6 of the best storage hacks for your home
Modern homes are under constant pressure to hold more and provide more. I don’t know about you, but sometimes it feels like our home is overflowing with items, particularly as we now have two children and an unlimited amount of baby items and clothes.
Our homes need to store more gear and come with more technology. This can be quite difficult if your storage doesn’t evolve with your lifestyle.
The good news is that you don’t need to completely renovate your home in order to reclaim space. If you are strategic with your hacks, you can unlock functions in places that you never even considered before!
Storage is something that is extremely satisfying when done right.
If you’re able to think beyond baskets and bins, you will see that today’s smart storage solutions are all about multi-use and hiding in plain sight. It’s also about architectural upgrades that improve how your home flows.
The right storage items will transform your home significantly. Stress will be turned into calm and visual noise will turn into cleaner lines. Forgotten corners that are treated relatively poorly can transform into hard-working spaces. Once you find hacks that are clever and sustainable, you’ll find life to be a lot easier. Here are a few ideas that are smart, stylish, and useful!
Hide extra storage within your stairs
Your stairs obviously serve a brilliant function, but don’t let the risers go to waste.
You might be able to retrofit them with pull-out drawers in order to store all kinds of items and supplies. You can blend this storage seamlessly into your staircase if done properly. You might want to prioritise a job like this if you live in a smaller home where every inch counts. It’s a functional and discrete addition that creates a pretty design feature out of a forgotten space.
Put ceiling-mounted racks in the kitchen
We all have that cupboard in the kitchen. Ya know, the one you hesitate to open because everything comes flying out? Tupperware cupboards can be bad for this, as can pan cupboards.
But you could put items like pans elsewhere to save on cupboard space. How about on the ceiling? Ceiling-mounted racks can be a great way to display your pans, while still ensuring they’re easy to reach (though minus the flying pan lids).
Particularly if your kitchen has high ceilings, you’ll want to make better use of this otherwise wasted space.
Choose a rack that matches the design and materials of your kitchen (wood, metal, etc) to ensure it is in keeping with your existing design. And of course, only display the most beautiful pans.
Install a slide-out pantry
The key for good storage is to find the little gaps that aren’t used. You may have a slim space around your fridge or next to your cooker that is empty and could help house some additional items. A slide-out pantry is the perfect thing here. You can build a tall and narrow unit with wheels and shallow shelves to hold little items like tins and herbs and spices. It’s great for reclaiming dead space and reducing cabinet congestion.
Get some under-bed dividers
A bed takes up a huge amount of space in your bedroom (around one third!) and if you’re not using the space under the bed, this is a lot of wasted storage potential.
Instead of using random storage boxes, you could build or buy rolling cubbies. These are short storage caddies on caster wheels so they can easily be rolled out from under the bed and put away afterwards. Many designs have internal dividers to give you a tailored storage system for items that you want or need in your bedroom but you don’t use that often.
To maximise the organisation, you can add labels or colour coding to each divider so you know exactly what is where.
Alternatively, you can buy large zip fabric bags that keep your items dust free and are super easy to push under your bed.
Put up a pegboard wall
Most people think about tools hanging on a pegboard wall but actually, you can install one in other rooms for so many more items.
A pegboard can hold tools, sports gear, supplies and more. You can even paint it to match your walls or make it stand out by painting it a completely contrasting colour.
Maximise your vertical space in the garage
One of the most underused areas in any home is the vertical space.
It’s right there for you to utilise, but it’s just a case of figuring out the right methods. This is especially the case in your garage. Whether you have converted this space or you have a traditional garage, adjustable garage shelving systems can be helpful.
We recently installed racking in our garage that goes from the floor to the ceiling, and bought some plastic storage crates that perfectly fit end to end. It means we can store all our painting and gardening kit, stacking it high instead of taking up valuable floor space. Each box is labelled so we know what is in it and can find everything we need easily. It’s been an absolute gamechanger.
So if you have the space, absolutely utilise the height of your garage to keep it organised and free from clutter.
