Here's how I used Container Store items to organize our Expedit bookcases

[justlearning]

Just a quick thanks - I ordered some shoe boxes!
Barbie

Oh, I forgot to talk about their shoe boxes. I found that they didn't work well for the Expedit shelves but they were useful in organizing my pantry (in addition to organizing supplies in my bathroom and closet). I'm attaching a picture showing how I'm using them in my pantry. I like them for storing bags that tend to fall over as well as snacks for the kids. I individually bag raisins or other healthy snacks so they're ready to grab for lunches and keep those stored in the shoe boxes on my shelves. For $1 (less with the coupon), they seem to work well for that purpose.

[soontobe]

It depends on the space that you have. For my kids' clothes, I used very large rubbermaid containers that fit on their shelf above their hanging clothes rod. They hold a ton of stuff and were cheap ($5 or less).

But in my closet, I have a smaller area on top of my shoe shelves that would not fit a large container. What I did find was that the Container Store deep sweater boxes fit that space in my closet perfectly. So I'm using those for my out-of-season / too-tight-right-now clothes.

So it depends on your space and how much you're willing to pay. If you want them to be better organized (e.g., fall, spring, summer, winter), then it might work well for you to use the deep sweater boxes so you can have a more specific sorting system. But if you're OK piling lots of clothes in a rubbermaid container, then that's a cheaper way to go.

thanks!you're awsome at this!!! I don't really have any space to store much of anything and i don' want to spend a lot of money. lol. (we live in nyc for right now) I am cool with a larger thing because i have been baging everything and then putting it into the containors. where do you get the cheep rubermaid ones?

thanks so much. i love organizing things! it's just not that easy with no space and a tight budget

[justlearning]

thanks!you're awsome at this!!! I don't really have any space to store much of anything and i don' want to spend a lot of money. lol. (we live in nyc for right now) I am cool with a larger thing because i have been baging everything and then putting it into the containors. where do you get the cheep rubermaid ones?

thanks so much. i love organizing things! it's just not that easy with no space and a tight budget

I also love organizing!! We have a large home, though, so I can't relate to your situation with no space. I'm sure it does make it a lot harder but even more important to be well-organized (and to always be purging).

To answer your question, I've found the containers at both Walmart and Home Depot. I'm attaching a picture below that shows a blue rubbermaid container--I got that one at Home Depot. The green one next to it is a Sterlite brand container--I got that from Walmart at the beginning of the school year last year. I saw them there again this year but in brighter colors. Both containers cost around $4.50.

I got lots of clear large containers (not Rubbermaid brand) from Home Depot a few years ago for around $3.50. I've used these everywhere--one son's closet, organizing the garage, etc. Last time I looked, they weren't carrying them anymore but you can still get others like I described above. I'm attaching a picture of the clear container in my son's closet to show how you can make them look more fun with some stickers.

Have fun organizing!

[srhs]

You're hired!!! When can you start?

[soontobe]

incredilbe!!! thanks for all the ideas!!!

[spunkybaby]

Thanks, OP! We followed your recommendations and bought a bunch of the sweater boxes, accessory boxes, and a few multi-use boxes. They are great for our IKEA Expedit & Bonde shelves. We also bought the deep sweater boxes (great for large toys & items), and DH found some clear magazine boxes from TCS that fit perfectly in the shelves too.

DH is very happy--it really bothered him that the plastic shoeboxes we were using before didn't fill the space very well.

Thanks again for sharing your organizing abilities with the rest of us; your pictures and links were very helpful!

[gobadgers]

This is so inspiring! I see you posted 3 weeks ago but I somehow missed it. This is great timing for me - we just moved and I desperately need to find some order in this chaos. I have some direction now :-)

[mominmarch]

I agree, so totally inspiring!! I wish I could find a code for Container Store though... do they come back often? We don't live near a store and shipping for my basket is $19.00.

[KrisM]

Hi,
I got a 2x4 for Christmas and have reread this thread a good dozen times since then .

Just wanted to say thank you for doing all the leg work on this. I am ordering some containers tonight and am looking forward to having some of the loose things organized!

[wendmatt]

I'm thinking my DH wishes he'd married you! He loves to be organised, and me...not so much! Well, I do, I'm just not good at it. You ROCK! It all looks great.