Even if you only possess what you actually use, if you got it all out and spread it around, your home would look a horrible mess. Adequate storage is the only way to stop your abode looking like a scene from a disaster movie!
Messy Heaps
The fact that your possessions are strewn around is proof that you’re using them. However, they’re still clutter is they’re lying around in messy heaps. The only way to maintain an uncluttered look is to put things away when you’ve finished using them. This is a radical concept to some, especially my teenage children, and it only works if you have proper storage.
Problem Houses
My first real home was a small Edwardian terraced house, with no storage apart from a small cupboard under the stairs and a built in cupboard in one of the bedrooms. The loft hatch was higher than our tallest stepladder and too small for my husband to fit through! As there were five of us living there, finding places to keep all of our belongings become a bit of a problem. Even after ruthless de-cluttering I still had to become very ingenious with my storage solutions!
Ingenious Solutions
We added shelves to all the alcoves and hooks to the back of all bathroom and bedroom doors. We also added hooks to the inside of the cupboard door under the stairs. We had storage boxes under all the beds and a coffee table which was a box with a lid. As we had small rooms with high ceilings we bought tall thin chests of drawers and bookcases, to use as little floor space as possible.
Bunk beds with desks and cupboards underneath solved the problem of small bedrooms. Small spaces, for example between a cupboard and a wall, could be used to store awkward objects like a folded laundry dryer or a tall step ladder. Bay windows are ideal for a window seat with storage underneath and divan beds can have useful drawers underneath. No space is too small to be used.
Newer Is Not Always Better
New houses tend to have more built-in storage but also tend to have smaller rooms and lower ceilings, so ingenious solutions will still be needed. Never buy an item of furniture unless it has some kind of storage included, and make full use of transparent boxes with lids which can be stacked inside cupboards to utilise more space.
Show Home Or Jumble Sale?
To keep your house looking more like a show home than a jumble sale, tidying up as you go along is a lot easier. It can only take a few days for your home to look like a hurricane has swept through it, especially if you have children or pets. Once you’ve instigated all of these storage solutions, your home will still be a mess if you don’t use them. Make sure that you are the king of your home and not your clutter.
