Innovative Storage Solutions, Anyone?

Having lived in a number of homes and having raised a family, I am very familiar with the challenges of finding sufficient innovative storage solutions for my home. I have come up with some tips that I hope will help you feel more organized, be able to create space and beautify your home. Many of these storage solutions you’ll be able to DIY or buy without blowing up your budget.

Experiment and explore beautiful solutions to your storage problems.

Install wall units or shelves along the perimeter of your living room, kitchen, den, bedrooms, laundry room and/or bathroom.

With a little imagination and lots of unused space on your walls, you can have lots of room to create homes for shelves: holding books, pottery, plants, photos, candles, toiletries etc.

Install shelves and cover them with sliding mirrors. If you install the closet mirrors directly opposite a window, the mirrors will reflect the sunlight and fill your bedroom with light. The old trick of making your eyes think you have another window, and make your room appear bigger.

Old dresser drawers provide ideal DIY bookshelves. Garage sales, Kijiji and Craigslist are great places to find inexpensive dresser drawers.

Whether you decide to use them as is (usually lovely solid wood, which is very expensive and hard to find when buying retail), or paint them to colour coordinate. Arrange them in a creative pattern on the wall and you will be amazed at your custom design talent!

Fill up all your suitcases (old and new), with off-season clothes etc. Stack them and use as chairs or tables.

Whether you buy a storage stool that can hold everything from toys to vinyl records or build your own box with a padded, cushion seat to create an ottoman. Place it in front of a comfy couch or chair, against a wall, at the end of a bed or use it as a window seat, create any size or style you wish.

Crown molding takes up very little space and blends in with the wall. Now there is a foam crown molding option & its lighter & easy to work with.

Crown molding wood as shoe racks is a bedroom storage solution. It works best for heels. But don’t limit yourself, it is not just for us girls!

Hang clothes racks in a corner. We often forget that those corners are ideal for hanging a clothes rack to create extra storage space in the bedroom or foyer. I don’t know about you…but I always need extra space to hang my many ensembles.

Headboards and/or bed frames with storage are an extremely efficient way to store everything from books to clothes to linen. There are some wonderful storage headboards available or have it custom made to suit your needs. A panel bed frame or a platform bed with storage drawers will hold as much as a good-sized dresser.

Try hanging your dirty clothes hamper on the back of your bedroom or closet door. You will be surprised by the space you will save with a simple canvas bag. Ikea is always a good place to find these space savers.

Install a wall-mounted, floating desk or fold-down desk that will practically disappear into the wall. They come in a great variety of shapes, sizes, and styles. Many have built-in storage for your office supplies and books. They’re a great storage solution when you are working from home, have limited space for a full-sized desk or need additional desks for your children’s bedrooms.

Store your scarves, belts or tank tops on shower curtain rings. Just hang some shower curtain rings on a clothes hanger and slip your scarves through the rings, attach the rings to your belt buckles, or slip the sleeves of those summer tank tops through the rings. You will save tons of precious closet space.

Hang a cork board for fashion jewelry storage. Keep all of your necklaces from tangling, keep that second earring from going AWOL and hang all those bracelets. You can accessorize quickly when you’re getting dressed to go out. It will take up no more space than a picture frame when you hang all your fashion jewelry on a cork board. You can buy cork in different colours and use a beautiful frame to add a little elegance.

Give your pants their own rack and avoid creases in your favorite trousers. If you have DIY skills, you can free up half your closet by building your own custom pants rack or you could hire a contractor to complete your project.

Failing that, you can always purchase a few efficient pants rack hangers for about $20 each.

Instantly increase your storage space in your closet by hanging your pants and jeans on S Hooks. Just use the S hook to suspend your jeans and casual pants by their belt loops.

Buy hanging fruit baskets and store scarves, socks, hats, and more in them. Hang them in your closet, beside your dresser or above your nightstand and save all that floor space.

Store clothes and linens in canvas totes. Canvas totes can store as many items as plastic crates can and are malleable, making it easy to collapse and store.

Install a storage shelf above your bedroom or bathroom door and use it for storing anything from towels and makeup bags to purses.

Store your boots in a vertical shoe rack. I love my good boots but they are always difficult to store without them falling down. Getting crinkled up (eventually cracking the leather permanently), and getting the base of my closet cluttered.

However, a great storage solution is a vertical shoe rack which will fit every different height of boot. Bamboo Boot Racks are available at Amazon or they are quite simple to DIY if you are handy.

It will make life, seem…dare I say? Organized!

For tips & help on these, call for a reference for a personal De-Cluttering expert. We work with many professionals that can help you get organized.
For more information Phone Joan 604-220-7653 or drop me an email at joan@joanhansen.ca