065. 10 Common Space-Wasters Stealing Square-Footage (and Sanity) From Your Home

Plastic lids with no containers, shoes that take over the hallway, and pots you never cook with—sound familiar? In this episode I'm picking 10 everyday culprits that quietly steal storage from working-mom households and I'm sharing my Lazy-Organizer solutions that fit the 5 Pillars of Beautiful Living.

In This Episode

• Why mismatched plastic food containers might not be for you—and what to replace them with
• The rule that stops footwear from taking over your hallways and closets
• How many pots & pans a family really needs
• Space-saving solutions for deep, dark kitchen cabinets
• The one swap that turns a trip-hazard stepstool into a zero-footprint helper
• Paper clutter masquerading as “precious memories”—curate it, don’t hoard it (see Episode 064 for kid-friendly keepsake tips)
• A quick mini-challenge that will have you reclaiming space in your home

Links & Resources

• Get on the Wait-list: 3 Simple Steps to Painlessly Declutter Your Kitchen in Just a Weekend – sign up at https://fireflybridge.com/update
• Fold-flat stepstool I like (two heights):
• – 9″ stool https://tinyurl.com/shortstepstool
• – 16″ stool https://tinyurl.com/16inchstool
• Episode 064 – Raising Mini-Minimalists: How to Teach Kids the Art of Decluttering https://tinyurl.com/OFBLepi64

Did you enjoy this episode?

Hit Follow in Apple Podcasts and leave a quick ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review so more busy moms can discover stress-free organizing tips. Snap a before-and-after of your biggest space-waster and tag @fireflybridgeorganizing on Instagram—I can’t wait to cheer you on!

Get on the wait list for my FREE class: 3 Steps to Painlessly Declutter your Kitchen in just a Weekend! This is how you get no-cry mornings and calm evenings in your kitchen. And I'll show you how you can do it in just a weekend without overwhelm and without getting stuck. And, of course, you'll learn how to make sure the clutter doesn't come back with minimal effort. Go to https://fireflybridge.com/update and get on the wait list!

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Here's my website: https://fireflybridge.com

Call or text me: 305-563-2292

Email me: zeenat@fireflybridge.com

Transcript

“If I could just have one more closet, my house would feel twice as big.” 

I hear that practically every single week, and nine times out of ten the problem isn’t the square-footage, or the number of closets, it’s the space-wasters that are hiding in plain sight.

Today we’re going to find the top ten items and habits that are quietly taking up more space than they should, and making you feel like you always need more closets, cabinets and cubbies. Tackle even one of them and I think you’ll feel your home breathe again.

 Hey, welcome to Organizing for Beautiful Living, the podcast for working moms and entrepreneur moms that provides sustainable organizing tips for your home, work and life.

 I’m Zee Siman, Professional Organizer and Productivity Consultant, and I’m here to share simple ideas that don’t take a lot of time so you can love your home, excel at work, and have the time to enjoy both without stress or overwhelm. 

 Ready to get beautifully organized? Let’s make it happen!

 I get asked “how many” a lot. Zeenat, how many reusable shopping bags should I keep? How many microfiber cleaning cloths should we have? How many empty bins should I store?

I wish I could give a number, a set number. I mean, wouldn’t life be so much easier if you knew that you only ever needed 7 shopping bags? Right?

 But the reality is that all those things are based on the space that we have. And in general, we tend to fill every space that’s available in our homes, simply because the space is there. I mean, when was the last time you said to yourself, “Oh, no, I’m not going to keep these extra shopping bags  because I’m going to keep this extra space in this closet empty.”

It sounds kind of silly, doesn’t it? Like, why would we keep an empty space in our house? And we wouldn’t! No, we’d fill it because, well, if you think about it, you’re paying for that space with your mortgage, or with your rent. So you bet you’re going to use it! 

But the difference between homes that feel spacious and well-organized versus those that feel tight and cluttered, no matter whether it’s a 600 square foot apartment or a 6000 square foot home, is how each available space is used.

So let’s run through the 10 things that I see really often that are wasting the available space in our homes. And as I’m going through them, see which ones apply to you and your house.

1.   Plastic food containers of all kinds I know! I know we’re all trying our best to protect the planet, and so we’re reusing every container we can! And I understand that you might use plastic containers for your kids’ lunch boxes. If you’re meticulous at keeping tabs that every container has a lid, that the plastic is in good condition and not coming off into the food that’s stored inside it, and you’re setting limits on how many you’re keeping, then you’re good. Move on. But if your plastic food containers cabinet is like a Jenga game, you’re all holding your breath to see if anything falls out when you take out that one container, then it’s time to take stock. Not only should you take stock of the number of containers in that cabinet, but really think about that cabinet in its totality. Could you reduce the number of containers you own so that you can have more space in there for something else, too? I mean, that’s what we’re talking about today. Where are we wasting space? Where can we find space that we’re not using well? 

So if that’s you, consider a couple of things. If you’re done with the random plastic containers, what are your alternatives that will use your space well, and make your daily food-container-life a bit easier?

Could you switch to stainless steel containers for your kids’ lunch boxes? You only need a few, and they need to fit inside their lunch boxes.

And the same-sized glass containers with their lids are just as stackable as plastic ones, The thing about glass containers is that you’re less likely to overstock on these since they’re inherently bulkier and heavier. Yes, it takes some getting used to because you’re not going to have an infinite number of food containers anymore! But you’ll start to look for alternatives. When I’ve cooked a lot, and I’ve used all of my glass containers, instead of jumping on Amazon and ordering more containers, I look around to see what I can use instead, and I’ll bet that you’re going to do the same. Do you have cereal bowls that you can keep a small amount of leftover veggies in, and just cover it with a salad plate stick that in the fridge? Put a post-it on it so you remember what’s inside. And I’ve been known to cook a big pot of pasta ahead of time, and I’ve just put the entire pot with its lid into the fridge until it was time to eat it. And then we just do a quick re-heat.

2.            Shoes. So many shoes. Do you lose track of crocs, flip flops, and how many sneakers your kids have at any point in time? Remember the days when we owned one pair of sneakers and one pair of school shoes”? For a while, somehow, because our kids’ feet were growing so quickly, we were losing track of the number of shoes in our house! So be sure to look through the summer shoes, and the winter boots for outgrown or worn out pairs, or those that your kids just don’t like anymore or that give them blisters, and donate or toss them immediately, depending on their condition. 

How should you store shoes? Yes, there are tons of cool products to store your shoes, right?! Wall-mounted, closed shoe cabinets that are really slim, that take up minimal floor space, there are over-the-door shoe racks, under-the-bed shoe boxes, stackable shoe boxes, the ones that have a drop-front door, shoe risers that stack one shoe above the other by pairs. 

You can choose whatever you like the look and function of, but my golden rule is do not overflow your limits! If you’re starting to create multiple shoe storage racks in other parts of your house, like “Let’s use the guest room for more shoes!” Or, “We’re going to put another shelf in your closet to store more shoes!”, be very careful of that. You’re choosing to keep more shoes, ok, but at the expense of what? There has to be a space trade-off. If I’m keeping more shoes, what am I keeping less of? Jackets? Bags? Hats? T-shirts? It might not be a 1-for-1 exchange of space, so be extremely conscious of that because shoes take up a lot of space. They’re bulky.

3.            Multiple types and sizes of pots and pans. How many pots and pans does a family need? What sizes do you need? Just because there’s a set of 3 on sale doesn’t mean you need all 3 sizes of frying pans, right? You might need a small one for making 2 eggs at a time, let’s say, if that’s how you cook. But if you’re mostly cooking 6 or 8 eggs at a time for your family, why do you need the tiny pan? Give it to someone else. You can cook one egg in the larger pan, right? Same with pots. How many do you need and how many sizes? Listen, if you have a big kitchen with lots of storage space, you’re less restricted. But there is a beauty to having just a couple of pots, even if you have a larger family. When you have a limited number of pots, you become pretty creative with what you cook and when, but it all works out! I promise that people who only own two pots are able to eat just as well as people who own 10. They’re just timing things differently, maybe batch cooking more on the weekend so they’re not cooking everything from scratch every single night. And, they have less clean-up when they’re cooking that way. So it’s very possible, and it can make your kitchen so much more tolerable on a daily basis when you don’t have to play tetris in your pots and pans cabinet just to make one meal! 

If you’re interested in decluttering your kitchen really fast over a weekend, by the way, get on the waiting list for my free class, “3 Simple Steps to Painlessly Declutter Your Kitchen in Just A Weekend.” We go through this and a lot of other ways to make your kitchen a place you like to be in again, if it’s bothering you now, ok? The link’s in the show notes.

4.            Giant furniture. Does comfortable furniture equal giant furniture? Maybe, but maybe not. I mean how deep and wide does your family room sectional or couch have to be for it to feel comfortable? How big are the people in your family? And I mean that very practically. If everyone in your house is petite, larger furniture might actually be uncomfortable. Taller cabinets and closet shelves might be not usable daily. If your parents are aging, having stuff way up high is probably dangerous as well. So yes, scale your furniture in line with the scale of your rooms, for sure. But also think about the space you’re taking up with large furniture, like a big old TV cabinet that your TV sits on. Could you maybe wall-mount your tv, and get a slim wall-mounted cabinet for the PS5 and the other electronics? Maybe you can, maybe you can’t depending on the electronics that you have attached to your TV. The point is to think about it if you’re always thinking that your space is tight. Getting rid of that giant TV cabinet might allow you to add one more chair in your family room, and more seating means more social gatherings are possible. So that’s a win.

5.            Small appliances in your kitchen. Ooh, I can feel your laser eyes pointing my way because you loooove your air fryer that has to sit on your countertop! But wait, wait. If you love your air fryer, then keep it! But if you’re feeling short on countertop space, then tell me if you need your air fryer and your toaster over, and your toaster? I’m willing to bet that your air fryer can make toast. And you already own an oven, which most of us already do, what’s the purpose of your toaster oven if you’re short on space? 

6.            Deep pantry or kitchen cabinets. The backs of deep cabinets are often wasted space. They’re dark, things that go back there, you can’t reach them easily, so you tend to forget that they’re there. It’s a pain to get stuff from back there, so in our daily hurries, we just don’t choose to dig into the backs of these cabinets. And in a kitchen, any lower cabinet is considered pretty deep and it’s hard to reach things in the back, yeah? Same with pantry cabinets that are over 24” deep. And that’s why so many new deep cabinets are built with pull-out drawers, and why a lot of homeowners are opting for only drawers of, you know, various depths instead of lower cabinets, which I think is brilliant. But what if your budget doesn’t allow for that? Or retrofitting your kitchen cabinets with pull-outs right now isn’t within the budget? Well, you can use deep open bins. By deep, I mean really long bins that go from front-to-back of your cabinet or pantry shelf. It’s not as easy as a built-in pull-out to pull out this bin to get to the stuff in the back, but it’s an improvement over just having your things placed in the back of the shelf, and having to move the stuff in the front to get to it. There are also pull-outs that you can buy and install yourself, either screwing them into your cabinet shelf, or sticking them on with the adhesive strips they come with. These are usually cheaper than custom pull-outs that you have built to fit your existing cabinets, and the stick-on ones might not hold much weight, but they may be good for some things, like lighter kids’ plates and cups, colanders and strainers, zip-top baggies, aluminum and parchment paper rolls, coffees and teas, that type of thing. I’m sure you can think of other things to put on these, too, that aren’t heavy pots and pans or other heavy things. These pullouts would also be great under the kitchen sink, by the way, because with the piping and other plumbing fixtures under the sink, it’s hard to get to things under the sink.

7.            Stepstools. I’m not tall, and so I need some help to reach the topmost shelves of the cabinets in my kitchen and laundry room. So I know the utility of a simple little one-step stepstool. But stepstools take up a lot of floor space. I found myself kicking the one in my laundry room around because it always got in the way when I was doing the laundry. And then I’d trip over it, or the kids would. I always just thought of it as a necessary evil, right? Because from the time I moved into my very first apartment, I knew I would need a stepstool. You might be in the same situation, or you might have a stepstool in front of the sink in your kids’ bathroom, so they can reach the sink to brush their teeth and wash their hands. But again, these stepstools take up a lot of floor space that I really need, in the bathroom, in the laundry room, and in the kitchen. And honestly, I was tired of tripping over it. The solution for me was a foldable stepstool. They come in multiple heights, multiple colors. What I was looking for was something that was collapsible and openable in one motion, not like a stepladder where you have to maneuver open and closed, so I picked a simple plastic foldable stepstool. I’ve put a link in the show notes to the one I got, and I’ve added another link to a slightly taller one. These fold flat very easily, and tuck into a corner, or against a wall, so they don’t take up the floorspace, and I can move it out of the way easily, and we’re not tripping over it.

8.            Multiple Decorative Pillows & Throws. We’ve all seen the beautiful TikTok bed stacked like a marshmallow tower, right? The problem is when one seasonal decor refresh means more and more and more pillows! One spring refresh becomes two totes marked “summer,” plus a vacuum bag of fall flannel throws, and by Christmastime you’re got as many decorative pillows and throws in your house as Home Goods does. But you love decorating for the seasons, and that doesn’t have to stop. The first thing to do, though, to not waste storage space is to set a display limit. Like, how many decorative pillows and throws do you really want to display, and then also limit yourself to only one, a single off-season bin. So that can mean that you swap the pillow covers only, and not the entire insert, the cushion insert. You’ll stick with the cushion sizes that you have, right? But you can be creative with the covers. And only keep your favorite throws. When that storage bin starts to overflow, then you can start donating the covers and throws that you don’t want any more. But - and I know you know this - keep in mind that donating is not an excuse to just mindlessly get rid of your stuff. If no one wants what you’re donating, because you don’t want it, perhaps others won’t either, it’s likely to end up in a landfill somewhere down the line. So if you’re mindful about protecting the planet, as we are here, then be mindful of how much permanent decorative stuff you need in your house. Could you use natural decorations instead? Like plants and flowers? Or could you paint or sketch something?

9.            Extra Linens & Towels. We keep 2 sets of linens per person or per bed. So two sets of towels per person, and 2 sets of sheets per bed. That’s it. For guests, we do have 2 sets of guest towels, and we have enough pool and beach towels that our guests use if more than 2 people are staying with us at a time. The 2-per guideline works because it’s one set that’s being used, and one set in the laundry. And having only this amount means that I’m saving storage space, but I also have to keep up with the laundry. This is definitely a habit-changer if you’re not used to it, but I will tell you that my life changed completely when we started only keeping what fit in our closets! Doing laundry wasn’t as much as a chore anymore because I was actually doing less laundry at a time now, since we had fewer clothes and linens available to us! It takes less time to wash sheets and towels because we’re only washing one set per person at a time. And I’ve found that we’re never lacking bedding, even if we have a bunch of people staying with us, because we have the extra set of bedding per bed, so we always have enough to use when we have more guests, even if we’re having people sleeping on the sofa, or on inflatable mattresses.

10.       Paper Clutter Disguised as “Memories”. We really love memories, don’t we? These are the things like school art, camp wrist-bands, every birthday card we’ve kept since we were 2 years old. But my question to people who insist on keeping all of these is a gentle “When are you keeping it for?” Like, when are you planning to take these papers out and look through each thing and reminisce? Often, the answer is, “I don’t know, but I’m not ready to just toss it all.” And I don’t think you should toss it just yet. But I do think that keeping all of it might be wasting space you could use for living a beautiful life in your home right now. So, curate, don’t hoard. Give each family member one lidded keepsake bin and practice the “one in, one out” rule, if that helps. If you need kid-friendly tactics (like the anxiety-reducing “maybe” piles), then listen to last week’s episode, Episode 64, on raising mini-minimalists. Remember: memories live in our hearts, not in a big bin in your garage.

So here’s a Quick Recap of 10 Sneaky Space-Wasters to Tackle This Week

1.   Plastic food containers (you can switch to a manageable number of glass containers instead)

2.   Shoes that are beyond your storage limits 

3.   A pot & pan overload (two or three sizes can really cover 90% of cooking)

4.   Giant furniture (you need to find right-size and type for your people and your room)

5.   Counter-hogging small appliances (pick the MVP, right? The one that outshine everything else in terms of usefulness, and store or donate the rest)

6.   Deep, black-hole cabinets (so use pull-outs or long bins to help you there)

7.   Stepstools that live in the walkway (swap them for fold-flat versions)

8.   Decorative pillows and throws (use the one-bin rule for seasonal storage)

9.   Extra linens and towels (keep 2 per person and 2 per bed)

10.                Paper clutter disguised as “memories” (so curate, don’t hoard⁠—and listen to Episode 64 for kid-keepsake tips)

Thinking of these 10 space-wasting areas, is there one that you could tackle this week? This doesn’t have to be hard or time-consuming. Just take 15 minutes to, let’s say take out your plastic containers, pick your favorites, make sure they have lids and they’re in good condition, and see if you’re ready to replace any with glass or stainless steel ones, and rearrange them into your cabinet. Then, tell me about how you feel about the square-footage you just won back.

OK. Thank you for listening today, whether you’re listening in the car, or while walking the dog, or while doing your workout! 

If you’re not following the podcast yet, hit the Follow button so you don’t miss anything, all right? Don’t forget to get on the waiting list for my free class coming up, “3 Steps to Painlessly Declutter Your Kitchen In Just a Weekend and So The Clutter Doesn’t Come Back!”. Go to fireflybridge.com/update. The link is in the show notes.

Have a beautifully organized week everyone. I’m Zee, and I’ll see you on the next episode!