Use-What-You-Have Organizing & Storage

Every year as the year begins I vow to get our house back in order and get fully organized. While most of this is wishful thinking with three young children in our home, I still gotta make the effort, right?! I could really go overboard on buying all sorts of containers to get organized, but with budgetary constraints and a desire not to waste that which is already in my hand, I've tried to repurpose some items around our home.

Baby food jars make nice containers to corral little items in the junk drawer and make good spice jars for spices purchased in bulk.

Open top apple boxes nicely hold bulky toy sets and larger items in the garage. We've picked up several of these very sturdy boxes from the warehouse club over the last year and they've been very handy.

Plastic salad containters make good dresser drawer dividers for socks and underthings. These come from the large tubs of spring mix or spinach at the warehouse club.

Divided vegetable trays have come in handy for storing things in our bathroom drawers. I found several vegetable trays a few weeks ago marked down in the produce section of the grocery store. After we finished eating the vegetables, these were washed up and put to work to keep order in one of those spots that seems to always get messy.

Clear zippered bags have been repurposed for storing children's clothing.

Colored gift boxes add a punch of color to closets and good storage for out of season clothing, shoes or accessories.

Baby wipes containers have a multitude of uses in our household. We stocked up on a wipes sale this year and now have several empty boxes to use.
- stuff with rolled up plastic grocery bags and keep by the changing table for messy diapers
- store homemade wipes
- remove lid and have drawer dividers for the kitchen, office, bathroom and closets
- remove lid and have a bin for baby socks, shoes or baby toiletries
- emergency baby kit for the car tucked under a seat – fill with a couple diapers, travel wipes, one receiving blanket, a plastic bag and an extra one-piece outfit or onesie
- refill with disposable wipes
- remove lid and store diapers upright in it on the changing table
- remove lid and use as a toy for playing in the sand or snow
- store little toys or art supplies

Buckets store kids' toiletries and make clearing the counters and cleaning the bathroom a snap.

I'm always on the lookout for new ideas for reusing items, so please share storage solutions that have worked in your home.