When my husband and I built our partly studio-type house, we decided to leave out the inbuilt shelves in the living space. This space consisted of the sitting room, dining area, and workstation. We were enthusiastic about leaving them that way because we didn’t want the congested feeling with too many shelves put in place. However, once we moved in, we had literally no space to keep our things where we needed and ran into real trouble. So, we began looking for solutions and slowly figured out some really cool ideas to store our stuff. Come, join me in this journey as I walk you through how we did it.
- Get some bare shelves fixed where they are needed.
- Convert the existing furniture into hidden storage by installing shelves and drawers in them.
- Buy furniture that is designed to store things.
- Use the side space of the appliances like the refrigerator and washing machine by fixing pockets, vertical shelves, or baskets for storage.
- Utilize all the vertical space possible.
- Install floating wall shelves.
These are some of the ways of storing things when there is no storage in the home. Placement of the organizers in suitable spots, which are both out of the way but at the same time easily reachable, is crucial. Also, maintaining a clutter-free home and stowing things that are not in use for the season helps in the long run in a home with little to no storage.
A no-storage home is no cinch. However, thinking of creative ways of building storage into the existing architecture of the house, giving everything a designated place, and periodically purging helps us a lot. What more! As a perk, it takes significantly less time to clean up such a house and keeps us motivated and cheerful.
Get Bare Shelves Fixed (Open or Closed):
If you don’t have custom-made cabinets, shelves, or drawers in your home, you could opt for some cheap alternatives. You can buy wooden or steel cupboards for storing your clothes and other expensive and important things like documents and certificates.
Bedroom is Not Just for Sleeping:
One of the clever things you can do is buy cots that have storage underneath and in the headboards. Already own a cot that has no storage facility? Go for under-bed storage containers that are available online. And when they are not in use, you can easily fold and store them away.
This way, you can store away all your bed linen under the bed. Stow your winter garments the same way, which might otherwise take up a lot of the closet space and put them away out of your sight until the following winter. It is also an excellent place to store your extra blankets and carpets as well.
The Disguised Dresser:
A dresser with large drawers is a treasure trove for storage. You can creatively organize the dresser drawers with small items like jewelry, makeup, watches, bags, purses, coolers, etc. Label the drawers, so you don’t have to search for things when you have to absolutely dash out.
Group and store your daily use jewelry vertically with the help of hanging jewelry organizers on the side of the dresser. Use the drawer space wisely by partitioning each drawer into smaller divisions. You can either buy the organizers for your drawers or make one of the Do-It-Yourself ones. Now your drawer looks absolutely impeccable.
Store your expensive jewelry in a secret place in your house but remember the place like your password. Now, you can remain calm in case of a break-in. Your valuables will be safe.
Enjoy the Open Living Space:
Look out for a Do-It-Yourself open shelf to be installed in the corner of the room, either glass or wooden, where you can put away things of your choice out of the way. If your house has a bay window, use the sides and top space for fixing in shelves of your choice. Window spaces are great for adding in racks when you don’t have much wall space. Convert the space under the sofa into drawers and throw in the remotes and other small things that clutter your living area. You can do the same to your center table. It can serve as a two-in-one utility cum storage unit.
Consider adding a beautiful basket to this place to collect and put in all the out-of-place stuff like toys, books, and other things littering your living room. They all can go back to their proper places at the end of the day.
This is the place that stores more things than any other room in the house.
The sky is the limit when it comes to the kitchen. Yes, you can hang down your pots and pans – anything that has handles to them. Fix in a pegboard with pegs and hang the spoons and ladles and other small kitchen tools. Mount hooks on the walls near the coffee maker, so you can hang your cups next to it where they are handy.
Plates can neatly fit in a dish drying rack mounted on the wall. Next, let the kitchen knives, cutlery, and other small kitchen tools go into cutlery storage holders. Then, stick the cutlery holders to a wall-mounted magnetic strip holder instead of using the countertop. Just make sure that they are easily accessible.
A hanging fruit basket fixed to a wall is pleasing to the sight and is an intelligent way of keeping the countertop or dining table clutter-free. A vertical shelf set next to the dining table can store the jams, pickles, and sauces. Plan the placement of organizers keeping accessibility and convenience in mind.
Bathroom Space is a Boon:
The spaces above the sink and the corners can be used by installing vertical bathroom cabinets to store all the bathroom and toiletry essentials.
If you have your washing machine inside the bathroom, consider fixing cupboards over it to store clean towels and washing supplies. Go for a small or a big laundry basket, depending on how often you wash clothes. Use the bathroom door, side of the washer, or the wall nearby for hanging your laundry basket.
Go Footloose on Shoe Storage:
Neatly pack and store your not-so-often-used footwear away and minimize your shoe rack display with bare essentials. This way, your partywear, and expensive winter boots will stay clean and dust-free, and you’ll only need to invest in a small, budget-friendly shoe rack.
Put the Least Used Space to Best Use:
The study room is where you definitely need storage space.
Create a study area under the stairs. You can use all the space overboard to fix in colorful cubicles on the sidewalls and under the stairs where all the books can go. Make sure your study table has plenty of drawers, which can accommodate files, folders, papers, stationery items, and all your craft supplies.
You can also put your laptop inside one of the drawers when you want to indulge and become messy with some crazy craft project and need all the table top.
Workstation Is No More Boring:
Forgetfulness is inexcusable at the workplace. So do yourself a favor and consider making or buying a colorful memo board. Install it on the wall above your table. Now, you can pin or clip your lists, to-dos, deadlines, reminders, and client specifications on them.
Make every inch valuable by creating wall-mounted adjustable shelves at your hands’ reach when you are sitting down and working. Fix in a sideboard to the table for your printer and maximize your table area. Install some floating shelves high above the workstation for storing office supplies. Now you can occasionally get up and stretch out after a long stint at work, so your muscles get the much-needed flexing and stretching.
Toys are Actually The Most Vicious Clutter:
Littered toys can rob your peace of mind like nothing else. Decluttering them is a tedious chore.
Never think twice to buy toy storage bins. If you don’t want to purchase expensive organizers, get multipurpose jute or fabric baskets with lids and store the toys in them. And when your children grow out, you can repurpose them as laundry baskets, indoor planters, or anything you can think of.
Tools are Best Kept Hanging
Tool mess drains off your time and energy. Wood strip with hooks and holes are best to hold tools like screwdriver, spanners, hammers, and pliers and keeps them right before your eyes. Nuts, bolts, screws, and other teeny tiny things can be stored in a see-through plastic jar and clipped on the wood strip in clear display with the help of a jar holder. This way, all the tools can be stored in plain view. Nothing gets lost, and precious time is saved with this type of organization.
Garden Shed Belongs to the Garden
Garden lover and no place in the house for garden tools? Weather-resistant storage shed units built for the outdoors are available in the markets. They can just sit outside near your garden and will not cramp your house.
Even your muddy garden shoes and gloves can go into it.
Alternatively, get plastic bins to store your garden tools and store them either in your entryway or outside in the porch if you have one and keep all the dirt out of the house.
Our Habits:
Now let’s move on to see what habits of ours will help achieve a clutter-free living zone. It is not just the space. It involves us and the space. Together, we have to work things out.
Pocket-Friendly Hacks – If installing shelves and cabinets and buying new furniture is not in your budget, then go for cheaper alternatives like fab totes, plastic bins, floating shelves, plastic dish racks, etc. Whenever possible, roll up your sleeves and get down to work making some super-easy Do-It-Yourself shelves and organizers. Your individuality gets incorporated into your home while it will not pinch your pocket.
Buy Wisely – Keeping a watchful eye on what comes inside your home is a must when you have little to no storage space. Carefully inspect and think twice before buying anything. When you upgrade any existing appliance or equipment, make room for the new by moving out the old one. Donate it, give it to the recycling plant in your town, or sell it in garage sales.
No More Hoarding – If you are a compulsive hoarder like me, you need a mindset change. Hoarding gets you nowhere. Set a time limit for the cartons, bottles, or plastic containers to sit around. If you are not making anything with them within a week, you’re never going to make them anytime later. You’ll only end up cluttering your house with unwanted stuff that is good to go into the garbage.
Be Heartless – When my brother got married, I was inquisitive about what they both got as wedding gifts. As they unwrapped their gifts, clocks started coming out, and they ended up with a room full of clocks.
Most of us have an unhealthy emotional attachment to our gifts. We don’t want to part with them even if they had been in the box for years together. It is time to purge all the useless stuff. Let’s go and do it.
Use your head, not your heart, to get rid of these things. You’ll never regret it.
Kill the Bibliomania– Even though books are the love of your life, get rid of books, notebooks, old projects, and other paper stationery as and when its utilization is over. When your kids outgrow their favorite bedtime storybooks, don’t hesitate to donate them to the least advantaged kids in the shelter. Let them go new to someone else before becoming dusty and old.
The same is true for toys, clothes, and digital gadgets which can be reused.
Cleaning Schedule is a Must– Make a weekly cleaning schedule for every room or zone of your house.
Closely inspect and mercilessly pare down things that have grown comfortable in the corner of your shelves and cabinets. You’ll be surprised to find so much more room to store your necessities.
Enjoy a stress-free, minimalistic lifestyle!
