Storage containers are the single most common thing bought in anticipation and never used, and the pattern is worth recognising.
The Anticipation Purchase
A set of bins bought because a cupboard is untidy, before anybody has looked at what is in the cupboard.
They arrive, they do not fit the shelf or the contents, and they join the collection of empty containers in the garage. That collection is itself a storage problem.
Buying is satisfying in a way that sorting is not, which is why the order gets reversed.
The Order That Works
- Empty the space completely
- Reduce what goes back in
- Decide what the space is for
- Measure the space and the contents
- Then buy, to those measurements
- Buy one first, confirm it fits, then order the rest
Ranges publishing dimensions per size, of the kind at bino.us.org, make that final step possible; buying by size name alone is what produces returns.
Storage as a Gift
Rarely lands well, and worth thinking about before buying it for somebody.
Organising products given to somebody else can read as a comment on how they live, however kindly meant. It also has to fit their spaces and their categories, which you cannot measure.
A voucher, or offering an afternoon of help, is generally better received than a box.
The Empty Container Problem
Every household accumulates containers bought for something that never happened.
They occupy space permanently in exchange for the possibility of being useful. Treating them like anything else, with an honest look at whether they will ever be used, is worth doing.
Beware the Matching Instinct
Replacing perfectly good mismatched containers with a matching set is a purchase about appearance rather than function.
That is a legitimate reason, and it is worth being honest that it is the reason, rather than expecting it to solve an organisation problem it will not.
Sales Are Not a Reason
A cheap container that does not fit is not cheap.
Take a Photograph
Of the space, with a tape measure in it, when shopping in person.
Return Terms
Worth checking, since sizing is the commonest reason storage goes back.
One In, One Out
Applies to containers too.
Sort First, Always
Every problem in this article disappears if the space is emptied and reduced before anything is ordered, which is why it is the one rule worth keeping.