Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Organization…Color Coded Storage Boxes

Hi everyone! Here's a quick and easy tip for organizing your basement, attic or garage…color code your storage boxes. You can color code them for seasonal items, for each member of the house or for each room in our home.

Here's a picture of an area in our un finished basement where we store most everything now. I moved all the seasonal items out of the attic, because the temperature change was too much and the drop down ladder up to the attic was a pain to go up and down so much.

Color Coded Storage Boxes…

color coded storage boxes

Come on in and see the easy organizing tips…

Color coding makes it easy to identify what's in each box without having to label each and every one, except in the case of the red Christmas boxes.

I have been buying the red boxes for Christmas items for years. I have all of my theme trees in each box, wreaths, small decorations, stocking, tree skirts, lights etc, so each of these boxes have to be labeled.

color coded storage boxes

I've shared this idea in other posts, but all you do is use binder clips and plastic name badge holders to label all your boxes. Easy to change out the label, clips onto the box unlike all the other sticky labels that fall off with the temperature changes or just won't stick to the plastic.

color coded storage boxes

Click HERE to see the post for the name badge tutorial.

color coded storage


color coded storage



Green is also Christmas. These ornament boxes are the best. I need to find more of these this coming holiday.

color coded storage boxes

They come with cardboard divided sections that keep the ornaments safe and sound. They have several layers that hold so much!!

color coded storage boxes

Orange is for Halloween decorations. Need one more box though.

Brown is for all the autumn and Thanksgiving stuff.

color coded storage boxes

Lime green is for Easter and the blue is 4th of July and summer things.

color coded storage boxes

The rest of the boxes (tan, gray and white) are divided between Courtney, Kelsie and Courtland. I have saved their memorabilia from high school, they wanted to keep some college books and I have been collecting items for them when they move into their own apartments…kitchen things and what nots.

color coded storage boxes

I store everything in plastic storage bins, because we've had water issues in the basement. It's not a mold or dampness issue. Our basement is usually very dry, it's just when the water table is high and the water seeps in from the foundation or if my dad has a mishap and water rains down into the basement from his apartment above. As I always say now…better safe than sorry.

Plastic bins are my salvation and color coding them has made it easier too!!

Thanks for stopping by,
~Karen~

Pin It

17 comments:

  1. Color coded tubs, great idea! You have a lot of Christmas things;)
    Kathi

    ReplyDelete
  2. really clever storage.......isn't it the simple ideas the ones you never think of and when you see them you think......why didn't I think of that!? I'm so sick of the labels falling off my plastic tubs....such a waste of time energy and labels!!!! I'll be trying your tip, that's for sure! xo

    ReplyDelete
  3. Binder clips ... DOH!!!! ... another one of those "why didn't I think of that" moments. As always, a great and functional idea Karen.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I learned a lot...especially the name tags!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Fantastic! you had me worried at first as I thought you were going to say your fabric stash was in those boxes :-) we have an undercroft area as our home is built into a rock face and it also gets water in when we have heavy rain so I try to store stuff in there in tubs similar to yours but I would never have thought to label them with the clips and tags! thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  6. You always share such great ideas! I'm already using colored plastic bins, but not the binder clips. I have had peeling issues with labels and the clips are the perfect answer. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I having been longing to get my stuff organized in the garage. I was going to use tubs but never thought to color code them...wonderful idea. I wonder how hard it is to find different colors? Anyway, I love your tag idea too...as always, thanks for your clever ideas.

    ReplyDelete
  8. When they get married let me know how you got them to actually take their stuff. I have a crawl space and garage full of things that aren't mine...all in totes. The only solution I can think of is to move!

    ReplyDelete
  9. love the idea of the clipped on tags - I wrote with magic marker on my bins - and then reorganized a few years later; bins are in great shape - labels are no longer appropriate. I too want to hear how you get the kids to take their bins!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I can never remember to use the binder clips for labeling. I always just pull out the ol' masking tape. I must remember this trick!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Love that idea. Where do you find the colored tubs. I've never seen them in so many colors. Usually I see clear w/green or red for Xmas and gray and sometimes blue, but I've never seen the lime green, gold or brown! I would definitely follow in your footsteps with this idea if I could find the colored tubs.

    Gail :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. I'm so glad I read this! Great ideas! I too, want to bring the seasonal stuff out of the attic and into the basement. I'll definitely use your ideas. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I do everything by colour: shop, organize (but I need to improve in this area) so this post has great tips. I especially love the binder clips to label the bins! Great idea!

    ReplyDelete
  14. You just gotta love that wonderful idea! Not only are you organizing things efficiently by color coding the storage boxes, you're also adding color to an otherwise bland and dreary storage space!. The labels tutorial is also great. I'm sure that would help a lot of people having a dismal time over organizing. Thank you so much for sharing!

    Allan Sutherland @ General Store All

    ReplyDelete
  15. Do you find the colored totes around the season/ holiday? Like red at Christmas time or did you order the colors you needed?

    ReplyDelete
  16. What a great idea on the tags. I've been using color themed bins for a couple years now! Makes life SO easy when I need to figure out which bin to grab when holidays or seasons change
    Reds/Greens - Christmas
    Pink - Valentines
    Lime Green - St. Patricks Day
    Blue - Spring (very little easter)
    Orange - Fall/Harvest
    Purple/Black - Halloween

    ReplyDelete

Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment...I just love hearing from you!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails