1) Linen Closet: Try folding your linens into a different shape to make them better fit your shelves. Maybe you need them in halves or thirds. Or, try rolling them.
2) Book Shelves: Try laying sets of books of the same size on their sides instead of right side up. Depending on the amount of books in the stack, this can sometimes increase the amount you can store.3) Shoes: Instead of storing them with the toes and heels lined up, try storing each pair toe-to-heel. This decreases the space needed from left to right.
4) Hanging Clothes: Try switching from bulky wood and plastic hangers to space saving thin hangers. They really do create room to hang more!
5) Kitchen Cabinets and Drawers: Store the lids of pots and storage containers with the bottoms. If you have the room, keep the top and bottom together and stacked. No searching for the matching piece and inevitably losing a lid at some point.
6) Toy Room: Use larger bins, even for the little pieces. Most kids aren't going to take the time sort all the Barbie shoes from Barbie's kitchen accessories. Or, the Lego men from the rest of the blocks. Having one place for all things Barbie and one for all things Lego is sufficient.
7) Crafts: Bust out the plastic baggies! Bag up small items like cotton balls or googley eyes. Bag up anything that could leak: glue, paint, ink. These baggies can be easily stashed in a drawer or bin. It's easier to squish a baggie into a space than a small box or bin.
9) Entryway: This time of year, there are probably scarves and gloves all over the place! Have one place for everyone to drop these items. It can be a basket, a hook or a shelf. In the summer, switch to baseball caps, umbrellas and sunglasses.
10) Basement/Storage: More often than you'd imagine, the quickest solution to all those boxes and bins piling up is to get them onto shelves! Being able to grab the single item you're looking for instead of moving box after box off a small mountain to get to the one at the bottom can make a world of difference.
