Home Organization Tips: Discover the Three Clever Uses for Packing Cubes Beyond Travel
Packing cubes, once a popular travel accessory, have found a new home in everyday life, offering multiple benefits for home organization. Here's how these versatile storage solutions can help manage children's clothes, travel essentials, and seasonal storage.
Organizing Children’s Clothes by Size or Age
Packing cubes create a "next size" system for kids' clothing. Parents can label cubes by size or age range, and fold outgrown or upcoming clothes into these labeled cubes for easy rotation as children grow. This helps keep closets neat and facilitates handing down clothes or preparing for wardrobe changes. Children can also be involved by placing clothes that no longer fit into the cubes themselves, helping to teach chores and responsibility.
Maintaining a Travel Zone at Home
By dedicating packing cubes to travel essentials and keeping them in a specific "travel zone" or suitcase area, you can ensure everything is sorted and compact for your trips. When it’s time to pack, everything is already sorted and compact, avoiding the chaos of last-minute packing. Cubes can organize outfits by day or type of clothing (e.g., shirts in one cube, pants in another) so that items are easy to find and suitcase packing/unpacking is streamlined.
Seasonal Home Storage
Packing cubes can store off-season clothing or items compactly in closets, drawers, or storage bins. For example, winter clothes can be packed away in cubes during summer and swapped out easily. Labeling cubes by season or type of clothing simplifies access and keeps things tidy, reducing clutter and making seasonal transitions smoother.
In addition to these uses, packing cubes can also help with under-bed storage organization and serve as an alternative to hard-sided storage cubes. They can be labelled using a DYMO Handheld Label Maker or the labels provided with some sets, such as those from the Container Store. Scented sachets can be used to keep clothes fresh, and folding wicker baskets can be used to hide packing cubes when not in use.
Vacuum storage bags can be used instead of packing cubes to reduce the storage footprint of clothes and linens, but packing cubes offer a benefit over vacuum bags in terms of easy access, as they do not require resealing after every use. Some packing cubes, like Veken Packing Cubes with windows, are also suitable for organizing travel items.
Implementing a packing cube system can make your home look more organized fast and can help avoid decluttering burnout. Packing cubes, with their portability, labeling options, and space-saving properties, bring order and convenience beyond travel, helping streamline children’s wardrobes, enhance travel readiness, and optimize home storage throughout the year.
[1] Professional organizer Christina Lee uses packing cubes to manage three common clutter issues in clients' spaces. [2] Fabric-specific labels can be used on packing cubes to keep them organized and ensure labels do not fall off in storage. [3] A designated "Travel Basket" can be used to store packing cubes and other travel items.
- By employing packing cubes for home organization, one can establish a designated 'home-and-garden' zone in their home where they can store and sort children's clothes by size or age, creating a more manageable and clutter-free environment.
- For individuals who frequently travel and wish to maintain an efficient 'home-improvement' system, utilizing packing cubes can help simplify travel preparation by allowing for easy sorting and packing of travel essentials, ensuring a smooth and organized trip.
