New House - Minimal Storage

[fromtheshires]

Morning all
I moved into a relative new build from my 1960's build around a month ago.

I am wondering where all of you with new builds put your stuff? I ventured up into the loft at the weekend with a view of putting up all the Christmas Decorations but there is no space whatsoever.

I had a clear out of the garage and loft when I moved so the stuff I took with me is the stuff that is of some use in the main.

Im thinking of putting some racking like the below in the garage for the tools, painting stuff etc to make some more room by going vertial and having it neat, but there is a serious lack of storage space and I want a tidy house with all the rubbish stuff hidden away.

Racking Idea

Is it just a case of decluttering even more do you think or getting creative with storage and putting a wardrobe in my spare room and filling that with the Christmas stuff?

We did this, we decluttered before moving and continued decluttering after. I have to say I feel a lot better without so much stuff. We now have under half the amount of storage we used to and tbh I’ve not noticed what’s missing.

At least you have a garage and a loft - we have neither and there were just two small cupboards, one small wardrobe and a garden shed when we moved into ours.

Definitely go for plenty of racking in the garage to use for storage. Add more wardrobes where you can. Some kind of garden storage is useful if you have space.

And lots of decluttering. You’ll need to be ruthless!

I don't live in a new built but my Christmas decorations are in a box on a shelf in a downstairs cupboard.

If you're garage is filling up and you still don't have enough space, perhaps it's a case of carrying on declutterig and living with less stuff?

To be honest, the garage isnt cluttered to what most people would deem to be cluttered, but it contains bulky hard to stack items like our bikes, lawnmower and strimmer and wheelbarrow which makes it cluttered to me.

All I would be adding would be the Christmas tree and 2 boxes of decorations and some other things that go up in the loft like cat crates, tent and some camping gear. I like order so may just need to buy lots of nice stoage containers and racking to make it neat

I love in a new build. If it didn't have a garage and a utility room, we'd be drowning in stuff - and we were lucky in that we were able to board the loft, so that is usable for storage too.

Even so, we still struggle with clutter, as neither DH not I are very good at minimalist living. However, I've hit on a plan that is working so far, which is to add built in storage to every room possible, as and when we're making changes and it is affordable. We've added a large built in wardrobe to our bedroom, and we're planning another for the spare room and our daughter's room. I'm also planning fitted dresser units in the lounge when I win the lottery

Doing this means you wring out every spare inch of space available, and it is working well so far. It looks great, but it is slow going and not cheap!

I was going to say building in storage too. We have a couple of rooms where they've built in a cupboard right across the width of the room, essentially by building in a false wall with lots of doors. It's great, holds everything, eliminates the need for much other furniture in the room and the space at the top is perfect for camping stuff, christmas stuff, blankets etc.

Storage beds, or really good solid underbed drawers on castors can also hold a lot.

Under bed storage is not to be sniffed at... we stored so much stuff under our super-king divan (took out the drawers and accessed the entire under bed area). It was like the magical tardis.

Three snowboards, two sets of snowboard boots, two sets of hiking boots, two tents, all the other camping equipment that goes with that, ski clothes, hiking clothes, photography equipment, spare duvets, the works.

If you think about it, 2m x 2m x 0.5m is a fuck of a lot of storage space in a one bed flat.

In the new house I got a nice looking low sold frame so can't use the under bed -area such a waste of space! I should have got one of the lift up ottoman bed things.

I was about to say underbed too - we have an ottoman bed which goes right to the floor and get SO much stuff under there, all sealed away and dust free too.

As well as under the bed, I store stuff under the sofa (ektorp type).

Yes - we also have a sofa you can put stuff inside/underneath (which is invaluable, I highly recommend), and we're about to buy an Ottoman bed too!