The Everyday Banker

Spring is a perfect time to organize all the storage areas in the house.  By getting storage closets, spare rooms, laundry rooms and even the basement and garage organized, you will find space you didn’t even realize you had.

The best way to tackle storage is to do one small area at a time.  This gives you the space and the time to consider what items to keep, what items to donate, and what needs to simply be discarded.  It also prevents frustration and allows you to avoid feeling overwhelmed with what can be a large task, depending on how many areas you plan to work through.

To help you get started, here are some tips for all rooms of the house for creating more storage space and keeping items organized.

• Kitchen – Use plastic bins with lids to store similar small items. This gets rid of the dreaded storage drawer where it is impossible to find anything.   Use labels to make it easy to know just which container you need to grab to find just what you want.
• Magazine racks repurposed – Those metal magazine racks are the perfection option for storing all types of food wraps, aluminum foil or even plastic bags for the kitchen. They stay organized and can be placed in a cupboard, freeing up yet another drawer.
• Bathroom cleaning supplies – Us a large plastic pail to store all the supplies you need for bathroom cleaning. This means you only need one set of all supplies, and they can be easily carried wherever needed in the house.
• Makeup and personal items – Consider using drawer bins to store make up and personal supplies. This keeps everything neat and also helps to prevent spills and messes.  Go through all of these items and discard anything that is old, unused, or no longer working or needed.
• Garage storage – Use hooks on the garage walls to make an easy storage area for ladders and garden tools. There are a variety of individual hooks, tool holders and brackets at any home supply store that are ideal for the task.
• Pegboard – For the kitchen, the garage, a craft room, or even a home office, pegboard makes an easy option for storage of tools, supplies, and equipment that is easy to find at a just a glance.

Look for options that make storage easy without adding to the clutter or resulting in even more confusion in locating what you need.