Get Organized Using Everyday Household Items

Get Organized Using Everyday Household Items

Take a look around you, and you’ll find familiar items that can easily be put to use organizing your life.

Ellen Silverman

Use Nail Polish to Color-Code Keys Original Purpose: Giving yourself a well-groomed look from tip to toe. Aha! Use: Color-coding keys. Lay keys flat and apply a thick coat of a different shade to the top of each key. Reward: Keys of distinction.

Antonis Achilleos

Business Card Holder as Sugar Packet Carrier Original Purpose: Keeping your credentials presentable. Aha! Use: Making packets of your favorite sweetener portable. Reward: Always having coffee your way — without a purse full of powder from broken packets.

Antonis Achilleos

Laundry Bag as Dishwasher Item Saver Original Purpose: Saving delicate unmentionables from getting stretched in the spin cycle. Aha! Use: Keeping mini Tupperware lids, baby-bottle caps, and other small items from falling through the dishwasher rack. Reward: No more diving for treasure on the floor of the dishwasher.

Mark Lund

Matchbox as Travel Sewing Kit Original Purpose: Lighting your fire. Aha! Use: Storing a tiny travel sewing kit. A matchbox is the perfect size for holding the essentials: needles, thread, buttons, and a few safety pins. Reward: No need to panic when a button emergency strikes during a business trip.

Monica Buck

Store Toilet Paper in Tall Vases Original Purpose: Showing off all those long-stemmed roses from gentleman callers. Aha! Use: Helping toilet paper hide in plain sight. Reward: Guests don’t have to root around for a new roll in your not absolutely, positively tidy vanity, and you always know when you’re running low.

Ellen Silverman

Magnetic Clip as Recipe Holder Original Purpose: Keeping the office phone list within easy reach. Aha! Use: Holding your recipe at eye level while you’re standing at the stove. Stick the clip to the stove hood and your recipe is exactly where you need it. Reward: An end to the daily dinner dance from recipe to stove and back.

Ellen Silverman

Bubble Wrap as Travel Jewelry Organizer Original Purpose: Cushioning breakables before entrusting them to the mailman. Aha! Use: Taking jewelry on a tangle-free trip. Place chains and earrings on a length of wrap, roll tightly, and tape closed. Reward: Necklaces that emerge from your suitcase ready to wear, even if the same can’t be said for your clothes.

Beatriz da Costa

Six-Pack Container as Picnic Organizer Original Purpose: Transporting your brew from refrigerator case to refrigerator shelf. Aha! Use: Transporting condiments, silverware, napkins, and picnic supplies from kitchen to patio. Reward: A free tote that makes polishing off the last bottle a little less dispiriting.

Monica Buck

Toilet Paper Roll as Cord Holder Original Purpose: Moving the toilet tissue round and round. Aha! Use: Storing an extension cord. Coil the cord into a hank about 1 1/2 inches thick, then slide it through the tube for a neat package that won’t come unwound. Reward: Tangle-free power wherever you need it.

Quentin Bacon

Secure Straps on Hangers with Rubber Bands Original Purpose: Bundling mail in the postman’s bag. Aha! Use: Keeping camisoles and sundresses from slipping off their hangers. For this stop-strap measure, wrap a band (or two if you use skinny ones) around each end of a hanger. Reward: Garments that stay put instead of sliding to the floor.

Yunhee Kim

Tissue Box as Grocery Bag Holder Original Purpose: Helping you through a weepie movie. Aha! Use: Storing plastic grocery bags under the kitchen sink. After Terms of Endearment has exhausted your supply of tissues, stuff the bags into the empty box. Reward: Order is restored in your cabinets, and bags are ready for reuse.

James Baigrie

Keep Fabric Wrinkle-Free with Mailing Tubes Original Purpose: Protecting posters and prints in the post. Aha! Use: Keeping a scarf or a tablecloth wrinkle-free. Roll the fabric around the tube, then run a length of ribbon through it and tie a bow. Reward: A smooth transition for your accessories, without blowing off ironing steam.

James Baigrie

Store Laundry, Pantry, and Garden Items in a Shower Caddy Original Purpose: Shelving all your suds, salts, and scrubs. Aha! Use: Stocking extra supplies in your laundry room, pantry, or garden shed. Use the dead space around the doorknob when the cabinets can’t take anymore. Reward: No need to tip this caddy to keep your tools handy.

Andrew McCaul

Use a Desk Organizer in the Kitchen Original Purpose: Keeping files orderly. Aha! Use: Sorting cookie sheets, cutting boards, and jelly-roll pans in the kitchen. Reward: No more cymbal-crashing sounds from your overstuffed cupboard.

Frances Janisch

Store Pills in a Contact-Lens Case Original Purpose: Storing 20/20 vision overnight. Aha! Use: Transporting non-prescription pills without all the bottles. Pop it into your handbag and you’ll have a headache remedy handy when the man in seat 7A drones on about his herniated disk. Reward: More room for that fifth pair of shoes.

Antonis Achilleos

Hold Recipe Cards in CD Cases Original Purpose: Keeping that Van Morrison disc scratch-free. Aha! Use: Displaying a recipe card during meal prep. Open the case and bend it back as shown, then place the card (after cutting it to fit, if necessary) on top. Reward: Easy-reading reuse of that easy-listening-album holder.

Mark Weiss

Label with Return-Address Stickers Original Purpose: Donation lure from charities; bill-paying time-saver. Aha! Use: Labels for less. Stick or tape them on anything you don't want to lose books, magazines, umbrellas, Tupperware containers, cell phones, the stapler on your desk at work. Reward: Many happy returns.

Mark Lund

Organize Bills with Napkin Holder Original Purpose: Keeping napkins at hand. Aha! Use: Organizing bills. Instead of keeping them in an office file (or a messy pile), try something more attractive. As you open mail, stash the bills in order of their due dates. Reward: Bills that don’t look businesslike (but still need to be paid).

Formula Z/S

Pack Boxes with Popcorn Original Purpose: Additional entertainment during the Bridget Jones sequel. Aha! Use: Packing supply. Sprinkle plain, air-popped popcorn in a mailing box for cushioning. If you don’t have an air popper, cover the item with a plastic bag first. Reward: Protect precious cargo; snack on the leftovers.

Charles Maraia

Tote Money, Keys with Binder Clip Original Purpose: Securing papers. Aha! Use: A clip-on key chain/money holder that's ideal for your morning walk. Take a 1 1/4-inch binder clip and pinch one of the wire arms toward the center to release it from its hinge. Slide on your key and refasten. Clamp to your waistband with a few bucks for coffee and a paper.

France Ruffenach

Gather Toys with Dustpan Original Purpose: Collecting dust. Aha! Use: Scooping up small toys — Lego blocks, jacks, Barbie shoes, plastic soldiers. Reward: Reclaim your living room for grown-ups.

September 2005

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