If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s to value the people we’re with – and the spaces we’re in. For many of our CubeSmart customers, it’s also been a time to embrace home organization. Whether it’s to make more room for working or attending school from home, to tackle home improvement projects that have been looming for years, or just to go along with the new trend towards simplicity, organizers are having a moment.
The good news is there are tons of products sprouting up to help the organizational process along. So, if you’ve got a Marie Kondo or The Home Edit fan on your holiday shopping list this year, don’t fear. Though it may seem counterintuitive to give more things to someone trying to pare down, even the most streamlined living space can’t be accomplished or improved without a few items.
To help out, we’ve rounded up our favorite holiday gift ideas for the organizer in your life. And don’t worry: we won’t tell anyone if you happen to order some for yourself. All of us could use a little help these days!
Books About Organization and Productivity
As with any project, the best place to start is at the beginning. And the best people to teach you are the experts.
Whether you’ve got a seasoned organizer or a newbie on your list, they’ll love advice, tips, and tricks from the grand dames of organization culture: Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin from The Home Edit and Marie Kondo from the KonMari / Marie Kondo Method. These women are widely considered the best in the business, so any of their official publications or products will likely be met with a lot of excitement. We like giving reference books because they’re the type of thing that people have a hard time buying for themselves, but are truly valuable – and easy to store!
Follow the links below to buy copies of some of their recent publications from local, independent booksellers:
- The Home Edit, a Guide to Organizing and Realizing Your House Goals by Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin
- The Home Edit Life by Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin
- The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Upby Marie Kondo
- Joy at Work: Organizing Your Personal Life by Marie Kondo
- Spark Joy by Marie Kondo
You can also shop a dizzying array of tidying and organizational products directly from their websites.
Multi-purpose Organization Gifts
Room organization ideas are a dime a dozen, but what they nearly all share is the idea that stuff looks better – and is easier to access – when it is hidden away in a uniform arrangement of baskets, bins, and boxes. Of course, baskets, bins, and boxes come in a huge variety of styles, sizes, and price points – so they make a great gift item for just about anyone on your list. You can go with sleek, modern ones or rustic, woven ones or antique, wooden ones – or anything in between.
Some of our favorites are listed below, but if your loved one would benefit from more specific organization products (like makeup organizers or shoe organizers), you can search online and find a boatload of ideas.
- Storage Bins With LidsOne of our favorite organization products is a bin with a lid. The Container Store has some great looking, vented Nordic baskets with bamboo lids this year. You can even add dry-erase tags.
- Lidless Storage Bins without lids are also great for organizing daily use items within a household. Nearly everyone can find a place for a well-designed, compact basket to store toys, cold weather gear, or even the dry-cleaning pile! We like the texture and style of the Natural Banana Leaf Harper Basket With White Macrame from World Market, not to mention the two choices of size, but there are so many styles, shapes, sizes, and colors on the market that you’ll be sure to find the perfect choice for your loved one.
Tech Organization Gifts
As anyone who’s moved their office to their home can tell you, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the number of cables, cords, and gadgets necessary for a modern workspace. From monitors to keyboards to printers to chargers, spare bedrooms and dining room tables everywhere are being completely overrun. But even with all those items, The New York Times recently declared that the number one culprit of tech clutter is the lowly power cord. Unwieldy, messy, hard to store, and ugly to look at. Not to mention the annoyance of having different types of charging cords for different device brands. The frustration is real. Help your loved ones escape the mayhem with the gift of a wireless charging pad.
We love the sleek look of this 5-star rated one from TOZO (available on Amazon):
Another great idea to corral all those wires and chargers is a tech organizer for desks, specifically the Function 101 BentoStack Charge 5000 Desktop Organizer for Apple products, which combines USB ports, wireless charging functionality, adjustable and stackable designs, and even a carrying strap to keep your lucky gift recipient squared away both in the home office and on the go.
While we can’t – yet – give the gift of a 100% charged device, 100% of the time – these will help minimize the frustration and mess of a cluttered charging station.
Garage and Storage Unit Organization Gifts
Another outcome of COVID-19 for Americans is that a lot of us have become a lot more interested in keeping our yards and exterior spaces looking spiffy because we cherish our outdoor time even more. But along with all this newfound time to work on gardening, landscaping, and home improvement projects, has come the need to buy a lot of tools and devices to get all the work done. If your holiday honey has found him or herself with mounds of stuff all of a sudden — but no real clue where to begin organizing a garage or storage unit – read on for our customer-approved ideas!
Shelving is key to storage unit or garage organization. Boxes stacked on the floor aren’t as accessible or attractive, and also run the risk of getting wet in a basement or anywhere else with suspect drainage.
Our customers really love the flexibility and strength of these standard wire shelves, which are available in a variety of sizes and figurations from a number of retailers. Sure, they might be a little hard to wrap – but they also don’t require tools to put together, which is a definite bonus for the recipient. The black wire version below is a classic option from ULINE, but look around online for different bargains and formations depending on what your loved one is keen on organizing and, of course, what their space looks like.
Clear storage boxes are also a CubeSmart customer favorite for smaller items (like nails and screws, fishing equipment, or craft supplies). This five-star rated storage box from the Container Store is perfect for wall hanging when organizing a garage or tabletop display inside the house, and less than $40. A win for the lucky recipient, and a win for your wallet.
Don’t forget that CubeSmart locations also all sell packing, moving, and storage supplies, including boxes, dish protection kits, mattress covers, and tape. They may not be the most glamorous gifts to give, but trust us when we say: they will be very appreciated by anyone looking to step up their organization and storage in 2021.
Closet Organization Gifts
Clothes, shoes, and accessories present storage problems even for the tidiest among us. People tend to hang on to clothes and shoes that have long outlived their purpose. Not to mention the difficulties with organizing and storing handbags, scarves, belts, winter coats, cold weather gear, and other bulky items.
While no gift will 100% solve all closet organization issues, there are a few that are sure to bring a smile to the lucky recipient. First on the list? The Rustic Modern Hanging Bin from Walmart. These well-designed little workhorses can hang from a rod, drawer, or hanger . . . or each other.
While maybe not the most exciting thing to pop under the tree, we also highly recommend grabbing a 50-pack of the five-star rated AmazonBasics slim, nonslip clothes hangers for your loved ones. Their sleek design helps organize and streamline closet space – and maybe finally convince them to get rid of all those old dry-cleaning hangers. It’s worth a shot.
Whatever you decide to get the home organizer on your gift list, it’s pretty much guaranteed that they’ll be excited to receive anything that helps them straighten up and get things put away in their proper places. If it looks good and performs well, all the better.
If you’re looking for more unique ideas, be sure to check out our blog post, 20 Great Gifts for the Neat Freak in Your Life. And let us know in the comments below if there are any home or storage unit organization products that have changed your life. We’d love to hear about it.
