Thread for better storage/ organisation in the home

[clare1973]

I thought I'd start a thread for people to share their ideas for better storage/ organisation/ clearing space in the home.

I've read several de-clutter/storage books and tried out some of them and plan to do some more things.

Some of the things that have worked for us:

1. Swapping a pc (it had conked out anyway) for a laptop to clear floor space, we don't need a desk/chair anymore and this is great, plus with wifi I can use it in any room in the house.

1. Swapping our CRT TV for a wall mounted one so we could move the stand away and clear some floor space. This has been great, I've been able to move some furniture around and the living room looks a lot bigger.

1. Bought an ottoman bed, to create a large storage space under the bed. It's great we don't have horrible dusty things under the bed anymore and things stay clean and easily reached. I love it.

1. I've had a carpenter come and create a window seat with storage in our front room as well as shelving in the alcoves. I've only recently had this done so time will tell how long the room stays tidy for, but it has really sorted out storage for my daughters toys and books for the moment.

Next on my plan of attack is:

a.Clear out the understairs cupboard and put some freestanding shelves under there to shove my shoes and other bits and bobs on. Currently shoes seem to be just chucked in there and I can't easily find a pair in a rush. This should clear the floor space in there so I can place things like the folded pushchair etc instead of just blocking the hallway. Plus install a little light under there!

b.I'm hoping to put new matching flooring on the whole of the ground floor, to create the illusion of space and I can wipe up spills instead of staining the carpet.

c.I'm planning to get a kitchen fitted that will incorporate more storage, would love some tips on things that have worked for you, have some ideas but don't really know where to start.

d. My biggest bugbear is laundry, mainly drying. Haven't got an utility room so it takes up a lot of space. Really need to get a system sorted!

e. I'd like some wall to floor fitted wardrobes with a space for everything clothes related (not sure my husband agrees though so may be a no-no). Feel this would really clear up the bedroom from clutter and hide the suitcases on top of the wardrobes!

Please feel free to add the things that have worked for you in real life. Would love to hear them.

Watching with great interest!

Re your kitchen/laundry - when we redid our kitchen 2 years ago, I designated one of the under-worktop cupboards next to the washing machine, as my laundry cupboard. It's a normal unit door but I have 2 pullout baskets from IKEA in it. Each basket is the right height to take a washing basket - I have the ironing pile in the top basket and the washing in the bottom.

It's absolutely wonderful in every way. Though if you consider that I used to keep my dirty washing in the shower, I clearly don't have high standards...

Great idea if you have a large enough kitchen maktaitai. Sadly, I do not :(

wrt your underthestairs cupboard, spend time fitting narrow shelves on all sides if possible. One shelf unit will not give you the same shelf space.

Fitted wardrobes? Have a serious look at Ikea's PAX system. We built in 3 double wardbrobes into our double room, and have fitted pax drawers into them. Had we known about Pax beforehand it would have saved us a ton of money/agro and we would have been able to take them with us when we moved.

That's a great idea re a laundry cupboard maktaitai. Currently there's a lot of wasted space next to the dishwasher and the washing machine and they are not boxed in so I'll see what we can do.

Thanks Jareth, the PAX looks great, it's a shame you can't take your wardrobes with you. I'll keep in mind the shelves understairs too.

You can take Pax out to move house clare. You just have to take care with the fixings.

I want Pax in my dining room to give me storage cupboards and I want to use Pax to separate my bedroom into two rooms to give my Dc's a space each. I had hoped to be able to fit the 236cm high ones in in both cases, but my ceilings are too low, so it'll have to be 201cm.

Big tip here: If you are planning a large buy, do it before the end of the year as VAT goes up in January.

Thanks Solo, they sound pretty useful for all sorts of things!

Funily enough my carpenter recommended the same thing regarding the VAT increase. He said if I were to buy a kitchen - buy it now and keep it stored until I was ready to get it fitted. I'll have to work out how much I'll save and then decide if it's worth the hassle.

I'd love to get one before christmas really but really need to think the design through first. I'm hoping to start a food type business from home when my daughter starts school/ nursery so I'll have to plan around the food regulations too.

Another thing I have thought of which helps somewhat and is not expensive:

If you have any spare cardboard boxes (I tend to use the pampers nappies boxes as they are a handy size to fit on shelves or you could use the clarks shoe boxes), buy some pretty wallpaper you can cover the box neatly with the wallpaper and use it for storing things.

Up on a shelf or in a cupboard etc it is not obvious it was once a cardboard box, wouldn't use it for storage on a table etc though. If you get fed up with it you can re-cover it with another pattern or just put the cardboard in the recycling with no guilt.

I've done this for my daughters little bitty toys, and dvds/wii/ ps3 games and it works well. May do it for my bedroom too for my make up and hair stuff.

Ooooh I like the idea of a laundry cupboard; I could probably do it too with a bit of tidying and rearranging! At the moment my washing gets dumped on my dining table until I find the time to iron .