Super Shoebox Storage

I am a couponer (NOT an extreme couponer, LOL), so our bathroom closet has been slightly overflowing with extra toothpaste, deodorant, etc.  I don't have a ridiculous amount of anything, but probably enough extras for 6 months.  I have always kept everything in a couple of large plastic baskets, but with 5 people in the house they were becoming a jumbled mess that I was tired of digging through! (I wish I would have taken "before" pictures, but I got a little too excited!)

After assessing the space available in our bathroom linen closet and the amount of stuff on hand, I decided that shoe boxes would be a good solution. Not wanting to spend a lot of money, I headed off to the dollar store and picked some up. I even managed to NOT buy anything else while I was there (except a new wastebasket for the kids' bathroom)!

So, I came home and started sorting things out by type and putting them in the boxes.  The only things that didn't go in the boxes were shampoo and conditioner - the bottles are too large.  Those went under the sink in a different solution I'll show some other time.  The Husband wanted to know how he was going to know what was in each box.  DUH, he should know I am a label freak!  I also wanted to make them a little pretty because The Husband has a bad habit of leaving the closet door hanging open and I didn't want to look at boring shoeboxes with plain labels on them.

Since I have what amounts to a craft store in my house, I just went "shopping" for things that would match the future beach-y theme of the bathroom.  Here's how they turned out:

 

I just love, love, LOVE them! Especially that burlap ribbon!  If you want all the details on how I decorated the boxes, you can head over to my "crafty" blog - I thought we'd concentrate on the organization here.

Depending on your amount/type of stuff, you may need more/fewer/different categories than I used, but I thought I would share the way I organized mine. I even used one box for manicure/pedicure supplies, because a) I don't really do my nails that often and b)it will keep my kids out of my expensive polish.  I put everything on the top shelf of the linen closet because we wouldn't be pulling them down often - this is mostly the EXTRA stuff.  Here are the categories I used:

• body wash/shower gel
• bar soap
• shaving
• nails (mani/pedi that is, not hardware)
• lotion/lip balm
• facial cleanser & moisturizer
• toothpaste, etc.
• deodorant/body spray
• bandages/first aid (all of them - we have a band-aid bandit in our house)

Hope this gives you some ideas for your own storage solutions.  Thanks for coming by! Oh yes! Cost!  The boxes were less than $10 with tax.  The other supplies were already on hand - I know the burlap ribbon was about $8 for 5 yards but the other I don't remember.  The buckles were probably the most expensive things, but I'm sure the total is less than $30.