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My focus this year is on creating a space for everything we love! This week I added two baskets in the dining room, I’ll explain them in this post.
I’m pleased that every year we own less stuff due to our continual efforts in downsizing and being more intentional in what we keep. But I am determined to find joy in everything we have.
I find NO joy in trying to find places for things we don’t use often. Through the years I’ve come to understand that there is no point in keeping a lot of items “just in case” we might want them someday. Not only do we not have room in this home to store items like that, it’s futile to hang onto so much “someday stuff” that even if you do want something, you can’t find it. Or when you know yourself well enough that if the time comes to use it you know you won’t want to make the effort to look for it, even if you do have it “somewhere”.
These points may seem obvious but it is crazy how stuff seems to multiply if you don’t start to set boundaries for what you keep and where you keep it. We are still in process!
You have to understand yourself and your habits in a particular home or your general tendencies in order to make better decisions, so it takes time to figure these things out.
Baskets can one of those questionable storage options for me. A basket can be an attractive organizer but it can also invite you to stash a lot of things you will never use or find again LOL! They can be a clutter multiplying risk. But with that said, it’s nice to have a place to stash some things so your house feel less cluttered. I am not a minimalist 🙂 — I assume minimalists wouldn’t want baskets but to me they look cozy and add texture so even if there are one or two there where you stash stuff, so be it.
In my quest to find a place for everything and put everything in its place, baskets will be used with intention.
How I make baskets functional is to give each one a dedicated purpose and put them in a location that makes sense to me. If I will use the items often in that location, it makes sense to me to keep a basket or two there.
I realized I had two shelves by my dining room banquette where attractive baskets could be handy to hold little items that bring joy in setting a table such as napkins, candle holders, or taper candles. We have larger drawers below the banquette but I imagined a basket being a simple spot to store small items. That way they could easily be pulled out and set on the table to select items.
We love using our bookshelves here for books or decorative items, so I didn’t really want it to be a storage unit but because the lower two shelves are usually hidden by pillows anyway so adding baskets here would be the most convenient spot to organize these items.
My main hesitation was some baskets might not look as attractive as I wanted for this spot so I wanted to take the time to find the right wood tone and quality! Baskets like I wanted are not cheap so I had to compromise a little on my dream baskets, but also was willing to spend enough to get something that looked attractive here.
I also wanted them to be large enough to fill the space so they felt intentional, so the right size and scale was important. The other qualifications were they had to be very sturdy and have removable lids so they could be as functional as possible. I actually tried baskets I had here for awhile before but they didn’t have lids so it just felt cluttered.
After quite a bit of searching, I decided that these were as close to what I was looking for as I could find with my time and budget. Turns out they work perfectly! I love the removable lids and the baskets look very pretty here.
I also considered THESE baskets, I love the idea of the removable dividers so it was tempting, but after much deliberation, these baskets turned out to be the right choice for our shelves. I still might consider the others for another location though!
I haven’t yet worked on exactly what will go in them or how I will organize them, but I’m excited to have a dedicated place to hold items so close to the dining table! Stay tuned for more of my journey to find a place for everything :).
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