Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Life

Tag: storage ideas

  • Unique Home Storage Ideas

    “A place for everything and everything in its place.” No one is sure who first coined that proverb, but we’ve been trying to implement it since at least the late 18th century. Here are a few DIY storage ideas that may make life in the 21st century a little easier—or at least a little less cluttered.

    Bedroom DIY Storage Ideas

    For the price of a package of shower rings and a hanger, you could potentially free up an entire drawer if you slip the shower rings over the bottom rung of a hanger and use it to store your scarves. Mount it to the back of your closet door and your scarves will be accessible and won’t get wrinkled.

    A wooden hanger can become an ideal storage device for jewelry, especially necklaces and dangly earrings. Just add eye screws at small, even intervals and hook them through the eye screws.

    Under-bed storage is always a great idea. While you can buy beds that come with drawers underneath, you can also create your own. Use shallow dresser drawers to which you’ve added wheels and you’ll be able to slide them under the bed. The wheels will make them easier to access when the summer turns to fall and you suddenly need to grab a sweater but aren’t yet ready to do the summer/winter clothing transfer. They’ll also make cleaning under the bed a lot easier, too.

    Little wooden spice racks make both perfect displays and storage containers for perfume bottles, nail polish, or other cosmetics.

    Bathroom DIY Storage Ideas

    Unless you have one for every single family member, bathrooms can be storage nightmares. There are only four corners to a bathtub, and those corners fill up fast when everyone in the family likes to use a different kind of shampoo. Hang fruit baskets from your shower rod and store shampoos, conditioners, nail brushes, loofahs, and body sponges in the baskets. They’re also a great place to store small bath toys.

    Pedestal sinks have been in vogue for a while now, and for good reason: their clean, elegant lines make modern sinks the bathroom focal point and they introduce a feeling of space to what’s usually the smallest room in a house. That said, everyone who’s bought a house with one or replaced an old vanity with a pedestal sink has been faced with the dilemma of where to store their bathroom cleaning products. The solution may be to create a shallow, narrow cupboard between the joists in your bathroom walls. Maybe even two, one on either side of the sink.

    A large wine rack mounted on a bathroom wall makes for idea towel storage. You can build your own or buy one. Or you can mount a series of baskets to the wall and store towels, face cloths, and small appliances like hair dryers, curling irons, beard trimmers and electric razors in the baskets.

    Don’t forget to use the space above your toilet and above your towel racks. Install floating shelves and use glass jars to store cotton swabs, facial wipes, makeup remover pads, hair elastics and bobby pins or hair clips.

    Craft Room and Home Office Storage Ideas

    An old muffin tin will fit nicely in even the shallowest desk drawer, and it automatically gives you a dozen small compartments to store paper clips, push pins, elastics, and USB drives. If the drawer is wide enough, add a kitchen cutlery tray and you’ve got storage for pens, markers, scissors, rolls of tape, and charger cords.

    Revolving countertop spice racks with clear glass bottles are perfect for small craft supplies like pins, needles, buttons, beads, and sequins. If your craft room has a closet, take the door off and add more shelving. You can still use the curtain rod and pants or skirt hangers to hang folded fabric or scrapbooking supplies.

    Pick up an old dresser at a flea market, paint it with chalk paint, and store crafting tools and supplies in the drawers. Dividers are always a good idea. You can buy them or make your own out of cardboard covered in wallpaper. Or you could invest in some more dollar store kitchen cutlery trays.

    If your closet has a bifold door, don’t throw it out or store it in the garage. Mount it to the wall and buy some decorative hooks so you can hang scissors and other tools or rolls of ribbon from the hooks. There’s a reason those home workshop pegboards with tools outlined became so popular: they work. Not only can you see where your tools are at any given time, there’s also no doubt where they belong. Once you’ve analyzed the space available to you and the possessions you need to store, you’re well on your way to creating a place for everything. After that, keeping everything in its place will be a lot easier.

  • Creative Ways to Make the Most of Small Areas in Your Home

    As house prices and overall costs of living increase, space is at a premium. This may be for a variety of reasons, including because our families are growing or we’ve downsized. We all need to find creative ways to make the most of small areas in our homes so we can stay organized. Here are some great storage ideas for keeping things neat and tidy in tight quarters.

    Install Incremental Shelving

    Make use of odd spaces in various rooms to install floating shelves. This works particularly well in kitchens and bathrooms, where there tend to be many nooks and crannies. Small, floating shelves in a kitchen can hold cookbooks, decorative serving platters, cookware or baskets of linens.

    In a bathroom, floating shelves can hold cotton balls and Q-tips so they’re within easy reach but not cluttering up premium counter space. One shelf can hold guest towels. With all the racks and helpful storage devices available, look for ways to create a place for everything.

    Use purpose-made hooks on the inside of bathroom cupboard doors to hang curling irons, hair dryers and ceramic straighteners. Buy some decorative baskets and use them to store towels or toilet paper under a pedestal sink, if you’ve got one.

    Glass shelving is always a good option if you’re concerned shelving will make a room appear smaller.

    Take Advantage of Wasted Space

    Space under stairwells is almost always wasted space, and it’s infinitely customizable. Installing either open shelving or closing it off by adding cupboard doors means you can choose the size and shape of the shelves to hide the things you don’t want to get rid of but don’t need to access very often.

    If your kitchen’s small and there’s no way to install a pantry, you could create one under the basement stairs, or even under the stairs to the second floor.

    The area above the sink in most kitchens is almost always wasted space. If you hang a pot rack above the sink, there’ll be no time lag in getting clean pots put away. This way, they’ll always be accessible, and you’ll open up a lot more cupboard space.

    Other small areas in your home that aren’t being used, including hallways, are perfect spots to station a small storage ottoman or a bench with storage under the seat. If you have a coat rack in your hallway, consider buying a second one and mount it a foot and a half above floor level to use as a shoe rack.

    There’s also usually lots of potential storage space on the back of closet and cupboard doors. Shoe racks and spice holders can be easily mounted there.

    Installing drawers under beds is another great way to keep your closets from exploding and use otherwise wasted space. You may not be able to fit all your out-of-season clothes under the bed, but if you can store even half of them, you’re ahead of the game.

    If you want to take your storage and space solutions to the next level, a loft bed is the answer, especially in a child’s room. The area under the bed becomes a whole new play area. Just don’t forget to buy toy boxes and install some shelving underneath so you can maximize the space gain.

    Hide it in Plain Sight

    Consider mounting storage devices in plain sight. A holder for aluminum foil, waxed paper and cling wrap can easily be installed on the outside edge of your cupboards, and it will make them easier to find when you’re storing leftovers or making lunches.

    Small crates or shelving units don’t have to take up floor space—they can be mounted on walls. If you don’t want to display the things you need to store, invest in some baskets so task-related items stay together.

    If your entryway is big enough for a small table, it’s also big enough for a small dresser, which will provide all kinds of storage for messy but necessary items like hats, scarves, mittens and gloves, while still providing the flat surface you need for items you need to grab as you go out the door, whether that’s your keys,  library books that need to be returned, or dry cleaning that needs to be taken in.

    Since coffee tables tend to be magnets for clutter, think about replacing yours with one that has a little built-in storage for things you don’t want on display when guests are over, but that you still want to be able to find with ease (like the remote controls). A single drawer in a coffee table can help with that. Or you can use a blanket box as a coffee table and provide a home for all your family’s board games. The good news is that while your personal space may be shrinking, there are always great new storage ideas for small spaces.  If you invest in some of them, you’ll be able to get to “a place for everything and everything in its place” in next to no time.