Packing cubes are brilliant for keeping a chaotic suitcase under control, but have you ever considered using them around the home?
Professional organizer Christina Lee certainly has. She says packing cubes are her go-to solution for tackling three of the most common clutter issues in her clients’ spaces.
Here, she reveals exactly how she uses them, and why these travel essentials might just be the smartest addition to your home organizing toolkit.
3 ways to use packing cubes to organize a home
1. Rotating growing children’s clothing
If you have multiple children, a child with cousins close in age, or are simply the sentimental type, packing cubes, available from The Container Store, could be the perfect solution to organizing children's clothes by age or size.
Christina Lee, CEO and co-founder of Graceful Spaces Organizing, shares, ‘One of my favorite ways to use packing cubes at home is in children’s closets, specifically for managing clothing by size. Instead of letting outgrown or next-size-up items pile up, I suggest using packing cubes to create a dedicated “next size” system. Then, label each cube clearly by age or size range using custom vinyl labels, and store them neatly in a closet bin or drawer.’ The DYMO Handheld Label Maker, from Walmart, ensures your organizing system stays uniform.
Christina continues, ‘As your child grows, this simple setup makes it easy to rotate clothing in and out. When something no longer fits, you can just fold it into the appropriate cube for future use or hand-me-downs. When it’s time to size up, you’ll already have the next wardrobe stage ready to go. It’s a small system that makes a big difference in organizing a kid’s room.’
As children get older, you can implement some rules for tidier kids, including your child putting clothes that feel tight in the correct cube themselves, helping to introduce children to chores.
2. Maintaining a travel zone
For many of us, traveling is something that only happens a few times a year but comes with a lot of baggage – if you’ll pardon the pun. Besides working out where to store suitcases, you often need to find homes or travel adaptors, tiny toiletries, and holiday-specific clothing and accessories.
That is where a quality set of packing cubes, such as the Veken Packing Cubes with windows, from Amazon, can help to corral items into categories, creating a grab-and-go packing zone.
Christina says, ‘When packing cubes aren’t in use for trips, I recommend storing them in a designated “Travel Basket” along with other travel items. This might include toiletry bags, tech accessories, and other essentials. Having one centralized travel zone eliminates the last-minute scramble and keeps travel prep simple.’
These folding wicker baskets, from Walmart, fit neatly onto cubby shelves to hide your packing cubes when not in use. Alternatively, keep them stashed away inside your suitcases to save space.
3. Seasonal home storage
Finding space for your seasonal items in home storage ideas can be tricky, and digging out specific decor, linens, and clothing at the right time of year is even trickier.
Rather than throwing everything into one big bin and hoping for the best, Christina says, ‘Packing cubes are also great for tucking away seasonal items like holiday linens, outdoor gear, or specialty hosting items that don’t need to live in everyday drawers. Use clear or labeled cubes in under-bed storage, closets, or upper cabinets to keep everything tidy, grouped by category, and easy to retrieve when needed.’
This set of five packing cubes, from the Container Store, has small pockets for labels, making marking up seasonal pieces simple.
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These compression packing cubes have a side zip to help flatten folded clothing further, helping to save space in small home storage.
Use fabric-specific labels on packing to keep them organized and ensure your labels do not fall off in storage.
When storing clothes both short and long term, consider adding some scented sachets to help fend off musty odors and keep them fresh between uses.
Use packing cubes to organize under-bed storage bags more efficiently, keeping them easy to navigate when you need to dig out seasonal clothing and linens.
Need something a little sturdier than packing cubes? These hard-sided storage cubes are ideal. They make great use of vertical storage to save space, too.
If you are very short on space, consider using vacuum storage bags we well as/instead of packing cubes, reducing your clothes and linens' storage footprint.
FAQs
Are packing cubes better than vacuum bags?
Packing cubes and vacuum bags offer different benefits depending on what you need them for. Vacuum storage bags have the upper hand in terms of protecting clothing and linens from moisture and pests while helping you to save space; however, they are more awkward to access as you need to reseal them after every use. Packing cubes, on the other hand, while not space savers, help to keep things neat without the barrier to access. Plus, you can store non-squishable items in packing cubes, such as toiletries and electronics, which you cannot do with vacuum bags.
Meet the expert
Implementing a packing cube system is the perfect way to make your home look more organized fast, and can even make decluttering in the future easier, creating a system where you can focus on one small bag at a time to avoid decluttering burnout.
