The Ultimate Organizer For Small Items Is Already In Your Freezer

In almost every home, there's a space that's filled with a jumble of small items, all haphazardly mixed together. While some people have junk drawers, others may have a chaotic office drawer, a cluttered workbench, a jumbled jewelry holder, a messy arts and crafts room, or a disorderly sewing station. If you're struggling to keep lots of tiny items tidy, there's a product you could repurpose as an organizer, and you may already have it in your freezer: an ice cube tray.

An ice cube tray can work just like any other drawer organizer, except it has exceptionally small compartments that can be used to corral things like paper clips or buttons. To use one, simply separate out all your small items into groups, then place your ice cube tray inside a drawer or a container and put each of the groups into the small compartments. If one of the groups is too large, place it in multiple compartments. The key to making this organizer work for you is making sure it never gets dropped or tipped over, as that will cause a huge mess.

The items you should place inside your ice cube tray will depend upon what area of your home needs to be organized. In the junk drawer, things like stamps, rubber bands, batteries, paper clips, or anything else could be stored in each of the small compartments. If you need to organize your office desk, you may place push pins, extra staples, and binder clips inside your ice cube tray. For your workbench, screws and nails could be kept in their own separate sections.

If you're tired of your necklaces getting tangled up or your earring pairs getting lost, an ice cube tray could help keep all of these items in their own sections. Alternatively, in an arts and crafts room, things like sequins, glitter, pom poms, beads, and googly eyes could be corralled. Finally, for your sewing station, keep tools like thread, needles, buttons, and safety pins inside the ice cube tray.

If you're using an ice cube tray as an organizer to save money, it's best to work with what you already have in the freezer. However, others may want to purchase a new ice cube tray that works better for the specific items they're trying to organize. If so, it's important to look at the number of compartments, as well as the size and shape of each one. Further, if you choose one made out of silicone, it should stay in place better than a plastic one when inside a drawer.

For instance, if you're organizing small, round items like push pins, buttons, or sequins, an organizer that has square compartments will work best for you. A silicone type on Amazon has 21 deep slots as well as a clear lid and costs about $3. Amazon also sells a plastic set of two with long and round compartments that cost under $4, which may benefit those who want to organize things like paper clips. Finally, Walmart offers silicone trays for about $4 that have long, skinny compartments, which could hold things like needles and safety pins.