of how much we had right after moving in...we had five of these tall plastic shelves.
FIVE.
We had so much stuff!! Now, what I have now may seem like a lot to some of you, and very little to others. I will say, compared to most home decor bloggers this is nothing. This I KNOW. 😂
Anyway, I have purged like you wouldn't believe over the past few years, and this is what is left. I use Marie Kondo's Konmari method to decrapify everything in our home -- it has worked well for me and has made our lives function so much better.
I use this method constantly. I'm always evaluating and purging items that we don't love or use.
As I've decluttered and gotten rid of stuff, the plastic shelving has dwindled. (There are some bins as well but I'll talk about those in a bit.) We have a little alcove in our storage room that is about 30 square feet, and months ago I did some figuring and realized I could fit what was left in there.
The shelving is the exact same width as the little "closet" space, so I knew they would fit perfectly. I decided to place them so I could walk in between and see/reach both sides. This side is mostly the larger decor items:
A lot of this will be gone when we finish up other projects and spaces -- the rattan bins above are full of fabrics that I plan to use. The stacks of books will go in my husband's office someday when we work on that.
There are only certain decor items I keep and love anymore -- trays are one of them. I use those a lot, especially during the holidays.
Actually, most of the decor items are things I use seasonally! I used plastic storage bins from Big Lots to group items like glass containers and filler:
I like how large these are, they hold a ton of stuff!
The other side is my favorite. :) I found these awesome plastic bins with LIDS that are the perfect size for smaller decor items. They are such a great deal, only $4 each! And they hold way more than you'd think:
I started out with a few of the clear ones (bottom shelf) last year, and by the time I finally got around to them and wanted more, I couldn't find the clear version anymore.
So I went with the white, which I actually prefer.
If you want to see what you are storing at a glance, there is a gray tinted clear option.
I do NOT want to see all of the little clutter. I've had my decor-type items out on storage shelves until now. I tried grouping them, stacking them...I just found it to be a waste of space, especially with smaller items.
Candles for example, you can only stand so many on top of each other. But then you're not using the shelving space well because they're spread out and not up.
That's why I love these bins and am so happy with them. I mean, look at how many candles I can fit in one!:
That's 14 candles in there by the way! I'm sure there's some rule about storing scented candles with other scented candles...but so far so good. They all smell like they should. :)
So many candle items...candlesticks, votives, wax candles, scented. This is definitely part of my stash that I hope to reduce over the years. Now that everything is grouped together I know better what we have.
I can't believe how inexpensive these are for how sturdy they are -- and the lid!
Anyway, I love the storage, but for the white ones especially I definitely needed some kind of labeling system. I already had the stick on labels from our art and photo storage books, so I used those on my bins:
The sticky part has a pocket and these Avery labels fit inside. I created one for each bin and added some detailed info on some of them as well.
You know...in case my family urgently needs some coastal decor...they'll be able find it quick!:
Nah...this is all for me. :)
And it's worked SO well. I like having things put away, but also want to find them quickly. This solution solves both!
I started out just writing what was in them by hand, but then thought, who am I?? I needed printed labels. 😁
I've been on both sides of the storing things in bins method over the years, but the reason I'm solidly on the bin team now is because it prevents me from overspending. I only have room for what I have room for...and I love that.
Not only that, but I find it much easier to keep track of what I do have when it's separated and organized like this.
A few additional items I store elsewhere in the house:
- All of our vases and pitchers are kept in a kitchen cabinet for easy access for flowers.
- The craft supplies and excess office items are in my office built ins and our mud room drawers.
- Serving dishes and bowls are in a pretty console in our dining room.
We keep the step ladder in here anyway, and I realized how easy it was to pop it open in the middle of the shelving. So now it will live between the two:
As you can see, we have some larger bins in this space as well. Some is fall decor that I need to try to make room for up in the garage with the Christmas decor. A couple are for our Christmas village items that we put out in the basement.
We also have a bin just for electronic stuff -- cable, HDMI, speaker cords and gaming stuff. I went through it and got rid of a bunch, but we still have enough to warrant the large bin.
My goal is to build wood shelving in this little alcove and then I can get rid of the plastic shelving and some of the bins. I want to add some lighting in the ceiling before I start on that.
For now, I'm thrilled with my little decor "hallway" -- I have easy access to everything I need! Do you have a lot of candles and greenery that need a home? What's your solution for storing all of it?
**There are some great ideas for storing home decor items over on my FB page as well!
Where did you find the bins with the lids? I am constantly organizing since we downsized last year!
ReplyDeleteTarget! :) I link to them up earlier in the post.
DeleteThanks for the inspiration!! Love those bins. I might be heading to Target soon.
ReplyDeleteI love this! I have been using a spare bedroom closet that's set up with wire shelving (like in a pantry) for my pictures, vases, candles, etc. I call it the knickknack closet!
ReplyDeleteI tend to decorate by color. Spring (April to August) = white and light blue items. Fall (Sept to Nov) = orange, red and dark blue items. Then Thanksgiving & Christmas decor (Nov to Jan). Then the black, gray and blue items (Jan-April). Rinse & repeat.
I love those bins! It would keep my things dust free.
Love your blog...💕👍