Are your closets and garage overflowing with stuff? Are your kitchen cabinets stuffed to capacity? You don't need to spend a lot of money to find new storage space in your home. You just need these clutter-busting strategies from our organizational gurus to organize every room of your house.
The trouble with those shower caddies that hang from the showerhead pipe is that you have only one showerhead. To get more space for your bath potions, hang another caddy on a cabinet knob. With a No. 8-32 hanger screw, you can screw the knob into a stud. To fasten to drywall, use a screw-in drywall anchor along with the hanger screw.
Electrical junction boxes can hold a lot more than wiring. You can nail or screw them to just about anything anywhere. In the shop, they're great for those tools that can't hang on hooks—tape measures, markers, chisels, etc. Plastic boxes come in various sizes and shapes and cost 75¢ to $3 each.
An unfinished wall or ceiling isn't an eyesore; it's a storage opportunity. With 15 bucks' worth of shelf hardware and 1x4s, you can pack 8 ft. or more of storage into one wall stud cavity.
For about $2 per ft., you can turn ceiling joist space into storage space with wire shelving, though we discovered that this is a bad place to store basketballs.
Don't toss out those leftover scraps of electrical cable. They let you bundle up and neatly store all kinds of stuff. To hang up or carry your bundle, twist a loop in the cable.
Every kitchen needs a slot for flat cookware like cookie sheets and pizza pans. The simplest way to create these slots is to add extra shelves spaced a few inches apart. Since most cabinets have adjustable shelves, you just have to pick up a bag of shelf supports at a home center ($3) and cut new shelves from plywood or particleboard. Or make a vertical niche like the one shown here. Just add a plywood divider, drill holes for shelf supports and shorten the existing adjustable shelf.
Have the necessary tools for this DIY project lined up before you start—you’ll save time and frustration.
Avoid last-minute shopping trips by having all your materials ready ahead of time. Here's a list.
