Easy Storage Hacks That We Wish We Knew Sooner

Let’s be honest: we could all use a little inspiration when it comes to maximizing our storage space. It is so easy to let your home be overcome by cluttered closets and bins, after all. The good news is that these elegant solutions are exactly what the doctor ordered, and they go a long way to making your life a lot simpler. Just don’t blame us if these handy tips give you the itch to give your entire home a makeover.

1. Hide your thermostat

Not only do thermostats look rather unsightly sticking out of the wall, but nosy houseguests also like to overstep their bounds and tamper with your home temperature. You can solve this problem, however, by simply hiding your thermostat behind a hinged painting or picture frame. Easy and discreet! Only you and your family will ever know that it's there.

2. Store your pantry supplies in a shoe organizer

If you’re sick of having to root around in the depths of your cupboards or shelves for those rarely used ingredients, try hanging a shoe organizer over your pantry door. Yes, as it turns out, these devices are not only useful for footwear, but also for all kinds of snacks and kitchen staples.

3. Magnetize your hammer

Whether you’re building furniture or taking it apart, somehow there’s always a rogue nail that slips through your fingers – and doesn’t reappear until it embeds itself in your foot during a hazy night-time trip to the bathroom. Magnetizing the bottom of your hammer, then, is an ideal solution for keeping track of the pointy devils.

4. Hang your ironing board on coat hooks

Let’s face it: we’ve all had an ironing board fall on our faces at one point or another. Install a couple of coat hooks on the wall, however, and you’ll never need to fear opening the laundry cupboard again. If only there was a life hack that got us out of the ironing altogether…

5. Store laundry detergent in glass dispensers

There’s nothing aesthetically pleasing about bottles of detergent. Thankfully, it’s pretty easy to give a little more class to your laundry room with glass drinks dispensers. Simply pile in the detergent and toss the unsightly bottle straight in the trash. Who knows – you may actually enjoy doing the laundry in the future.

6. Keep spare paint in jars

Nobody wants paint cans littering up the joint. Luckily, that’s where glass jars come in. Holding just a small amount of paint each, they can be especially handy if you’ve just decorated and may have missed a spot — but they're equally useful for rooms that could need a quick touch-up every now and then.

7. Use spare shower curtain rods to increase storage

Fumbling around the shower floor for your toiletries is nobody’s idea of a good time, but when you share your bathroom with a few people, storage space can be tight. Chuck up a curtain rod, then, and all your hygiene-related struggles will be over. It's way easier than trying to cram every bottle on a tiny shelf.

8. Hang your jeans on “S” hooks

Folding and stacking your jeans can make it a pain when you need a pair near the bottom of the pile – but threading them through trouser hangers is way too much effort. Thankfully, there’s an easy compromise in the form of “S” hooks, which makes every pair easy to access. You can thank us later.

9. Bury prescription bottles in the ground to hide keys

Leaving your spare key under a rock is basically an open invitation to burglars in this day and age. So go one step further by sealing the key inside a prescription bottle and gluing a rock or a pinecone to the top. You’ll still be able to find it when you need it, but by burying it in the ground, you’re one step ahead of potential intruders.

10. Use tissue boxes to store plastic bags

In the interest of saving the environment, it’s a good idea to reuse and recycle your plastic bags when you go grocery shopping. But keeping them stored out of sight can be a tricky business – unless you have a spare tissue box to hand, that is. The environment will thank you too!

11. Slice a hole into a tennis ball for an easy item holder

Stick a suction cup on the back, slice a wedge from the front, and your tennis ball becomes a sporty holder of all things practical: be it keys, a pen, or even important documents. Stick a few of them up on your wall for a cool-as-they-come themed storage solution.

12. Use a kitchen rack to store clutch purses

Letting your bags run loose can be a nightmare when you’re trying to find a specific one to match your outfit. Handily, repurposed kitchen racks make for great clutch storage. Yes, you’ll never again have to experience the frantic search five minutes before going out. All your options will be right in front of you.

13. Use a magnet to avoid losing your tweezers

When you think about it, tweezers are stupidly small. So stupidly small, in fact, that we’ve had to order an Amazon Dash button just to maintain a steady flow of replacement pairs when they inevitably go missing. A wiser purchase, though, would perhaps have been a magnet to keep them in one place.

14. Use fruit baskets for storing bathroom toys or accessories

The bathroom isn’t usually the biggest space in the house, so maximizing what little room there is can be crucial to a happy home. If you’ve got little ones with all sorts of bathtime toys and accessories, then, try hanging up a fruit basket or two. The multiple vertical levels are a godsend.

15. Use LEGO to organize your desk

Chances are, you’ve got a few LEGO bricks lying around. And if not, it may be worth a trip to your parents’ attic to retrieve your childhood stash. After all, they make for awesome desk organizers — cables even fit snugly in mini-figures’ hands. These little guys will bring some personality to your workspace too.

16. Use bungee cords to store loose balls

If there are any two words more nightmarish to storage makers than “loose balls,” we don’t want to hear them. Thankfully, where basketballs, footballs, soccer balls et al. are concerned, this storage-related loose end may have just been tied up thanks to some handily repurposed bungee cords.

17. Hang a ladder to air clothes

Traditional clothes airers can take up a lot of valuable real estate in cramped settings. It seems silly, then, to prop one up on the floor when you’ve got an entire ceiling going unused. So if you’re short on space, try hanging up a ladder. Trust us: it’ll work wonders.

18. Use glass bottles to store bracelets

If you’re after a storage solution for your bracelets that’s as stylish as it is efficient, give this one a go. After all, clear glass bottles would fit into pretty much any décor, be it rustic, modern, or otherwise. And you could even mix things up with colored glass bottles for a unique twist on this idea.

19. Store your shirts vertically

Folding your tees in half and stacking them vertically will allow you to fit more in your drawer, and we all know how precious drawer space is. This hack can also help you find your favorite top in a fraction of the time. Plus, just look how pleasing it is to the eye!

20. Keep it tidy under the sink

Tired of fumbling through masses of loose bottles under your sink? Simply install a closet rod in the cupboard under the sink. This will make it much easier to hang and arrange your cleaning products. Besides, no one wants to spend more time under their sink than is absolutely necessary.

21. Don’t pull the wrong plug

Sorting through a tangle of electrical cables can be more than a little frustrating. However, you can save yourself time and energy by using bread tags to label your cables. They fit right on the cords like magic. Easy-peasy!

22. Freeze eggs

Yes, that’s right, it isn’t a widely known fact, but you can actually freeze eggs to make them last longer. And according to the cooking magazine Taste of Home, it’s not just cooked eggs you can store in the freezer; it works for the scrambled variety, too.

23. CD racks for troublesome Tupperware

Use your obsolete CD racks to organize the clutter of your kitchen drawers. Nothing screams "clutter" more than all those loose Tupperware lids in your cabinets! So stacking your Tupperware lids in the CD racks will make life so much simpler for you.

24. A shoe-in for the clutter-free closet

Too many shoes can quickly cause closet chaos. Use wine box separators stuffed inside a spare — and fancy-looking — tote bag as a fetching shoe rack. Cheers to this idea!

25. Spice up your store cupboard storage

Attach a long magnet to the underside of a kitchen cabinet for a unique way to store your spices. Obviously, your spice jars need metal lids in order for this hack to work. Just look how convenient this is!

26. Store banana bunches on their own

Anyone who has bought bananas will know how quickly they go from their vibrant yellow color to a muddy brown. But don’t let that put you off these potassium powerhouses, because there’s a workaround to their rapid decay. Bananas exude ethylene – which ripens other fruit around it quickly. So to begin with, separate the products from other fruits and keep them as a bunch. Secondly, contain their ethylene by wrapping banana stalks tightly with cling film and re-attach this every time you take one of them from the bunch.

27. A simple fix for pesky USB cords

Don’t fumble around on the floor for dropped USB wires! Simply attach binding clips to the back of your desk and use them as USB holders. Not gonna lie: this hack will save us more time than we'd like to admit.

28. An easy bathroom storage hack

Believe it or not, an old CD tower is perfect for the bathroom. Just flip it sideways, nail it to the wall, and voila! You’ll never have better storage for your bathroom supplies... or any loose CDs you have lying around.

29. Tame your wild cords with Velcro

Tangled cords can be a major tripping hazard, and they can also be pretty ugly. Use adhesive Velcro strips to keep unsightly plugs and wires under control. It not only looks better that way, but your toes will thank you!

30. Find hidden wires with a microphone

The next time you need to drill into a wall at home, try this tip to avoid destroying any wires hiding on the other side. Just grab a microphone and a recorder, as the device will apparently emit a droning sound if you’re close to any electrical connections. Even better, it should help keep you safe.

31. Freeze herbs in ice cubes

Many of us love a herb bouquet to store in the kitchen when we might want to spice up our dishes. But they can die out before you get the chance to use them up in food. Luckily, it turns out that if you have an ice cube tray handy, you could save yourself a lot of waste. Just pop them in with a bit of water, and they'll be ready to thaw whenever!

32. Beating the heat

Toddlers are hard to watch, even when there aren't dangers lying around every corner. This dad came up with a genius way to barbecue so that his curious toddler can still roam without getting too close to the hot coals.

33. Store apples with potatoes

Ethylene production isn’t always a bad thing, and according to the website House Beautiful, you can use it to your advantage in the kitchen. Whereas bananas tend to ripen everything too quickly, other fruits produce different levels of ethylene. Take apples, for example – which also emit the gas and can actually delay how quickly some vegetables rot. When stored next to potatoes, they can increase spuds' freshness for up to eight weeks!

34. The sandman

Children love playing in sandboxes, and you love when your child is occupied. The downside, though, is boxes are very hard to keep covered and clean. If you purchase a small tent and fill it with sand, you can zip the door shut at night and keep unwanted debris, animals, and bugs out of the sand.

35. Keep dry goods in containers

Naturally, improper storage is a significant contributor to food waste, and that applies to dry goods, too. Sure, they may have a longer shelf life in general, but even they go off eventually. So how do you keep them from spoiling? Well, that’s where food containers come in handy. It's best to take your supplies out of their cardboard boxes and move them into airtight containers to keep out the creepy crawlies.

36. Easy-to-reach toothbrushes

Teaching your children proper hygiene is an absolute must, so why not place toothbrushes in a clothespin instead of letting them accumulate bacteria and dust inside a cup? Not to mention, they'll also be easier to reach!

37. Don’t wash produce before storing in the fridge

Of course, food should be washed before it’s consumed. But when it comes to storage, Healthline recommends keeping it unwashed. This method is the optimal way to keep fruit and vegetables because moisture can rot some food quicker. Meanwhile, if you need to wash them ahead of time, be sure to then dry the food properly before storing.

38. Make tidying toys child’s play

Shoe organizers can be used to sort all kinds of household items, but parents might find them useful when it comes to storing their children’s things. The handy pockets can be filled with everything from cuddly toys to craft supplies and hung behind a door to keep them out of the way.

39. Make your clothes hangers work for you

Streamline your storage space with shower curtain rings. Just pop as many as you want onto a single hanger — you can clip them wherever is easiest for you — and then you can use one hanger for multiple items. Just think of the closet space you'll be saving!

40. Makeshift crayon container

Kids get bored easily, so it’s a good idea to keep a stash of crayons in your purse at all times. But how do you prevent these from getting crushed and making a mess all over your things? That’s easy: these plastic gum containers are the perfect size for your children’s art supplies. So, try repurposing the packaging rather than throwing them away.