Buying a house with no attic space. Am I mad?!

[YummmyMummy]

We're hoping to have an offer accepted on a new build property in the next few days but due to the style of property the builder has put in NO ATTIC SPACE!

I didn't even notice this at first as what kind of house has no attic but am now panicking that I'll regret buying the property. There is no garage either (which we don't mind as ours is currently empty) so I'm racking my brain as to where we can store all our junk. We're fairly minimal and the house itself has plenty of every day storage but where do I put the Christmas decorations/baby clothes/sentimental bits and pieces?

Would a plastic shed do? I could store the clothing in one of the wardrobes/under the bed but what about things like car seats and bouncy chairs? All things I want to/need to keep for the future but I can't bear the thought of the spare room needing to be used for storage.

Help would be much appreciated!

We're in a house with no attic and no garage and storing all the crap important stuff is very tricky, to say the least...

Mainly things go under all the beds and on top of wardrobes... Then the bigger bulkier stuff goes in the cupboard under the stairs - thank god for that because we'd really be screwed if we didn't have that.

Then there's my Mum's loft - she doesn't live too far away and we've been known to put stuff in her loft

Then there's very regular sorting out and chucking away - nothing stays unless it's needed or of arguably sentimental value.

So it's possible, but sometimes (for me being a pretty tidy, liking empty spaces person) quite frustrating!

We also got our builder to build a carport outside - mainly for hanging washing up but it also has all sorts of stuff under it - bikes, bins, just lots of stuff really. It's not entirely secure but things stay dry under it, which was the minimum criteria!

Is there no space at all? Assume they've done some sort of attic room which has slopy walls? If so, people often box in the bottom angular bit of the wall, iyswim?

We looked at a converted bungalow where they'd done this, that's where she kept all her Christmas decs etc.

Would there be room to build a garage?

Thanks for the help.

Hmmmm parents attic now there's an option... although I do like to be in and out of stuff quite frequently.

It's a 'dormer bunglaow' style property so all the bedrooms are technically attic rooms. I don't think he's put storage in the eaves but the property is still about 3 months away from completion so I don't see why he couldn't add that kind of storage for fairly cheaply.

I think a garage is out of the question budget wise for the time being although there is the room if/when in the future the kids start acquiring more stuff. A carport sounds like a good idea too although I think the area we live in might mean it gets nicked.

All worth bearing in mind and I'll get on the builder today to see what he can do. Thanks!

I also live in a house with no attic - the previous owner (a developer) had bought it to renovate and sell on and converted the attic into another floor.

So, it does get a bit tricky as you don't tend to realise how much stuff gets 'put away' for long periods of time. However, you need to get clever with wardrobes and chests, buy beds with storage built in (if this is an option) and store on top of wardrobes if they are not built in. As your seller is still converting the property consider getting him to expand into the eaves ... a friend of mine had the same problem with a dormer bungalow with no attic space and extended into the eaves - it solved huge problems with storage.

Good luck with your move.

If he won't do the storage in eaves thing, you can do it yourself (although it won't look as pretty).

Just get some nice material, and make curtains for the eaves, if that makes sense - so the bit of the eaves which is too low to really get under just has material hanging down in front of some cheap storage that you can get from Ikea.

I have a loft conversion, the eaves are all cupboards

Also in a house with no attic or loft!

The attic bedroom is massive, so we're going to partition some off to create a really big cupboard/tiny room.

It was a useful exercise in getting rid of stuff when we moved though, as we got rid of so much stuff from the old attic.

Our newbuild is just the opposite, absolutely huge loft-space but I have no intention of ever storing anything up there as at our time of life (I am 56) the chances are that if I put it up there I will never get it down again.
Instead I am using one of the bedrooms for storage, will fit it out so boxes slot in neatly and I can get to them without having to re-stack them.
Don't for one minute think I don't have a lot of "junk", the move was a good reason for having a serious clearout but I am also very aware of out of sight, out of mind. When we moved a few weeks ago I took out of the loft a few boxes that I put up up there 31yrs ago!

We live in a bungalow with no attic and no garage. We moved from a house with a well stocked attic and a loft space above the garage. I have all the Christmas crap packed into plastic storage boxes which I keep in the shed. In 2 of the bedrooms I have fitted wardrobes right up to the ceiling where I keep out of season clothes, santa presents, keepsakes etc. But realistically we have had to limit the amount of sh**te we keep hold of.

I have a converted loft so no space up there, in my last hoyse huge lift but never used it for storage.
All my wardrobes go up to the ceilings, I store Christmas stuff there. I store suitcases under the stairs cupboard. As I've just downsized, getting rid of stuff has helped.
A shed will be damp so I wouldn't store anything there.

We are in this position and in a small hosue too... Every half term we ruthlessly go through everythung and "declutter." We have boxes on top of the wardrobe and under our bed. We do have a shed in the garden with paint and tools in.

It drives me nuts BUT it is also quite freeing not to have all the clutted. And we are past the baby stage - that did feel a bit overwhelming. Things in bottom of wardrobes/ buggy behind the door / carseat corner of the bedroom...

We didn't have an attic in our last house - I quite liked it actually, forced us to keep clutter down. We did have a couple of large cupboards which were useful

Agree with PP on floor to ceiling wardrobes with a couple of shelves at the very top

We also have a bed like this which is where DS1's outgrown clothes that we are saving for DS2 go:

www.getlaidbeds.co.uk/wooden-beds/ottoman-storage-beds/wooden-ottoman-storage-bed?gclid=Cj0KCQjw_fiLBhDOARIsAF4khR0zwDcFCFTMzy05LTx18UWDUJ0gT6uuNjDfnDgonL99Z-v8skdV2zAaAv77EALw_wcB

Internal storage is the answer. We keep our junk treasured possessions in the tiny gap ìn the eaves, under the stairs and in the extra cupboard space on top of built in wardrobes in 3 of the downstairs rooms

I prefer it as it keeps us honest and stops me and DH hoarding too much.

You could always pay for self-storage but long term this isn't going to be a cheap option.

We have never used our attic, all junk is stored in a dry shed. So it wouldn’t bother me in the least.