A month or so ago I got a $5.00 off coupon in the mail for Family Dollar. I hadn't shopped there in a while so I decided to stop in and check out their selection of bins for some organizing I wanted to do in my kitchen. I found exactly what I was looking for and then some! (I picked up some of their outdoor/patio decor.)
The bins ranged in price from $1 - $3. The decor was $1 - $10 but they were on sale BOGO 1/2 Off. Then I used the $5 off coupon!
I need to preface the following "Before" photos by saying that I am embarrassed to post these on the internet! These were some real trouble spots in our kitchen. It is easy for clutter to take over if you don't have a functional organization system in place. I am happy to say I have accomplished that in these areas. These photos are over a month old but the areas still look like the "After" photos! Some times I put in place organization that doesn't work for us and soon the space clutters up again but this is working for us and makes it easy to control the mess!
Take a look...
Spice cabinet: Corralling all of the seasoning packets! No matter how hard I tried to stack them all together neatly they always slipped down, fell over, and never ended back up where I had initialing placed them.
Before...
AFTER!
The small pink container is the perfect size for holding seasoning packets. From my tupperware drawer I grabbed a small container to hold the various sauce packets. Now this space is orderly and clutter free. When I need a spice packet I can easily grab the pink container, get what I need, and put it right back!
The pink container came in a 3 pack for $1.00.
Kitchen Command Center cabinet: This portion of a shelf in the cabinet above my kitchen desk houses several items that we use in this area of our home or walking out the door. However, it piled up because there was no good way to keep them orderly sitting on the shelf.
Before...
AFTER!
Another one of the pink bins holds everything together perfectly and again allows us to pull it out, get what we need, and put it all back right where it was. Nothing is falling all over and it allows us to easily see what is is in there!
Under the Kitchen Sink: This has always been a problem area of our home. We store so many bottles and cleaning products here that things were always pushed around, spread out, and chaotic looking.
Before...
AFTER!
One $3.00 bin allowed me to bring order to this messy cabinet! When I pull one bottle out I can see the empty spot it came from and put it right back. Nothing slides around or spreads out because each item goes right back into the bin. I put the short products in the front and the tallest items in the back so nothing gets lost!
Now to the other side of that same cabinet where I keep boxes of garbage bags, grocery bags we save and reuse, and large bottles of detergent.
Before...
AFTER!
This $1.00 bin now holds the grocery bags (which I'm rolled up and tied to save space) and the extra garbage bags we have in the other sizes aside from our huge Costco box.
Here's what the whole cabinet looks like now...
I hated opening this cupboard before but now it makes me so happy! The best part is that it actually works for us! This area still looks the same even after a month of use!
The final area I have to show you is a shelf in our pantry we use to hold snacks such as chips, crackers, and granola bars. The boxes and packages were taking up so much room and quickly became a jumbled mess!
Before...
AFTER!
Look at this! LOOK! It makes such a huge difference! All I did was buy 2 clear bins for a $1.00 each (They came with lids but I'm not using them for this project so I have them stored away) and organize all of our snacks by throwing away the boxes and packages and putting everything in the bins! It looks 100 times better I think! Plus, it is so much easier now to keep track of what we have and what we are running low on. Before we never knew how much of something was left until the box was empty. I hated it! We don't buy the same snacks every week but I haven't had any problem making the different items fit together in the bins. I actually quite enjoy arranging all of them!
Now go pick up some cheap bins and organize that clutter in your house!
But before you go take a look at the cute decorations I picked up and how I'm using them!
Home Decor...
Teal Ceramic Solar Lantern (with solar top removed)
This ceramic jar came with a cheap little solar lid on it. I didn't really think it would work and didn't like how it looked so I popped it out and am instead using it to hold a bottle of lotion in our guest bathroom! I was lucky that the lotion happened to fit. When it runs out maybe I will move the jar somewhere else. I could even put in some battery powered tea lights if I wanted to use it as a lantern! But for now I'm loving how it looks on the bathroom counter to hide the ugly bottle of some yummy smelling lotion!
I love when I find creative uses for items in my house! Who would have thought a cheap solar lantern would actually make a great lotion holder in the guest bathroom!?
Red & Blue glass candle holders
White ceramic solar lantern (with solar top removed)
I bought another ceramic jar from the same line but in a different color and pattern. I again took off the lid but have this jar in an arrangement on my front porch along with two other jars I picked up. These glass jars were only a $1.00 each. They came in a variety of colors and seemed like great quality. I love the metal handles on them and think they would look cute with tea lights in them hanging on a hook. For now though, they live as decorations on my front porch!
White flower metal garden stake
Bronze solar lantern with candle
The last items I picked up was the metal garden stake in the flower pot and the bronze lantern on the ground. I love this lantern. I think it has a timeless look to it and would go well with any kind of patio decor. The garden stake was only $1.00 and adds some interest to the potted Marigolds.
That's everything I picked up from my trip to Family Dollar! I hope you enjoyed seeing these items and how I'm using them in my home.
I'll leave with a few photos of my silly kittens as I tried to work on this project...
My little NON-helpers
With my back turned she climbed into the bin. I thought if I picked up the bin and put it in the cabinet she would jump out...
I was wrong. She knows she's the boss around here.
xoxo
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