Conquer The Clutter….Thrifty Storage Solutions

Get Organized With These Thrifty Storage Solutions Using Reused, Redesigned and Recycled Items

If you are anything like me your home may occasionally get to a point where the clutter gets out of control. You know, when you open a closet and something falls out and hits you on the head, or you can’t find your sunglasses and after a seemingly endless search you finally pull them out of a bathroom drawer stuck to some Halloween candy your son stashed in there three years ago? You may need a few thrifty storage solutions that are fun to make and will help conquer the clutter!

When you get to this point it’s time to do some serious purging and organizing. There’s no need to start shopping for expensive totes, bins and miscellaneous containers to get organized. Start by looking around your own home to see how you can be repurpose everyday items into pretty and functional organizational solutions.

Thrifty Storage Solutions

Shoe Boxes: Decorative cardboard storage boxes are very popular right now and they can get expensive if you need a bunch of them. Most of us have some old shoe boxes lying around the house. They can be turned into attractive storage boxes by decoupaging pretty paper to the outside (and inside if you are so inclined). You can pick up inexpensive wrapping paper and very pretty Scrapbook Paper online your local craft shop. You can also purchase storage boxes like the one below online at Michaels.com.


Glass Jars: Save your empty pickle, jelly and mayonnaise jars. Give them a good washing, remove the labels and you’ll have a great little place to store small items. Give the lids a quick coat of spray paint in the color of your choice and they become pretty too. They would work great in a bathroom. Use them to display cotton swabs, cotton balls, and soaps on the counter within easy reach.


Old Tool Boxes: An old tool box or tackle box can be a great place to organize jewelry, craft supplies or stationary. I also love the rustic charm they can add to a room.

Recycled Toolbox Storage Solutions

Old Dresser Drawers: Before throwing away that old dresser stop and think. Did you know you can reuse the drawers? Pull out the drawers, add some inexpensive casters to the bottom of each one and use them for under the bed storage like Disfunctional Designs did here! You can use them to store out of season clothing, magazines and other things you may want to stash out of sight.

Photo Source: DisfunctionalDesigns.blogspot.com

 

Muffin Tins: Have an old muffin tin lying about? Clean it up, give it a coat of spray paint and give it a slight distressing! Set in on a desk top in a home office and keep paper clips, rubber bands, stamps and other small items in it.


Cookie Sheets: Spray paint an old cookie sheet, hang it on a wall, add some magnets and you have an instant memo board like this one created over at Crate Paper’s Blog by Tara Anderson . You may want to test it first to make sure the magnets stick before you go through the trouble of painting it. Not all cookie sheets are magnetic.

Source: Crate Paper Blog

Shutters: Paint a small vintage shutter or piece of scrap wood to match your décor, add hooks and hang on your wall. You now have a pretty coat rack to hang in your entryway or use it to hang towels on in your bathroom. You could also hang one vertically on a wall and use the slots to sort your mail.

Vintage Shutter Coat rack

TIP: When hanging the shutter be sure to use wall anchors or screw directly into a stud for needed support. Wet towels and coats can get heavy.

Tin Cans: I am sure we all can remember making pencil holders from old soup cans when we were in Elementary school. Wasn’t that fun? Who says we can’t do that now? I always use old cans around the house. I use them to hold my paint brushes, markers, pens and pencils. If you want to stash them out in plain sight you can wrap them in decorative paper or give them a fresh coat of spray paint. I painted these cans a soft green and placed them in a thrift store wire caddy. I think it looks cute!


Old Doors: This is one of my favorite projects! I have a rather small kitchen and it was lacking a proper pantry. I needed more storage space and wanted to keep most of my dry goods and canned goods in one place instead of stashing them here and there. I had some scrap wood, a set of old closet doors and a vintage door I picked up at a thrift store just sitting in my garage.  I created a pantry from recycled doors . I secured it to a small unused wall in my kitchen and I love it! To read more on this project visit my post Creating A New Pantry From Recycled Doors .

Vintage Suitcases: Vintage suitcases are one of my favorite thrifty storage solutions. If you have a couple of vintage suitcases hiding in your attic like this one from Etsy shop FawnandFiligree, bring them on down and clean them up. They look great and they are wonderful for storing magazines, fabric remnants, really anything at all! You can stash a lot of goodies in an old suitcase. I have one that I keep my entire gift wrapping supplies in. They also look wonderful stacked on top of one another.

Vintage Suitcases Storage Solutions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So far I have reorganized my storage unit and my garage. It’s so nice to be able to find the things I need when I am working on a project or shipping orders! My Organization To-Do List for this year also includes cleaning out closets, (mainly my master bedroom closet) and going through all of our dresser drawers to purge clothes we don’t wear or don’t fit anymore.  Miss Jingles is exhausted just watching me declutter and reorganize…..

Sleepy Puppy

Have you come up with a few of your own thrifty storage solutions? I would love to know about them!

Thanks so much for visiting today!

~Lisa

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9 Responses

  1. Shirley Moody

    Lisa,
    This all looks so fabulous that I want you at my house right now!!
    Great ideas!
    Shirley

  2. Jane F

    You’ve given so many great ideas in this post and it’s all so creative. Lovely! Thanks for stopping by. Jane

  3. Meeha Meeha

    Wow, thank you for this wonderful post! So many ideas – I live in a small apartment and I’m in constant need of storage solutions. The pantry post is terrific – wonderful job! I’m also you newest follower 🙂

    • Lisa Hogan

      Thanks so much for visiting my blog and your kind comments. I will have to stop by your blog and visit too.

  4. Susan T. Lawson

    Hi Lisa,

    I especially like the use of the muffin tin to organize small items.

    And your pup is precious. What is her name?

    Thanks for all your useful tips and great ideas.

    Susan

    • Lisa

      HI Susan,
      My dog’s name is Jingles. She was my daughter’s Christmas puppy a few years ago. I am smitten with her. She has become such a huge part of our family. She’s like one of my kids. 🙂

  5. Ann Knickerbocker

    I like your ideas and love your dog, too. I mentioned her in an earlier comment. I’m glad you include her in your postd.

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