Baskets Keep My Clutter Sane
Hi again! I'm Jaimie, aka paidtwice, and I like stuff. I try not to, I try to embrace simplicity and live a clutter-free life, but it doesn't really shake out that way. I'm not a fan of knick-knacks and trinkets, but I find it very hard to let go of anything that I think might, at some point, be useful to me. I like to feel prepared for just about anything.
Here's the problem with that. I might have the correct and useful item for any number of occasions but since I am drowning in clutter I can't find any of it when I actually need it. It doesn't matter if I have the perfect ribbon to match my daughter's dress if I cannot for the life of me find where I put it.
I've devised a number of organizational hacks to help me not to waste any of what I have, and be able to use it when I need it. One of the central components to this organizational system is my use of baskets. A few pretty and decorative ones, but mostly just cheap white plastic ones that are built for function not design.
The key to using baskets effectively is that a basket, although tempting, is not just a dumping place for random clutter. That just contains your clutter so you have centralized places to shuffle through, but doesn't really do much else in the way of organization. I employ baskets in every cupboard and closet I have to contain specific classes of things. As some examples, in my kitchen cupboard, I have a basket that houses all the sippy cup and straw cup lids and straws. If a cup is missing one, I look there to find it. On a kitchen counter, one houses the mail. Only mail. And that mail gets sorted before the basket overflows (mostly). In my kitchen drawers, I organize a number of different types of items in clearly labeled baskets. Some of the baskets have larger baskets they all stack inside. If I am looking for white thread, I look in the sewing basket. If I'm looking for a nail to hang something, I look in the miscellaneous screws and such basket. In my bathroom, I store extra shampoo and conditioner in a basket, toothpaste and other mouth items in another basket, and medicines in another, all clearly delineated.
Baskets keep me sane.
When I need something, all I have to do is look through the right basket. I'm a hoarder, and I decided it was simpler to finally accept that than keep trying to change it. But using a system to keep areas of chaos organized allows me to be frugal with my time and use it wisely.
Someday I'll let go of my obsessive relationship with stuff. For now, I only aim to keep it under control.
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3 Responses to “Baskets Keep My Clutter Sane”
October 16th, 2008 at 9:53 am
What a great idea! Much better than the mydrid of boxes I have stacked in my spare room and porch. I DO have general areas I keep things, like the hardware/tool closet, etc. I like this idea, especially for us folks that haven’t gotten to letting go of our stuff yet.
Thanks!
October 16th, 2008 at 9:55 am
ok, myriad, sorry.
October 16th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
baskets work great for me too! quilting books in one, quilting magazines in another, a third large basket holds my next project…a nice antique basket holds my ironing…bathroom too for those extra “be good to myself” things….
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