I am not just a devout organizer, but a micro-organizer, too and my secret weapon in my war on mess is the humble clear container. If you open any cabinet or drawer in my home, there are bins of all shapes and sizes to categorize and organize my things, and improve functionality of my storage spaces.
I’ve bought bins from various retailers as well as recycled clear containers that have come into my home, and these are the 12 ways I’ve used organizing bins to banish mess and clutter in my home, and add deliciously satisfying functionally where it did not exist before.
You can make the most of your storage ideas by maximizing the space inside your doors, going vertical and grouping like ideas together for flow.
How I’ve used clear organizing bins to clear stubborn mess in my home
It’s not just about keeping things tidy myself. I use labels to make sure my home organizing ideas are easy to follow for others in my household too. Everyone knows what goes where, where to find what they need, and where to tidy away things to.
Karina Toner, cleaning pro and operations manager at Spekless explains, 'Clear organizing bins are a versatile and effective way to bring order to your space, whether it's a kitchen, bedroom, or garage.'
1. In my freezer
I have a lot of vertical space in my freezer and I make use of for all my batch cooking. In order to make the most of my shelf space and not end up with wasted dead air, I use stackable clear plastic containers labelled up with re-usable and easy-peel freezer labels such as the Lalene Store color-coded labels from Amazon.
I also have a clear box for my frozen veg so I can take the entire box out easily and not have to lose my freezer's cold air while I rummage around looking for that bag of celery I chopped and froze three months ago.
Cleaning pro Karina agrees this is a helpful way to increase visibility. She says, 'Clear bins allow you to see the contents without having to open or rummage through them, saving time and keeping areas tidy.'
I use bins like these in my freezer for easy stocking and access to my veg. I usually chop up fresh produce I haven't used and freeze before it goes off to avoid food waste.
2. In my fridge
I hate forgetting about foods or having to rummage around for the marmalade or soft cheese. Call me fussy but I like my things to have a dedicated space. When we upgraded our combined single fridge freezer to a large American style freezer, I wanted that dream fridgescaping, restocking-like-a-shop vibe in mine.
Whilst mine is not as beautiful or shop-like as my fridgescaping appliance of dreams, is it supremely functional.
And, it's a fridge food storage idea that helps avoid waste.
I bought long plastic clear bins which fit perfectly on one shelf and labelled them lunch stuff, dairy, condiments and breakfast. Now, if we want to make breakfast or lunch, instead of spending ages with the fridge door open, we pull out the row of items we need and move over to our preparation area, or know exactly where to find it.
I also have a clear bin just for my Persian condiments: salty pickled gherkins and hot and spicy pickled aubergines. Nobody likes them except me but it brings me great joy and nostalgic comfort to keep the items I grew up eating in stock and in sight so I don't forget to include them alongside my meals.
These are exactly like mine and they are great for organizing your fridge. These ones do not have lids to allow cold air to properly circulate around your products and keep them fresh. However, if you want to stack them, you still can as their tapered shape make it possible.
3. In my ottoman bed
I use clear bins in the foot of the ottoman space so when the hydraulic lift-top pushes the mattress up and away, I can quickly and easily grab what I need. In each of the boxes is a set of items needed for a particular activity I might do a few times a year.
For instance I have one box for Christmas or festive gift-wrapping ideas, packed with wrapping paper, gift tags, ribbons. tape and scissors. Another has what I need when I do my quarterly clear outs and want to sell lots of stuff on Vinted or Facebook marketplace to declutter my closet.
It has recycled plastic parcel bags, postage labels, tape, scissors, permanent pens and bubble wrap. This makes the boring admin of selling things I no longer need online that bit easier, both to commence and to tidy away.
I also store photo albums I don't need all the time but would like easy access too in this space.
Karina toner, cleaning pro recommends these Clear Storage Bins with hinging Lids from Amazon and says, 'These bins come with secure lids, keeping items visible yet protected from dust and moisture.
I use self-sealing mailing bags. I like these ones as they are compostable and bio-degrade, making them a better choice for the planet when sending items by mail.
4. In my closet door
I was sick of looking at a rolling cart packed with my headbands, potions and packets so I used a self-adhesive, narrow, clear plastic bin on the inside of my closet door similar to this one on Amazon.
Now my eye-shadow pallets, dermaplaning blades, tester perfume vials, saline solution capsules and much more things are tidily housed vertically inside my closet, without interfering with anything else in there. No snags, no mess, just functionality.
5. In my nightstand
I don’t sleep well from chronic pain and if I do finally manage to fall asleep, I wake up a half dozen times throughout the night. By that point I’m shattered but usually in pain and cannot get back to sleep, or get up easily.
That’s why I decluttered my nightstand and now my bedside drawer is an important resource for me. It houses vital medicines, earphones and books that I may need overnight. If I had to fumble around in there to find what I need, it would not only drive me around the bend, but probably wake my husband up, too.
After trying the Didn’t Know decluttering method to tidy my bedside drawer and streamline my belongings into clear plastic containers, which are leftover boxes from takeaways, this space began working for me, not against me, in the middle of the night.
Handy, shallow and perfect to use in combination inside drawers for ultimate organization.
6. In my daughter’s room
Like her mama, this girl of mine has a lot of clothes and toys. I use medium sized and relatively deep lidded clear boxes to store her out of season summer clothes, winter clothes and accessories, as well as a box for her dress up and Disney dresses.
You can see what’s inside each but I have labelled them for her ease too, using large labels from Amazon for easy visibility.
Now when her friends come over for a play date, that dress up box gets pulled out, enjoyed thoroughly, then easily packed away. Nobody needs a room of eight-year-olds grappling with getting long dresses back on hangers. This way she can tidy up her own mess with ease. Excluding kids from helping with tidying is something people with tidy homes never do as it builds good habits from a young age.
Of course, I turn a blind eye to the smooshing of her dresses and honestly, it hasn’t done the dresses any harm either!
I have four of these under my daughter's bed so she can easily store pull her dress up clothes and seasonal items in and out. Measure your under-bed space for clearance so the lid doesn't pop off, or scratch up your bed frame.
7. In my attic
When we moved into our newly-built home, the one space I knew we had to do some work on quickly was the attic. Beautifully insulated and set up with lighting, it was the perfect storage space – but it had no flooring.
We called in an attic flooring company who not only laid down flooring we could walk on through half of the space, but also built sturdy shelving into the rafters.
Now, we have housed large, deep, stackable storage bins with flip top lids in the rafters and it has cleared so much clutter from other areas in our homes. I am absolutely Christmas mad and have four different sets of festive decor. A white set, a woodland creature set, a rainbow set and a pale pink set. Each has its own plastic bin and they are all they labeled for ease when we next need to bring them down, though the clear plastic bins you can see what's inside anyway.
Karina Toner at Spekless adds, 'Shelves tend to accumulate random items, creating visual clutter. Using clear bins gives your shelves a uniform, organized appearance while keeping items easy to reach.'
I have taken pictures of the bins we have used to organized our big attic, and I know exactly where everything is. So, when my long-suffering husband is sent up into the attic, I show him on the picture exactly where to look for it.
We also keep sentimental photo albums, a box each of mementos from our school days, our daughter’s baby clothes by age range, Easter and Iranian New Year decor and so many other goodies up there. Each of the many times we’ve moved home together, we’ve cleared out a bunch of stuff we didn’t need anymore and so our collection of items in attic storage is really streamlined and meaningful or useful.
I use 12 gallon hinged lid plastic bins like this for my Christmas decor. My trees are usually around 7 feet tall and I easily fill two of these boxes for each of my themed Christmas decor.
8. In my spice cabinet
I’m Iranian, which means two things: I cook a lot of food, and I use a lot of spices. My collection takes up three shelves and the entire cabinet. To keep it organised and easy to use, I have separated my spices into the following categories and keep each set in a clear, labeled plastic bin so I can pull them in and out easily: single spices, mixed spices, single herbs, mixed herbs, packets, stock cubes and refills.
I organized it three years ago and it’s stayed tidy all this time, even when my husband took on some of the cooking when I went back to work full time. Because of my labeling system everything has its own space and zero brain power is needed to figure it out.
Karina adds, 'Place clear bins in areas like pantries, cabinets, or closets. Group similar items together, for example all your baking supplies in one bin, and label them if needed for even faster identification.'
Learn how to keep your kitchen tidy and the more tricks professionals use to organize their kitchens.
9. To store medicine
I have chronic pain and a lot of chronic health conditions. Each one brings its own difficulties and medicines. I have a large box of medicine firmly out of reach of my child and away from heat, humidity and sunlight. Learn whether to store medicine in the bathroom or kitchen.
The box has an easy lid that pops on and off without any latches as I’m in and out of it regularly. I keep a separate medicine box for our household creams, tablets and other potions and lotions with a snap top lid.
It’s smaller and doesn’t have too much empty space height wise, a choice I made to allow me to store it on its side, and fit in my closet on the same high shelf as my medicine without it messing up the order inside.
10. For cereal
I grew up in a strictly one-cereal-type-at-once type of household so when I got my own house, and my own little family, I took much glee in stocking a load of cereal options we could enjoy in the mornings.
I use a set of six cereal bins with viewing windows on top, and they’re perfect for our cereal drawer, at a height my daughter can easily access herself which is a smart way of organizing kitchen cabinets to suit my family's needs. I say all the cereal options are for her joy, but really, it’s for me!
Regardless, we all enjoy it and use it daily. It also makes it super easy to know which item is running out and needs a top up or swapping out with another variety.
I use cereal boxes like this inside a deep drawer my daughter can reach herself in the mornings.
11. For pet food
We have two cats and they need different amounts of the same dry cat food. I’ve used a clear bin with an airtight bamboo lid to house their food and written on the lid with permanent pen the grams needed for each cat’s meal.
That way, whether I’m feeding them or my husband, there is no ambiguity. Sometimes, our daughter likes to have a go so it’s good for us all. Again, it helps me keep an eye on stock levels so we’re not caught short.
Stackable and versatile, it's a bin like this that has made storing and feeding cat food to my pets much easier. I've written on the lid in permanent pen the amounts we can give to the cats per meal to avoid accidentally overfeeding them and when it's on my pantry shelf, you can't see that.
12. In my pantry
Lastly, this little corner of my kitchen is my corner of joy. I always wanted open shelving in my kitchen pantry and when we bought our bland-looking newly built home, I earmarked it for my little project.
Now, the pine shelves are stocked with a multitude of clear containers, some plastic, some glass, where my dry grains, pulses, pastas, and various loose tea leaves call it home. It’s away from the humidity of my stove, and out of the reach of direct sunlight from the back windows.
The airtight lids are essential for keeping the items inside free from humidity and pest-proof my pantry.
Use these air tight see-through jars to store pasta, grains, dried food, extra spices, loose-leaf tea and so much more. Just place them out of sunlight and away from heat.
Next, delve into how to reuse candle jars around your home, and how to organize your plastic containers.
