Tell us what good storage furniture/ ideas you

[stressed2007]

On quite a number of other threads other posters s ay that the key to a tidy home is de-clutter and then good storage.

What "good" storage do you have?
Any good actual furniture that you can recommend or storage systems? Ideally I would like something better then just boxes under beds as I don't think we would think to use stuff kept there. Thanks

We have two of these in our house, one full of kids games, the othe full of kids craft stuff. They just look like "normal" furniture.

CDs and DVDs are stored in these which take up a fraction of hte space of loads of boxes. i just chucked our boxes (am ruthless de clutter-er) but you cuold store them in teh loft if you watned.

The DSes have this, but it's on the side rather than standing up

DD has this one, again on it's side

You can buy "pull out" inserts which are huge and we have filled thjem with toys (but sorted, i.e. DSes have Action man/cars/action figures/dressing up etc etc

you can also put lots of stuff on toop, DD's is long and thin so she has her TV on top of hers (she's 10 and its not connected to teh aerial!) whereas the DSes have their big wooden pirate ship on top of theirs [inserts wooden reference to try to counterbalnace TV emoticon]

What MamaG said about CD wallets. I have also seen very smart looking binders for CDs/ DVDs.

these ones are fairly basic but you get the idea. The good thing is they can hold four CDs per double-page spread.

Of course the ultimate is to copy all CDs onto a hard drive (backed up!) as MP3s. Digital music takes up the least space of all! (Have been trying to get DH to go through his hundreds of CDs and start this project.)

Besides cabinetry there is also upholstered furniture with built-in storage, like these beds

and even storage sofas/ loveseats like this one from Ikea.

This is a link to Apartment Therapy's posts dealing with clever storage in small spaces. They have reams of brilliant ideas (and photos of tiny yet glamorous spaces.)

But underbed storage boxes aren't so bad. It's always going to be a trade-off between having stuff accessible and having it put away. If there are things you really only use rarely (eg Christmas ornaments), you can free up considerable space for things you do need to get at regularly by renting a storage locker -- small ones are quite affordable. Also, it forces you ask yourself: "Do I really want to keep this enough that I'm willing to PAY to store it?" That's an incentive to de-clutter right there . . . .