Before kids I never would have thought I would have anything but a minimalist decorating style. I don’t like junk, nicknacks, or clutter. I like the space under my bed to be empty and to have some wiggle room in all my draws.
But… then we moved into a tiny apartment just outside of Boston where my whole kitchen space consisted of five draws and three cupboards (and a half sized oven, that looked fake and could not fit a full sized cookie sheet).
And then… I started having kids. Ha. Ha. Ha.
Jokes on me. That clutter free lifestyle is long gone. It’s been throughly replaces by a tight living space, a toddler and a baby.
I still hate clutter, but these days it seems more or less unavoidable. Kids have a lot of stuff, even when they don’t have that much stuff. Ugh. And when you have a child, and you know you’re going to have more children and you don’t have a ton of money you tend to keep everything your current child outgrows for your future children.
The point I’m getting to is cardboard boxes have become my best friends. They are cheap, plentiful, and great for storing things around the house so even if I have lots of clutter and stuff I don’t have to look at it.
Steps to make storage boxes to fit any space
1) Measure your space and find a box that is as bigger or bigger than it.
2) Cut your box down to fit your space
3) Glue or tape the inside flaps of your box down so they don’t catch on things in the future and so they don’t come unfolded unexpectedly.
4) Get a length of fabric a few inches longer than the sides of your box. Start by hot glueing the fabric to one end of your box and stretching it around your box as you go, leaving a few inches of extra fabric above and below the wall of your box. Once you have the fabric glued around your box glue the loose edge to the bottom of your box then fold the remaining fabric over the top and into your box. Glue it down, then run an extra a line of glue directly along the inside edge of the fabric and press it to the box so that things wont catch on the fabric when you’re pull them out of the box.
5) Slide them into their space and fill them as needed.
I hope this helps you like it’s helped me. I now have storage boxes under my sons bed and all along the cabinets in my kitchen. Living in such tight quarters this have been amazingly helpful to me.
If you have thoughts, inputs or suggestions on how to make it even better I’d love to hear about them in the comments.