Five Quick and affordable home storage Solutions

Don’t get me wrong, my home is not perfectly pristine and clutter free, but over the years one of my mantras has been to pop things behind a closed door rather than leaving the mess out on display. It works wonders on making things look great from the outside!

Very annoying though for my husband and children who regularly blame me for tidying things away when they can’t find something. Can I say that in my defence it’s not always my fault,? My husband in particular has this seemingly weird eyesight condition of not being able to see something straight in front of him when in fact it’s there all along. Anyone else ever experienced this with their partners?

Anyway, I thought I’d share some of the easy, simple and affordable home storage ideas that I have adopted in an attempt to keep on top of things and not end up with mounds of stuff all over the place.  

In no particular order here are five of my favourites, no affiliated income or sponsorship has been received for the products below, they are purely my own preferences and are from my own home.

1.      Ikea Kallax storage units

Affordable, easy to assemble, hides a multitude of things

Wow these are such a discovery, and great value for money too! You can buy them in all kinds of sizes and in 5 different colours. The added bonus is that you can use them as shelving storage for things like books or ornaments.

Alternatively buy the canvas Drona boxes that easily pop into one of the square holes and you instantly get a built-in storage unit. The Drona boxes are only around £3 each on the Ikea website and come in various different colours, which change from time to time. A unit that holds 4 boxes costs around £25.

Useful in any absolutely room: I have an ‘eighter’ in the cupboard under my stairs for shoes, it’s a life saver to hide all those teenage smelly trainers. I also have them in my utility room to store handbags, backpacks, pet food, and other general stuff. And for a super cheap option, I bought the Drona boxes for inside my wardrobe to store jumpers, jeans and other things that don’t need to be on hangers.

2.      Etsy baskets for make-up & toiletries

Unique, affordable, looks good

One of my recent Etsy wonder-finds, I absolutely love these storage baskets from BeeandMeGifts! They are personalised and come in a range of sizes and colours, so there’s something for everyone. There’s really no need to hide these away in a cupboard either as they look great out on display.

I bought one as a treat for myself to store my make up in, it’s so handy as you can see your make up and don’t need to delve into a dusty old make up bag or drawer to find your favourite eyeliner. I pop a piece of tissue paper at the bottom to help keep it keep that bit cleaner, but as it’s made of a hard plastic, it can be cleaned super easily.

In fact, I loved it so much I bought one for my teenage daughter in an attempt for her to keep her toiletries more organised and to stop using my make up! A feel good buy as you are supporting smaller businesses on the wonderful online shopping platform that Etsy is. and my baskets only cost £3.99 each , a real bargain!

3.      Aldi Storage baskets

Versatile, cheap, easy clean

Ok, I know these are plastic too, but they last absolutely years and are super useful around the house. There’s not much they can’t be used for, but here’s some of the places you’ll find them in my house:

* in the fridge to store cheeses, jars, vegetables and salad

* in the cupboard underneath the bathroom basin to store toiletries, spare cotton wool and cotton buds

* in a kitchen cupboard to keep all those pesky storage jar lids and tops in one place (have you ever had the same experience as me of never being able to find a lid to fit a container, jar or water bottle?)

* in a kitchen cupboard to store opened post and paperwork that needs action but would otherwise just sit in a pile on a work surface (yes, you’ve guessed it, I can put this in a cupboard out of sight until I need to rifle through and find what I need)

 Mine came in a pack of two and cost less than £4, very similar baskets can be bought from pretty much any supermarket or discount store in a variety of colours, bright or neutral.

4.      DIY Stationery storage

Easy access, flexible, upcycling

So, this one has always been a challenge in our household. When my children were toddlers, we seemed to be overrun with paint, playdoh, colouring books and a multitude of the obligatory ‘make and do’ activity sets.

Nowadays it has morphed from those toddler days, through the Smiggle phase when my children were around 10 or 11, into what my teenage daughter and I lovingly now call the ‘Arts and Crafts’ cupboard. Hardly arts and crafts, more like various accumulated assorted pen and gel sets. Not sure if it’s a female thing or just me, but I think you can’t beat a bit of nice stationery.  You never know when those lovely, coloured paper clips or sticky notes from Paperchase will come in handy.

To attempt to keep all of the really useful (aka odds and ends) stationery in an organised manner, I’ve used various boxes collected over the years that beauty gift sets have come in, together with odd plastic containers (with lids wherever I still have them!). I’ve then just plonked a white sticky label on the front of each one and filled them with some stationery bits and bobs.  It’s great to upcycle old boxes and containers and hopefully the result means that it might encourage my daughter to put things back where they came from…..……..I can live in hope I guess.

5.      Amazon Sock drawer sorter

Hidden gem, easy set-up, satisfying

A really simple idea and an Amazon bargain, this one just clicks together in seconds to form a honeycomb pattern, you insert it into a drawer, and pop a pair of socks into each hole. Done.

No more hunting for that particular pair of socks and only wearing the ones that are on the top in your drawer, this sorter displays each pair so bingo, you can find your favourite pair without having to search far. at all Strangely I find it just a little satisfying that something so dull as socks can be so organised and sit pretty in a drawer. Odd I know, and that’s not the socks.

 I paid less than £10 for this one which holds around 25 pairs of socks.

6. Bonus : desk top storage

Aesthetic, versatile, sturdy

My daughter asked for this to store her desk stationery in and I must admit it looks great and definitely inspires her to keep her desk clutter free! Honestly I took this photo without having to tidy anything up! It’s actually marketed as a make up storage unit but can be used for lots of different things and the little drawers underneath are really cute. I paid around £15 for this long lasting unit from Amazon.