An Organized Home: Step 3

Baby Steps to an Organized Home:

3
Use Storage Aids

Before you arrange the keepers back in your space, you need to decide if you need dividers or boxes or any other organizational helpers. Buy or make what you need. You might as well make them pleasant to look at while you’re at it. A uniform look is pleasing to the eye, as well as soothing. A jumble of different sizes, shapes, and colors is jarring. So go for uniformity.

Drawer dividers in dressers, desks, and kitchen drawers are helpful if too many unlike things are thrown together in one drawer. With dividers, you’ll be able to separate items into some sort of categories and bring order to the chaos.

In bathroom storage areas, keep toiletries in bins or small drawer units.
We decided our cupboard would work best if we had another stacking unit in the left side too. We measured carefully (noting the water shut-off valve coming through the back wall), then we headed to Big Lots.

We found a drawer unit that looked like it would be a possibility, but we weren't sure if we could get two of them stacked one on top of the other in our space. Even though we had measured before we left, there are so many odd protrusions under a bathroom sink. So we bought just one unit. We also discussed other options for open storage to sit on top of this unit if there wasn't room for two units stacked. We chose white and clear plastic to match what is already in the cupboard.

As it turned out, the one unit fit our space very well. It clears the cupboard door opening, it slides in under the sink plumbing and the shut-off valve. If it hadn't fit well, I would have returned this drawer unit to Big Lots and tried something else, probably from Target.There was not room for a second unit on top, so we went with option #2. Read the next post for the rest of our story.

Through the years I have discovered some other helpful hints on keeping other areas organized:

It’s best to keep all electronic equipment behind closed doors whenever possible. All the cords, power strips, and yawning black screens are not soothing or restful to the eye. Also, electronics have a nasty habit of attracting dust. Behind closed doors cuts down on that dust.

For children, contain toys in bins on shelves. It’s important to give your children enough easy-to-use storage so that they are able to clean up. It’s also helpful for school age children to have their own file box or drawer for their artwork and papers. They can keep their memorabilia here during the year, then in the summer add these items to their scrapbooks.

Come back next week for Step 4.

Previous posts in the series:
My Story
Step 1
Step 2