Bins, Bins, Bins!

My idea for today is not very original.  But yet, it has literally saved me from insanity in my own home, and I pray it does the same for you!  I’m talking about using fabric bins for storage.  Who would have thought I would dedicate a whole blog post to these bins?

I’m sure you have some of them in your home.  But if you come to my home, you will see them in nearly every room of the house.  And for good reason:  I have 2 boys under the age of 4.  I can just imagine my life without the bins…a floor covered in Matchbox cars, Toy Story action figures, and random little plastic toys from the quarter machines at every store and restaurant in town.  I can just feel the toys under my feet, I can see the emergency bills racking up from all of us tripping, spraining our ankles, or falling down the stairs.  I guess those $6 bins are paying for themselves!

I’d like to say that my bins are organized…but that would be a lie.  They do make some very nice clear bins these days, but those would not work for me.  I need the fabric, the nice colors and the big size—to hide the mess that lies within them!  For me, that is the purpose of the bins.  To hide the mess.  To make clean-up time take 5 minutes instead of 20 (because 5 is already way too much for my boys to handle).  And to make my house look like a house, not like aisle 2 at Toys R Us.

Now, before I go on, I must admit that my boys are not the only ones who have stuff in this house.  I, too, have clutter, and you can guess where it is…in bins! I finally gave in and bought some to match my office, because the clutter on the shelves and on my desk was driving me crazy.  And this was my clutter, not my kids’.  So now, all of my random stationery sets and envelopes and loose pictures are all stored away neatly (or not-so-neatly) in well-coordinated bins that match my office and make me happy.  Oh, the ridiculous things that make us happy these days.

Are any of you fellow “bin-addicts”?  If not, then what are some of your guilty pleasures in cleaning up clutter?  In other words, where is your stuff hiding?