When we moved into our house a couple of months ago, I was so excited to finally have a hall closet to store items that we want to have handy but don't necessarily use on a daily basis. I had a pretty clear vision of how I wanted to organize it and already had most of the storage solutions I needed. So while I don't have any messy "before" photos, I hope some of these ideas can be helpful for anyone wanting to update their storage areas.
My Plan
My number one goal in planning this space was to avoid clutter. I really hate opening a closet and having things topple over onto my head! It also stresses me out to have things shoved into places where they don't belong. I wanted everything to have a spot, be clearly labeled and easy to find, and accessible. I would have loved to also include spare bedding/towels in here, but the shelves are fairly shallow. Luckily we have enough space in the guest room closet for these items.
The first thing I did once I had all of my bins was to take everything out, put it on the floor, and group into categories. "Keeping like with like" is a great motto for storage. The categories I used were cleaning (bathroom trash bags, extra sponges, hand sanitizer, etc), shower (spare shampoo, conditioner, soap), skin care (sun lotion, spare face wash, aloe, etc), teeth (spare toothpaste, floss, extra toothbrush heads), eyes (spare contacts, contact solution), medical (medicine, cough drops, bandaids), travel (travel size items), makeup, and nail care.
A really great tip from Merritt at Simply Kept Organizing is to remove all packaging from paper towels, toilet paper, etc. It makes everything look a lot cleaner and less cluttered. I also took cotton balls, q-tips, and cotton pads out of their packaging and put them into glass jars.
Products I Used
I always try to use items I already have on hand no matter what project I'm working on. I already had a number of these Ikea bins (large, small) from when we organized our basement shelving, and a few of these great Anchor Hocking glass jars from years ago, so that's the direction I decided to go. I just had to buy a few more bins to complete the space. They are plastic and super easy to wipe down in case of a spill. I bought this simple label maker for labeling our spice jars at our last place - I highly recommend it, it's very affordable and I use it all the time. And, while it isn't necessary, I love decanting our liquid cleaners into these clear spray bottles. I love how simple and easy to clean they are, and while they are glass so do break on occasion it's worth it to me to have a pretty, uniform way to store and use them. You can also find amber versions if using light-sensitive materials like essential oils.
The End Result
As time goes on and we live with this system, I'm sure things will be shifted/changed around a bit, however I'm hoping that having everything labeled and contained we can maintain some order in this space.
This post is not sponsored or in partnership with any of the aforementioned brands, and there are no affiliate links included. All opinions are my own.