{organizing with style} 12 Ways to Organize with Baskets & Bins

Creating an organized and pretty, happy home is what this blog is all about, and I firmly believe that those things all naturally go hand in hand. Certainly organization should be practical and functional, first and foremost, but there is no reason that your organized spaces can’t also be pretty and make you smile!

My friend Melissa, from A Prudent Life, and I share a passion for creating stylish organizing solutions, and we recently started a hashtag challenge on Instagram where we are asking you to play along by tagging photos on a weekly organizing topic using #organizingwithstyle. For week 1 of the challenge, we asked to see photos of how you use baskets and bins to organize your homes with style. And today, we’ve rounded up some of our very favorites to inspire you to use pretty bins and baskets in every room of your home!

12 Ways to Organize with Baskets and Bins

Earlier this year I wrote a popular post called 10 Steps to Get Organized and Stay Organized and two of the tips from that post are to “use containers {and containers within containers},” and to “make it pretty to keep it pretty.” Stylish baskets and bins are perfect organizing tools because they are able to not only store just about anything in any room of the house, but they also do it in a way that adds beauty to the space!

IN THE BATHROOM

Our favorite photo from this week’s #organizingwithstyle challenge came from Stacy Graves Interiors (@scg_interiors). Stacy’s guest bathroom is seriously gorgeous with all that white tile, but it’s the shelves that really caught our attention. I love the dark accent color that surrounds the shelves and makes them pop. And then there are the baskets! The color and texture of the baskets, which Stacy uses to store towels, perfectly compliment the bathroom while adding a new layer to the design. And of course, I can’t overlook that wire basket on the top shelf, which makes extra toilet paper look downright pretty, and also creates a nice balance with the shiny silver potting stool at the base of the shelves!

Photo source: Stacy Graves Interiors on Instagram | Also find her at stacygravesinteriors.com

Another beautiful bathroom photo came from Tera Janelle Design (@terajanelledesign). The chunky wood shelves are the showstoppers in her recently client bathroom project, and that large, gray-toned basket below the lowest shelf provides a much more stylish alternative to a traditional laundry basket and blends in seamlessly with the overall bathroom design. Tucked in the corner next to the laundry basket, largely out of sight, are a bin for bath tub toys and a garbage can. Using the pretty laundry basket to hide these other functional items from view is a smart design trick that can be applied in any room of the home. Tera Janelle recently shared all the photos of this serene bathroom on her blog.

Photo source: Tera Janell Design on Instagram | Also find her at blog.terajanelle.com

IN THE ENTRYWAY

Mariella (@splendorstyling) uses narrow baskets all around her house to keep things organized in small spaces, and I am particularly fond of how she has used this basket just inside the front door as a drop spot for umbrellas and scarves. One of my favorite organizing tips is to take advantage of every available space, and this thin, low-profile basket allows Mariella to utilize the floor space, which is too narrow for a cabinet or bench, without making the small entryway feel crowded.

Photo source: Splendor Styling on Instagram | Also find her at splendorstyling.com

My entryway, on the other hand, is quite large and open to our living room. In an effort to put the space to good use, we purchased a long console table that provides ample storage. The frosted glass doors help to balance all of the dark wood, and visually lighten this large piece of furniture. In order to take full advantage of the shelf space behind the glass doors, I use four black and white newsprint baskets that look stylish while keeping things organized. The baskets give me a place to store magazines and catalogs {which I tend to hoard}.

Organize with baskets on console table shelves

Photo Source: Blue i Style on Instagram | View full entry and living room tour

IN THE LIVING ROOM

The living room is an ideal place to use baskets for both form and function! Shannon (@aninspirednest) has a wall of open shelves in her living room, and uses baskets throughout to contain many different items – from pillows, to books, to toys. I am especially drawn to the way that she has used a basket to style books by standing them upright and with the pages facing forward. We are accustomed to seeing the books displayed with the spines out, but here the whites and off-whites of the book pages are perfect in keeping with the neutral tones of her shelf styling – making this unique display eye-catching without standing out.

Photo source: An Inspired Nest on Instagram | Also find her online on Pinterest

I love pretty pillows and blankets {and I know I’m not the only one}, but where do all those pillows end up when you need room to actually sit on the couch? Rather than just tossing them on the floor, a pretty basket can be the perfect solution, as Heidy (@xostyleklozetxo) shows us.

Use baskets to store blankets and pillows

Photo source: Style Klozet on Instagram | Also find her on Pinterest

Books and baskets go together like peas and carrots, and if the basket is furry, well – what could be better?! Melissa (@aprudentlife) recently purchased this amazing basket at Target {yep, Target does it again!} and she is using it to hold books and magazines to create a cozy and organized reading spot! I am pretty sure this same exact same basket may be finding its way into my home this winter… I definitely need it for the Christmas books that we read to the boys each night before bed during the holiday season!

Use baskets to store books and magazines

Photo source: A Prudent Life on Instagram | Also find her at aprudentlife.com

Just last week I shared my 10 tips for making it faster and easier to clean up all the toys that kids inevitably spread through every inch of a house, and one of those tips was to use stylish baskets to contain toys in each room. This photo from Corinna (@adesignerathome) is a perfect example! Corinna uses three baskets in her living room to keep toys stylishly within reach – this pink rimmed basket holds cars, and two more with blue rims are tucked under her coffee table, filled with legos and trains.

Use baskets to store toys throughout the house

Photo source: A Designer at Home on Instagram | Also find her at adesignerathome.com

IN KIDS’ ROOMS

Baskets and bins are ideal for storing kids’ toys throughout the house, and, of course, they are a perfect solution in kids’ rooms as well! There are so many things too love in this photo from Ashley (@ashley_biggerthanthethreeofus), starting with that amazing lofted bed she built in the closet. But it’s the organization in this space that really puts it over the top for both style and function. Ashley tells us that she uses the row of baskets on the high shelf to store items that are used infrequently, as well as for toys that are “good to get out for awhile and then put up.” This is such an important point when it comes to organizing for kids! While it’s ideal to keep many of their toys at a low level where they can get them out and put them back on their own, there are other toys that are better stored out of reach where parents can control them!

Photo source: Bigger Than the Three of Us on Instagram | Also find her at biggerthanthethreeofus.com

My three year old son is obsessed with his books – a feeling I hope to foster into a life long love of reading! When we designed his “big boy room” we wanted to give him plenty of storage for his books, as well as his toys. We used two Ikea cubical shelf units turned on their sides to create one long, low bookcase across an entire wall of his room. The entire bottom row is filled with grey tweed storage bins that are filled with toys. I added DIY leather numbers to the front of each to make it easier for him to know where to find his toys, and where to put them away. I also added a wire basket {with a fun leather label} to the top of the bookshelf, which we use to keep library books separate in order to prevent searching all the shelves when the due date rolls around.

Use bins to organize toys in kids' rooms

Photo source: Blue i Style on Instagram | View full menswear inspired boy’s bedroom tour

ON THE PATIO

If baskets are idea for storing blankets and magazines in the living room, then why not also use them in your outdoor living spaces?! Even if your outdoor space is not covered, a basket with handles would make an ideal way to transport items outdoors. Libby (@libbylazzointeriors) captured this cozy and inviting outdoor lounge during a real estate photo shoot on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, Australia, not far from where I studied abroad during college. Having had the very fortunate opportunity to live in this beautiful part of the world for a short time, I can just picture lounging on this deck reading magazines while enjoying the perfect weather year round… #IWantToGoToThere!

Photo source: Libby Lazzo Interiors on Instagram | Also find her on Facebook

IN THE GARAGE

Wherever you have shelves, baskets and bins can help you create stylish organization – and this truth even extends out to the garage! Melissa (@aprudentlife) recently created a fantastic workshop in her garage, and above the workbench she mounted shelf units to store her staining and spray painting supplies. She keeps her most often used spray paints visible on one of the lower shelves, while hiding all of the other items away in labeled baskets. Since these shelves are up high, I love that she chose baskets with finger holes, making them easier to securely grab hold of and carefully lift down! So smart!

Photo source: A Prudent Life on Instagram | Also find her at aprudentlife.com

The hashtag challenge continues on Instagram, and this week we want to see how you organize your laundry rooms. Post your new photos and tag then with #organizingwithstyle, and be sure you are following @blueistyle, @aprudentlife and @organizingwithstyle for a chance to be featured on all three Instagram feeds and on our blogs next week!

Not on Instagram? I’d still love to see how you Organize with Style! Tag me in your photos on Facebook, or email them to me at blueistyleblog (at) gmail (dot) com. Happy Organizing!

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{organizing with style} 12 Ways to Organize with Baskets & Bins

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