Conquering the Storage Bins

Don't you just love storage bins? They're life savers! Well, that might be stretching it just a bit. But only a bit.

Seriously, I do love them. Especially since I have four children to clothe and not enough money to buy a new wardrobe for them at the beginning of every season. (And, even if I could afford it, I wouldn't.)With all those hand-me-downs, as well as Christmas decorations, extra linens, etc, it means I have a lot of storage containers, and that poses a problem. How do I find what I need without going through all of the bins? I prefer the clear ones, but even then you can't always tell if it's exactly what you were looking for without opening the lid. Thankfully, I came across this solution. (I don't remember who came up with the idea or where I heard about it.)

Number the bins. Genius, right? Right! (Yeah, it's pretty simple and you probably already thought of it, but please don't tell me if you had. I'd feel stupid.)

I have numbered the bins and made a list that tells me what is in which bin. For example, bin #1 might contain baby keepsakes. (I'm way too sentimental. I will not tell you how many bins I have that contain baby keepsakes.) Bins #2-#4 contain fall clothes, bins #5-#6 contain Christmas decorations, and so on.  That way, all I have to do is check my list and pull out the bins I need. If the contents of the bin change, I just update my list. Easy peasy! You can get as detailed on the list as you want. Whatever will jog your memory and let you know what's in there.

You'll notice the middle bin. I would like to defend myself and say that I did not label that bin thus. It's an example, though, of how frustrating and confusing it is to scribble the contents of the bin directly onto it. 

So, there you go! One of my simple sanity savers!