I Tried This Genius “Layered Storage” Hack to Fix My Cluttered Cube Organizer

On my long list of things to declutter are the items I have for hobbies I no longer do, including my collection of photo albums. In my office, there’s a large cube organizer that’s filled with finished, unfinished, and empty albums that I intended to fill, and they’ve actually become part of the decor of the room because they’re so colorful. But it’s also storage from some random books and journals that I keep in here, and these things make the shelves look a bit cluttered. 

I’ve been wanting to streamline the look of these shelves for a while. Maybe it’s part of my process of shedding the extra albums and everything else that goes with them. In any case, when I saw this genius organizing hack on Instagram by Olena Matvienko (@elenhomestyle), I was all over it. 

The hack involves using magazine holders inside square baskets to corral smaller items that can look messy on the shelves. This is one of those shockingly simple ideas that you wonder why you never thought of — and, even better, it uses items you likely already have on hand. Even though I already use square baskets in the cubby shelves, it had never occurred to me to put something in those baskets to increase their versatility. 

The addition of magazine holders is so smart because it makes books and any other items you keep there visible and accessible because they’re vertical (rather than stacked in the basket). The partitions created by the holders means the smaller items stay upright and orderly within the basket as well. Getting these items out is as easy as sliding the basket out. 

Rather than buying magazine holders, I used some medium multipurpose bins from The Container Store that I had up in the attic. These turned out to be perfect. I could fit two of them snugly in the basket, and I added my books and journals to them. I even doubled up on one of the rows, which was fine because I’ll be looking down into the basket and be able to see everything inside. 

Could you just use the containers straight on the shelves themselves? Sure. But the less visual noise, the tidier a space looks, and layering storage within storage by putting the containers in the basket minimizes visual noise. Additionally, combining all the smaller items into one bigger item makes the entire shelving unit look calmer. 

I definitely plan to continue clearing out my office cubby shelves, and even more so, I’m keeping this new-to-me concept of layered storage for reducing visual clutter at the forefront of my mind for future organizing projects.