A Place for Everything and Everything in Its Place {Almost!}

April 04, 2025

How I organize our everyday household items throughout the house!

I've been on a mission over the past few months to get our house decluttered and organized...for good! 

This year I've been determined more than ever to rid our home of unneeded stuff and get all of our random household clutter organized. I don't know what got me so focused on it, but I've been a machine...we've gotten rid of so much and now (almost) everything else is nicely organized. 

I feel like I'm finally getting our life in order (at least the stuff part!). We've only lived here seven years. :)

I figured I'd share the ways I've organized our everyday household items throughout the house. 

Keep a few things in mind as you read this! First up, I'm nearing the big 5-0 and with every year I want less and less things in our home. I thrive and function so much better in a clutter-free home, but even ten years ago that was not the case at all! 

Our son recently turned 18 (!!) and will be going off to college in just a few months, so I've had more time over the past few years to tackle these types of projects. (And the days of Nerf bullets and toy clutter are gone, although I still step on the occasional Lego!) 

This may sound like I've gotten rid of everything in our house, which is soooo not the case. I love my stuff. :) But what we do have, we use and enjoy AND most everything has a dedicated spot. 

1. Take advantage of your closet space 

Closets are great of course! But if you don't utilize them well, that storage space won't benefit your home as much as it should! 

A few years ago I showed you a main floor closet had been full of random crap. At the time I called it my Monica closet (Friend's sitcom reference) because after we moved in I just chucked stuff in there.

I did a quick declutter and it looked so much better!: 
linen closet storage

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But it still wasn't functioning as well as it could. So I've been working on it here and there over the past few years. 

The real organization started when I found these plastic basketweave storage bins at Big Lots a couple of years ago: 
plastic basketweave storage bins

RIP to Big Lots by the way, I'm SO sad about them closing! I loved that place. 

They had a taller version (pictured) and a shorter version. I grabbed a bunch of them, mostly in the larger size. I grouped like items in the bins, like tissue boxes, trash and grocery bags, medication and vitamins. 

Just random household items we need throughout the day with easy access. Of course I needed a way to label them, so I used my trusty clip on bin labels
clip on bin labels

They would pop off occasionally, so I grabbed some of my glue dots and just put one behind each label and that's worked great. 

We reach for something out of this closet every single day, and I can't tell you how nice it is to find exactly what we need quickly: 
household storage in closet bins

I still hate the wire shelves and plan to address those someday, but the plastic storage bins slide easily and don't get caught on the wire at all. 

Because we don't have any closet lighting, I've been using these rechargeable motion sensor lights on the inside walls: 
lighted storage closet with bins

That closet off is probably supposed to be more of a linen closet, but we have a dedicated linen closet upstairs that I use for that purpose: 
wood shelves in linen closet


I made better use of this closet by making the new shelves a bit deeper so they would comfortably hold the bulky bedding. I also added a smaller shelf up above to hold seasonal items we rarely reach for. 

Plus, the wood shelves work SO much better in general -- everything slides so much easier. 

In my clothes closet, I used two Ikea Kallax units to create a wall of storage for folded clothes: 
clothing storage kallax Ikea units

I prefer this method to hanging everything, plus it's easier to store seasonal or holiday themed clothing. 

In our first house, I noticed how much unused space there was at the ends of our guest room closet. If you have a closet full of clothes you're probably using it, but if not, it's just awkward and difficult to optimize. 

So I built simple DIY shelves into that unused closet space -- in a utility closet this especially helpful!:
DIY shelves at end of closet

I recently added one more small shelf on the other side to store our dust buster that we keep plugged in. 

Years ago I shared a bunch of helpful coat closet organization ideas, and this simple boot shelf is one I have repeated in this house as well: 
DIY boot shelf closet


2. Use pretty dressers and furniture for everyday storage

I've blabbed about this for years, but it's worth mentioning again! I have found the most beautiful vintage dressers on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace: 
green dresser brass hardware
See how to paint furniture without sanding here!

But I don't just use dressers for clothes -- actually usually there aren't any clothes in them. ;) 

In our bedroom dresser, I store our travel supplies (we have a lot because my husband travels so much for work): 
travel toiletry supply storage

I also keep all of our travel items like extra charging cords, travel bags, etc. The bottom drawer holds extra sheet sets for our bed.

A few months ago I shared how I gave this old dresser new life without paint:
vintage wood dresser in foyer

We moved it to our foyer and I absolutely LOVE it here. It's just beautiful. 

What a shame it would be to not use all of that glorious storage! In the top drawers I keep some everyday tools like a hammer, level, screwdriver, etc. It's so convenient to grab them here instead of the garage. 

I have a supply of candles that I use throughout the year, and this dresser is a great spot to store them: 
candle storage in drawer

We have a gorgeous credenza in our basement that serves as storage as well:
wood vintage credenza decor

We keep some odds and ends like extra charging cords in the drawers, and puzzles in the bottom cabinets: 
vintage credenza storage

Our main bathroom is quite large, but the storage is lacking. We have one tiny closet and the vanities have very little useful space. 

This tall Ikea Hemnes cabinet gives us so much more storage for towels and toiletries: 
black painted wood Hemnes cabinet

See that Hemnes cabinet makeover here -- this is one of the simplest furniture makeovers I've ever done, but might be my favorite. 

3. DIY custom built ins and cabinets

If you've read my blog for long, you know I LOVE a good DIY built in or bookcase! So of course I have to include them in this list. They create SO much useful storage space! 

The bonus is all the stuff is tucked away in cabinets, so everything looks great no matter how organized they are inside. ;) 

We have one room that combines our mud room needs and laundry, but the storage was seriously lacking when we moved in. 

I ended up moving the upper cabinets to a different wall, building them up to the ceiling, and then installing four drawer units at the bottom
blue drawer base cabinets laundry room

The base cabinets ended up looking like built in furniture, which I love. 

If I could, I'd replace every base cabinet in our house with drawers -- I think they are so much more useful! I shared how we utilize all of those drawers
gift wrap party supply storage

These are FANTASTIC for so many random items like gift bags, cards and party supplies pictured above. 

I think that cabinet was one of my smartest storage solutions ever, and it's beautiful! We now have a couple of empty drawers because I've purged so many things lately. 

I hope we never move from this house, but this added storage will be a big selling point someday!
Bookcase built ins in an office are the perfect way to create both form and function: 
Vintage Vogue green bookcase

I use 12 inch deep wall kitchen cabinets for my bookcase bases, but even at only a foot deep, they still create so much new storage space.

I keep all of my craft and office supplies in these cabinets, as well as my sewing machine and computer supplies: 
canvas bins craft storage

The giant wall of built ins I created in our basement also offers so much great storage: 
Westchester Gray bookcase

We keep photo albums, toys (for friends and family) as well as all of our board games in these: 
board game storage in cabinet

If you've been considering adding something similar in your house...this is your nudge to do it! :) 

Of course, built ins don't have to be pretty...just function is wonderful. I had these basic shelves built into the corner of our storage room earlier this year:
wood shelves storage room

I love using bins and containers for stuff, but sometimes you can make storage go much further with shelves.

4. Storing paper, photos and art

When our kids were little, paper clutter was my nemesis. I just couldn't get a handle on it. 

I've figured out some tricks over the years that have helped tremendously! First off, check out my post on stopping junk mail and paper before it even comes into your house. This is key to cutting down the paper. 

Recently I went through ALL of our old paper files and whittled them down to these that fit perfectly into this portable file organizer
portable file folder holder with handles

This thing is a game changer -- so helpful to be able to carry it around. We keep our daily mail in one of the mud room drawers I shared earlier, and every week or two I go through it and file papers away. 

I usually do this at the dining table, so it's GREAT to be able to file everything right there. 

We keep receipts for tax purposes, and these receipt organizers are a great solution: 
receipt organizer for taxes

They come with labels -- both monthly options and plain ones you can customize. I find the easiest way to file them is by month. 

Our accountant recommends we keep three years of receipts and tax documents, so I have three that I rotate out every year. 

organizing kid's art and keepsakes

I went through almost all of our photos (I'd still like to do a deeper dive into those someday), the kids' artwork and all of our keepsakes from travel and school. The portfolios I found have been wonderful for organizing all of these items! 

It's so nice to have them sorted and labeled, and we can quickly find what we want. It's also lovely to be able to pull them out to reminisce with family and friends. 

I'm getting closer to getting our home organized and clutter-free! Thisclose. I have three problem areas remaining -- our son's closet (which is in progress, I'll share that soon!), my husband's office closet and his main clothes closet. 

It will take at least another year to complete those, but maybe by our ten year anniversary in this house I will have it all organized. 😊


On a more personal note, I wanted to share what's been going on with our family over the past few months. Our dog Peanut was diagnosed with collapsed trachea more than a decade ago, and we made immediate changes to hold off the progression. 

(It's recommended to use a harness on your dogs instead of collars. CT can affect any dog, but especially smaller breeds.)

Unfortunately last year the CT got worse, and on New Year's Eve we had to rush him to the ER because he couldn't stop coughing. 

We were able to control the cough somewhat with meds afterwards, but collapsed trachea is a progressive condition. Deciding the right time to say goodbye to Peanut was one of the hardest decisions we've ever faced. (With our other angel pets, their decline was so fast we had no other choice. Peanut hid his pain well.) 

Fortunately we were able to say goodbye to him at home, with him cuddled in our arms. It was actually quite beautiful, having that time with him. I will cherish that forever.  

We know it was the right decision and he's at peace now, but we are completely devastated. Living without him is unimaginable. 

Our family is healing, but I wanted to let you know why I've been quieter over the past few months. I didn't realize how much of my time and attention was going to lessening his discomfort until he was gone. We fought so hard for him, but he fought even harder. 

Today was the first day I haven't cried, until now as I type this. 😞

I know many of you have been here with me for years and have seen him in photos over the past 14 years. 💙 He was so loved and we miss him terribly. 

My posting schedule will go back to normal shortly, thank you for hanging in there with me.

Rest in peace, our most beautiful boy. 
We love you, we miss you. 
Peanut, the best dog ever


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