Reduce, Reuse: Recycled Coffee Can Organizers

Organizing is one of my least-favorite DIY activities — especially when you factor in all the money it seems you need to do it well. (Read: California Closets, the subject of many a lustful daydream around Shoestring.) Meghan, on the other hand, is a master of meticulousness, even going so far as to create her own closet system that coordinates shoes by not only season, but by fabric and heel height.

Before I met the Ginger, I used to spend the time to organize my clothes by occasion and by color, and was a complete neat freak who spent about four hours each week cleaning the bathroom literally top to bottom, but marriage is a compromise for the greater good and happiness of the couple, not just the individual, so over the past six years clutter has become my keeper, and my husband has become the Oscar to my Felix.

Which might be partly why I find this anecdote so funny:

My Depression-thriving grampa, also named Oscar, schooled me well in the powerful principles of "waste not, want not," and on a recent trip to my family's orchard in Washington wine country, I was reminded of how masterfully he executed these values in even the smallest of ways. Despite his toolshed workbench being the most classically manly of domestic spaces, this tough-as-nails WWII paratrooper and lifelong railroad worker was putting Martha Stewart to the test, keeping his screws organized by width, separated from his nails organized by length, and so on. And all for the low, low price of free.

Grampa was somewhat brand loyal, too, and by keeping and reusing his empty coffee canister each week, he created a system for clutter maintenance and efficiency that was not only environmentally friendly but that any student of modern design would find pleasing to the eye. Repetition is really hot right now, and this 3-R solution is fast, free, and utterly fabulous.

What are your favorite free and low-cost organizing solutions?

~ Melissa

Story and Photos Copyright 2009 Shoestring, LLC.