Where do you put 'stuff' if you don't have a loft or garage?

[weatherall]

We are moving to a flat with no storage. No fitted wardrobes- nothing.

I don't know where we'll put all our stuff.

What do people do with, for example:

Books that are too young for eldest but too old for youngest

Clothes one size too small for me

Winter clothes

Household paperwork

Tools

Lightbulbs/batteries/Sellotape/wrapping paper etc

Christmas tree and decor

Halloween decor

DCs' old school work/drawings

Car stuff eg oil/ice scraper

CDs

DVD box sets

Books you want to keep but don't need 'out'

Spare extension cables

Musical instruments

Old sentimental stuff from each family member eg report cards

Photos

Sewing box

Stationery

Arty/crafty stuff for DCs

Excess hair/make up/toiletries/jewellery only used on special occasions

Special occasion clothes

Unwanted gifts being saved for regifting

Etc etc

We are stowing under 'stuff' but I don't think any of it is 'throw outable'

What do people with little storage do?!

It's a bit of a nightmare actually. In short, you have to be pretty ruthless with things and very organised with what you do have.

I have one of those ottoman beds that lifts up to reveal storage. I have all my camping gear in there. Otherwise it's a case of buying cupboards and wardrobes.

Be ruthless. CDs and DVDs can be taken out of their boxes and stored I a folder with pockets in as a last resort (dp thinks I'm a heathen for doing this but I've easily saved us needing at least two enormous shelving units to store them all on. Car stuff kept in the car, household paperwork in a little expander file. Far too much of the other stuff shoved in various drawers and under my bed . We've moved to a bigger house from a relatively poxy flat and tbh it's much easier to keep organised with less stuff, no matter how much space you have. I was ruthless with lots of stuff before we moved and I haven't missed any of the stuff I chucked, not even books which were the biggest wrench to get rid of. If you really can't thin some stuff out, look at the cost of a storage unit?

I have lived in a tiny flat so I know what you mean!

Rent a storage room.
Boxes under beds.

Boxes on top of wardrobes/kitchen cupboards.
Lots of shelves.
Store stuff in your parent's loft.
Ruthlessly declutter - take photo's/scan artwork, school reports etc. Do you really need spare extension leads, really?
Car stuff can live in boot of car.
CDS/DVDS - either get rid/store on computer (CDs anyway) or remove from cases and store in those flipbook things.

Vacuum bags for spare clothes (the ones you suck the air out of).

It really irritated me at the time to get rid of things I would have kept if I had the space. But I have realised that most of the stuff I wanted to store was rarely if ever used. Some things can be borrowed for the once a year use! Re: the extension leads - we had loads. About 8 of them We have kept one spare. We have survived the cull!

These for side tables and this for a coffee table.

Old trunks. I have five bought them and painted them. Everything is in them

Books - in the three bookcases (and some n the dresser)

Clothes one size too small - charity shop

Winter clothes - in the wardrobe (in Scotland winter clothes are all year clothes)

Household paperwork - in a dresser drawer in one of those boxfile things

Tools - in DHs car boot

Lightbulbs/batteries/Sellotape - in the crap drawer in the kitchen

Christmas tree and décor - under the bed for décor but no tree

Halloween décor - don't have any

DCs' old school work/drawings in a boxfile in another drawer in dresser

Car stuff eg oil/ice scraper - in the car its meant for

CDs - don't have any

DVD box sets - in the dvd unit

Books you want to keep but don't need 'out' - again in the bookcase

Spare extension cables - in a crate under my bed

Musical instruments - DHs guitar has a stand in bedroom

Old sentimental stuff from each family member eg report cards - same box file as kids things

Photos - another box under my bed

Sewing box - behind the setee

Stationery - in the crap drawer again

Arty/crafty stuff - in their bedroom

Excess hair/make up/toiletries/jewellery only used on special occasions - in a toilet bag in bathroom

Special occasion clothes - hung up in wardrobe with those plastic covers on them

Unwanted gifts being saved for regifting - charity shop

If it normally is stored away... do you really need it? We cut down hugely as we had overstuffed our house. I was resentful at the time as if wed had a garage we'd have kept things.

However - lifes easier with less clutter.

I've often looked at a little ised object and ask if the cost of replacing is less than the cost of storage.... and it goes.

books got passed on unless we regularly read them, cd cases gone, car stufff in car, craft stuff cut right down (I had lots of projects I realistically wasn't going to finish).

celebrate each box you fill and think how lovely the flat will be with more space and less clutter hanging over you.

if theres some things you're not sure about. Put in a box for a month/3 months and bin if not touched.

clothes a size smaller - only keep a few favourites. Buy clothes to fit your shape now, and if you lose weight buy clothes to fit that size. Don't hoard just in case.

under bed boxes (wilko ikea etc) are good for prrsents. We have paperwork in boxfiles in shelves in our sittingroom. Dont keep stuff over 7 (I thibk) years old.

Sentimental things/school work- take photos and print out, store with the bits you reawly want to keep. They wont want every single scrap of work. Have a plastic box per child and stack in corner of your bedroom. Not ideal but a stack of boxes will give you a fair bit of storage.

our real problem was camping gear...which we did store in a friends space...

decluttered as much as we could and rented a storage room.

Oh I'd forgot about the tent we bought this summer!

I'm going to ask mum to take our outdoor stuff as se has one of those outdoor storage bins. That's where the bikes and sandpit are going.

I suppose I better buy some more box files-already have about 10!

There are drawers under our bed but they are filled with bed sheets.

The DCs have space under their beds now but the rooms they are moving to already have those fixed/closed divans with no storage- I hate them but we have no choice other wise I have to store the beds too!

I think we'll have to but more stackable boxes too. But they are so expensive - I'm sure they used to be closer to£2 than £5.

Where we are moving to does have very high ceilings so we can store 'up'.

I think I maybe am a bit of a hoarder. My mum chucked out most of my sentimental childhood stuff and I don't want to do that to my DCs.

We had saved their old clothes and baby equipment for years for no3 but then I got ruthless and had a sale. Now we are planning no3 again and I'm going to have to buy everything again!

It's the same with books. I have boxes to Oxfam years ago but missed them and ended up rebuying them!

We have put most of our CDs and DVDs in those horrid case things. But we have loads more and they are £15 from tesco! We already have 4 and they don't look very nice. DP is reluctant to get rid if some of the nicer complete series we have. But I can work on him if I sacrifice my buffys!

I think I will charity shop the old clothes. I don't even know what's in their and haven't missed it.

Did you reread the books you rebought though? Reassure yourself you can read in a library if you need to?

Is there any deeper need (emotional) that's being filled by " stuff"? I thibk most of us do but its not until you have to downsize that you have to face it.

Having no childhood things saved is sad. My mother is bipolar and threw a lot away too (hence my previous tendancy to hoard I guess?) However imagine being 18 and being given a whole room full of "stuff" to then store. Its worth the time and effort at the end of each year to choose a few favourites so you don't burden your children with lots of "stuff" too.

nct sales or similar are good. We sold/gave away as soon as we were finished in the knowledge that space was the ultimate goal at the moment and we didn't want to live in a big mess. We reassured ourselves we could buy second hand/sales if we needed to replace. Especially things like vests/that get grubby and are cheap to replace (I initially held onto everythibg.)

10 box files? What are you keeping?

Sheets we cut down o too.. and towels...

we literally went through every cupboard over the period of a month or two and were ruthless. Its really really hard when you have a tendancy to hoard but believe me a nice non cluttered room is worth it. It removes mental clutter too.

Just ve sure in ypur mind that space is now valuable previous commodity and work out what can go to get it. A few books here, a disused gadget, toys not played with..all make a huge differencd. Its worth it.

Under bed storage, tops of wardrobes, better organised wardrobes, blanket boxes, additional shelves/drawers.
Clear out stuff
Or in the case of my sister (leave it all in your parents/siblings garage)
Storage companies if you know it's for a finite period.

We also transferred all cd, DVD, and such onto har drives and all our books are on kindles. I was shocked how much room that gave us.

Get rid of stuff

I have got rid of two black bags since yesterday morning. Use wicker baskets and ottomans. Under bed storage. Hot press hold all paperwork and office supplies.

I only keep one spare set of bedding per bed which I put in bedside locker.

Art- photograph and make a book

Burn CDs onto laptop or buy the pocket holders

Paperwork - stick into 20 wallet poly file and back to back - reduced a lot of paperwork like this. Do banking online etc

You can buy sofas with storage

don't rent storage. The costs mount up and unless you are storing Da Vinci paintings, in a year or less you could have bought it all again.

you will need some clothes storage, so buy a wardrobe.

CDs and DVDs - buy a wallet thing, get rid of cases. If you aren't going to watch/listen again, sell/give to charity.

all the sentimental items; photograph, then dispose. Buy a backup hard drive and copy everything to that. Takes up much less space. ESPECIALLY get rid of kids school work and drawings in that way. They don't want it and you don't need it. Do not print out. Do you ever look at it? Of course not.

Digital cameras are the best thing ever invented for decluttering.

all the excess toiletries/makeup: chuck out of date stuff. Stop buying. Be ruthless.

smaller place? Fewer decorations needed! Fewer extension cables needed!

We moved recently from a largish house to a tiny 2 bed flat. We have a shed in a small garden, an attic and two outdoor storage cupboards...one is an old coal hole!

We have dumped a LOT of things. We built floor to ceiling shelves in our bedroom instead of wardrobes...we have a cabin bed...a double one! Under all the beds go crate things with bedding, blankets etc in them and some winter clothes. The other things like decorations, winter coats etc and suitcases are in the attic.

Oh and in my tiny kitchen we are building a flap-down table and having two stools there. We have no dining room...and I don't want a table and chairs in the sitting room as it's too small. The table and stools in the kitchen will be for the DC to eat at sometimes and for me to sit at with my laptop.

One thing we did when we had a small house was pull our double bed forward a foot and DH built a shelf level with the top of the headboard. Under the shelf we stored suitcases and musical instruments. On the shelf we stored books. I tacked some fabric at the ends to hide the cases and it looked fine.

Get nice boxes that won't look ugly on shelves and build shelves above doors...in our bathroom we have a towel shelf above the door as we have no airing cupboard.

ps if #3 does come along, remember nothing needs to be new except cot mattress and car seat. Everything else comes from charity shops or ebay for cheap as chips. Babies don't wear stuff out.

second being ruthless re paperwork. As much as possible online. Keep a shredder for regular use. If you do self-assessment you need to keep records for 7 years, but otherwise; shred it. Keep records on spreadsheets, backing those up too.

I am rubbish with this stuff but my top tip is divan beds with drawers, as many drawers as poss. Good for bedlinen, towels, pyjamas, out of season clothes.

Are you really going to look at every piece of artwork your dc does? you'll probably end up binning it eventually, I would either pick out some favourites or scan it and then bin it.

Scan paperwork as well, I hardly doubt you'll need 10 box files. Scan, Scan, Scan!!!

Get rid of the craft stuff that you either don't use anymore and the stuff that's past it.

Charity shop anything you haven't used in the past year.

Charity shops, jumble sales, eBay, Freecycle/Freegle, bin/skip, shredder, as appropriate.

About a third of that stuff could go.

I live overseas, I don't have a loft. However, the house is big enough to put up freestanding shelving units for backpacks, overnight bags etc.

There's also random cupboards to put, 'reference material' in.

Tbh most of that I would just not keep

School reports, random art work etc scan and store electronically. Just a small file with favorites ie first drawing of person etc, the rest scan, store and bin.

Clothes too small - donate. Why keep?

Paperwork- why so much? Get all bills sent paperless so you just log in online or they email. We have very little paperwork, only essentials like insurances/ important documents. A gas bill I wouldn't ever have as just pay everything direct debit and check online account

Winter clothes - store with summer stuff. Jut don't keep loads of each so there's enough room. Any excess of kids tshirts/ clothes etc just donate. Really 10 various t shirts/ long sleeve/ shirts should be plenty. 10 pairs of kids jeans isn't nessesary.

Sellotape etc - we have a gift bag with folded wrapping paper/ ribbons/ tape/ scissors. And a drawer in kitchen for batteries/ random stuff.

Books - just keep some, really they can't read 100s before too old again so keep few favorites, then donate the rest. You can always buy a few extra back from a charity shop in a few years if really needed
Books you don't want out - if not out why do you want? If useful and you read again keep, anything else donate.

CDs and DVDs - really no value now. Keep what you must otherwise donate. Get Netflix/ lovefilm subscription in future and don't by any more. You can watch plenty of films via those without more clutter

Bedding and towels - just keep x2 changes of bedding per bed, towel two large and one small per person, plus a spare set. Anything else donate. Store each persons spare bedding near the bed it belongs to.