Making it Lovely

Tag: storage

  • Tubtrugs

    Tubtrugs

    I think I need a few of these for weeding the garden. And for gathering the increasing amount of outdoor toys strewn about the yard.

    p.s. I rounded up a bunch more indestructible kid-proof storage baskets over here.

  • Tote-All

    Tote-All

    This is really cute filled with pencils and paintbrushes, but I kind of want to put a little jar inside and fill it with dainty wildflowers.

    • Three Potato Four for Urban Outfitters

  • Kartell Componibili

    Kartell Componibili

    I was thinking about getting one to use as a side table in Eleanor’s room. I wish it came in more colors, but the red is cool.

    • All Modern

  • CD Storage and Organization

    CD Storage and Organization

    Brandon and I have just finished transferring all of our CDs into slim CD sleeves. We kept the specially packaged discs as-is, but I wish we had switched out the generic plastic cases long ago because getting rid of them was a fantastic way to condense our collection!

    CD Organization

    I know many people keep their discs in binders or just go completely digital, but CD sleeves work best for us. Yes, we’ve imported a lot of our music into iTunes, but there is something to be said for being able to grab an obscure CD and pop it into the stereo rather than having to update a playlist and resync the iPod.

    CD Organization

    Organizing our collection this way allows for easy expansion while still keeping it all alphabetical. We also like that we can keep a handful of discs by the stereo safe in their sleeves, rather than having them sit out unprotected as they would be had we grabbed them from a binder. We ordered from JewelSleeve after Ana mentioned them when I asked for CD storage advice. Brandon and I love that the sleeves can hold the booklet and the tray card, leaving the spine with the artist and album title visible for easy browsing. If you’re looking for CD sleeves, I highly recommend them!

    CD Organization

    We’re storing all of our CDs, DVDs, and video games (we have a lot of media) in three hopen drawer units in Brandon’s office.

    IKEA Hopen Drawers

    They look great and they’re working well for us, but I do have one complaint; the drawers don’t open fully and it’s hard to see what’s at the back. To counteract this, we placed blocks at the back to push the CDs forward. The blocks are made of 5″ wide boards of thick foam-core (available in craft stores), stacked up to make 3″ tall blocks. Then I cut single strips of thin foam-core to separate each row of CDs, keeping our rows nice and neat.

    CD Organization

    The random stacks of CDs that we didn’t have room for are gone now. All of our discs (1500 or so) fit nicely into four drawers, and it feels so good to have solved one of our biggest storage dilemmas.

  • Pretty Toy Storage

    Pretty Toy Storage

    Toys in the Living Room

    Thank you for all of your cute basket suggestions! I went with plastic lace baskets for toy storage. I had completely forgotten about them, but they were all over the design blogs when they first came out as the Carrie bike baskets. Victoria uses one for file storage, Joy has one for scraps in her studio, and now I can tell you that they also make excellent little toy bins.

    p.s. Have I ever mentioned how much I love my vintage side tables? They’re the best. They hold remotes in the drawers, magazines and the new toy baskets underneath, and they have ample surface space up top. And they were only $10 each.

  • Seen Any Cute Baskets Lately?

    Seen Any Cute Baskets Lately?

    Eleanor is starting to accumulate a lot of toys, and with Christmas coming she’ll be getting more. Since our home doesn’t have a family room or den, we spend most of our time together in the living room and we keep some toys there. I’ve been looking for a couple of baskets to fit under the side tables for storage, but I haven’t had much luck. I keep stupidly bringing baskets home that don’t actually fit… See, I hadn’t actually measured the openings until today. That might have helped, eh?

    Baskets

    So far I’ve tried the LIDAN basket from IKEA, and the Underbed Storage basket from west elm. The IKEA basket was too tall so we’re using it as a toy bin next to a chair in the living room. I like that it collapses and sort of looks like it was knitted, but Brandon thinks it look old ladyish. He hates it! The west elm basket is really nice (and I think Brandon likes it), but it’s too wide. I stuck one under the coffee table for now, but I can’t decide if it looks OK under there or if I should just return it.

    I need something no bigger than 13.5″W x 10″H x 24″D, and not too country/casual. Any suggestions?