Not All Storage Solutions Are Helpful
Are you trying to organize your home and reduce the amount of clutter within it? Well, bad news – sometimes what you do to save space actually ends up costing you space, and money to boot! Some simple storage solutions seem great but end up being more trouble than they’re worth. Here’s 35 storage hacks you should avoid if you want to keep your house looking nice.
Over-The-Door Shoe Organizers
Honestly, who thought of these? They look awful! They make doors harder to close and invite clutter by encouraging people to stuff small items into any available pocket. If you’re thinking of buying some, don’t – shoes belong nearer to the ground.
Stackable Plastic Bins With No Labels
Stacking plastic bins seems smart - until you need something. Without labels, you have to unstack and dig through each one. This quickly becomes frustrating and messy, especially when you’re in a hurry. Basically, it’s the complete opposite of what you want.
Open Wire Baskets for Small Items
Open wire baskets can look neat at first but quickly become dumping grounds for cords, pens, cosmetics, or random tiny gadgets. The open design means items fall through, tangle, or tip out easily. Guess what you end up with? A big pile of useless clutter.
Clear Plastic Drawers That Slide Poorly
Clear plastic drawers seem convenient and neat, but if they stick, tilt, or fall off their tracks, they become a daily annoyance and you don’t want that. The fact that they're transparent can also make the room seem more cluttered, as it exposes a messy tangle of contents rather than concealing it.
Hanging Sweater Organizers in Packed Closets
Hanging sweater organizers eat up valuable vertical space and often sag under the pressure of too many clothes. In already-packed closets, they reduce hanger space and make it difficult to access what’s behind or beside them. Avoid them at all costs and your closet will thank you, as will your sweaters.
Rolling Carts Used in Tight Spaces
Rolling carts are helpful - until they’re wedged between furniture or walls with no room to actually roll. In tight spaces, they become stationary junk collectors, cluttering walkways and hiding items behind or underneath them. Basically, if you have a small house, it’s best not to get a rolling cart.
Lidless Fabric Storage Cubes
Lidless fabric cubes seem tidy and they look pretty nice, but they’re often used as open dumping grounds for random stuff. Without a top to contain the mess, their contents spill over quickly and become just another pile. Then they also lose shape when overstuffed, making them difficult to stack or slide into shelves.
Under-Bed Bins That Are Hard to Access
There’s so much space under the bed, storing things there seems like a great idea! Well… maybe not. Under-bed bins aren’t all they’re cracked up to be, and sometimes they literally do crack up when you put too much stuff in them.
Overloaded Floating Shelves
People love floating shelves, they look so chic. But when stuffed with books, decor, and random items, they lose all that visual appeal and instead draw attention to clutter. Without cabinets or edges to contain things, items easily topple off, and really overloaded shelves can just fall down, which is a huge safety hazard.
Tiered Spice Racks That Block Cabinet Doors
Tiered spice racks are great in theory but can turn chaotic in practice, especially when installed inside cabinet doors. They often block the door from closing properly or push against other items. Then, the spices fall out, and suddenly you have a mess and no more spices.
Tension Rods Used as Dividers
Tension rods are a clever hack - until they slip, bend, or pop out entirely. When used as dividers, they often fail under pressure, leading to a jumbled mess. Really, you avoid them altogether, they’re just not worth it when push comes to shove.
Wall-Mounted Hooks in High-Traffic Areas
Wall-mounted hooks are useful, but when placed in busy zones like hallways or kitchens, they become clutter hotspots. Coats, bags, and keys pile up, making the area look messy, and then the hooks get overloaded and fall down. Another safety hazard!
Tiny Drawer Dividers That Don’t Fit Anything Well
Small drawer dividers seem like a good way to manage clutter, but if they don’t fit the drawer - or your items- they just take up space. Is it really a good idea to waste your money on them? You should be focusing on getting rid of clutter, not just dividing it up.
Unstackable Baskets With Handles
Baskets with bulky handles look cute but rarely stack well, which wastes vertical storage space. They’re often too shallow or oddly shaped for practical use and end up sitting side by side, eating up valuable shelf or floor space. The aesthetic isn’t worth it.
Too Many Matching Jars in the Pantry
A full set of matching pantry jars looks great on Instagram but can backfire in real life. When every container looks identical, it’s easy to grab the wrong one, and that obviously leads to problems while cooking. Again, it’s another one where someone clearly went for looks over function.
Stacked Boxes Labeled “miscellaneous”
“Miscellaneous” is another word for “I’ll never find it.” Boxes with vague labels like that become storage black holes where items are forgotten. And when stacked, you can’t easily access what’s at the bottom without moving everything.
DIY Pegboards Filled With Unused Tools
DIY pegboards are another thing that got popularized thanks to Instagram and Pinterest. They take up wall space and attract dust, and if not carefully arranged, they just look messy. People often hang duplicates or rarely used items just to fill space, the exact opposite of what you should be doing.
Bookshelves Filled With Bins Instead of Books
What are you doing? Bookshelves are for books! Bins make it harder to locate items quickly, and the space often becomes a dumping ground for miscellaneous stuff… all of which you’ll be able to see if you bins are clear plastic. Please, stick with the books.
Shoe Racks That Block Entryways
So you can’t store shoes in the overhead shoe storage, where can you store them? Well, ideally not in the entryway. When placed near the door, shoe racks collect shoes, bags, and umbrellas - and become tripping hazards. Definitely one to avoid if you have kids or elderly people in the home.
Storage Ottomans Used as Junk Catch-Alls
Ottomans can be a great addition to a home, you just need to know what to put in them. Without a lot of organization, they fill with random cords, games, papers, or clothes no one knows where to put – and then you stop using the ottoman at all.
Magnetic Knife Strips Overloaded With Tools
Magnetic strips are handy in kitchens - until they’re overloaded with knives, scissors, peelers, and bottle openers. The visual clutter becomes overwhelming, and crowded strips make it hard to grab one item without knocking others loose. It becomes, you guessed it, a safety hazard.
Pan Lid Organizers That Don’t Fit Lids
Pan lid organizers seem helpful until you realize your lids don’t actually fit them. Misaligned slots, too-small compartments, or awkward angles cause lids to fall or get jammed. Now you’ve got a completely useless bit of storage lying around.
Laundry Hampers With Multiple Compartments
Multi-compartment hampers are supposed to make laundry sorting easier, but they often take up more room than necessary. If one section fills faster, the system breaks down. Most people don’t exactly sort their clothes perfectly, so clothes still pile around the hamper.
Baskets on Top of the Fridge
Baskets placed on top of the fridge are often too high to reach conveniently and easily become forgotten storage. They collect dust and hide clutter - out of sight, but not really organized, so very much not out of mind.
Drawer Units Under Desks That Don’t Open Easily
Under-desk drawer units promise workspace organization but can end up crowding your legs and collecting junk. And if they don’t open easily, all that stuff gets stuck inside the drawers like a clutter time bomb.
Over-The-Toilet Shelving Units
These shelving units seem smart in tight bathrooms but often become dust collectors or toppling towers of toiletries. They make the toilet area feel cramped and messy, and that’s the last thing you want. Plus, sometimes people use them as an excuse to buy more toiletries.
Cabinet Door Organizers That Block Contents
Mounted organizers inside cabinet doors can be a nuisance when they block access to interior shelves. Items fall out when the door swings, or the added bulk prevents the cabinet from closing properly. Suddenly, you’ve got a cabinet that’s just a pain to open.
Filing Cabinets Filled With Papers
Filing cabinets sound organized, but once filled with old receipts, manuals, and unlabeled folders, they become paper graveyards. Suddenly, you can’t find anything except old receipts you don’t need. If you must get a filing cabinet, make sure to sort it out on a regular basis.
Decorative Boxes Used as Permanent Storage
So many people are lured in by the pretty boxes they see on Instagram or just in stores. They get them home and then what? They become storage for a million random things no-one needs. Throw out your clutter, don’t just stick it in a nice box.
Lazy Susans With Too Many Items
Lazy Susans are great for condiments and small jars, but when overloaded, they become frustrating to spin and search. Items fall off or get buried in the middle… and then the breakable items start to fall, resulting in a huge mess. Lazy Susans aren’t really worth it when all’s said and done.
Closet Door Shoe Racks That Swing Wildly
Closet door shoe racks with flimsy attachments often swing or slam when the door opens or closes, scattering the shoes or damaging the door. The result? Over time, your shoes will deteriorate and so will the closet.
Overhead Garage Storage Bins Without Labels
Garage ceiling storage seems like a smart use of space - until you forget what’s in the bins, and you will if you don’t label them. As if that wasn’t bad enough, you need a ladder to access them, too. Is it worth the hassle?
Closet Cubbies for Random Accessories
Closet cubbies look organized in theory, but when used for belts, scarves, hats, or small bags, they quickly devolve into jumbled piles. Then some people even buy more stuff to go in the cubbies! Don’t do that.
Stacked Mail Trays With No Routine
Mail trays can quickly pile up with unsorted bills, ads, and receipts if there’s no routine for processing them. Yes, it’s good that you bought a mail tray, but you have to organize it regularly or there’s no point!
Closet Rods With Double Hangers
These aren’t really as good an idea as they seem. Clothes get crammed together, making it hard to see or reach anything. If you hang up a long garment, it sometimes wrinkles, as well. Avoid them altogether for a nicer closet.
