Creative Storage Spaces?

[AmyBoz]

So, as I recover from my surgery, I've been watching a lot of HGTV.

As I watch people redecorate their homes, I'm always struck by how creative the designers are with creating storage spaces in unexpected places. The best part is that it's not cheesy looking or trashy looking, either. It looks great, and is totally useful.

I'm curious to know how you all have created storage in your homes where there was none. How have you adapted your rooms/furniture/spaces to create storage?

I think my best example would be the closet in the office. The old owners used the office as a bedroom, and so there is a closet in there with a hanger bar.

We use the space as a home office, and so we pulled out the hanger bar, found a tall bookcase at a garage sale, and stuck it in. Viola! Instant shelving for office storage, instead of an empty closet because we had nothing to hang.

A less creative use of space would be in ds2's bedroom. It was the playroom, and so there is a giant entertainment center in there. The tv is still in the entertainment center, and the dvd's are housed in the glass covered shelf to the left of the tv, but below are two drawers and two cabinets, which used to be full of VHS tapes. After selling the tapes, we repurposed the space for ds2's trucks, board games, and puzzles. It's an excellent use of the space for us because it's a tiny, tiny room, and this allows him to keep the toys out of the way, but easily accessible for him.

What about you?

How have you creatively made some storage space?

[Natalie's Nesters]

Hope you have a speedy recovery! Last weekend I cleaned out under the stairs... I was able to put 4 sets of shelves in there. I never knew there was that much room!! I put all my canning stuff, crafting stuff, and misc. kitchen stuff in there! Now I have keep it a secret from my husband, or he will put his junk in!

[cheles2kids]

Love you're closet idea.
Sadly, I am one of the most uncreative people you'll ever meet~, so I don't have any great ideas for you.

But did want to say thanks for starting this thread, because I could sooo use some ideas to get my bedroom closet organized.

[JerryG]

Wicker chair that sits on my porch has a pull out drawer under the seat. HOA doesn't allow 'stuff' aka newspapers in front view.

I stuff the papers in the drawer when I leave the porch and pull them out later, to recycle or read.

Hall coat closet - I live in a southern clime and don't have that many coats - One side is stacked with the paper goods I get on sale.

Top of frig - Holds the blender cuz' it's too tall to fit in any cabinets.

OK - That's really not HGTV but it works!

[AmyBoz]

cheles2kids...

Our bedroom closet was terribly organized. There were just two long hanger bars across the length. It's a huge closet space, though. Just not deep. Wide, though.

Anyway, I repurposed a low, long bookcase and put it in the bottom of the closet and it is used as both a place to store shoes, as well as shelving for some folded clothes. I also hung one of those clothing organizers for kids (has 7 cloth shelves to help them lay out their clothes for the week) and hung it in the middle of the closet and use it to divide my side from his side and as a shoe organizer.

These two things have made the closet space MUCH more functional for us.

[ravenmaniac]

We hung hooks in our foyer for coats and put shelves in the coat closet. The coat closet was turned into a pantry/small appliance storage area. My kitchen is small so this really helped out.

[savininfl]

This is MY kind of thread!!

You can use under your bed storage bins. I use them for extra bathroom stockpile (shampoo, razors, bodywash) and use another one for winter clothes. I use the other side of my bed with 3 more for each child and put all there momentos and keepsakes to organize at a later date.

I use behind my armoire (it's at an angle-caddycorner?) and put my momentos there.

Next to my dresser are 3 pretty boxes with fabric and are stacked. The bottom one,the biggest, is filled with lingerie, the middle has current small projects I work on and the top is filled with my hairties.

My closet and the kids have bookshelves in them for more organizations. 2 of them are upside down hutches that were gonna get thrown out.

In the kitchen on top of the fridge I store my cookie drying trays?, section plates, and extra cookie sheets. I put them all the way in the back and I have a cabinet above my fridge so you can't see them unless you get a stool.

On the inside of my pantry doors I put up a magnetic spice rack so they quit taking up space and falling over on my wire shelving.

On the other side I have a wipe board and put my extra duty list and grocery list.

In my laundry room I have a shelf my DH installed going around the whole perimeter of the room about 2 feet from the ceiling and I put all my extra kitchen appliances there. It is filled with punch bowl, rotisserie maker, margarita mixer, daddy fryer etc. The little bit of extra space I do have I keep my holiday stuff that I can't put in the attic (candles).

When I lived in an apartment I took 2 rubbermaid bins and used them for storage. Added a tabelcloth and put a lamp on it and used it as end tables for the living room.

That's all I can think of for now but I hope I helped someone out! I LOVE organizing. My house can be a wreck but every closet and drawers have to be in order. I'm totally backwards what can I tell you??!!! LOL

[frugalfranny]

No, not so much.

I use one of those very small rolling carts in a closet for underwear type garments. It fits perfectly under shirts and will roll out.

The builder on my home did a neat thing though----the area that would 'usually' be wasted space above a stairway that goes into a basement--------is storage. It is reachable upstairs. A HUGE, very deep cupboard. ( a demon to paint BTW!) Hard to explain in writing.....hope you can see what I mean.

I have finished the area 'under the stairs',in the basement, so no wasted space at all for my stairs. LOVE IT!

[2ndGenGranola]

We redid our under the stairs closet too.

The builder had that as a coat closet and had the pantry in the laundry room. I have never understood having food in with the hot and humid so I switched them out.

We hung shelves all the way back into the the stair closet. We spaced many to hold 2 stacked cans. It is so convenient. We moved the Christmas decorations and infrequently used seasonal dishes/items where the builder had placed the pantry. We hang the coats there now because is makes more since because that is where we enter. I have a metal shoe rack on the door so the kids can hang their frequently used jackets a little bit easier.

[savvy_sniper]

I bought some of those plastic things to put under the legs of our king sized bed. I have big boxes of my inventory stored under the bed. That was a lot of wasted space!

[NewLeaf]

We have only 3 closets in our old home. They just built them that way back then. The closets must have been an afterthought because they are oddly shaped. I have an old dresser in ds7's closet for out of season clothes and a small shelf for books on the other side. The hanging bars are placed really high (high ceilings) so the dresser/shelf fits fine. His room is just too tiny for any extra furniture.

Ds 14 has shelves built in his closet, but we put a small dresser in there too. Again, the ceilings/hanging rack is very high.

My kitchen is so small that I used to be able to only buy the basics (maybe 2 wks ) of food. But I bought a couple of shelves and put food storage down in the basement. I also store extra appliances down stairs. Not convenient but better than doing without.

I have a microwave cart w/2 shelves on the bottom. I bought 6 small plastic (matching) dishpans to put on the shelves to organize things. 2 of the dishpans sit on the floor under the cart. I have my spices in them , onions and potatoes, dogfood cans, pot lids, and cookie sheets. It really looks ok.

[mauimagic]

In our DD's bedroom, we put a 6 drawer dresser in one side of her closet; she can still hang tops above the dresser.

We use our under the stairs storage for our luggage.

Our entry way is small as our town house is split level. On the three shelf bookshelf I put four green leather contianers to hold shoes - as no shoes are worn in the house and all shoes seem to gravitate towards the entry wall. All of our beds have understorage containers tucked away.

Need to think if there is anything else is creative. Mahalo for starting this Amy - great topic to share!!

[pollypurebred39]

I'm not very creative when it comes to storage. Most of my storage solutions have been purchased. I still have a long way to go before I've got all areas covered.

-Our coffee table has two pull out drawers. I store things like hand cream, foot cream, nail files, polish, a small box with a few pieces of jewelry, ect in the top drawer. The bottom drawer has 2 blood sugar test kits, extra test strips, extra alcohol wipes, extra lancets, a blood pressure meter, a few boxes of cards and a pen.

-we only have one end table, it matches the coffee table and has buit in storage. It's really just a fancy box on wheels. It has a drawer which I keep Asthma medications in. The bottom is a cabinet with a door. Inside I store a nebulizer, a heating pad and a neck massager.

- Our TV stand has 1 shelf underneath for the vcr, but it also has a small cupboard with doors underneath the vcr shelf. We store puzzles and DS2's Zone 40 wireless gaming system inside.

- We have a wicker stool in the living room for extra seating. The top lifts off for storage inside. I used to use it as a toy box for my youngest. It's empty now except for 2 small toys. I plan on filling it with kids toys for my little vistors.

- There is a very small, narrow linen closet in the hallway. Way too small to store Winter blankets & sheets for a family of 4. We turned it into a medical closet. We store the vaporizer, our first aid kit, our major emergency kit for trips that may require intensive care like snake bite, or shock. We have a container on the top shelf that contains a neck brace, ankle brace, hand brace & ace bandages. We store epsom salts, medicinal herbal baths, band-aids, tylenol, advil, asprin, cough syrup and cold medications on the shelves.

[Gibs]

I love reading where everyone comes up with their storage. I am in the process of trying to organize things better.

[mauimagic]

Polly - love how all your medical supplies are so available for use!! Congrats on great priorities - think I should follow suit!!