Your bills sit neatly in an accordion folder, your CD collection is sorted by genre, and your digital photos are organized online. So why is it that every time you reach into a pocket or a drawer you run across a mysterious miscellany of buttons, safety pins, thread packets, and receipts? Sure, you may put that extra button aside with good intentions, but deep down you know that when the original falls off your coat, you will never, ever find the spare.

So try this: Hang a bulletin board in the laundry room and use it as a central storage area for all those bits you save “just in case.” When you need them, they’ll be exactly where you think they are.