How I Organized My Cabinet Shelves

Top shelf housed snacks.

Have you ever noticed how clutter loves to accumulate?  I mean, clutter multiplies like rabbits!  It is an ongoing struggle to organize all the "stuff" that takes up residence in a cabinet such as this one.  The reality is that my cabinet was holding too many collections.

I removed some extras from my cabinet.

I took out an acrostic poem project that was on the bottom shelf--brown photo binder to white box.  I removed, from the top shelf, the little blue basket which held a hair dryer.  Then, I removed my hubby's files.  Those are housed in a hunter green colored plastic file holder.  That worked out because he needed them closer to his computer desk.

My cabinet still looked cluttered.

I noticed my office supplies needed better containers.  Also, my files needed to be combined.  Above, you can see the two plastic see through containers in the bottom shelf.  Those were holding half and half of my own files.  That's when I remembered a brown rolling file holder I had in my storage shed; I asked my hubby to bring it back inside the house. 

I have had this brown cart for years.

I had put this rolling cart in the storage shed because one of the wheels is broken.  Still, I wanted to keep it, just in case.  Once again, it has come to my rescue.

See-through plastic top allows me to use it as a makeshift table.

It's funny how I come back to the solutions that worked before.  I can roll this cart under my wooden-dining-table-turned-desk.  I can pull out the cart when I need to get to my coupon file.  Oh, this is so much easier now.

Round containers create dead spaces.

I still had to deal with my miscellaneous office supplies, like paper clips and thumb tacks.  That's why I bought the tiny containers with tops and two pink mini-crates.  I prefer squarish containers, and these were definitely perfect.

I bought 8 tiny containers for $2.00 at a grocery store.

These small crates cost $1.20 each at Big Lots.

The pink mini-crates being stacked didn't work for me.

I removed my writing coursework from the cabinet.  I recently finished the course so I don't need to have the white binder, books, and assignments in my cabinet.  I placed some of those items in one of those see-through boxes.  That allowed me to take those things out of the cabinet but still keep them together.

One crate held office supplies.

I repurposed the other plastic see-through container.

I decided to place the office supplies into one of the plastic see through containers.  The box did not over fill with items.  That freed up space in the pink crate.  I used it below by standing it on its side to hold smallish books.  You can see that I now have space to place extra items on the bottom shelf.

This is a closeup of the crate turned on its side.

These are paper tray I've had for years.

I've tried selling these paper trays at yard sales.  I'm glad I still have them.  The top shelf holds office supplies that I want ready at my fingertips.  My stapler, tape dispenser, battery-operated sharpener, rectangular basket full of writing utensils, and a ruler are within my reach.  The bottom shelf is for paper needing to be shredded.

A closed cabinet hides my stuff.

There are other things I've removed, like the box that my digital camera came in.  A boat-shaped wooden basket was removed.  That held some snacks that needed to go out of my room.  I was having too much late-night snacking.   Lastly, a collection of reusable plastic baggies, of all sizes, needed to find a new home.

Of course, before I go to sleep, I close the doors to my cabinet.  That shuts out the work waiting for me.  I believe in out of sight, out of mind.  In addition, to me, it's important that my hubby wakes up to a clean home, especially when my office is in our master bedroom.

Well, thanks for "listening" to my strategy for organizing my cabinet.  I hope you got some good ideas to use in your own home.

Next week, I'd like to address what I did with the doors of the cabinet and what it inspired.  Stay tuned!

How about you, my readers?  Do you have a cluttered cabinet needing to be reorganized?  I hope you can find some ideas.  The internet is a perfect place to find ideas.  I believe looking at the Container Store website can yield some wonderful, inspiring ideas.

May God bless you all with His wisdom and peace.

This entry has been part of the Family Fun Fridays series.