My cookie cutters are in a large tupperware container that was made for cereal but this doesn't seem odd to me, just useful as is the shoebox for yours. My problem is that I love containers, boxes of all types and drawers. Whenever we get a gift that's in anything other than a cardboard box, everyone knows I'll find a use for it somewhere. The latest was a tin box that had held candy. I now keep it on the kitchen counter and throw the mail into it.

I've already mentioned this, but I keep all my holiday cards, stamps, return address labels and blank holiday labels together in a drawer...in the coffee table in the living room. Why? It was vacant space, it is air conditioned year round (important for avoiding permanently stuck together envelopes) and it makes it easy for me to gather everything and plop down in the spot where I write and address the cards, which is the couch behind the coffee table :). So there they stay.

My 5-year old niece's toy/treasure drawer, which contains various things she likes to play with as well as an extra change of clothes is ALSO all together in one place and also in the LR! That drawer is in an end table next to the other couch. Why? Well...it was vacant space, it was and is easy for her to access whenever she wants something and it keeps everything handy if we need it.

Let's see, in one of the blind nooks of the corner cabinets in the kitchen sit my husband's 2 must-not-be-discarded turtle fetuses in small formaldehyde filled jars. Don't ask.

Marie... you have to say that the SAME DAY I took my cereal storage containers to the Salvation Army!

The good news is I remembered I have a shoe-box shaped Tupperware container in the cabinet over the refrigerator. I could put the cookie cutters in there!!!

This wouldn't be too convenient if I actually ever USED the cookie cutters... but most are antique and I save them for sentimental reasons. :)

And Runninginplace MUST share the turtle fetus story!

Julie, you gave me a chuckle with "you have to say that the SAME DAY I took my cereal storage containers to the Salvation Army!"

You reminded me that I should send all my cookie cutters to dd so she can use them with my granddaughter. I've hardly ever used them and dd loves to bake cookies. I'll send her the container as well. I'm putting together a box of some of her things that are here so this will be one more thing out of here.

I don't consider anything a "crazy space" if it hides things we need to store. I cut the top off a wine box to hold plastic grocery bags for lining the trash can because it fits perfectly under the kitchen sink cabinet between the doors. My recipe box is hidden behind cookbooks on kitchen hutch. Frying pans, vacuum bags, dusting brushes hang from a large pegboard on the stairway leading from kitchen to basement--with a bulletin board on hidden side of that same door. All out of sight but easy access. And one of my favorites is a tape holder I made from a metal plant hanger holding all those different kinds of tape we always need. That hangs on a hook out there too.

And I, too, would love to hear the turtle fetus story!

Back when we lived in our 1300 SF home with 3 kids, we used the linen closet as a pantry. To top it off, the linen closet was in the worst spot - off the living room! Since we didn't have a linen closet anymore, we stored our towels in the cabinets under the bathroom sinks. Ah, the memories!

I'm sure I must have crazy storage places in this house, but cannot think of them right now.

Sheryl

Except for maybe the turtle, none of this sounds crazy to me. Organization is just being able to utilize your space effectively.

Sheryl, never have I understood the point of a linen closet. I keep towels under the bathroom sinks. Right with the TP when and where you need them. I also keep my kitchen towels under the kitchen sink. I never could understand why people wasted drawer space and had to open a drawer with wet hands. Extra sheets go in the bedside table. For the kids, it's one of those clear under the bed boxes. Perfect place for when you need to change the sheets with a sick kid.

Gloria

Gloria said:
"never have I understood the point of a linen closet."

I would LOVE a linen closet! My old house had one, and it was great for keeping extra supplies, too (much easier than now, when I have to go to the basement to re-stock the bathroom). Our bedrooms are too small for bedside tables, so that's out. We keep our kitchen towels folded to fit in a vertical cubbyhole in the kitchen, because we only have 4 tiny drawers (too small for a silverware tray) in the kitchen. The cabinet under the bathroom sink in one bathroom is just big enough for a toilet bowl brush and plunger, nothing else; the other bathroom is just a sink, no cabinet underneath.

With our hardwood floors, I think moving under the bed boxes to dust floors would be more trouble than it's worth. We usually just wash sheets and blankets and put them right back on the beds anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter. LOL

Yes indeed, how many women have the privilege of storing turtle fetuses (fetii?) in their kitchen...

My husband was born and raised down here in Miami and has always loved the ocean. He is also a science type, so at some point in high school he went up to Hutchinson Island, where turtles routinely used to nest in great numbers. On the beach he found two half open eggs with deceased baby turtles partially emerged (poor things). He brought them home and took them to school, found small jars and formaldehyde in the biology dept and voila-stored for posterity.

Years, and I do mean years, later when we met he had the things displayed on a shelf. I have to say they are pretty creepy looking-so I put them away in a closet. We moved to this house and he put them BACK OUT on a shelf in our home office. Yuck. More years passed and let's just say that age hasn't improved the appearance though the formaldehyde has managed to keep the startling shape of half-emerged turtle fetus clearly visible in each jar. So finally I quietly put them way, way, WAYYYYYY back in the corner of an empty corner cabinet. Because, if I dare to throw them away sure as anything some day I'll hear 'I can't believe you threw away my turtles!'. Bet on it. This ignores the fact that there is no possible decorative purpose for displaying 30 year old turtle fetuses, as well as the completely horrifying prospect of what would happen if one of those things were ever accidentally dropped or otherwise opened.

So that is my turtle fetus storage story. I still think I could win at least in the crazy storage ITEM category!

I like having my linens and towels in a linen cabinet, that way I can control the moisture and the atmosphere. But I might feel differnt if we did not have so many sets of sheets and people/ towels. Since we are house of 8 people we have 16 full sets of sheets and at least 16 towels ( my guess is closer to 20ish. My current cabinet is over burdened but I think the new one I am building is going to do the job... It will also have space to serve as sort of an upstairs pantry for extra shampoo, soap, etc...

Maddiemom

Runninginplace, you win hands down IMO. Also for being a patient wife! Back when DD was in first year of med school, gross anatomy left the class reeking of formaldahyde. They got to where they didn't even smell it, but nobody else would get in the elevators with them. Sandy

I just told my dh that I would never again complain about his U of Wisconsin beer mugs stored in the far back corner of my kitchen cabinets.

Wow, thanks for sharing the turtle story, LOL.

Susan, after a while (if the U of W beer mugs are like my husband's precious glassware) you'll be able to box them up and store them because nobody is allowed to use them so nobody misses them, LOL.

"I just told my dh that I would never again complain about his U of Wisconsin beer mugs stored in the far back corner of my kitchen cabinets."

Um, well, ahem...I guess I should admit I had to push the turtle fetus jars past the Miami Hurricane national championship souvenir coke cans that let's just say the OTHER spouse in the house has stored for lo these many years. The UM national championship mugs only recently were reluctantly retired from their spot of honor in the front of my china cabinet. Those are on the shelf above the departed turtles :).

Ann
Go 'Canes!

Well that's different. That's YOUR stuff. :)

Okay, Ann, you win!!!! :)

As for the linen closet...only the upper-half is used for actual towels and linens. I keep the kids' bath towels in there because their bathroom cabinet storage is very small. (Ours are stored in our master bathroom.) I also have some extra blankets in there, and some tablecloths. The bottom half is used for storing paper towels, toilet paper, extra toiletries, and games. It's the only place I could think of to store board games! (Slowly they are making their way to our mountain cabin since that seems to be the only time we play board games!)

Sheryl

Tonight was the night! I moved the ziplock bags of cookie cutters into the otherwise empty shoe-box shaped Tupperware container over the refrigerator. (I like that one, so I kept it but got rid of the cereal containers I didn't like.)

And, as long as I was up there (standing on a chair), I dusted the top of the refrigerator and the inside of the cabinets. How do closed cupboards get so dusty??

Julie - I always wonder the same thing! We keep our alcohol in the cabinets above the fridge and they are barely opened, yet they get SO dusty. I like having the top of my fridge be bare so I try to dust every so often.

Sheryl

a tape holder I made from a metal plant hanger holding all those different kinds of tape we always need.

I need one of those--or something like it. For all the duct tape, masking tape, packing tape, painter's tape...

I used to store canned goods in my buffet, and the dishes in the kitchen. They've flipped back again, which works better for us now that we have kids who set the table.

I have no coat closet, and have never come up with a better solution than a rod put in the top of the large linen closet in the bathroom. The shelves (wire) only go part way across, so the coats take up the rest of the space. As for what else is in my linen closet - well, towels; extra TP and paper towels; excess bathroom supplies (which should probably be given away or tossed); shoe polish; and my clothes that I wear while cleaning house or doing home improvement projects - i.e., the things I've already spilled paint on or stained with Georgia red clay.

My DH likes to collect things. He has about thirty old beer bottles, some of them dating back before Prohibition. He keeps his collection in a neat row on top of my dining room wall unit. Sometimes it looks like it belongs in a recycling center!

I use the tv display unit shelves in the living room for storing the kid's shoes. It looks ugly, but it's functional.

Hi!
Maybe not so ...crazy, but I do like to store each sheet set in the matching pillow case, then just grab the pillow case and I know inside is a complete clean set for each bed. Works for me! I also like to hang the cookie cutters from a beaded string from my kitchen curtin rod. They are cute and at hand.
R

Great idea, R! Thanks for sharing!

Sheryl

My MIL had a dishwasher that was broken for years, so she stored her spare lightbulbs in it! She finally got around to remodeling her kitchen last year and got a new dishwasher. Now she complains because she has no place to store her lightbulbs.

One thing I have in all of our closets is 2-3 shelves about the clothing poles. I store stuff up there that I don't used very often. Mainly stuff of my husbands LOL. Without these extra shelves in the closets it just wasted space!
By the way, I love my linen closet too! I store losts of stuff in there, not only linens.
Judy

*I* need a place to store my lightbulbs!

I was thinking of this thread today--I'm moving stuff around lately, and realized that a few years ago, I would have thought one was not supposed to store sewing stuff in the china cabinet--it wouldn't have been "seemly," I'd have though.

Well, right now, not only does it store sewing stuff, but it also stows kids' shoes, plus the hats-and-gloves box, plus umbrellas.

Talley Sue - LOL about storing lightbulbs. Seriously, I'd like to hear where others store theirs. We keep ours in the downstairs bathroom cabinet. It's a powder room with more cabinet space than the kids' bathroom! (Go figure.) So we decided that would be the best place to store our lightbulbs. Works for us!!!!

Sheryl

Well, the most cabinet space is in our kitchen, so I use a hard plastic see through box, that was meant to be used in the fridge (has a nesting tray for a lid), that resides at the bottom of our over the fridge cabinet.

It holds exactly one spare for every light fixture in the apartment and a list of what kind of bulb each fixture needs.

In the tray sit the paper napkin pack we currently use and 1 spare pack (of paper napkins).

Maria

Our lightbulbs are in the high cabinet over the stove that I can't reach without standing on a chair.

Linen closet (along with extra napkins, paper towels, toilet tissue, soap, and, of course, linens).

Maria, now THAT is being organized. I'm impressed! (I'm obviously not that organized because right now we have 2 of our cans in the kitchen that have been out for a week, and one of our lamps in the living room has been out for awhile now.)

Sheryl

I hate to admit it, but a prime storage place in my house (but a bit too visible) is behind our couch in the living room. Anything I can't figure out a home for gets put back there. For example the hose for the central vacuum resides there. Also extra squash racquets, some unframed pictures that are stored in a storage tube, some second hand books that we recently picked up and probably a few other things that I can't think of right now. I don't know what visitors think, but since they're usually family, no one has commented!

Joanne

Joanne, is your sofa up against the wall? You could install a hinged ledge to be a sort of "sofa table" behind it, to block the view!