Creative Storage Spaces?

[Jenibelle]

Its nothing too special...but I use the over the door shoe organizers (the ones with individual pockets) all over my apartment!

I have one behind the bedroom door that actually stores shoes along with belts & scarves. I have one in the bathroom that I nailed to the wall instead of using the over door hooks. It holds all of my toiletries, make up, hair accessories & tools. I cut one in half from top to bottom to make it skinnier and hung it in our small linen closet. It stores cleaning supplies, craft supplies, small tools and random bits that have no other home.

They are my life saving/space saving tool! I'll try to post some pictures soon!

[shoiji]

I have a small walk in closet that has shelfs that I use as a pantry and some storage. Under my bed are future presents, wrapping supplies and x-mas decorations.

Another closet has some a small book case to hold things. The closet in my bedroom has an small old dresser to hold items in. I am using a small buffet as a computer desk. There are doors below and two shelves on top. Holds all of my office items and computer paper.

[Jenibelle]

This is my "creative storage" in the bathroom. It was meant to hang over the door...but we already have a set of hooks over the door. So....I used the holes that were already there to nail it into the wall in an easily accessible area. It holds all of my stuff...with one pocket for DBF! haha

[Englishlady]

I use two bookcases to store extra tins in the spare bedroom, I also use bookcases to store spare crockery and toiletries, their footprint is small about 12 inches and they are up against the wall, so don't take up too much space.

This weekend we are planning on putting one book case on top of the other to give double storage space with the smallest footprint.
These will be attached to the wall so they don't topple over and then they will have a curtain across they because they look a little messy!
I love bookcases for storage, they make good room dividers too, you can put them back to back too, so you can reach stuff in two areas of the room.
I have been known to store books in them too lol!

[HandyMom]

I've done a couple things here. I have (2) former waterbed wood bases under my bed, one stacked on the other and they have drawers. Essentially, I have 12 extra drawers under my bed, 6 on each side. I screwed them together on the inside with metal plates as well, to keep them from shifting around. There is a piece of plywood on the top of them and this replaces what used to be the metal frame and box spring that was under my mattress before. The drawer bases were FREE because people often get rid of their waterbeds so the only thing purchased was a piece of plywood which was cut to size for free right there at the lumberyard.

The other thing I did was to attach a wire shelf unit to the inside of the door to my hall closet. This holds a ton more stuff than the clear pocket organizer I used to have hanging there.

There is about 10" of space behind my DD's bedroom door. Instead of hanging things on the back of the door, we put a large (5'w x 6'h) handmade bookcase with 8" deep shelves behind her door and all the way across the small wall up to the closet doors. It's braced to the wall so it won't fall accidentally. You wouldn't believe how much that bookcase holds. All her dolls and stuffed animals and most of her stuff is tucked in there behind her door and along the wall. She can't hang anything on the back of her door but she has gained so much more space using the wall behind it that it's a no-brainer!
I want to have a built-in nook in my kitchen against the wall in an L- shape for seating against the wall. Like a booth, if you can imagine. And I want it to have lift-up seats so that I can store things in there. All that wasted space, under our butts! I almost can't stand it.

[HandyMom]

I also had a hanging shoe bag that had a hanger on top of it like you find on a suit storage bag. It is meant to hang in the closet alongside the clothes. We never used it in the bedroom closets because we had too many clothes in them, so I moved it to the coat closet against one wall where it holds all our gloves, scarves, mittens, small umbrellas and knitted hats.

[bratz54]

All I can say is you all have it Great. The house is super small single story, about 800 square feet or less. We moved in to this place(which is my father in laws place, he passed away and left it to us) and lets say there is one normal size bedroom(our room), and half of a bedroom (where my mother sleeps) and normal bathroom with a 8 ft closet (the only closet) where my mothers cloths are and all of DH and mine are in dressers cramed with cloths, sheets and towels. The living room is about 10ft wide by 12 ft long and ther is a full size addon fireplace with a sitting bench built on, 2 recliners and ny G.G. Grandmothers rocker, 29 gal fish tank and a 5 ft long entertaiment center, and there is no room for storage anywhere. The cabnet under my fish tank has 3 drawers and 2 are for the fish and one hold my small ebay items. There is so much stuff that is left behind with my FIL passed way they I cant get rid of cuz is is own by my DH and his brother. I need space to have storage. Its bad when there is 4 shed and a garage full of crap, I know one thing I am have ONE BIG YARD SALE this year. I need room to put stuff.

I ENVY ALL OF YOU WITH SPACE TO MAKE STORAGE

[pollypurebred39]

bratz54, I feel for you. Our home is tiny also, we have less then 750 sq. feet of living space. I've been on a major decluttering movement to rid us of all our junk. Husband and DS1 are not keen on letting go of their stuff. Too much stuff in too little space is overwhelming.

[Englishlady]

It is very hard when you live in a tiny house, ours is about 37 feet long by 21 foot wide, that is the OUTSIDE dimensions of our brick built bungalow.

Inside we have a living room that has three doors a fireplace to contend with and we have to have our dining table & chairs in here too.

We have three bedrooms the largest is 10 by 10 feet the smallest 8 ft by 6 foot.

We have NO closet's built in we made our own by using metal storage racks and put them up against the wall and then covered them with curtains.

In the UK we have TINY houses (a lot of us) and hence my love of bookcases they store tons of things and take up such a small amount of floor space.

When it comes to de-cluttering the guy I turn to is your fellow American DON ASLETT, his books are inspiring and very readable and when I have read ( or re-read) them I am all fired up for a good de junk session.
Good luck!

[mnmarty03]

I too use the over-the-door hangers for bathroom stuff. Ours is in our hall closet, which is just outside the bathroom. Keeps the bathroom looking uncluttered, but easily accessible. Although mine is the exact same as pictured in the above post, it is NOT that organized, lol.