By-Products

From the look of our attic, one might think that we have a drinking problem.. but the truth is, I’m a collector of containers and it just so happens that my favorite box is my husband’s beer case.  My repurposing collection started with some nut jars and has grown to include blue and yellow cardboard.  It was a natural progression and began several football seasons ago when the supply was plentiful.

I have found so many uses for the compact sturdy handled rectangle container that my clients expect me to carry in 1 if not 5 empty beer cases to a working session.  I like it because it fits nicely on a shelf, stacks well, is large enough to hold most items we store, and yet small enough to fit in tight spaces.  Oh, and it’s basically free. 

From our attic to our daughters’ closet, the boxes are used for holiday supplies and hand-me-downs.   I bring them to sessions to sort, store, and transport belongings or donations and rely on the compact size to eliminate the need for a second human on most projects.  When the boxes are shared with clients and I need more, I ensure my husband’s beer fridge is restocked and it ends up being a win for every in the family.  Although our daughters would prefer to play with the boxes, I’ve explained to them that the boxes belong to me and they can have the accessories – they have created many a flashcard and tower competition from my cast offs.

But let me get back to the point.  The choice for storage and efficiency often evolves from what is available; and to have full disclosure, I love the projects within my own home that require little to no additional expenses, but the organizational materials used in the ‘college apartment project’ may or may not transition to the ‘married with kids household’ and the dilemma on what to purchase in order to fix a storage project is a real one.   Storage efficiency works better with uniform shapes and the chaos of visual clutter can make a useful space look unusable so even in the less public areas, consistency is key so finding the solution to the problem above in a practical inexpensive container such as the beer case is a no-brainer.

When it comes to actual storage (not “presentable storage”), shapes that can be interchanged when one subject needs more accessibility after the other has completed its season is important.  Holiday supply boxes are a great example; Spring/Easter, Fall/Halloween, and Winter/Christmas/Hanukkah.   In a corner of the attic, we have dedicated space to the holidays and on “decoration day”, I crawl up and rotate supplies pulling down the current event. Attics have little head room so although there are many more winter than spring holiday decorations, they have consistently sized boxes so when pulling a set of boxes to the front for access and pushing the prior set behind, all boxes will fit into the same dedicated space stacking nicely and tucking into the crevices of the slanted roofline.

I don’t propose that you begin to buy beer in order to accomplish the attic project, I’m simply sharing with you my repurposing trick of our purchase by-products.