Plastic tubs and wicker baskets, over-the-door shoe organizers and loose-leaf CD holders — again and again, you proclaimed your adoration of the basic storage solutions that help us manage Stuff Overload. Many suggestions echoed ideas presented in these pages over the years, leaving staff members with the gratifying suspicion that their efforts have been sinking into your unconscious, helping to relieve that overstuffed feeling! Here are some new tricks you taught us.

Storing Memories

For each of my two daughters, I stored their 8-by-10-inch school portraits in the same frame, with the latest on top. Every year, when we put the new one in, we'd lay out all the old ones and compare hairstyles, loss of baby fat, additions of braces or glasses, etc. By the time they finished high school, there were 12 years of photos...and I didn't have to hunt for them for the graduation party. Then I started adding sorority photos on top of the K to 12s! Collette Erickson
Chapman, Kansas

Organize and Conquer

I used to tear recipes out of magazines and keep them in a stack, but it was always too much of a hassle to go through it. Now I keep recipes in four-by-six-inch photo albums, which are small enough to fit in easily just about anywhere. The books can be organized by category — Salads, Christmas, Breakfast — and because each recipe is protected by a plastic sleeve, if I splash it with olive oil, it wipes right off.
Kathy W. Hardy
Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Whenever I have a scrap of paper I want to keep — magazine clippings, the gym's workout schedule, ideas for my dream house, anything — I slide it into a plastic sleeve in a three-ring binder. Tabs made with tape create different sections, or you can buy tabbed manila loose-leaf dividers. My papers are organized and stored safely, and I can flip through and find something quickly.
Leann Hymas Brinton
Charlottesville, Virginia

I use clear plastic file boxes to sort and store all my favorite magazines by month. For example, all the January issues I want to keep go into the January box each year. This way I can pull out the boxes for the current and next month and rediscover the seasonal recipes, tips, and articles I've enjoyed over the past several years.
Christine Everett
Libertyville, Illinois

I pin my post earrings in neat rows to a square of needlepoint material that hangs on my closet wall. I can find what I need in a hurry and don't have to dig through my jewelry box for a matching set. Small-gauge fabric has the right size holes to push the posts through. For a finished look, you can tack it inside a frame with the back removed.
Terri Toman
Kent, Washington

Old Form, New Function

I couldn't afford a nice piece of furniture but didn't want anything cheap looking, either, so I made a TV cabinet out of an old but nice dresser my mom had bought me years earlier at a yard sale. I hid the DVD/VCR and the cable box in the center drawer, cut holes for the cords, and made the drawer front into a flip-down with parts from a hardware store. The other drawers hold CDs and DVDs. The dresser looks perfect in my living room and not at all like a media cabinet.
Allison Moody
Norfolk, Virginia

Kitchen Help

My kitchen linen drawer is not very deep, so I roll my dish towels and line them up like rolled ties in a tie organizer. They fit, it's tidy, and I can easily find the one I need.
Joan Nusbaum
Colorado Springs, Colorado

When I get home from the grocery store, I immediately wash my lettuce, cut it up, and store it in the salad spinner in the refrigerator. The lettuce stays crisp, and I'm much more apt to throw together a quick salad when I'm hungry and in a hurry.
Dana Vanderlugt
Holland, Michigan

My husband and I purchase some groceries in bulk to freeze. At home I open things like meats, fruits, and frozen vegetables and measure out servings for two into stackable clear plastic containers. The freezer's organized, the food is visible, and cooking is a cinch.
Sherry Delooze
Leland, North Carolina

I have a kitchen the size of a throw rug. I hung a metal shower organizer on the side of my stove and filled it with the things I use most often, such as spatulas and wooden spoons. It even has hooks to hang my pot holders on.
Bonnie Kaplan
Los Angeles, California

I store plastic grocery bags in an empty garbage-bag box. It holds about 50 and has the precut hole for dispensing them. If you like, you can cover the box with Contac paper.
Malinda Henderson
Dayton, Tennessee

I hung an old iron rake head on the wall to hold wineglasses. It's extra storage, a conversation piece, and an interesting work of art.
Krista Hopkins, Richland, Washington