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Organize (and Decorate) Your Home
on
a Budget
with Baskets
By Karen
Porter,
Editor
EasyHomeOrganizing.com
What's an item that can help you organize
every room in your home, helps create the appearance that you're a tidy
housekeeper (even if you're not), and perks up your decorating scheme?
Need another hint?
It comes in all shapes, sizes, colors and materials and can be found in many
local retail stores, including craft stores and discount retailers, and at flea
markets and craft shows and well basically it's a universal item found all over
the world. You probably have one right now in your home.
It's a basket!
So the next time someone gives you wicker storage baskets or other type baskets filled with anything from sweets to
colognes, don't discard it once you've used what's in it. Once the items are
gone, the basket's job has only just begun. Read onward to find out how to use
this wonderful item in every room in your house.
...For instance, in the kitchen, you can use hanging wall pocket baskets, which
have flat backs, to store dry sponges and scrubbers as well as pot holders, oven
mitts, dry dish rags and spare kitchen hand towels.
...And in your family room or den, you might use a deep, round or cylindrical
shaped basket on the coffee table to hold television or other electronic
remotes. A basket made of rags will slide without scratching (or put a doily
underneath). (Imagine never losing the television remote again because you have
an assigned place to put it in full view--that blends in with your home decor.)
...And in the bedroom, a wicker hamper with a lid in the closet can store extra
pillows and keep them dust-free. If you see openings in the wicker slats or
don't like your linens snagging on the inside of the basket, line the hamper
with a sheet or large gallon trash bag.
The ideas for using these globally designed and sold products that have been
around for decades are infinite. And probably no product is so practical and
useful as well as beautiful. (And modestly priced too!) Baskets are handmade
works of art that are functional. Imagine serving drinks on that glorious
one-of-a-kind painting you have hanging on the wall. Not! But with baskets you
can literally put your most unique artwork into daily usage and daily view.
Baskets come in many sizes, shapes and materials such as willow, rattan, bamboo,
rope, palm leaf, wire and rags. And many are adorned with metal garnishes, dried
coco flowers, gugo vine handles and more.
It's that variety of qualities that make baskets so easy to organize AND
decorate with simultaneously.
And you don't have to take a basket as it comes. Dress up any of your baskets by
gluing on your own garnishments. For example, craft stores sell all types of
trinkets you can glue on your baskets. Be creative. Try personalizing your
baskets with anything from buttons to plastic candy canes to miniature toy
figures or mini cloth stockings. You could also buy miniature toys and figurines
from typical large discount retailers or smaller dollar stores. (What fun to do
by yourself or with your children). And when you're done, you can still put that
basket to work in an organizational function in your home---only it will have
twice the value to you (the purchase price plus the priceless sentimental
value).
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