Throw Pillow Storage: How To Organize Your Pillow Stash!

I’m the first to admit that I’m a total sucker for a pretty pillow and that suckerdom has resulted in me having a pretty impressive pillow stash. I often get asked where I store my pillows that I’m not using, which tells me that I’m not the only one with a little bit of a pillow hoarding problem 🙂 Today I’m pulling out my pillow stash to give you some throw pillow storage ideas for your own home along with a few tips for buying pillows so you don’t have quite as many to store in the first place! (affiliate links included in post – full disclosure statement available {here})

One of the keys to taming my throw pillow stash is storing my throw pillow covers and inserts separately (except for any odd shaped pillows where the insert has only one matching pillow cover). I’ll share how I store my extra throw pillow inserts first… 

Throw Pillow Insert Storage: Vacuum Pack Them!

My stash of extra pillow inserts includes a few extra standard sized inserts plus several lumbar sizes that I only use every now and then. I would have told you that my pillow insert stash was pretty small but after putting them all in a pile, I have a few more than I thought 🙂

Here’s my secret weapon to storing them in about 1/4 of the space they’d normally take up – vacuum storage bags. They are awesome! After I vacuum packed this stack of pillows (I divided them into three of {these} jumbo vacuum storage bags), this is how much space they take up now:

You couldn’t even tell that Hope was snoozing away behind that pile before could you?! I label the outside of each bag with the sizes of the pillow inserts and store them under my bed stacked in pairs:

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The key to vacuum packing the bags so that they lay relatively flat is to vacuum out the air a little bit at a time, pausing to smooth and even out the bag several times until you’re done. I’ll show you guys in a video on Instagram Stories – you can find me {here} on Instagram if you aren’t following me over there already. These vacuum storage bags are also great for bulky comforters and blankets and a friend of mine even gave me the genius idea of using them to decrease the bulk of clothes and bedding for road-tripping my daughter to college this fall – totally going to do that so we can pack all we can into the car! 

Throw Pillow Cover Storage: KonMari Them!

For years I’ve been folding up my extra pillow covers and placing them in a drawer – it’s worked pretty well but always involved a lot of rooting through the pillow stacks to find the ones hidden in the bottom of the pile. After seeing the KonMari method of folding clothes in a drawer so you can easily see and access everything, I decided to do the same with my pillow covers. I folded each pillow cover into an 8″ square and placed them in {these lidded fabric storage boxes} that fit my pillow squares perfectly:

I have one storage box for my 22″ and 24″ pillow covers, a second box for my 20″ pillow covers, and a third box for my 18″ and lumbar pillow covers. I labeled each of them with a tied on tag so I know which box to grab at a glance:

Several of my pillow covers are no longer available, but these are the ones I have and love that still are:

Scroll & Click/Tap to Shop My 22″ + 24″ Pillow Covers:

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Scroll & Click/Tap to Shop My 18″ + Lumbar Pillow Covers:

You could also store these boxes just about anywhere, including stacked in a closet where they wouldn’t take up much of a footprint at all. I store all three of my boxes (plus a fourth that I use to hold extra picture frames) in these cabinets at the base of our our family room bookshelves:

The boxes are the perfect width for my cabinets and they aren’t super deep so I have space to store quite a bit behind them too! 

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And while I’m sharing a peek behind our cabinet doors, I wanted to show you another organizational feature I love! I can’t take any credit whatsoever since they were here when we moved in but our cabinets have two hidden drawers with built-in hanging file storage:

It allowed us to get rid of the standing file cabinets we had when we moved in which is really nice. Now we try to file most things electronically (more details on the handheld scanner and mail sorting system we use in {this post}) but we still have quite a bit of paperwork stored in here from years past. Weeding through them and scanning the paperwork we need to keep is somewhere on my never ending to-do list…

Two Quick Tips for Buying Pillows

Let’s wrap things up with two quick tips for buying pillows that might help keep you from having as many to store in the first place (trust me, my stash would be 10 times as obscene without these). First off…

1. Whenever possible, buy throw pillow covers without the inserts. If you buy every pillow with the cover and the insert, not only are you paying for something you don’t need but you’ll end up with so much more bulk to store. Invest in a small number of high quality inserts and when you want a pillow change, just swap the covers. My favorites inserts are 25% down/75% feathers – I’ve invested in several of these but they’re admittedly pretty pricey. For something a little less expensive but still great quality, 5% down/95% feather inserts are great too (I’ve used both {these inserts} and {these inserts} and liked them. 

2. Invest in some high quality, solid color pillows in your most-used colors that you will use again and again for years. Having a set of neutral pillows that work with everything will keep you from having to buy as many new ones when you decide to change up your pillows with the seasons. My favorites are these cream tassel pillows (available {here}) – I have six of them because they go with everything and are in constant rotation in our house. From our family room to our kitchen banquet to our guest room and my daughter’s room, they are my go-to’s! 

I hope you pillow addicts found today’s post helpful – I’m glad to have finally found an organization system that works for me and hope you’ll be able to take a tip or two away that works for you too! Now I just need to tackle the cabinets in the other bookcase in our family room – you would think that it would be super organized judging by the inside of the cabinets I shared today but there’s one big disorganized mess hidden behind those other cabinet doors. Another thing that’s on that never-ending to-do list… 

Enjoy your weekend friends!