102A little over a year ago, I was nesting.  I was looking for organization books at Barnes and Noble and the lady helping me gave me the best tip!  I can’t remember what book it was from, but it’s revolutionized our attic.

Here’s what you do.

  1. Get a bunch of the same size boxes.  We got banker’s boxes from  Office Depot.
  2. Number them with sharpie.
  3. Open a Google Sheets doc (or use pen and paper) and number down the page.
  4. Write what you put in your boxes.

At first this seems not that amazing.  But it it.  Think about the sections you have in your attic.  Easter in this area.  Winter clothes in another.  And they never fit in the boxes right.  Garbage bags in some areas.  Liquor boxes in another, all throwing up all over your attic floor.  It’s all fine the first day you put it in there, but nothing is the right sized container after a year.

With this system, any box you unload just goes in a stack.  When you have something to store, you fill a few numbered boxes, and write down what they are next to the numbers on your spread sheet.  (When I put away random baby stuff a few months ago, I used empty boxes 11, 19, 40, 42. See below.) And when you need something, look up the number and go grab it.

attic boxesI love this system.  It allows me to put things in the attic and NOT forget them.  I can get the kids to put away those toys they haven’t played with in a year, and at a moment’s notice, I can make them reappear.