Where do you store all your stuff that you dont ned every day? Or things that don't actually belong to the living area or a bedroom?
Things like:
computer
craft and sewing things
spare heaters and fans
sporting equipment
filing cabinet
christmas decorations
We have a 3bedroom home and being that DH and I share a room, and DD has her own room, we have one spare bedroom. The living room is quite small so the computer lives in the spare room. Plus everything else on that list! If we are to have another child we need to put those things elsewhere...but where?
We have no built in storage in any rooms bar the kitchen cupboards. I would dearly love built-in wardrobes in all the bedrooms because I think you get that extra bit of cupboard space up the top and I could store all sorts of crap up there!
So, do you have a smallish house and if so where do you keep all your stuff?
plastic tubs!!!!!!!
my 3 wardrobes are stacked full of tubs! we have a walk in robe (godsend!) and the two high shelves have stacked tubs (2x xmas decos, scrapbooking/craft, photos/photo cds, gift wrap and blank cards etc) we don't have a filing cabinet, but we have an expanding file each, which are all in a plastic tub in the wardrobe...
our 3rd bedroom is slowly being turned into DD2's bedroom, but we have no furniture other than the cradle at the moment, so everything is just on the floor (tubs of clothes, toys, linen, nappy boxes etc) we have the two fans in there atm.. trying to decide whether i should take them both apart to pack away. our portable air con is in the broom cupboard! fits perfectly in there!
we have a laptop, which sits on our desk in the lounge, however, we tend to use it sitting on the couch (where i am now!) and we just leave it on the floor under the lamp table next to the couch. dd isnt interested in it, so we dont have to worry abouther attcking it.
I hate finding storage areas, it's so stressful! DH & I constantly argue about it. Just when we had it all sorted we decided to have bub #3 LOL!
Our computer, desk, printer, etc. and filing cabinet are against a wall in our bedroom (luckily our bedroom is quite large).
Craft/sewing things are kept in the top of my wardrobe and under our bed.
Spare fans are currently in DS1's wardrobe, but will need a new home when DS2 moves in there with him. Eek, where will I put them?!
Sporting equipment and Christmas decorations are stored in our garage. One half of our double garage is for my car, the other for storage and it is already chock full. It is so stressful when we get another large item that needs storage!
We store our Christmas decorations and tree in the manhole in the roof - we have to make sure that everything is boxed well so that it doesn't become a home for mice but we only need it for 1 month of the year and it takes so much space.
I have a cupboard in the laundry where I keep my sewing stuff (in other houses I have kept it in the bottom of the linen cupboard).
We have just converted our inbuilt garage into a playroom so the kids have more places for their toys and one corner of it has become like a home office. It didn't cost us that much to convert it - it is fully built in (and the laundry is in the corner) so we just had to floor it and cool it. We spent less than $800 doing everything as DH laid the lino himself and the aircon is just a portable one. We will probably have to go and spend a bit more because the garage door is still the roller door and it heats up quite badly. We are thinking about putting a curtain of hessian up along the door to stop the heat radiating through. It does mean we pay more for car insurance though because we can't put our cars inside at night. My friend just finished doing this to her single garage as well and still has plenty of extra space.
All my laundry stuff is in the garage as well - I have a shelf we installed above the washing machine for powders and bleach and fabric softner. It frees up cupboard space under the laundry sink for other things (and keeps it out of reach of little hands).
Our camping stuff - we have stored at my parent's house because they have heaps of space and we haven't been camping heaps lately because it is too hard with little kids.
Don't know if any of that helps you much ... good luck
not sure how handy your hubby is or if you have the roof space we have a very high roof so hubby got up int here thru the man hole built a false floor of ply had to do in pieces to get thru man hole attached it to roof beams and walla we have a ready made storage space we have most of Jacks baby clothes, his bassinet, his walker etc, plus heaps of stuff we dont use but dont want to get rid off its amazing what you can fit in you roof space
I have quite a big house but have no built in wardrobes, linen cupboard or anyhting. I don't even have drawers in my kitchen!!! In my bedroom I do have a walk in robe which is full of stuff I have nowhere else to put.
Christmas decorations, craft stuff and filing cabinet are in our wardrobe.
Sporting equipment is kept under our bed except the golf clubs which are in the shed. DS's cricket gear is under his bed as well.
My computer desk with the old computer is in my bedroom until I decide what to do with it. I have a laptop now so that just gets put on the floor overnight
I threw out our fan becuase I didn't have anywhere to keep it and I was isck and tired of tripping over it. We have a ceiling fan in this house so I found I didn't need it. I don't have a portable heater but I would ahve nowhere to keep that either.
Our computer is in the dining room, so we now don't have room to really sit at the table. (DH has other stuff all over the table and floor, so when it eventually is packed up, hopefully I will get my table back) Filing cabinet is a part of the computer desk.
I have just stuffed our christmas decorations in a plastic tub and the tree into a tree bag. These are going to go in the shed. DH has plans for doing a bit of a false ceiling over one corner of the shed, then we can put the christmas stuff up there with what ever other junk we need put aside as well. (Like DD's rocking horse)
I don't sew, so nothing to store there lol. DD has a few plastic tubs full of her art and craft stuff. they are either in her wardrobe or under her bed. We got those really slim roller storage boxes that slide under beds...Absoltuely love them!
sazzafrazz, do you have a man hole in your roof? I know a few people who put things in plastic tubs that seal up well and put things like chrissy trees etc up in their roof. I'm considering doing it myself! Otherwise I have a lot of things in DF's shed in plastic tubs.
Oh I've just seen Rach has suggested the roof thing to! And here I was thinking I'd come up with a new one hehe!
Maybe I should put the christmas things in the roof. We have had a few mice up there lately though. (first time in the 9years we've been here) I guess plastic tubs would mostly stop them?
I have a few of those slim storage tubs on wheels fo under the beds. They are FULL of clothes that are either too small or too large for DD. We were given soooooo many hand me downs and I want to keep them as they are in good condition. Trouble is storing them for years till she fits them.
Would love to put the computer dest and files out in the living area. We are thinking of extending our lounge room to incorporate the front verandah. That would make a big difference to the floor area. Not sure of costings yet though: it might just be a dream.
We have a futon lounge/bed thing that I want to get rid of. We hardly have anyone sleep over these days and it takes up too much wall space.
I might have to have a ruthless cleanout to reduce the quantity I have to store. That would fix that problem LOL!
Thanks for the ideas people. It seems to be a never ending problem, storing stuff. Do we really need all this stuff??? I can't seem to do without it though
It's crazy, isn't it how much stuff one family seems to need to exist. I'm sure that people didn't always have as much as we have now but anyway ...
That's so great that you have clothes for your DD to grow into, even if you have to store them for years before she can wear them, I'm sure you'll appreciate it when the time comes.
Sazz - not sure of your space situation in DDs room, but one thing we've done to make room for guests staying over is to get the single/double bunks - the ones with a double bed on the bottom. you can store stuff underneath it in the under/bed plastic storage tubs (you can fit heaps in them) and, if you do have guests over, you have a double bed ready to go.
we are in storage hell at the moment while we wait on replacement garage - everything is stored inside. but i'll second/third the notion of plastic tubs - the top of our walk in robe houses seven of them, all of gremlins stuff that will be stored (clothes that are too small, nappies too big or small) will live in the top of of her wardrobe in tubs, we have excess books in plastic tubs (cos we've had mice probs as well) - hell, we even have plastic tub in the bottom of the pantry with cake mixes and pasta in there! cat food, dog food - it all goes in plastic tubs. they stack brilliantly, are mostly rodent proof etc... we've never had any get into anything (and as i said, cat, dog food, pasta etc in them, we even have smelly candles in them and the ONLY smell we get is when we open them - mmmm yummm!)
the initial outlay is a bit high, but if you get quality ones, you can recycle them for everything!
BellyBelly Member
Where do you store all your "stuff"?
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