3 Easy Basement Storage Ideas to Organize Your Space

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These basement storage organizing ideas will help you get started on gathering your items and making sense of the stuff downstairs.  

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If your basement has become the place where everything gets tossed when you don’t know where else to put it, these three easy basement storage ideas can help you get organized without spending a fortune.

When we started organizing our basement, we had storage totes in every size imaginable, seasonal decorations mixed together, and plenty of things taking up valuable floor space.

We didn’t need a complicated organizing system. We needed a better way to store what we already had!

These are the three changes that made the biggest difference for our family: choosing consistent storage totes, building shelving that actually fits our stuff, and using wall space for bulky items.

Whether you’re tackling an unfinished basement or just trying to find your holiday decorations without digging through a dozen boxes, these basement organization ideas are a great place to start.

 

Basement Storage Organizing Ideas

The best way to organize basement storage is to start with what you already have. Group similar items together, choose consistent tote sizes, measure everything before adding shelving, and use your walls to keep bulky items off the floor.

You don’t need to organize your entire basement in one weekend. Start with one category, like holiday decorations or outgrown kids’ clothes, and build a system that makes those items easier to find.

 

Consistent Tote Sizes and Colors

One of the best things about plastic storage totes is that they come in all sizes. You can buy them in any color, with just about any type of lid. One of the worst parts about totes? They come in all sizes.

If you are just starting organizing your basement or storage spaces, take a few extra minutes before you run to the store and consider what size totes you want for the long-term.

Once you have a size/idea in mind, it makes organizing them in a tidy way so much easier! I promise, I was on team #whateverIsOnSale and it was exhausting trying to organize totes that didn’t sit next to each other well, took up too much space, too little space, and those that had handles that never worked.

We still aren’t perfect about the tote colors. For us, we’ve been focused on buying consistent sizes, that I let the holiday colors sneak into the mix. And I know right away which totes should have Christmas items in them!

Don’t forget to write on the outside of each tote what is inside. It will save you so much time later when you need to find something quickly.

 

• Related: 5 Easy to Do Holiday Storage Organization Tips

 

 

Build Storage Shelving

The overwhelming sea of ‘stuff’ is hard to stop when you don’t have a shelving system. After living in our home for a couple of years, our basement was a never-ending flow of totes and other random things.

Thankfully, Jordan had the idea of building a super cheap storage shelving solution to help with this.  By following Jordan’s plans and building your own shelving, you can make sure your totes fit just right on the shelves and avoid extra space waste. 

 

How to Plan For Basement Shelving

First, group like-sized items. While it may not be close together in the seasons (all Christmas mixed amongst Spring, Fall decor & clothing), it’s way simpler to build a system for gathering those same sized totes. Measure the tallest items and add 6″ to give you plenty of room for moving your totes in and out. Continue grouping the totes together and measuring.

Next, do this for the items that aren’t necessarily in totes, but in boxes. Finally, end with grouping items that are not boxed and are loose.

Now that you know how much you really have in the basement, that will give you a better idea of what you’ll need to build or buy in a store. Don’t forget to give yourself some expansion room for new totes. As our kids grow up, their outgrown clothes end up in totes in the basement.

My favorite basement storage organizing shelving ideas:

• DIY Storage Shelving for Under $70
• IKEA HEJNE Line
• Steel Shelving Unit
• Medium Duty Shelving Unit (and it’s Prime!)

 

Use Your Wall Space & Go Vertical

It’s so easy to fill up floor space! However, sometimes, it makes sense to go vertical and use the walls. For this, you can buy several different kinds of heavy duty hangers to move all the clutter that would normally be on the floor, in a pile, in some sort of organized style. 

I love hanging my wreaths on the wall. If I didn’t hang them, I feel confident that they would be tossed in a pile somewhere. Now, I can save time and swap out wreaths in less than a minute. 

To avoid crushing them, we hang them in the basement using bike holders! Not only can I quickly see what I have for the season, they are easy to hang up and take down. For our current wreath storage, I use both bike holders and utility hooks. You can find both at Lowe’s & Home Depot.

And it’s not just wreaths. We hang our small step ladders, platforms, and extension cords on the walls. They all hang with heavy duty hangers that we picked up at Lowe’s or Home Depot.

Whew, that was a lot about getting organized in your basement! Start by sorting the totes you already have, commit to buying consistently sized totes in the future, and start building up! 

 

Start With One Basement Storage Project

You don’t need to buy a bunch of new organizing supplies or tackle your entire basement at once.

Start by sorting the totes you already own. Then decide which sizes work best, plan shelving around them, and look for things you can move off the floor.

For us, those three simple changes made our basement storage so much easier to manage. And there’s nothing better than being able to find the holiday decorations you need without digging through a mountain of boxes!

 

 

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