Great Organization Tip for Storage!

First off, credit for this idea goes to a book called Emilie Barnes' 15 Minute Home and Family Organizer.  I don't know if this book is even available anymore, but I picked it up for FREE at a homeschool swap day.  It's got some good tips.  I haven't made it very far into it yet, but I really loved this storage organization tip.  So, I'm sharing it with you!

Here's how my storage plan went previously.  I put a general label on the outside of the box and stacked the storage tubs up in the garage.  This worked okay, but when I wanted to find something in particular, I had to pull down lots of boxes sometimes to find it.  Also, I could not put much more than one category of something per tub or the labels would get way too complicated!

One Stack in the Garage

So, the new storage plan involves tubs which are labeled as follows.  A letter of the alphabet is assigned to a category and then a number goes with the letter for each box in the category.  For instance, my first set of boxes is A1-A7 (so far).  "A" is for "apparel" and I love that the label letter coordinates with what's stored there.  My next set of boxes should begin with "B", but I may just have to skip on to "C" for "Christmas" or "celebrations" and store all the holiday items under that letter!  :)

Boxes A6 & A7

When you store things in the boxes, you also make a coordinating index card for that box and place it on a ring with all the other storage index cards.  On the index card, you detail what is in the box: sizes, gender and season of clothing, decorative items, etc.  You could also make a spreadsheet on the computer.  I would recommend keeping a hard copy and one stored on the computer, that way you have a back-up if something happens to one of them.  It would be a lot of work to go back and re-catalog all the box contents!

My Index Card Ring!

This new system, in combination with my new attic storage, has got me super excited!  Now all I have to do is flip through my index cards, find what I want, and say, "John, could you please get me box A5  when you get a chance?"  Fabulous!  Happy organizing!

Please comment with any storage organization tips that work well in your own home so we can all benefit!