Wood crates and boxes

I was walking around my house this morning, frantically getting ready to go out tagging before work, and I realized there are A LOT of wood crates in my house. Here were the ones I noticed, thought I know there are more I'm missing:
In the family room, an old green and yellow ginger ale crate holds extra throw blankets next to the couch, one by the fireplace painted white with hand lettered "Myopia Club" in black (my favorite crate) holds junk mail and old newspaper for fire starting. In the dining room a great antique 24" long, 4" wide one holds a row of fall scented candles as a center piece, in the kitchen pantry a plain wooden one holds the recycling, another on the little kitchen table is corralling gourds and pumpkins.
The point is, they're crazy useful, come in all shapes, colors, and sizes, and are wicked cheap at tagsales and flea markets. You should get some, trust me.
I just saw a blog post a few weeks ago where a clever gal had turned a couple into a spectacular indoor herb garden. I will be doing this for my kitchen asap. Here are some other great pics of clever crate uses!

Great use of crates as storage, the controlled color palette keeps it from being too busy

As kitchen storage~ So so clever and surprisingly chic

Mounted wall storage. So perfect for a mudroom!

A casual solution for tidying up the magazine collection here

On a counter top for teacup storage

A wonderful collection of crate ideas here, I especially love the work space one in center bottom.

So pretty! The succulents and rustic wood is amazing together.