Now that the new year has rolled in, I’ve become engrossed with creating storage out of nothing in my home. The idea of organizing my belongings and storage areas is enticing if only to save space elsewhere and keep the home nice and tidy. In fact, I always find myself wanting more areas and dedicated spaces to store my general stuff. You know, general stuff as in not clothes, not food, and not technology. Everything else that is a loose item needs somewhere to go, right?

For example, rather than putting my shoes directly beneath the bench in front of my front door, I have a shoe rack. Or even the abundance of coasters I have collected from breweries, those go in a small basket beneath my coffee table.

But when it comes to new storage things, I can’t really justify spending money on storage containers and other shipping supplies when I’m fine with my place being a little messier than normal if it means saving a few bucks. And that’s probably most of my problem. That I’m okay with being cheap even if it means being messier. Probably not the best way to be!

As of late I’ve started to have a few ideas of little things I could go out and buy that wouldn’t cost too much, especially if they’re from resale shops.

Knife rack.

Honestly, I have too many loose knives with no dedicated rack in my kitchen. And the loose knives in my drawers can honestly be a bit dangerous to reach into if not careful. So recently, I I realized we need a knife holder. These can be extremely cheap if you find the right ones in the right places. The only thing to keep in mind, though, is if it fits the theme of your kitchen. You can never go wrong with wooden knife racks.

Bookcase.

I always loved my bookcases growing up. They were a sign of how much I loved to read, and I considered them sacred for that very reason. Now, I don’t happen to have as many books since I’ve gotten rid of a lot, but having a bookcase for my books and other things like my vinyl albums seems super useful. Heck, I can even store my very shipping supplies in cabinets within the new book shelves if there happens to be any. Talk about storing the storage supplies themselves!