Hi, I’m Laura and I have a reusable water bottle obsession. Yes I do. I guess it’s more like a reusable cup/travel mug obsession since I have many that I use for tea as well. However, the way they were stored made it difficult to get to the ones in the back of the cupboard. It would annoy me every time I tried because I had to pull out the ones in front to reach. And I so don’t like being annoyed. Thankfully a little organization will fix so many of these common types of problems. In no time at all too. This quick organizing fix took me about 15 minutes. And now all my lovely little reusable cup friends can come out to play 🙂
Reusable Cup Storage Shelf:
So let’s start by taking a look at my cupboard before. Not terrible, just annoying. By the way not all of these are mine, some of them belong to the rest of my family. Although I admit many of them belong to me. I do have my favorite one but I still use the others in a variety of different situations 🙂
The top shelf is my designated water bottle/travel mug storage area. Although clearly you can see it has started to spread to the bottom shelf as well. Beware of the creeping clutter friends, it sneaks up on you when you aren’t looking. And then of course this causes all sorts of additional problems.
Behind the water bottles on the bottom shelf are some food storage containers I’d like to be able to get to on a regular basis.
I pulled everything out and found a basket that fit the cupboard space. When I see all the bottles pulled out like this I can see just how big my collection really is. Oopsie.
Quick Organizing Fix:
The two annoying problems I wanted to solve. I wanted to be able to easily access those food storage containers. And I needed quick easy access to ALL my water bottles and travel mugs even the ones at the back. So even though I had a designated shelf space, I needed an anchor container. An anchor container allows me to slide out all the bottle/mugs at one time. Problem fixed! And I shopped my house so it didn’t cost me a cent. Boom!
The yellow basket in front holds my husband’s travel mugs. Behind that is another basket with mine that can now be quickly pulled out!
So much better!
This technique would work great with any deep cupboard that you have. Just remember to take measurements before heading to the store.
And you know that no organizing project is ever complete without doing some PURGING. My husband and I managed to part with 10 reusable cups and mugs so no more spilling over to the second shelf. Well except for the Booster Juice one that you see on the top shelf. I take that one with me when I visit their store.
The moral of this story is to let you know that organization doesn’t have to be one big grandiose event. So few of us have time to organize entire rooms all at once. Instead think about organizing your life one small annoying problem at a time. Don’t worry about the big picture, it’s all so overwhelming. When you don’t know where to start, start with the one small area that annoys you the most. Do you struggle with paper and get annoyed when a permission slip gets misplaced? Set up a command center in your kitchen. Does preparing school lunches take forever every day? Set up a lunch making basket with all the supplies you need in one area. You get the idea.
Simplify it, don’t complicate it.
Get organized by conquering one small annoyance at a time.
How many reusable water bottles/travel mugs does your family have? Please tell me I’m not the only one with this problem 🙂
To see more small organized spaces where I solve annoying problems with a quick organizing fix visit HERE.
Becky L says
I have 2 that I use and my daughter has 2-3. One is a nice one from Starbucks…daughter’s. I have 2 free stainless steel vacuum bottles that I may give away as I don’t like the smell of the plastic in the lid.
I reorganized my Tupperware lids the other day. It’s inside a rectangular cake container lid. Eventually I need to go through all the Tupperware and downsize as I’ve got a lot. Did downsize some awhile back. Still have ones I bought while in England and a few when I was selling it. Years ago.
Downsized clothes …garbage bag full and took it to the clothing swap at our church yesterday. Came home with one sweater for me and a few clothes for our 3 grandchildren and new one coming is April..neutral color.
Have a blessed week!!
MelanieL says
I have this system on a pantry shelf! It starts to spill out of the bin at times then I know it’s time to purge a few. 🙂
Jana Roberts says
I use a shoe organizer in the inside of my pantry door.
Laura Wittmann says
Love this idea for those that have pantries, great idea!!