(guest post by Francesca Holmes)
If you have thought of doing away with a lot of your household stuff on various occasions but haven’t been able to, you are not alone. Like several others, you are probably unable to let go of most items inside your house because of the memories attached to them.
Or maybe you’re just procrastinating!
Whatever be the case, you do realize that it’s getting impossible to contain all the stuff in your house. Perhaps you haven’t been using the available storage space to its full potential. Here are some organizational tips that will help you maximize storage space in four areas that are usually cramped with things.
Closet
- Inventory your clothes and other belongings by type. Throwing everything together will make it look like a huge mess. Once you know how many shirts, skirts, pairs of jeans, etc. you have, you’ll be able to plan how to arrange them inside the closet.
- Dedicate two-thirds of the closet space to hanging rods. Divide this space into two parts horizontally with one part being longer lengthwise than the other. Hang long garments and short garments separately in these areas.
- There are several types of hangers available that can help you save space. For example, the multi-pant hanger from OnlyHangers which has 6 tiers in a single hanger allowing you to store more than one pair of pants without taking up more space.
- Use the closet floor to store your shoes. You can buy special shoe or sandal hangers to hang them or simply place them on the floor.
- Buy a couple of cubbies and place them on the floor or anywhere in the closet to store your folded clothes. You can also use more cubbies to divide your closet space into smaller areas as per your needs.
- Use boxes of varying sizes to store miscellaneous items like toiletries, shoe-care items, jewelry, lingerie, etc. You can label the boxes so you can easily tell what they contain.
- Don’t forget the space you have on the top shelves. You don’t have to leave the top-most shelves empty just because you can’t reach! Get a small step-stool to make it easier for you to reach the top shelves and use the storage space.
- The inside of the closet doors can also be used as storage space. Affix a couple of hooks on the inside of the door or on the closet wall and use them to hang belts, ties, scarves, handbags, necklaces, and more.
Kitchen
- If you already have cabinets in the kitchen, all you need to do is get them fitted with multiple-shelf units. This will double up your storage space and you won’t need to stack items on top of each other as you do now.
- Don’t forget the space in the corners. Opt for special corner shelves that will make use of this extra storage space. Gaining access to things stored in the corner is a cinch with these shelves.
- If you have a kitchen island, you can add shelves to it to give you more storage space.
- The space under the sink can be used to store a lot of things in spite of plumbing parts coming in the way. Make use of door racks, tilting drawers, buckets, and shelves to store cleaning supplies and other items.
- Buy adjustable organizers to use inside drawers. These will keep your cutlery organized neatly.
- If you have loads of cutlery and dishes to store and fewer drawers, consider piggybacking drawers. With two drawers fitted in the space of just one, you’ll have more space to use.
- Everyday use cooking tools needn’t be forced into already full drawers. Store them upright in a canister on the platform.
Laundry Room
- Your laundry room should have a few shelves. Whether you go for wall mounted ones or shelf systems, they will help you make the most of the limited space available.
- Make use of as many storage containers as you want to organize items. The more organized things are, the better for your small laundry room. Use storage baskets for the laundry, bins for cleaning supplies, and small containers or boxes for pins, buttons, and other small items.
- Install a hanging rod above the work station for the laundry.
Bathroom
- Shelves and racks can help you organize most of the items in your bathroom. If you have an empty corner, you can install a cabinet in the empty space to hold your belongings.
- If the space is too less for a big or normal-sized utility shelf, go for skinny shelving. These shelves are skinny enough to fit into small spaces while being adequately-sized to fit bathroom essentials like bottles and tubes of creams, lotions, shampoos, etc.
- If the cabinets and shelves that you have aren’t able to hold all your things, place items such as towels, napkins, and toiletries on the counter, or use wicker baskets for the same. Use cabinets only to put away your personal stuff.
Conclusion
Organizing things will help you maximize efficiency. The closet, kitchen, laundry room, and bathroom are areas where people usually stock a lot of items. Storing things effectively becomes even more difficult in cases where the area itself is limited.
With tips from here, you’ll be able to store items properly and will be able to make maximum use of your storage space.
