Clutter Buster: Holiday Decorations & the Closet Under the Stairs

     One of the main reasons I wanted to move from the apartment above the unit we are in now and into this one - was this ridiculously useful closet under the stairs. When you have cats, young children, and lots of breakable things to store - this is so perfect. I don't have a before picture for you - but imagine bunches and bunches of McDonald's fry boxes full of decorations stacked on a pallet in the garage, the cat box in the bathroom with a gate blocking it off (hopefully because that scoop is a very attractive thing to a toddler) stinking up the place, a little boy waving a broom around and a garbage can in the pantry where the child can constantly dig in it. Now, imagine my joy when we moved.

The gated off area.

     I am not a big fan of bins and boxes but these particular bins serve their purpose. I feel that everything should have a home and one of my favorite quotes is "Have nothing in your home that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." - William Morris

     Each bin is labeled with a month and filled with decorations appropriately. During the year as I am packing things back into their bins I purge and write a list of things I would like to acquire instead. If it doesn't fit in the bin, it doesn't get brought into the home. I have one large bin for our artificial Christmas tree, two bins full of various Christmas decor, and one ornament bin to hold all those precious Christmas memories for display on the tree.

     Also in this closet and away from little fingers is the litter box and scoop, cat food and water, vacuum, broom and dustpan, our swiffer mop, my step stool because he is learning to climb onto the counters now, the hose for cleaning the fish tank, a bag of plastic bags (which I hope to find a solution for soon) and the garbage which our two year old can reach to throw things away but not to dig through.

In the comments: if you have children - how do you keep things like the cat box or garbage out of their reach? And how do you store your holiday decor?