Setting My Intention

Clearing Clutter. Finding Joy. Living Slow

  • Home
    • Privacy and Cookie Policy
    • Disclosure
  • New? Start Here!
  • Work With Me
    • Affiliates
  • At Home
    • Decluttering Your Home
    • Meal Planning
      • Recipe
    • Organizing
  • In Relationships
    • Motherhood
    • Family
    • Self Care
  • In Life
    • Blogging
    • Budgeting
    • Fitness
    • Goals
    • Slow Living
  • FREE Resources
    • Top 10 Blogging Resources
    • FREE Meal Planning Printables
    • FREE 10 Step Decluttering Process
  • SHOP
    • Terms and Conditions
You are here: Home / At Home / Decluttering Your Home / New Uses for Decluttered Bookshelves

April 19, 2015 by Angela

New Uses for Decluttered Bookshelves

As I have been decluttering, I have been able to remove larger items from our house like bookshelves and create more open space. I have also been repurposing furniture around the house, trying to get creative and not buy anything new. Here is how I found new uses for decluttered bookshelves.

new uses for decluttered bookshelves

Dining Room Open Shelves

I mentioned that I had some ideas for how to use the decluttered bookshelves in other practical ways around our house in an earlier post. Once our two IKEA bookshelves were emptied of books, I moved one to the dining room and one to my youngest son’s closet.

One of the bookshelves used to be in the living room:

The old use

The old use of bookshelf 1

The other one was being used in my youngest son’s bedroom for books and the turtle’s tank was on top of it:

Bookshelf before

The old use for bookshelf 2

 

This is how we stored our dishes before:

Old China Cabinet

And here is how it looks now:

Dining Room Shelves

I have been decluttering my kitchen cabinets regularly and there was space to move a lot of what was in the old dining room china cabinet into the kitchen cabinets. The china cabinet served us well for many years, but I didn’t realize how much space it took until we removed it from the room. I put it on our neighborhood listserv for free and it was taken that day. The top of the china cabinet and underneath it were also major clutter magnets. The two baskets were bought new at IKEA to store the kitchen towels, cloth napkins, and some other rarely used dishes.

Dresser with Bins

My youngest’s son’s clothes were being stored in this hanging sweater (?) thing. It worked while he was a baby and a toddler and I was picking out his clothes and dressing him, but now that he is a preschooler, I knew I needed another solution.

Clothing Storage Before

Clothing Storage Before

He wants to dress himself and he had to climb on top of things to reach some of his clothes. I have seen other families use shelves like these with bins for clothes or toys. We went to IKEA together and he chose the colors of his bins. One is used for his uniform clothes during the week, one has his underwear, socks, and pajamas and the other two have his tops and his bottoms.

Clothing Storage After

Clothing Storage After

This has really helped him grow in his independence. Everything is at the perfect height for him and organized in a way that makes it easy for him to get dressed. There is still decluttering that needs to happen in the kids’ closets. I have been trying to remind myself that the goal is progress, not perfection.

Anyone else repurposing things that have been decluttered?

This post was shared at these fun and fabulous link parties: Monday Madness, Two Uses Tuesday

 

Related

About Angela

Wife. Mom to three boys. Writer. Reader. Aspiring Minimalist. Lover of chocolate and fitness. She loves blogging about the ways she is finding success in simplifying life one step at a time. Her mantra is "Progress, not Perfection."

❮❮ Previous Post
Next Post ❯ ❯

Comments

  1. Peg says

    April 20, 2015 at 4:40 pm

    I am grateful for your continual reminder, not only to yourself but to a lot of us sisters (are brothers out there working on this too?!) that the goal or objective is “progress, not perfection”. Being grateful for the grace of progress–movement, change–no matter how small and seemingly insignificant, is a huge personal calmer-downer for me. Conversely, to be NOT grateful for this grace would be not very respectful to the Giver of the grace…

    …thanks for your pictures!! Fantastic to SEE what is going on…I love it.

    • Angela says

      April 21, 2015 at 3:28 pm

      Thanks Peg.

  2. Susannah says

    April 21, 2015 at 10:50 pm

    I also appreciate the reminder that the goal is progress not perfection, but it’s hard to think that way when I’m trying to prepare a house that I hope some buyer will think is perfect. But slow and steady does win the race. The piles of items that are gathering for our yard sale this weekend attest to that.

    Also I love that new set up for your dishes in the dining area! It probably makes a big difference in your enjoyment of that space!

    It’s been funny to me that I *have* been finding new purposes for storage areas when we are about to leave this house. For instance, I moved my shoe rack to a completely different closet when I was decluttering clothes. After all this time, I think that move will actually keep me from ending up with all of my shoes in a big pile on the floor because I would never put them back in the old closet. It wasn’t so much that I had decluttered everything out of the closet and now had space for shoes, but that I finally admitted that the way I was storing my shoes was not working. I’m also repurposing my camp desk from a catchall of personal items to an actual place for stationary and files, since the number of paper files we are keeping is quite small. I’m trying to make sure that we keep enough empty bookshelves though, since we likely will not have built in bookshelves in our next place.

    Thanks for keeping up with the posts!

    • Angela says

      April 22, 2015 at 8:27 pm

      Thanks for sharing your progress Susannah! I’m finding slow and steady making a big difference here too.

  3. Stella Lee@ Purfylle says

    August 3, 2015 at 9:12 pm

    This is the exciting part for me. When decluttering has a visual impact and things almost organise themselves because there’s space and shelving for them. You’ve made huge inroads and it looks great.

    • Angela says

      August 3, 2015 at 11:20 pm

      Thanks Stella! I agree, it is very encouraging to see a visual change in the space

Hi Friend! I’m Angela

Welcome to my blog where I write about simplifying life in small, manageable steps and creating healthy habits. You'll find inspiration, practical tips and community here for the decluttering you're doing in your own life. (whether that's physical, mental, or emotional clutter) Thanks so much for stopping by! Read More…

Courtney Carver’s Soulful Simplicity Course

Let’s Connect!

  • Bloglovin
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

How to Start Making Changes in 5 Important Areas

FREE Step by Step Instructions!

You feel overwhelmed by your space and you don't know where to start. Here is a 1 page guide that will walk you step by step through decluttering any space in your home.

Thank you!

You have successfully joined our subscriber list. Your 1 page "cheatsheet" is on the way!

Top Posts & Pages

  • 7 Steps to Start Hand Lettering
    7 Steps to Start Hand Lettering
  • How to Start Swedish Death Cleaning
    How to Start Swedish Death Cleaning
  • Basement Clutter Tour
    Basement Clutter Tour
  • Basement Clutter Reveal
    Basement Clutter Reveal
  • Lagom: What it is and How to Start Living It
    Lagom: What it is and How to Start Living It

Affiliate Disclosure

This website may include affiliate links. These companies pay a small commission to me for sharing their products and services at no additional cost to you.

Disclosure

All information on this blog is from the author’s experience and is not intended to be professional advice. When using ideas from this blog, readers should use common sense and caution.

Amazon Associates

Setting My Intention participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate ad program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Copyright

Copyright Setting My Intention 2018. All rights reserved. Please feel free to share content from this website with a reference to the website and link back to the original page or post.

 

Copyright 2016 Pretty Chic Theme By: Pretty Darn Cute Design On Genesis Framework