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!
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| 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! :)
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| 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!
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| 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!
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