Organizing your home or office doesn’t have to cost a fortune. Chances are, there are perfectly good organizational tools coming into your house all the time, and you’re throwing them straight into the garbage.
Much of what we buy comes in its own packaging, and as soon as we open it or as soon as we are done with the product, we throw the packaging out. Instead of tossing it in the trash, re-purpose the packaging around your home or office.
- egg cartons: These are great for storing small crafting or sewing supplies. Beads, thimbles, stickers, those little sticky-back jewels…they can all be stored in the individual compartments of an empty egg carton. You can cut the lid off and have an easy view of your stored supplies, or leave the lids on for stackable storage.
- shoeboxes: For more than just shoes (although they work great for those, too!). You can put just about anything in these – in my house we use them for toys. You can also pop one on your kitchen shelf our counter to corral your spice jars, use them to store gift wrapping supplies, or use them as dividers in sock or office drawers.
- shipping boxes: If you order things online, or receive gifts in the mail, the product generally comes in a box. Depending on what you order, you can get a good variety of sizes of boxes to work with. They can be used for toys, sports gear, tools, long term storage…anything really. Shipping boxes tend to be especially sturdy, which is great for heavier or higher-use items.
- tea boxes: This is another one that great for sewers and crafters. These little boxes are great for storing ribbons or small adornments. Again, you can leave the tops off for an easy view or leave the tops on to make them stackable. With the tops removed, they’re great in an office drawer to hold paper and binder clips, post-it pads, and business cards. They’re also the perfect size to leave on an end table or nightstand, giving you somewhere consistent to throw your keys when you come home (which means somewhere you know just where your keys will be when you are ready to walk back out!).
- cereal boxes: Cereal boxes can be turned into magazine holders or storage for your printer paper. You can also cut them down to drawer height and use them as dividers, keeping your silverware, office supplies, or kitchen tools organized, protected, and easy to see.
- baby food jars: If you have glass baby food jars, you can buy spices in bulk (which will save you money) and keep them in the jars. They’re also great in shops and garages to hold screws, nails, bolts, and the like. The bonus is that since the jar is clear, you can easily see what you have inside and how much of it is left.
- tin cans: These are also great in the garage for larger/longer screws and nails. If you have some of the larger tin cans, like the one your coffee comes in, you can use them to hold hand tools such as screwdrivers and wrenches. Just watch and make sure there are no sharp edges along the tops.
- tissue box: This is one of my personal favorites. Many stores sell plastic bag holders, and they usually run about $20. There is no need to spend this money. The next time you use the last tissue, keep the box and store your plastic shopping bags in it. They’re easily accessible through the top of the box (where you used to pull the tissues out), and they hold a surprisingly large number of bags.
- cardboard tubes: The tubes inside your toilet paper and paper towel rolls can be used to corral wires under your computer desk or near your television. Just run the wires through the tube to neaten things up a bit (and while you’re at it, grab some labels and mark each wire so that you know what it leads to!).
- plastic tubs: There are all sorts of products that come in plastic tubs, from powdered laundry detergents to yogurt to ricotta cheese. Give the containers a good washing and use them as pen holders, to keep your kids’ crayons together, or to store just about anything, really. Most of these containers even come with lids, should you need them. Some people cut the tops off of laundry detergent or milk jugs and use those as containers as well, but I’m not really a fan of this since the edges tend to be pretty sharp.
Also, remember that these solutions are totally customizable! Besides picking containers that are just the size you need for the task at hand, you can decorate the containers in any way you want. Boxes can be wrapped with wrapping paper, newspaper, shelf liners, magazine pages, or wallpaper in any pattern or color that you like. Store photos from your wedding in a shoebox covered with wedding-themed wrapping paper, cover your shelf dividers with liners that match the inside of your drawers, wrap your kitchen storage with recipes or pictures of food cut from magazines. If you’re using a box to store toys or art supplies for your kids, either use a plain box or wrap the box in plain paper and let them decorate it with stickers and markers. Most glass jars and tin cans have paper labels that can easily be removed with hot soapy water. You can then replace the labels with something you find more attractive, or add your own labels to the jars. With a little creativity, you may find that that tea box you would have thrown in the trash ends up looking so good that people will ask you where you bought it!
