Organizing With Baskets In Your Home

As I was recently looking around my home, I realized I have a lot of baskets. I love organizing with baskets or totes or anything similar to a basket form. I think I have a basket for organizing every single room in my house.

Bedroom and Closet

I probably have the most baskets in my bedroom and closet. They are a great way to store smaller loose items, accessories or small articles of clothing.

We have quite a few pairs of slippers and since they didn’t have a designated home they ended up all over the house. Since they were scattered, sometimes I could only find one slipper. Quick solution – a basket. By putting it in the corner of our bedroom, I’ve solved the problem of misplacing my slippers.

The closet is another place I have multiple fabric storage bins. I try to use every inch of space for storage. This probably means I should have less stuff but in the meantime, I am working on having a more organized home. Instead of just shoving clothes or accessories under the bottom shelves or on top of the top shelf, I’m organizing with baskets. Not only will you know where your items are but it looks so much better! The baskets on the top shelf are great for storing items you don’t often use.

Some ideas may be to store belts, scarves, undergarments, tights or work clothes (for around the home or yard work). Really the list is endless and I’m sure your storage needs are different from mine but those are some ways I use them. If you need closet storage ideas, check out my How to Organize Your Clothes – Closets and Drawers or Best Closet System.

 

Shoes

With a husband who loves shoes, 2 kids and myself, there are shoes everywhere in my home. Similar to my slipper issue, sometimes it was a struggle to find both shoes in the pair. I’m not sure how but my daughter could leave one shoe in the basement and one shoe in the living room. I discovered a great way for our family shoe problem was that each person has their own basket.

This works especially great for the kids. I have found that if my kids know exactly where something is supposed to go, they are more likely to put them away. When it is time to go somewhere, this also helps cut down the time of them looking for shoes. And trust me, my daughter needs all the help she can get in getting ready in a timely manner! 😀

Kitchen

The kitchen may not be the first room you think of when you think of using baskets to organize, however, you may be surprised. On top of your fridge is a great place for storage. Whether you want to store snacks, lunch items or paper goods, it is a great place to add storage to your kitchen. eHow shows how to decorate the top of your fridge for storage including baskets.

In your kitchen pantry or shelves, small baskets (or even plastic bins) are ideal for sorting loose items like granola bars or fruit snacks. They also work for small jars like spices. This is handy since it allows you to pull all the jars out and look at them instead of trying to reach through them all to get to that last spice jar in the back.

Bookshelf

We have bookshelves on either side of our fireplace but they can be used for more than just books. I found some fabric bins that fit perfectly on the bottom shelf. I can now store kids toys and I don’t have to see them! Each bin has it is own use – legos, wood blocks, and train tracks. Again, the kids know exactly where the toys are and where they need to go for clean up. It is also nice that they can take the fabric bin to the spot they want to play and then easily put the toys back in the bin and carry it back to the bookshelf. (If you want more ideas on how to organize kid’s toys, visit Organizing Toys Ideas)

We also use fabric bins in my son’s room on his bookshelf.

Toys

I think the biggest culprit of the mess in our house is toys. They are kind of like rabbits in that they quickly multiply. My best storage for toys is baskets and fabric cubes. I know this may sound repetitive but again, each bin has it is own kind of toy. Whether it is dolls, legos, Lincoln logs or matchbox cars, I use baskets to organize them all. For miscellaneous items, I also have bins designated for each child.

If you need toy storage ideas, check out my page Organizing Toy Ideas.

Bathroom

Small plastic baskets are great for organizing small items in your bathroom drawers or on shelves. You can use these baskets to organize your different supplies – makeup, nail polish, toiletries, medicines, etc.

If you don’t have any storage for towels, roll up your towels and store them in a large basket like this photo from Life Storage.

You could also do this with a small basket for hand towels on your bathroom counter.

Laundry

I use a large basket to organize my clothes that need to be ironed. Since ironing is definitely NOT my favorite household chore, once the clothes are washed it sometimes takes a little while before I get to ironing them. So I put them in a basket until I am ready to iron.

Conclusion

I am honestly not sure how I ended up with so many baskets or storage cubes in my home but they have definitely put to good use. Even now are we are purging some items in our basement, I am finding more empty baskets and bins. I won’t be throwing them out because I know at some point I will continue organizing with baskets.

I would love to know if you use fabric bins or baskets to organize your home. What’s the best way you have found to use them? If you have any questions for me please leave them in the comment section. I would be happy to answer them as best as I can.