I absolutely adore our house. Fell in love with it the moment I stepped foot into it. Fell so much in love with it, I totally overlooked the lack of storage it had available. We live in about 2000 livable square feet, which sounds like a lot for some, but within that square feet, it's just a lot of open space and absolutely no closets. We only have clothing closets in each room -no utility closet, no coat closet, no linen closet, no pantry, etc. It becomes quite the nightmare trying to find places to put things. So, over the years, I have developed a way to house the 'overflow' items.
1. Armoires. As mentioned before, I have no coat closet. So, I have had to get crafty in where to put the coats that come on and off 5 times a day during winter. We have a lot of coats, so I had to come up with a few. First option was creating a 'closet' out of an armoire. I placed this in my front room, it's stylish yet functional! It also hides an assortment of out of season throw blankets and pillows along with my vacuum cleaner.
2. Benches. The use of benches in my house is probably on the excessive side. I have 5 benches that double as storage, and wish I had more! They are the best.
I use our entryway bench for our kids shoes. I have a small obsession with shoes, not just for me, but for my daughters also. They have way too many shoes to count. I hate seeing shoes out in the open and prefer if they are taken off at the door. We are a no shoe in the house type home. So, having this bench right in the entryway is so helpful. They pull them out, then sit on the bench to put them on. It's amazing how many shoes can be housed in here! I made sure to get a deep storage bench just for this.
The bench in my front room is disguised as an coffee table/ottoman, but pulls double duty as a toy box. Once again, I opted for an extra deep storage bench for this.
The bench in my bedroom holds all the extra linens for my bed.
The I have a bench in the hall upstairs that has extra towels and out of season sweaters (not pictured).
I also used to have a bench in my dining room that held all my extra pillow covers and dining room napkins and table runners.
3. Baskets. Baskets are the best! You can put them anywhere in your house to hide almost anything.
I have baskets hiding toys. I just put a cute blanket on top.
I have baskets hiding kids books and coloring essentials.
I have baskets full of blankets and pillows.
I have a basket that hides all the dry winter gear -hats, scarves, mittens.
I have a basket full of extra linens.
I used to use baskets to hide all my dvds in my entertainment center.
Seriously, the uses of baskets are endless.
4. Dressers used in unusual places. When I had to get rid of my craft room and convert it into a nursery, I had to figure out what to do with all my stuff. I realized that the best place for it would be the dining room. So, I tossed out my none functional buffet, and used 2 Ikea Tarva dressers in there to give me some much needed storage. I of course updated these dressers to make them work in my space (tutorial here).
These drawers hold a lot and get used often!
5. Make-shift pantry. As I mentioned before, I don't really have a pantry. My pantry literally consists of a single wide top to bottom cabinet next to my fridge. It's pretty deep, so that's a bonus, but doesn't offer all the storage I need. So, I created this faux apothecary cabinet to add extra storage in my kitchen. (tutorial here) This is where all my canned goods go and there's a little section for my kids snacks.
6. Built in shelves. For my laundry room, I needed storage in there desperately. When we first moved in, there were no shelves or cabinets. So, I created these awesome built in shelves and hid most everything in baskets. The baskets hide laundry essentials, tools, light bulbs, screws/nails, and lots of other random stuff that have no other home. (tutorial here)
I also used built in shelves for our bathroom. Although I have used them mainly for decor, they could totally be used to store bathroom essentials and towels. (tutorial here)
7. Toy storage. Toys are a big thing in my house. A thing that causes constant anxiety, as I'm sure most parents can relate. :) My kids are like tornadoes. 10 minutes and a clean house can look like I haven't touched it in a year. Besides the storage that I mentioned in the bench above, I have utilized cubbies and boxes to help hide the mess. I have no play room, so toys storage has to be integrated with my everyday living. These help in so many ways!
I have also used these awesome little storage ottomans to hide away coloring books and other craft type things kid-related.
8. Out of site storage. As you can imagine, running a decor blog, I tend to have a lot of decor that I cycle through. And if you read my blog often, you know I have an obsession with pillows and throws. I do have quite a few places I stash them all. Blanket ladders, baskets, my armoire...but, most of them get stashed under my bed. I don't think I will every go back to box springs, this platform bed offers soooo much storage it's ridiculous! I love hiding things under here, and they are super easy to get back out. Just lift up the mattress and you see everything. Move a slat and grab it out. Best ever :)
9. Shoe storage. Besides the bench for my kids shoes. I need to find storage for my own. I keep my out of season shoes on a rack in my closet, but my daily worn shoes, along with my husbands, end up in this box. Luckily during the summer, it's easy to conceal most of them. During the winter, we do get the occasional few pairs of boots hanging out on the side. Once again, cubbies to the rescue :)
10. Nightstands. I learned awhile ago that I just can't have tables or nightstands that take up space and only offer a top. I needed the extra storage. So, in all of the bedrooms, I have nightstands with drawers. The nightstands in my master bedroom hold books, cds, glasses, books and more books. I think my husbands has a lot of electronics and old cords in it also. (tutorial here)
The ones in my kids rooms for now have books them, but I'm sure that will change when they get old enough to have a say in what goes where :)
11. Mudrooms: As noted before, I have no coat closet, so besides my armoire in the front room, I have had to get creative with where else to put extra coats, purses and school bags. I created this 'mini' mud room on the landing in my garage. This has been great for snow gear that goes in the cubbies and coats and bags on the hooks. (tutorial here)
My pass-thru laundry room has become another collector of purses and coats. It was meant to hang laundry bags, but those have since been moved to my master closet. Now it's another 'mini' mud room. (Tutorial here)
I hope these little storage tricks help you. Here's an extensive list that includes so much more! (click here). What are your favorite storage hacks?
PS. I know that 'small space' is relative. Where we come from, 2000 square feet is relatively small compared to the 3000+ livable square feet that is the norm. But for some, that may seem huge! Either way, I hope these tips help everyone, no matter how big or small their space may be :)
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