January, with its focus on Getting Things Done, continues apace and perhaps you’ve recently undertaken, say, a clean out of your dresser drawers. That is a very good start-of-year thing to do! As a result, you might be thinking to yourself that you need some new organizing solutions for small items like socks, underwear, scarves and other accessories. Great! Because I have some of those to suggest to you.
A quick note before we get into the recommendations: Generally speaking, it’s a good idea to be wary of organizing systems as a solution to your organizing problems. Better to edit your belongings so that they fit your existing space than to spend a whole bunch of money on bins and dividers and cubbies that are likely to not solve the problem of too-much-stuff-too-little-space. That’s not to say you should avoid these products entirely! Not at all — many of them are great, and I’ve rounded up the best of the best to provide you with some organizing inspiration.
There are tonssssss of plastic drawer organizers out there, but the benefit of a set like this is that, because the parts are separate, you have a lot more control around how the individual compartments get used. This set comes with six parts — two each of the 3"x3", 6"x3" and 9"x3" sizes — but the brand also offers sets of six in one size, so if you find yourself needing more of the medium ones, for example, you can add more to the mix. The bigger ones are perfect for stashing a collection of rolled up hosiery, the smallest ones can be used to store notions like safety pins or spare buttons, and all of the sizes will be useful in places like bedside table drawers for corralling a collection of lip balm, hand cream, lube (we are all adults here!), and so on.
This style of drawer divider is great for organizing small items like socks, underwear, scarves, etc. It gets high marks for being easy to assemble and for its size — there are 24 partitioned sections, so it can hold a robust collection of accessories. You can buy one divider, or a set of three for less than the price of two, so if you’ve got a lot of drawers (or socks!) in need of organizing, definitely splurge on the bigger set.
Honeycomb dividers are good, but they can be limiting, so if organizing your collection of underthings requires more flexibility (mine does!) check out this set of four open-style drawer inserts designed for socks, underwear, bras, etc. (you can fill in your own blanks as to what “etc.” means) (pasties and garters, that’s what I’m imagining). Each box is outfitted with dividers, which are sewn in so they can’t be adjusted, and a big big big drawback is that the bra divider is unlikely to work for storing bras larger than a C or D cup. Humph. (Big boob girls stick with me, I got you (us!) covered.)
Those of you (us, those of us!) whose bras cannot be contained by dividers I, as I mentioned, have got you (us!) covered: Here are divider-less cloth storage boxes for use in dresser drawers that are less restrictive in terms of what they can accommodate. This set of six drawer inserts includes two each large and small square bins and 2 small rectangular bins, and they’re collapsible so you can store them easily if you don’t need all six at once.
If you have open shelves, or a closet that has an unpartitioned shelf in it, shelf dividers are an investment well worth considering. They slide or clip onto the shelf to create, essentially cubbies that allow you to more neatly stack things like folded sweaters or t-shirts, or to store a few small handbags without them falling over. Shelf dividers come in different styles — metal dividers, wire dividers, and cloth-covered dividers are all available — but this set of four clear acrylic shelf dividers provide more structure while being unobtrusive, looks-wise, which will make for a super tidy appearance.