Storage Solutions    By Allison Van Norman (from her Web Site)

What's the Problem?

Most of us are unhappy about the insufficient storage space in our homes, but what we really have is inefficient storage space. Want an example? Picture the average American closet: One hanging bar at head-height, one shelf above it. Imagine this closet full of clothing, and then focus on the empty spots. Think of all that unused space between the floor and the clothes on the hangers, all the dead air between the highest item on the shelf and the ceiling. Most closets, and most cupboards, have enough volume to hold nearly twice as much stuff as they're constructed to hold. With minor remodeling this can be fixed. The rest of your home has plenty of potential storage space too, little nooks and crannies that are perfect storage spaces just waiting to happen. All you need is some help in finding that dead space and filling it.

Send Your Inner Packrat Packing

I know, I know. I've said it before, but it bears repeating. Dump your junk. In other words, I trust that you're going to use your newly acquired storage space for the things you love and use, not for the waffle-maker you got as a wedding gift (you hate waffles), your sorority sweatshirt collection (you're 50 years old) and a broken sled (you've moved to Los Angeles).

Rearrange What You've Got

The existing storage in your home will probably need minor remodeling if you're going to get better use out of it, because it's full of dead space, as discussed above. Kitchen cupboards are simple to rearrange just by moving or removing shelves to suit your needs. For instance, if you look in the cupboard and find three inches of headroom above the dishes on the first shelf, move the second shelf down a notch. Perhaps it would make sense to take a shelf out somewhere, or to add a sliding drawer to a cupboard below the counter. In closets, a second hanging bar can be added below the first one will double the hanging space, or shelves can be put on a side wall while still preserving the current hanging space. And don't forget atmosphere - consider whether your closet needs a decent coat of paint or a light installed (hardware stores sell inexpensive battery-powered lights.) If you find it hard to imagine how your space could be reworked, take an exploratory trip to the local hardware or housewares store for some good ideas. But don't buy anything yet! Get your ideas, go home, make a plan and take measurements. Then go back to the store and get what you need.

Find Empty Space In Your Home

What's on top of your refrigerator right now? How about the tops of the kitchen cabinets? Do you have anything except pictures hanging on your walls? Most homes have plenty of potential storage space. Dave and I found room for a much-needed pantry behind the door of the back entry we share with a neighbor. Our tiny apartment has an unusually large foyer and hallway, which we've lined with Dave's enormous record and CD collection. You sometimes need to be a little inventive to mine the potential of these spaces, but once again, there are many products out there that can give you good ideas (see the end of this article for some of my favorites). Doors and walls provide particularly good spaces for storage. Just a few things that can be hung here:

• Spices on a spice rack.
• Shoes on inside of closet door.
• Canned goods on shelves that hang on the inside of the kitchen door
• Ties on a tie rack in the closet.
• Utensils on a tie rack in the kitchen.
• Pots and pans.
• Tools on pegboard.
• Coats and other clothing on hooks.
• Mirrors
• Shelves for almost everything.
  

Store Stuff Where You Use It

As much as possible, keep bathroom stuff in the bathroom, kitchen stuff in the kitchen, and keep duplicates where it makes sense. It saves you from running around your house trying to find the scissors or the glass cleaner, and it also spares you from dashing butt-naked down the hall to the linen closet to get the towel you forgot to bring with you into the bathroom. Most of us don't have room for a giant central-storage area, and anyway, who wants to retrieve a fresh roll of toilet paper from the kitchen pantry in an emergency?

Keep Like Things Together

Think in terms of tasks. This is why many people store their baking equipment in one cupboard in the kitchen, their scissors, tape and stapler in the same drawer in the office, and the pencils, paper and phone book near the phone. This makes it simple to complete a task or project, and lets you know when you have too much or too little of something. One junk drawer is fine. If you have ten junk drawers, sort the stuff according to the task it's used for. And don't forget to store the things you use often in the most accessible places. I kept the flour on the third shelf in my kitchen cupboard for years before I finally figured out how idiotic it was to climb on top of the counter every time I needed it.

You Get What You Pay For

When you do go shopping to improve the storage in your home, buy nice-looking products. They're going to be a part of your home, and I can tell you from experience that you'll get sick of looking at cheap plastic crap and just end up replacing it down the road. I make exceptions for items hidden inside of cabinets or out in the garage, but if you're buying a shelf for the bathroom, get one that you can stand to look at. After all, you spend a lot of time in there. While you're at it, make sure that you're buying good quality, because you won't use it if it's difficult or if it breaks.

Closed Storage Looks Better Than Open Storage

It may work for Jerry Seinfeld, but it doesn't work for most of us. Open shelving and glass-door cabinets look fabulous on the showroom floor, but ask yourself how it will look when your unmatched (and not so neatly stacked) dishes, your Metamucil or your month's supply of super maxis are on display for the world. If the stuff you're storing isn't inherently lovely, look for storage that will conceal it.

Aim For Double-Duty Furniture

You've heard it here before. This stuff provides you with more space, period (and hence, more space to stash stuff). Consider hide-a-beds (or futon sofas), old steamer trunks, coffee tables with a lower shelf for magazines, beds with drawers underneath and the like. Look for furniture with more than one purpose, which allows you to integrate storage space into your living space.

Buy Bigger Shelves

Get the biggest bang for your square-footage buck by using the biggest, tallest shelves that will fit. Instead of getting the cute little shoulder-height bookshelf for the bedroom, why not go for the whole 80-inch-tall enchilada? It will give you room to grow, at any rate. We've just replaced our medium-size living room bookshelves with taller, deeper shelves that hold twice as many books, and yet take up just a fraction more floor space. You may have other shelving in your home that you can't quite reach (kitchens are notorious). If so, do yourself a favor and buy a stepladder.

Take It To The Limit

But no further! Make sure your storage space provides appropriate limits for your belongings. For instance, many of us keep brown paper bags around for newspaper recycling, but we don't need two hundred of them. Somehow though, they seem to accumulate. Bonnie McCullough provides a very nice example of limits when she demonstrates that one brown paper bag, opened up, is just about the right size to hold a reasonable number of folded bags. When that bag gets full, it's time to recycle some of the extras. Try to apply this principle when you consider where and how to store things in your home. Then when your storage space is bulging, you'll know it's time to chuck, toss and dump.

Some Products to Think About
I include this section with the caveat that you please, please, please take a thoughtful look at your existing storage before considering any of these items. Many of us (including Yours Truly) have a difficult time exercising restraint when faced with a housewares store stocked floor to ceiling with gorgeous, shiny organizing products, and then wonder why we come home so often with things we don't really need. A few well-selected storage products can make a huge difference in your home, so plan, measure and make a list before you shop.

Most of these items can be found at hardware stores such as Builder's Square or Home Depot, and are also available at bed and bath stores and other stores with housewares departments. None of these products require more than a drill and a screwdriver, some require no installation at all.

• Double-decker wire baskets that slide in and out are great for under the sink, where pipes make it difficult to install a full shelf. Single sliding baskets in a variety of sizes are also available.

• Pot-lid racks hang on the inside of the cupboard door and keep the lids easily available (Ikea sells one).

• Step-shelves allow you to add an extra half shelf to a cupboard with no installation.

• Lazy susans are helpful for collections of small bottles and cans, like spices and seasonings.

• Small, multiple-level shelves allow you to stack spices three or four bottles deep and still see all the labels.

• Shower shelves are easily installed in the corner of the tub or shower with suction cups. They hold more than the traditional over-the-showerhead version, and you don't have to reach blindly through the spray to find the shampoo.

• Iron and ironing board holders keep these items off the floor and out of the way.

• Vacuum cleaner holders hang on a wall and keep all of those hoses and parts neater than you every imagined.

• Broom and mop holders keep the broom from fraying and let the mop dry out.

• Shoe racks can be installed inside the closet door or go on the closet floor and forever end the problem of trying to find the left sneaker.

• Hardware stores sell hooks and pegs in almost unlimited sizes and styles to be used on doors and walls.

• Drawer dividers work wonders in the kitchen, bathroom and dresser.

• Shelf dividers for the closet make it possible to keep sweaters and t-shirts in neat stacks.

• Stacking bins on rollers are great for tools, garages and ongoing projects.

• Etageres are shelves that stand on thin legs and are designed to add shelf and cupboard space over the toilet.

• Pegboard and pegboard accessories make it possible to hang tools neatly. I just bought some of these and believe me, if you have the tool, they have a way to hang it from pegboard.

• Wire bins designed to hang underneath a shelf are a convenient spot for gloves in the hall closet.

• Wire closet components allow you to renovate your own closets just about any way you'd like. They include adjustable shelves, hanging rods and rolling bins. Pieces can be purchased as a package or individually at closet, hardware and housewares stores. Elfa is one manufacturer.

• Hold Everything and others sell tall shelves that take up less than a square foot of floor space and are perfect for cramped spaces like bathrooms and small kitchens.

About the Author

Organizing Solutions is owned and operated by Allison Van Norman.
Allison has an MBA from Case Western Reserve University and is a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers, as well as a member of the local chapter of NAPO. Allison is delighted to be putting her love of organizing to work in San Francisco after several years of cubicles in Cleveland. To find out more, visit Allison's web site at http://www.wco.com/~dpmiller/os2.htm

Copyright © 1999 Allison Van Norman.  All Rights Reserved. Re-Printed with permission.

More Artilces on Clutter Management