How to Use and Reuse…

This is a guest post written by Professional Organizer Lea Schneider from Pensacola FL and owner of OrganizeRightNow.com.

Hunting for a photo for a scrapbook page, I stumbled upon this cute picture.

Of course, the baby is cute (she’s mine so I am prejudiced) but what really caught my eye was the container the tub toys are in. That’s Rubbermaid circa. 1980’s and that baby is now married and has a home of her own.

The reason the container caught my eye is that I had just stuck a label to it last week.

My January project was to get the do-dads in the garage organized. You know do-dad, right? The parts for this and that, paint stir sticks, different kinds of caulk, boxes of nails and screws and more. There are all kinds of things a homeowner needs but it doesn’t help to own them if you can’t find them.

Enter the 1980’s Rubbermaid containers. Purchased to store toys, they’ve held everything from toy race cars to doll clothes as they worked their way through three children. They moved on to hold school supplies and craft items. Now they’ve turned the garage clutter into a garage in control.

As a professional organizer, I choose products for clients or help them make decisions. One of the things I always tell them is to choose a product that flexes with your family. As your family grows and as your hobbies and interests change, so do your storage needs.

Next time you need storage products, consider these questions and criteria:

• Will this product fit the space I need to put it in?
• Will everything fit in it?
• Suppose I didn’t need it anymore for its original purpose. What else could I do with it?
• Is it sturdy enough to last and hold up to use?
• Is there a place to attach a label of some kind?

If you can answer those questions, you investment in organizing will pay off for many years to come. My only worry now is that the baby will see this and come home to claim those bins for her own house!