Sep 10
Here at Unclutterer, we work hard to think up the best ideas and tips to share with you. Sometimes, though, we come across a brilliant idea from someone else that’s so brilliant, so ingenious, that I smack my forehead and declare, “Why didn’t I think of that?!” Here are 10 such examples, many of which you can implement in no time and realize great benefit.
- Garbage bags on a paper towel rack. This diddy from Pinterest is fabulous. Why not buy an extra wall-mounted paper towel roll and put the garbage bags on it? Fantastic.
- DIY containers. The clever folks at Stockpiling Moms have re-purposed Coffee Mate containers to hold pretzels, crackers and other perishable dry goods. I love this idea because my kids always mangle the boxes or bags these types of snacks usually ship in, resulting in stale crackers and worse: an open invitation to ants. Seal them up tightly to avoid both unpleasantries.
- Refrigerator lazy Susan. How in the world did I not think of this? The next time you must push aside the mustard and the jelly and the mayo just to find the milk, consider placing a small lazy Susan inside of your refrigerator. All you’ve got to do then is give it a spin and find what you like. So clever.
- One-dollar hat organizer. My wife almost flipped when she saw this one. I’ve collected an obscene number of baseball hats. Not willfully, but they all just show up for one reason or another. =One wooden hanger plus a dollar’s worth of shower curtain rings and presto! Instant baseball hat organizer. I love it.
- Label office clips. I could have used this when I was a teacher. Just get out your labeler (oh how I love my labeler) and use your clips to easily identify various stacks of paper. As I teacher I could have used “Corrected,” “For Monday” or “Circle.” It’s such a simple but useful idea.
- Organize under the sink. The cabinet underneath my kitchen sink is a bottomless, disorganized pit. When the kids were born, we shut it off with a childproof lock, as it contains dangerous chemicals. The trouble is I never paid it any more attention. Here’s a super clever solution for under the sink that uses nothing more than a curtain rod and a few plastic baskets. The curtain rod is an especially good idea.
- Get clever with casserole dishes. When I was young, my mother kept casserole dishes in the oven. That’s a good idea, until you need to use the oven, then it’s a debate about where you’re going to stash that pile of large, bulky, glass dishes. This clever idea uses a pegboard and some dowels to keep everything upright and accessible. Plus, you can re-arrange the pegs as you lose or acquire new dishes.
- Ceiling-mounted sliding storage. This is so inspiring I can’t wait to do it myself. Family Handy Man has all the instructions for getting the storage bins up off the floor and onto the ceiling. By building some custom wooden rails, you can keep you stuff together and out of the way.
- Rain gutters to keep spray paint. This is another organizing idea for the garage (or basement). A clever soul on Flickr has used household rain gutters to keep cans of spray paint organized and tidy. Very nice indeed.
- Cabinet door magnet. My daughter’s hobbies include losing bobby pins. As my wife recently remarked, “I think she eats them.” This clever fix is really just a magnetic strip fastened to the inside of a cabinet door. It holds the wayward pins quite nicely.
I love finding little unexpected ideas like this, especially when they work so well. If you have one of your own, I’d love to read about it in the comments.
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The Props series by Frederick McSwain—part of the exhibition Off the Grid at Gallery R’Pure last spring
