Double Duty: Decorative Boxes as Storage
Decorative boxes can be more than just pretty. Use them to make your home more organized!
Photo: Birch Lane
We all have little bits of clutter and mementos that we'd love to hang onto. I've been guilty of stashing things here and there and then forgetting where I placed them! What to do...
Through the years, I realized that I had a wonderful collection of decorative boxes that I wasn't using efficiently.
Decorative boxes of all kinds are the perfect solution to corralling the stuff you want to keep, but don't want to see. They enable you to store those items that are important to you in an easily-accessible, organized way.
This is one of my absolute favourite boxes purchased on a trip years ago. Now I use it to store Christmas cards from friends and family. Every year, I enjoy pulling them out and seeing how friends' children have grown.
Photo: Christy Little
This decorative box, a sailor's toolbox, was purchased in an antique store. It's a bit larger and fits nicely under this console table in our family room. The chest has divided compartments which neatly organize seasonal accessories that I use in the room.
Photo: Christy Little
I use decorative boxes in several other ways in our home.
A box in our bedroom stores all the cards that my husband and I have given each other through the years, as well as cards from our children. No fumbling around in drawers to find them. As soon as they have been enjoyed, they go straight to the box on top of my husband's highboy.Another box on my husband's nightstand houses remotes for the media equipment. And yet another on my dresser stores costume jewellery.
There are so many things you can do with decorative boxes all over the house. You can store:
- Cards from family
- Remotes, chargers, and other technology accessories
- Recipes
- Jewellery
- Crafting supplies
- Bills
Photo: Accents Et Details
There are a number of great places to find decorative boxes:
- On your travels
- Thrift stores
- Antique stores
- Wayfair !
Don't pass up those thrift store boxes! With a little paint and imagination they become a treasure. This box, which I found in a thrift store, looked to be from the '70s. It was stained with a floral decal, so I sanded off the decal and painted it with a stencil. Now it houses chalkboard supplies and daily menu cards for my menu chalkboard hanging in our kitchen.
Photo: Christy Little
Good luck organizing the things you love in a beautiful, decorative way!
