We aren’t the kind of household that can handle empty organizational containers and bins. Don’t get me wrong, I have a fascination with organizational boxes, bins and things. The Container Store is one of my favorite places. I also love reusing containers from one part of the house for a new, even better fit somewhere else when I’m organizing. I love the thrill of the hunt and the little lift when I find just the right bowl, box or holder. However, I have noticed recently that any type of temporary container solution seems to attract a big pile of things to deal with later.
If you are like me, later often doesn’t happen. This results in having neatly folded clothes in a bin outside a bedroom door just sitting there, waiting, waiting, waiting for a youngster to put them away. Or a billion plastic toys wanting a forever home, waiting in a large laundry basket for weeks. Yes, I admit it.
What I have figured out is that the best use of containers is to contain things as a permanent home for the items, rather than a temporary holding spot. “Temporary” quickly becomes longterm in our house. So, the rule of “DO IT NOW” seems like the best solution to any of my brilliant ideas of containing items to deal with later. I had a bin of tiny toys to sort through that I rescued from under beds and in random spots from the kids’ rooms. I had laundry bins used as sorting bins for give-away items, both kids had the bins near their rooms for clean folded clothes that were supposed to go into drawers and closets. What I ended up noticing is that I had a fun event each time we had guests stay with us; it was called, “move all the bins into my closet”. So, I would fill up the master closet floor with all these pretty bins and there they sat, or more precisely got shuffled a couple of feet this way and that so we could get dressed each morning.
I am tired of moving these boxes and bins around and I’m aiming for “a place for everything and everything in its place”. So, I’m revamping my daily routines to include a start-to-finish approach to tasks. Things seem much easier to manage when I schedule the time to complete the job and don’t hold it in a bin for later. I try so hard to keep my daily tasks to a minimum, but know in my heart that anything that is only half done on one day makes a compounding amount of work for me down the line.
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So now I will put these lovely containers to better use and give them a proper job. One will hold extra blankets and pillows in our guest room to keep those items together. Another will hold items in my laundry room that need to be mended. I enjoy using pretty baskets and bins when these will sit outside of the closets and pantry, but my favorite bins for inside closets are simple see-through plastic containers. I use them for organizing our food, clothes and medicines. In most cases I remove the lids and put them aside in case I need them later, but I like to be able to stand things up and easily get to the contents inside. My favorite type is the IRIS 6 quart Clear Storage Box, 12 Pack
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