A Simple Hack To Make Fabric Bins More Organizing-Friendly

Fabric bins can be a great way to organize any space in your home, be it closets, dressers, or open shelving. They can usually be bought for a steal at many home retailers and Dollar Tree, often in multipacks that allow you to spend only a few dollars for a neat and well-organized home. A clever trick shown off by Instagrammer @thecraftedstudioco using Dollar Tree storage bins, however, may help you get even more functionality out of these inexpensive pieces. By using the accompanying cardboard base as a divider in the organizer rather than at the bottom, you can create easy compartments in your fabric bins for sorting and storing more than one kind of item neatly.

To implement this hack, just leave the base folded in its original state instead of unfolding it to place in the bottom. Since these pieces are already designed to fit the bin, they reach end to end with no adjustment. This approach works well with baskets of any size and any placement, including in dressers and cabinets to divide smaller items so you can keep everything alike together and prevent messy, crowded drawers. How you will use them is important, however, when considering fabric bins for storage. While this solution works perfectly for bins that don't get moved around, you may want to find other ways to divide the bins if they need the stronger support that the bottom typically provides. 

If you find yourself needing even more compartments in each bin or need to use that piece on the bottom, especially when it comes to large underbed bins or containers for a closet shelf, you can actually use those bases as templates to help you create more sub-dividers for the bin. Cut a piece of sturdy cardboard to the same size and use glue to cover it in a coordinating fabric that matches the bin. This is a great chance to bring in some patterns. You can also use peel and stick paper or wallpaper in lieu of fabric. Use these pieces to give more stability to keep storage cubes from collapsing with heavier contents.

For a more customized and affordable look, you can even create your own fabric bins and dividers using some pretty fabric and a cardboard box. Glue fabric to the box of your desired size and create dividers from additional pieces of cardboard. For softer fabric bins, you can also sew them from scratch using fabric and some quilt batting for fully DIY fabric bins.