The Power of Bins

Last summer I went on a major reorganization kick down here at the beach house. And I discovered how wonderful bins are. Bins of all kinds…fabric, wire mesh, baskets, plastic, you name it. Ok, I understand that this is not necessarily breaking news, but for whatever reason, I had never really used bins much in my closets, preferring instead to take the pile approach.

Our beach house is set up galley style…you walk in the door into a living area, then straight into the kitchen and then into another living area. There are two closets which flank the area next to the door (which means that you can see them from where ever you are). So when they look like this, it is probably time to do something about it.:

As you can see, there are many different types of things stored here—life jackets, coolers, otter boxes, phone books, blankets, beach bags, dust busters, you name it. 

And here is where bins work so well. A stack of phone books or a pile of blankets just look messy on a shelf, but put them in a cloth bin and the mess is solved. The difference is amazing. So after finding new homes for some things (like the life jackets) and corralling the rest into bins, this is what the closet looked like:

Pretty amazing, huh? And much easier on the eyes. The striped and solid blue bins came from Bed, Bath and Beyond. The flowered bins came from The Container Store and add a fun touch. I really like them.

Things are still piled up, but since the piles are contained in bins, they are not an eyesore. Plus the bins keep everything from falling over. Such an easy and simple fix. Have no idea why it took me so long to realize this.

This summer the closet has filled up a bit more (the top shelf is where I keep some of my empty smaller bins until I need them and I now use one of the bins to keep our bike helmets and locks) but it still looks really nice and is incredibly functional.

It also brings a smile to my face when I look over at it. Little things can make a big difference.