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4 Ways to Increase Your Property’s Storage Space

renovating a home

Every home collects clutter; it’s inevitable as we all collect stuff. Some call it consumerism. Some of the worst clutter culprits are children’s art projects, holiday decorations, outgrown baby clothes, and gardening equipment. Some items are kept for sentimental value; others are only needed occasionally throughout the year.

Having ample storage in your home is essential, yet did you know most modern buildings often lack built-in storage as architects try to maximize living space?

The good news is that all homeowners have options to increase their storage capacity and, at the same time, improve the value of their property.

Let’s look at what you can do to get more storage at your place, including:

  • Use height
  • Repurpose a room
  • Hidden storage furniture
  • Utilize empty and odd-shaped spaces
  • Hang stuff up on hooks
  • Add an outbuilding

Use Height

The height of storage units does not limit you. A builder can custom-build full-height wardrobes and storage units for any room of your house. Think of the waste of height in rooms and use it to store items seldom used at the top.

Repurpose a Room

A box room makes a tremendous walk-in wardrobe if your bedroom is too small for added wardrobes. Each family member could have a wardrobe unit, making it much quicker to sort the laundry as it all goes in the same place. You could even turn an entire room into your storage facility by installing shelves, drawers, and cupboards. Instead of having an empty spare room most of the time, consider using a bed you can fold back against the wall. It might be a tight squeeze against drawers and units when it’s down, but you can access all your storage easily when it’s up.

Hidden Storage Furniture

If you can’t easily alter your living space, especially renting, investing in furniture with inbuilt storage is a great option. Ottoman beds lift and have enough room underneath the mattress to store bedding, clothes, towels, and more. You can also get storage furniture for the living room, with ottoman footrests and sofas with pull-out drawers underneath.

Utilize Empty Spaces

Looking around your home, you’ll find dozens of small wasted spaces that DIY could quickly transform. With some imagination, you can get the best out of these areas, from corner kitchen cupboards to under-the-stairs nooks. A rising trend is to have understairs drawers to utilize the space under the lowest steps, and you can have a carpenter build them to suit your needs.

Think about storage behind or underneath existing furniture. A wall mirror could hide a thin cupboard for jewelry, or a tv unit could have bookshelves or coat hooks on the side. Coffee tables are great for extra space, with shelves and drawers underneath the main surface.

Hang Things Up

If you’re struggling for surface space, consider making more of the dead areas around your home, such as behind doors and ceilings. Hanging items such as pots, pans, and utensils from the ceiling can save clutter in your kitchen cupboards and make things more accessible when needed.
You can also use hidden spaces, such as behind closed doors. Use over-the-door hangers for hanging garments such as coats and jackets, or get creative and use the space for anything from shoe storage to a spice rack.

Add An Outbuilding

If you’re serious about storage, it’s probably worth adding an external building to store everything. These can range from plastic garden boxes to freestanding steel huts in all different sizes. Outbuildings add permanent long-term storage solutions, allowing you to safely store large furniture items, lawnmowers, bikes, boxes of baby toys, etc. until needed again. This space can also add value to your house and free up other internal spaces for other uses, e.g., converting a garage into a home gym.

Declutter

Of course, sometimes the solution isn’t adding more storage but reducing the number of household objects you’re holding onto. We’ve all got the clothes we hope will fit again, the hobbies we mean to start, and the books we’ll read one day. Marie Kondo, queen of decluttering, suggests sorting through things by category (towels, bedding, clothes, etc.) rather than by room because this is a more effective way of gauging how much you own vs how much you need. You probably don’t even realize how many tea towels, pairs of slippers, or serving spoons you have!

In Conclusion

Declutter your property by sorting through your stuff and throwing away unused items should be the first step in addressing your storage issues. There are many ways to store what you’re keeping, from keeping blankets inside your ottoman sofa to building your outbuilding for all your garden tools and furniture.

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