<h4>By Lee Scott</h4>
There is a decorating theme I have strongly embraced over the past several years. It is the uncluttered look — a design that dictates that loose items in the home should have their own place and be hidden from sight.<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp; </span>This requires the purchasing of storage containers like plastic bins, wicker baskets, and canvas bags, all of which are readily available in local stores.

In my mind, this storage craze originated with Tupperware parties.<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp; </span>My mother never succumbed to the urge to buy the plastic containers. She found, with eight children, she could barely get the groceries out of the bags and into the cabinets before one of her children was opening a box of cookies.<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp; </span>Why add a step to the process?

My first foray into the storage container world came after pulling out a box of Christmas ornaments only to have the bottom fall out due to moisture.<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp; </span>What a mess! I bought a couple of bins to pack ornaments and liked them so well I had to return for more. No one can argue that the bins stack well, but there is also the case for throwing away all those old cardboard boxes.<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span>

The store also carried specialty bins for fake Christmas trees, and my favorite, Christmas wrapping. It is so frustrating to catch those year-end sales of leftover Christmas paper, only to have it wrinkled and limp 11 months later.

Oh, but my organizing did not stop there. I was lured into stores like Bed, Bath and Beyond with their 20 percent off coupons. We all have stacks of those flyers. I bought organizers for my shoes and wicker baskets for accessories. Why should I just stack towels and sheets on a shelf when I could buy “easy slide out containers” for all the linens? Instead of shoving hats and gloves up in the hallway closet shelf, I found cute HIS and HER lined wicker baskets. I even bought an airtight dog food storage container that reads FIDO. Then, with all the original packaging getting discarded, I needed a new plastic recycle bin. <span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span>

My uncluttered home is wonderful, and everything does have its own place. However, I have discovered one drawback.<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp; </span>Sometimes it is difficult to find things.<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span>

I was out of town recently when my husband called.

“Where did you hide my cereal?” he asked.

“It’s not hidden,” I said. “I rearranged the cabinet. Your cereal is in the blue airtight cereal container, next to the orange pasta storage canister and the yellow rice storage jar. I think.”

Then he said, “Maybe it’s time you bought a new label maker for all these storage containers.” <span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span>

“Good idea,” I said. “I may even have a coupon in my coupon bin.”<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span>