Storage Solutions for the New Year
January 3, 2011
Whether you live in a big or small house, at some point storage becomes an issue. Our last house was tiny and we were always thinking of creative ways to store our stuff. When we moved to a larger house, we couldn’t believe our luck at the many closets and cupboards sitting bare and empty, just waiting to be filled! And lo and behold, 2.5 years later, they are filled…to the max! Despite having a “to give” bag on the go at all times, our family of five is amazingly good at accumulating more things. Especially now, with an over abundance of Christmas gifts to find homes for, winter wear overflowing from our hall closet and my stash of vintage finds threatening to take over the basement! The three biggest storage dilemmas in our home are our front entry closet, our master bedroom closet and (cue ominous music) our basement.
We have a tight entry as it is, with the front door opening onto a small single closet. In warmer months, I store our winter gear in Rubbermaid bins in our basement but right now our hall closet is bursting at the seams. I’ve got a big basket to gather the many little shoes, mitts and hats of our younger girls but despite having that, hooks, a shoe rack and baskets on the upper shelf, it’s still not meeting our needs. Alas, I have no space for a lovely entry table or bench like the ones below but it is now time to re-evaluate our closet, what needs to be in there, what still fits and what extra shelving and/or extras we can add to make it work…
1. Martha Stewart 2. Rue
Next up, our bedroom closet. While it does have a basic closet organizer, once again it isn’t up to the task at hand. We need more shelving, I’d love some drawers, hooks, shoe storage and more. While I’m seriously coveting these next 2 closets, the third is a little bit more realistic for our space…not to mention our small budget!
And finally, our basement. Groan! It is the shame of our home and despite numerous efforts to move boxes from one place to another, add shelving for shop inventory and sort seasonal decorations and clothing into labelled bins, once again it has evolved into a cluttered disaster zone! Once we build a shop in our backyard, we can purge things like camping gear and my husband’s many tools from the abyss and have some room to plan things out. But until then, I’m dreaming of spaces like these…
1. Country Living 2. Canadian House & Home
While searching for storage solutions, I came across some fabulous uses for vintage items in this Country Living article. This stone home is an amazing reno and the homeowner clearly has an eye for vintage and has repurposed many items in new and creative ways. Love it all!
As she’s mentioned before, Rachel and I share a love of vintage lockers and dream of coming across them in our travels! They would work perfectly in the office, kid’s rooms, bathrooms…for any room in the house really!
Rue via SF Girl by Bay
1. The Brick House 2. Me and Alice
I think I feel sufficiently inspired to tackle the tasks at hand and this week will be the perfect time to start…as soon as the kids are back at school and out from underfoot! Happy New Year and happy organizing!
