In my quest to create a more organized home, I finally understand what a difference it makes to use boxes with lids. It seems like such a simple concept, but now that I understand this, I have sworn to never buy an open-top basket for storage again. I’ve learned that containers with lids are stackable, they make you look organized even if you have empty raisin boxes, 3 year old Christmas cards and scratched CD’s without cases all intermingled inside. Plus, I appreciate the vertical limit.

I bought a “pandan” box with lid from Cost Plus World Market about a week ago to scoop up my work papers and have them all in one spot. It looks a lot like the boxes in this photo, but mine is a rectangle shape - about the size of a magazine page - and is a darker brown. They didn’t have the exact one on their website.

I was also poking around to see what other good-looking lidded boxes were out there. And I saw a few at one of my favorite stores, Areo Home in Laguna Beach. The Cherry Bark Boxes and Conrad Boxes both looked interesting.

$9.99 - $18.99 at www.worldmarket.com