Inventive Solutions For Overcome Clutter With Drawers

For many years drawers knew their place in the home. They were filled with a jumble of junk in the kitchen, stocked with sweaters and shirts in the bedroom, and crammed with pens and rubber bands in the office. But designers have begun to recognize the flexibility of this design staple. There’s nothing like an easy-to-access drawer to organize or hide the essentials of daily life. 

Consider these options to conquer the clutter in your home.

Make edibles a design detail: Display your pasta or legumes in glass-fronted drawers. Brightly colored varieties (think red beans and spinach pasta) look best.

Design To Perfection Kitchen Concepts INCSave to IdeabookEmail Photo Instead of wrestling the ironing board out of the closet whenever you need to touch up a shirt, get one of these nifty folding versions that fit into  guess what? a drawer.

Forget drying delicates over a shower rod or the back of a chair. These skinny drawers are fitted with water-resistant racks that allow air to circulate, so your clothes will be ready to wear before you know it.

Store clothes, sheets and blankets in drawers tucked under a platform bed. These beds work especially well in small rooms where there’s no space for a dresser.

Instead of there being a traditional ladder to access the top bunks in this kids’ room, a cleverly designed stack of drawers acts as a staircase.

Need extra space for guests? Add a bed in a drawer that disappears under a window seat when it’s not needed.

The pipes under a kitchen sink have always made it difficult to organize cleaning supplies. This drawer, with its U-shaped wire basket, is designed to fit around the piping, so you can easily access spray bottles, sponges and scrub brushes.

This airy kitchen nook not only provides comfy benches for seating, but the drawers underneath can hide kitchen equipment.

Even doggies appreciate their own dining area. Keep their bowls off the floor and out of the way with a pet-friendly drawer that slides out at mealtime.

Clever Tips to Cut Kitchen Clutter 2014 Ideas

There’s so much you need to store in the kitchen. How do you fit it all in? Check out these solutions.

Explore the Kitchen 

You don’t need a big kitchen to store a lot of stuff. We took the floor plan of a modest-size space and marked the key storage features.

Open Shelves 

Open shelves near the sink and cooking area make everyday dishes and glasses easier to see and reach when serving meals, let you display favorite collectibles, and create some visual breathing room in a smaller kitchen.

Vertical Slots 

Cookie sheets and baking pans don’t fit well in standard cabinets or drawers. But next to your range, you can have a narrow, slotted cabinet that keeps these long, flat items close to where you’ll use them. Add a hook (#321371) for oven mitts and potholders.

Recycling Bins 

Meals generate a lot of recyclables, so the kitchen is a logical place to store them. This pullout turns standard cabinet space into a two-bin recycling center. It’s out of the way, yet close to the sink -- you can rinse out containers before tossing them in the bins.

Appliance Garage 

Free up counter space by storing your mixer, toaster, coffeemaker, or other small appliances in a built-in garage. This one has a lift-up door for easy access. You can also use the garage as a baking center or coffee station. Proximity to drawers and prep space makes this storage space extra convenient, as does an electrical outlet inside.

Cleanup Center 

Under the sink is a natural place to consolidate kitchen cleanup supplies. Paint a pail (#3712) and fill it with your most-used items to store everything in one spot. Mount a toilet paper holder (#321478) on the inside of the door to hang a towel.

Compact Island 

This compact island fits in a modest-size room, yet it offers the same kind of storage as bigger versions -- a swath of counter space on top, conventional cabinets below, and open shelving for displaying cookbooks and collectibles. You can even build it yourself.

Junk Drawer 

Practically every kitchen has some kind of junk drawer a place for all those miscellaneous little items that don’t seem to fit anywhere else. But even a junk drawer can be organized. This drawer’s two-level divider does the job, letting you sort items into categories and find what you’re looking for faster.

Mini Bar 

Storing wine and spirits in a glass-front pantry cabinet keeps your inventory easy to see and reach without taking up a lot of room. Choose a spot that’s close to where you’ll entertain guests. Include a rack (#367201) for wineglasses and a tray for serving.

Hiding Clutter in Less Time 2014 Ideas

If you're short on time, targeting your efforts to a specific organization task can work wonders for overall decluttering in your home. Try these tasks  which can be done in as little as five minutes  to start conquering clutter.

Declutter the Bathroom 

If you have 5 minutes: Put away anything on the countertops, and pull the shower curtain closed to conceal any bathtub clutter.

If you have 10 minutes: Straighten any open displays, and relocate items that don't belong in the bathroom. Don't worry about what's behind closed doors.

If you have 15 minutes: Dive into the vanity cabinet and any other storage space. Toss items that are outdated or unused. Corral items by type into baskets or bins.

Declutter Your Pantry 

If you have 10 minutes: Stack and store items as they are, but align rows of cans and boxes for a neatened appearance.

If you have 15 minutes: Regroup food by item type. Toss anything that is expired. Wipe away any spills or dirt on shelves.

Take an hour : Pull everything out of the pantry and do a deep reorganization. Look at your pantry configuration and what you need to store to determine what should go where. Keep the items you use frequently in the most accessible places. Give the shelves a good scrubbing before re-placing items. As you put things away, make a list of any storage accessories (such as trays or baskets) that would make your storage more efficient, and keep your eyes peeled for those items when you are out and about.

Declutter Your Message Center 

If you have 5 minutes: Take a quick glance at the place where you stash all your important reminders, such as a bulletin board, magnet board, or refrigerator. Pull down anything that you immediately see as outdated or no longer needed.

If you have 10 minutes: Dig a little deeper if your message center is overflowing. Spend a little more time going through the items.

If you have 15 minutes: Take everything off the message center and sort into piles: keep on the board (telephone numbers, etc.), move elsewhere (paid bills, pictures, etc.), and toss (anything you don't need).

Declutter Your Plastic Container Collection 

If you have 5 minutes: Separate lids and containers into their own spots.

If you have 10 minutes: Organize lids and containers by size.

If you have 15 minutes: Pull out the lone lids or containers. Pair up lids and containers that match, and discard anything that doesn’t have a match. Place the items back in an organized fashion.

Declutter Your Bookshelves 

If you have 10 minutes: Straighten books, and dust the very edges of the shelves and any items on display that look dusty.

If you have 15 minutes: Do a quick sort. Recycle magazines that are out of date. Pull books that you know at a glance need to be donated. Dust the shelf edges and around empty space, and move display items to dust around and under them.

Take an hour : Pull everything from the shelves. In addition to recycling magazines and pulling books to be donated, reorganize books in alphabetical order, by subject, by color, etc. Dust the full shelves before placing books back in their rightful spots.

Declutter Your Kitchen Cabinets 

If you have 5 minutes: Simply straighten the insides of your most disorganized or most frequently accessed cabinets and drawers. Bringing order to the things you use most often will make daily routines easier.

If you have 10 minutes: Spend a little time doing the organizational tasks you always think about when you're cooking but don't have time to do in the moment, such as relocating your cooking utensils to a drawer closer to your range.

Take an hour : Do a quick sort and toss. Put items you never use into a donation box, and toss gadgets that no longer work or are past their prime.

Declutter Your Jewelry 

If you have 10 minutes: Place earrings and rings in small divided trays and bracelets and bulkier necklaces in shallow bowls. (Delicate necklaces are easily tangled and should be hung up or laid aside, if you're in a hurry.)

If you have 15 minutes: Do a purge and sort, eliminating things you no longer wear.

Take an hour : Hang fabric covered memo boards for hanging necklaces. Place a piece of grating in another frame and hang earrings from the grill.

5-Minute Decluttering: The Nightstand 

Remove items that don't belong, and place everything else in a pretty box or basket.