*Paid guest post.
It’s surprising how easily clutter creeps upon us. Over the last year, I think we’ve all wished for more space at home, or better storage, or both. Now things are opening up again, it’s a good time to take a second look at how we sort out and store the precious things we own.
Fall in Love with Shelves
- Match and blend with existing colours for unobtrusive display shelving.
- Get creative, with narrow shelves fitted to the end of kitchen cabinets for an alternative spice rack, or beneath cabinets for canisters and jars.
- Choose rustic styles or modern floating shelves.
- Install low shelves in children’s rooms for favourite books or toys.
- Put a shelf above the bathroom door for spare towels or as extra space for beauty or shower products.
- Hang a shelf above coat pegs or hooks in a hallway, so you have somewhere to fold scarves, hats, or gloves.
- Fit a shelf above your headboard for night-time reading materials and a lamp in place of a floor-standing side table.
Creative Storage Ideas
All houses have areas where you could get creative, whether it’s that seemingly useless space under the stairs or the area underneath kitchen cabinets that’s normally sealed off with fitted boards.
Wardrobes too, have more space than you think with a bit of adapting.
- Add a second rail beneath the first for half-length clothes.
- Install a plastic drawer tower for folded items or smalls and accessories.
- Fit a rail inside the door for scarves, beads, belts, or ties.
- Stick hooks to the back wall so you can hang bags behind your clothes.
Have a rethink about how you store clothes. Lots of people these days take a seasonal approach to their wardrobe, putting out of season items into self-storage until they’re needed again. It works for clothes, but also anything else with seasonal use such as garden furnishings or even storage for bulky luggage items. You can have freestanding rails or drawers in self-storage rooms to help keep items pristine. It’s also a great place to store good children’s clothes you might want to save to hand down to younger siblings.
Swap Out or Adapt Your Furniture
If you’re thinking about changing your beds, choose ottoman or divan styles rather than bed frames. Bed frames may have space underneath for boxes or tubs, but it’s not as neat or convenient as having drawers built-in or a mattress you can simply lift.
Raised beds are good for older children, where you have storage below the sleeping platform, or maybe a desk. They offer more useful storage with work or play spaces within a small footprint, so you keep more of the floor clear.
Arranging things does take a bit of time and thought. Start by deciding what’s bothering you, then figure out what would make it better. Maybe you just need a smarter organisation system for storage, or maybe you could pack up some items you’re not using and put them in self storage until they’re needed again.
We all have different ideas about what works for storage, and happily, there are multiple solutions to suit everyone.
