A Place for Everything and Everything in Its Place {Almost!}
April 04, 2025
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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!:
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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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
You can see how I removed the wire shelves in that closet and replaced them with wood.
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:
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!:
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:
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:
|
| 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):
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:
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:
We have a gorgeous credenza in our basement that serves as storage as well:
We keep some odds and ends like extra charging cords in the drawers, and
puzzles in the bottom cabinets:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
The
giant wall of built ins
I created in our basement also offers so much great storage:
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:
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:
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:
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.
And finally, I found some helpful
solutions for storing photographs, kid's art and paper memorabilia:
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.
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Thank you for all those tips! I have a inexpensive one to share.
ReplyDeleteEvery time I go for groceries (Lidl for me), I come back with cardboard boxes used for vegetables by stores. They have no lid and are about L40cm W25cm D15cm.
So, I use these boxes in deep cupboard or storage unit as a drawer, eg. for the many open flour packets. They are sturdy enough to hold the pulling and pushing of the drawer. I also used them in the garage to sort items out, as the boxes are made to be piled up.
It is not as cute as your plastic boxes, but it is very useful to organise items for cheap!
Oh Sarah, I’m so sorry for your loss of sweet Peanut. He obviously had a wonderful life being a part of your family.
ReplyDeleteThe loss of a furry family member is heartbreaking! Sending healing thoughts to your family.
ReplyDeleteI have a very deep hallway cabinet I use as a linen storage, etc. I find it difficult to keep it neat because things are pushed to the back. Hard to find things...and then there is the space in the front of the shelves that eventually get cluttered up with stuff. I bought rectangular baskets to try to corral things, but it still isn't the optimum way to organize. Ugh!
ReplyDeleteSo sorry for your loss, losing a fur baby is devastating. Peanut clearly lived a long and wonderful life in your care!!
ReplyDeleteI’m so sorry for your loss Sarah. Losing a pet is one of the hardest things in life.
ReplyDeleteIt is nice that you can be so very organized; thank you for sharing how to.
ReplyDeleteFor the wire shelves - I have seen people use inexpensive plywood and just make an L shaped 'topper' so the shelf is the long side and a small return the depth of the wire shelf. That way you can just cover them up and it looks like a thick wood shelf without having to build wood supports.
ReplyDeleteThinking of you during your time of loss.
ReplyDeleteI have been reading your blog for many years- over a decade? Peanut always made me smile. What an absolute cutie! Thank you for sharing him with us, and I am sending you hugs.
ReplyDelete