For the Love of Boxes

I have a weakness.  I am a storage junkie.  Well, I'm a moderate storage junkie.  I do not own a Cricut or a Silhouette, nor do I insist on labeling every bin, basket, and box.  Honestly, I tried labeling everything neatly but the tornado that is my son is chaos incarnate.  I think the labels lasted a week before he had removed them all.  I gave up.  And, honestly, most of our things migrate, especially in the play room where collections grow and shrink perpetually.

Buckets and Green bins from Dollar Store

After reading many postings on Google Reader from organizing blogs ("iHeart Organizing" and "Organizing Made Fun" to name two of my favs), I ventured into the land of budget organizing.  I purchased bins and buckets from the local dollar store and found the perfect home for many toy collections.

The toy storage is made possible by the Expedit system from Ikea.  We have the older model, but love it nonetheless.  I am able to put things up high that I don't want the kids into and keep their stuff on the bottom.  It works great for us.  Some of the bins on our unit are from Ikea, but others came from the ClosetMade collection available at Target (purchased cheaply on sale).  It's a mishmash, but it works. This system allows a mess to disappear in seconds, which is a good thing since our room usually looks like this:

I was pretty proud of myself when we took a field trip to Ikea today and I walked away with only a set of the Glis small storage boxes for Anna's Legos and a set of miniature cutting boards.  I considered this a victory in attempt to bring fewer items into our home....until I decided we should head to Costco for another set of clear plastic shoe-sized storage boxes.

I cannot say how much I love these boxes.  They have been perfect for organizing Anna's art supplies and Legos (of which, honestly, she has an oversupply).  I wanted her to be able to locate what she wanted and then get them herself without having to ask for help or dumping small pieces (and or messes!) all over her closet and my kitchen.

I have also used these boxes to organize the hubby's space.  He collects things like old pre-paid cell phones, sim cards, and gadgets, not to mention what I perceive to be a lot of random junk.  Now his items also have a home.

Costco has the best deal on these boxes that I have seen at about $1/piece in a package of 14 boxes (with lids) and they are made in the USA!  Now, the boxes don't stack the greatest.  They do slide.  But, they function as I intended and therefore I was able to overlook this small inconvenience.

Getting organized does not have to be expensive, especially if you take the time to purge before you start shopping for a way to contain what's leftover.  The purpose of organizing in my home is to make our daily activities function more efficiently and neatly, not to simply make my home look pretty.  And, this can be done on a budget and without the latest labeling gizmos.  Get rid of stuff first, and then you won't need all those labels as you'll know right where to find something when you need it.