Annie Southam
Everyone is entitled to a junk drawer. I give myself just one in the kitchen for any useful thing I need to have on hand. Pens, paperclips, matches, you name it! I have a slight tendency towards OCD. Keeping a junk drawer tells me I haven’t yet crossed over the line. However, when I think about a beautiful, clean, decorated home.. And then opening any closet or cupboard and seeing a bunch of junk! This just will not do. Organize closets and pantries by using clear containers and small baskets. Save empty jars for a resourceful recycle win!
Combine Like Things
When I would visit my grandparents, I would open any drawer in my grandmother’s desk and see everything organized in such a cute way, it was like a hidden surprise. In fact, one of the mementos I have of hers is a little magnetic container used to organize paper clips. So weird, I know, but I love stuff like that. I wasn’t interested in the china, hand over that paperclip container! A desk looks so cute when you keep items organized in vintage containers. Keep office supplies handy and hidden in little boxes or old sewing kits. Go thrift shopping and use your imagination!
Organize With Recycled Boxes
For organizing drawers, I copy my grandmother. I use little gift boxes, jewelry boxes, and pencil boxes to store anything I have in there. The more colorful the container, the better. Try to find sturdy boxes that will last and feel free to replace them as often as you like. Opening a junk drawer or drawer for kitchen utensils suddenly becomes like a little surprise. It makes thrift shopping fun too, because little fun containers are abundant, cheap, and often overlooked.
Use Flower Pots
I don’t have the greenest of thumbs, so I tend to have flower pots around after the poor plant has gone its merry way. Instead of tossing the container, or having a cupboard or closet full pots, I clean them out and use them for storage. When I get another plant, I can just grab the right-sized pot and transfer my stuff to something else. It’s easy to get creative because we keep so much stuff like that around our houses anyway.
Use Vintage Containers
For jewelry, I keep a drawer full of fun, pretty, vintage containers and it feels like a treasure trove whenever I open it. Check out our friend Heather @howtobefancy on Instagram and see how she neatly stores her makeup in vintage boxes. There are tons of pretty jewelry hangers and trays that are circulating around right now that you can buy fairly inexpensively. Forget the wooden, velvet-lined box – keep jewelry displayed on a dresser as décor, or organized in a drawer like I do. The best containers for jewelry are silver trays, ceramic bowls, or glass tchotchkes.
Reuse + Recycle
Tackle just one drawer or cupboard at a time, and soon you’ll be addicted too. You’ll start looking at every little box or pot and think, “now what can I put in this?” It’s a great reuse/ recycle action and I believe we can find joy and abundance in what we already own. Check out Gina’s article from Friday on finding abundance in minimalism. She’s got some inspirational reads for you in there that will get you on the right track mentally.
Share Your Ideas!
Staying organized is not hard, it just takes a little practice. The more fun you make it for yourself, the easier it will be for you to keep up. If you have any great ideas, I’d love to hear them! Please share in the comments below.