If you’re constantly buying boxes to organize and store your stuff (and throwing money down the drain with every reorganization project), you can try two things. One: keep storage solutions that can be used in multiple ways (a shoe box, for example). Two (and most important): try to use what you already have to store your stuff and organize your life.
Using what you have requires thinking outside the box. But you don’t need to reinvent the storage solution. You can follow some of the smartest storage advice out there:
1- Hang snack bags on shelves with trouser hangers
Next time you’re looking for a clothespin, consider putting on a pants hanger from the closet. When packages are suspended in the air, you have more space to store other things underneath them.
2- Use boxes on the inside of bathroom cabinet doors
Doors are a good place to have more storage space. In that case, adding boxes to the inside of bathroom cabinet doors gives you space to store items you need to pick up frequently, like hair products.
3- Place small appliances on caster stands
Tired of bending down to pick up appliances? This brilliant trick – putting them on simple, inexpensive mounts with casters – makes small devices stay in storage and within easy reach.
4- Use a hanging clothing organizer to store board games
If you don’t have extra shelves to store your board game collection, make some with this inexpensive and practical object. A hanging cabinet organizer provides instant shelving in any cabinet and allows you to stack board games.
5- Hang a silverware organizer on the wall to store jewelry
If you have an old-fashioned drawer organizer, try adding some hooks inside the compartments, hanging them on the wall, and using them to store necklaces, earrings, and other jewelry.
6- Stack gym weights on a wine rack
Exercise equipment is bulky and difficult to store in a small apartment. A wine rack provides a discreet and perfectly sized storage solution for the weights you use when exercising. Camouflage them between bottles (or vice versa).
7- Store Christmas ornaments in egg cartons
Small ornaments fit perfectly in egg cartons. They are padded and separated from each other, and the firm box prevents them from being crushed. Also, it is possible to stack several egg cartons.
8- Use tension bars to store pans vertically
Stacked pans are never practical. Using tension bars to create dividers in kitchen cabinets allows you to vertically store roasting pans and platters so you can see what you have and pick it up without disassembling everything on top.
9- Reuse cookie tins as sewing boxes
Join thousands of families who remember a relative storing sewing items in a cookie tin. If you ever felt that after the cookies ran out, this tin was too good to throw away, you were right. Store threads, needles, buttons, and basic home sewing supplies in this robust, perfectly shaped storage solution. Of course, it would also be great for storing other small household items like first aid supplies or batteries.
10-Separate small items with silicone cupcake molds
Silicone cupcake liners are perfect for storing small items like safety pins, paper clips or staples in drawers.
11- Use hanging organizers to store toilet paper
That bundle of toilet paper doesn’t fit in any closet, and you probably don’t want to lean on an avalanche of paper every time you need a new roll. So a hanging cabinet organizer with narrow dividers puts paper rolls out of the way but within reach (safe).
12- Use a kitchen sink sponge holder to store small packages in the refrigerator
This discreet plastic sponge holder can be attached to virtually any smooth surface, including the inside of the refrigerator. Use it to organize the bundle packages.
13- Bath and beauty items with a sponge holder too
With the suction cups, you can place it on the shower wall to get a few extra square inches of storage for your toiletries. Then stick another one on your makeup mirror to hide the makeup brushes.
14- Store your bedding exactly where you will need it
Instead of wishing you had a bigger closet, store your extra sheet sets in the room you use them. Specifically, store them under the mattress where they will eventually be used. They are out of sight, take up virtually no space and are kept safe from dust. Fold them wide and thin so you don’t get weird bumps under the mattress.
15- Stack baking sheets for extra refrigerator shelves
When you run out of space in the fridge, place a baking sheet on a flat surface and you’re done! There’s an instant extra shelf.
16- Use shower curtain rings as the carabiners in your home
Plastic shower curtain rings are often inexpensive and are your carabiners at home, allowing you to attach items and hang them where you couldn’t before (like scarves and hats on a hanger). You’ll love having them handy as you think of new uses for them.
