Here are ten easy and affordable ideas from a professional organizer for hiding clutter in plain sight in any room using baskets.
I’m a big fan of keeping items in the space I use them, but sometimes those items shouldn’t really be out on display for everyone to see. They can make a space look cluttered and create a lot of visual overwhelm. Not to mention we have cats that have a life goal of ruining anything we like and use. So as a professional organizer, my brain always defaults to hidden storage baskets. Here’s ten ways I use baskets to hide my stuff in plain sight in my own house.
1. Mail Station
If you’re someone who walks into the kitchen and plops the stack of mail onto the island to deal with it later, this is the idea for you. I ordered this set of two baskets from Amazon and store all the mail supplies like envelopes and stamps in the small one. The larger one holds file folders for all types of incoming documents that need to be dealt with. No one would ever know there’s paper clutter hidden inside.
2. Magazines
A pile of magazines on a coffee table can start to look messy quickly, especially when cats fly through like a tornado and send them slipping and sliding into the floor. I started storing them in a large hanging basket and they instantly look neat and tidy now. When the basket gets full, that’s my cue to purge the older ones.
3. Toilet Paper
Okay, so maybe this one isn’t completely hidden, but it sure does look nice, right? Every Sunday we restock these long bathroom baskets with TP rolls. Having that woven basket breaks up all the white and turns our rolls into something a little more decorative.
4. Bedside Storage
These big belly baskets are perfect for sliding underneath our nightstands to hold the not-so-cute stuff like leg pillows, heating pads, C-Pap tubing, and slippers. These things are too big for a nightstand drawer but we still like to keep them nearby.
5. Pet Supplies
Our big boy Winston is a 70 pound mix of muscle and slow-melting butter, so we have a no-pull harness for his walks. The harness is too big to hang on a hook, so we added a large basket to the floor by the door to hold it, the leash, my fanny pack full of poop bags and pup first aid, and an umbrella. It’s an easy grab-and-go spot for everything we need for a W. (Can’t say “walk” in our house unless it’s happening, so we say “W.”)
6. Desk Trash
Why have a small desktop trash can when you have a cute basket that looks like decor instead? I found a tiny little basket with a plastic trash liner inside and it’s perfect for used sticky notes, protein bar wrappers, and wads of vinyl scraps.
7. Pantry Backstock
When we built our custom pantry, I knew I wouldn’t be able to use the top shelves for everyday items given that myself and my husband are vertically challenged. So I use two large baskets to store backstock items in them so they’re out of the way but still accessible with a step stool. I keep a list of what’s inside the baskets and their expiration dates in my iPhone Notes app so I can check them without climbing up there.
8. Hobby Supplies
I’m not afraid to admit it…since I’ve been working from home for the last three years I’ve become a total bird lady. To the point where my son bought my binoculars for Mother’s Day. I keep them in a lidded basket right beside our biggest window so I can whip them out anytime there’s bird drama in the trees. It’s like watching Real Housewives with the volume turned all the way down.
9. Electronics & Cords
These are never going to look tidy, no matter what you wrap around them or what case you put them in. Between cords and accessories, small electronics are doomed to look cluttered forever. So instead of spending a bunch of money on specialty organizers, you can just pop them in a basket and move on with your day. The cords aren’t winding down the shelves like a plastic jungle, and you can still access them when you need them.
10. Feminine Products
Like it or not, these items have to be kept near the toilet in the bathroom. So you can leave the big bold box sitting on the floor for anyone to see, step on, or spill, or you can store them safely inside a narrow tank basket. These baskets fit right on the back of the toilet so you don’t even have to have shelves nearby.
Shop All My Favorite Baskets
Shop them here: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 or here on LTK
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