[mommymentality]

I am trying to get our slowly growing stockpile organized (working on the kitchen right now as the new shelves in the bathroom aren't done just yet), If you look at my stockpile pics youll see the cupboard space I have available... I need room for Food and Dishes in all that... I went out today to try and work on it some but I'm not having much luck... I get things looking nice and neat and organized, then realize I have like NO space for dishes.. ughhh!

*Sigh*

[mommymentality]

Anyone?

[meredith1629]

Hmmmm....I got rid of 75% of the dishes and kitchen stuff I never use. I kept a few things I don't use all the time because they are expensive to replace (e.g. my large, electric steamer). Then I would label EVERYTHING. I try to have a spot for everything. If it comes into the house and doesn't have a spot it is quickly assigned one.

I would do a little each day. It can be overwhelming to do it all. I'm getting ready to post a link to my stockpile in my info...click there to see how mine is organized. HTH!

[serianna]

Do you have your bed raised off the ground? I live in a tight space and I bought one of those under the bed rubbermaids. I keep all the baking dishes I do not commonly use under there. They fit well, and are easy enough to get to that I don't just give up making something because it is too much work to get to. Also for the bathroom I have seen people put over the door shoe holders there and fill them with band-aids, deoderant, things like that. I am not sure that it will work with little fingers around but maybe if you put age appropriate things in reachable areas it will work.
I hope these help. If I think of anything else I will let you know. I live in a super small space and cook and bake and stockpile all the time. I will try and think of other things that I do and let you know.

[mommymentality]

Thanks those are some good ideas! I have been keeping an eye out for things to help us get organized, and I think we are just gonna go a little at a time as we build our stockpile instead of going all out right now while its still pretty small. Trying to do too much at one time was just... too much ... we got burned out haha

[kim61973]

I had to buy some put together wire cubes from Bed Bath & Beyond and put them up in my bedroom closet. I keep the door closed to keep the little fingers out of them, and use the top ones for shampoo, toothpaste, soap, etc. and the bottom ones I put things like my foot spa, extra pillows, etc. I think I bought 2 packages of 4 cubes and put them all together for 10 cubbies. Good luck!

[Chesney]

We revamped our hall coat closet into our Stockpile Closet.
All coats we don't use I either gave away or sold.
Now we keep our coats in our personal closets, and during rainy and snowy
weather we keep the damp coats in the utility room until they dry.

I've also found my way of thinking has changed, "I would rather have room for stockpiling vs. a coat closet".

[clethridge]

I can't wait until I have stockpile pics to show everyone!

[clethridge]

Ok, here are some ideas for your space:

1. Get the 2 or 3 tier plate stackers and put your plates on them
2. Get hooks to hang your mugs from opening up room underneath your mugs for bowls or other smaller items.
3. Get the stackable wire shelving that you can place directly on a shelf - you can do them 1 high or 2 high or even 3 high, depending on the space you have. They come in various widths with flexibility to fit your space.
4. Get the "hanging" baskets - they hook onto your shelves and hang under your shelf... giving space to put loose stuff in and space underneath them on the shelf to put other things
5. Get lots of baskets, or containers (that you can see through) to put your beauty products in.
6. Put up shelves over the kitty condo and utilize some of the above items to expand your space

No matter how much space you have, it's always nice to make full use of that space - it helps you feel not so cluttered and very organized.

[staciedawn84]

I have some great shoe organizers that hang in the closet. They are soft but look more like a shelf than the things you hang on the back of your door. They would work beautifully for stockpiling. I have an extra one, I'm just trying to find the closet space to hang it so that I can try it for myself.

Also, the under the bed storage bins are lifesavers!

I keep lots of stuff in my "holiday" closet. That's the closet where I keep all of my holiday decorations, well, I also keep some stockpiled stuff in there for quick access when a birthday comes up or save it for Christmas or even babyshowers for gift baskets. If I know I have way too many of something and I don't have room for it, it goes in the "holiday" closet for later gifting, I have such things in there as smelly goodies, soaps, feminine hygiene products, febreeze, etc. The stuff that I do not gift, will go with the donate boxes at Christmas time!

I also have an old antique buffet that was given to us by my mother in law that is used as an aqaurium stand for our lizard's 55 gallon aqaurium. It has a cabinet on each side and two drawers as well as a nice empty space beneath it. We use the top drawer as a sort of junk/mail drawer, the bottom drawer as an art drawer for the boys. When they were in diapers, we used the empty space for disposable diapers and wipes one cabinet for the cloth diapers (yes I used both) and butt creams and the other cabinet was for my son's nebulizer and all of the tubes and such for it. Well, now that the boys are both potty trained, the cloth diapers have been moved to a storage container in the top of one of their closets, and my oldest doesn't need his nebulizer as much, so it's stored in one of the hard to reach cabinets above the refridgerator (also where I have dog and cat treats stockpiled). The top drawer is still the junk/mail drawer, the bottom drawer is still the art drawer, but the cabinets and empty space have been transformed into stockpile space for wipes and other child friendly/non-toxic items. You can often find shelves, dressers, and such free on freecycle or cheap at yard/garage sales. I still have an old 50's, pink, beauty shop, funky dresser/shelf thing (also free, from mother in law, I love it) in the garage that I'm trying to find a place for in the house so that I can use that for stockpiling as well. It has two drawers and two cabinets with shelves.

We have a very nice wooden cabinet with shelves in the kitchen by the table that I grabbed for free at an old consignment shop that was going out of business. Since I homeschool my boys, I use that area for school supplies, ones that are being used as well as ones that are being stockpiled. I use some of the free flat rate boxes from the post office as storage in those cabinets with labels on them (pens, pencils, paper, notebooks, scissors, crayons, highliters, etc) and also use the same boxes as inboxes for their work. They are hidden in the cabinets, so it doesn' matter what the boxes look like, as long it's organized in such a way that I know where everything is. You could even let the kids paint and decorate the cardboard boxes as an art project to make it look better. Have them paint the box and decopage pictures of crayons and pencils and such so that you know that box is for crayons and pencils and such.

Well, that's about all I have for you. Hope you can use these ideas!