10 Items That Will Help Increase Storage Space in Your Home.
After living in a place for a while, one thing becomes clear: your home doesn’t get any bigger, at least not without time and effort (and a huge amount of money). We all tend to get used to our homes, gradually filling them with things, and this can lead to a storage crisis.
But with the right approach and shopping, your home can likely offer you additional storage space . There are plenty of clever ways to increase storage space in your home. If you’re ready to remove all that stuff from the floor and furniture and hide it almost entirely, here are a few ideas worth considering.
Use wall hangings that double as storage cabinets.
If every room in your home is cluttered with small items that don’t have a permanent home, and you don’t have room for additional storage systems or bulky open shelves, your walls may offer a solution: wall art that doubles as shallow cabinets. You can find framed art that doubles as storage cabinets for jewelry, keys, documents, or any other small items that might be cluttering your home.
Add some shelves with drawers.
Installing wall shelves is an obvious storage solution, but if you’re just using shelves, you’re missing out on a double benefit. By choosing wall shelves with drawers , you get double the storage space in a single unit.
Turn a bookcase into a walk-in closet.
Closet storage is an essential part of any home’s storage system. If you need storage but don’t have any, you can create a shallow closet from a bookcase . All you need is a bookcase of the appropriate size, rod mounting hardware , and, if necessary, some reinforcing blocks (depending on the strength of your closet). Remove any unnecessary shelves from the top or bottom of the closet, install a hanging rod, and organize all excess clothing, shoes, and other items in their proper places.
Add a fold-down countertop that can serve as a work or dining area in the kitchen.
An indirect way to increase storage space in the kitchen is to add a fold-down countertop, like this one . It can be used as an additional work surface or as a quick-meal area, and it allows you to display more appliances, jars, or storage baskets on the remaining countertop without constantly having to remove them while working or eating.
Use bed stands and underbed storage bins to free up lost storage space.
If you’re running out of ideas for where to store all your things, sometimes you can create extra vertical space by raising your bed. A set of simple bed risers paired with handy rolling storage containers like these will provide you with a huge amount of storage.
Install a shelf above door and window openings.
One of the most underrated storage spaces is the space above doors and windows, which is often simply wasted. If you have enough vertical wall space above a door, a simple wall shelf can create a spot for books or other items.
Replace your headboard with one that has built-in storage.
A headboard doesn’t have to be purely decorative, and the wall your bed is pushed against doesn’t have to be wasted space. Buy a headboard with built-in storage , and you can stow away all the things cluttering tables, dressers, and the floor. As a bonus, you can find headboards with charging ports, so you’ll never have to worry about missing your alarm again.
Add a mobile pantry to your kitchen.
No matter the size of your kitchen, you’ll always have a lot of clutter on your countertops or on the upper shelves of your cabinets. But you can take advantage of another common feature in many kitchens: a narrow gap between the lower cabinets and appliances that seems to exist solely to collect dust and crumbs. A narrow rolling grocery cart will provide you with additional storage space while eliminating this awkward gap—a double benefit.
Use hangers that save space in your closets.
With compact hangers like these , you can significantly increase your closet space by hanging five items of clothing on one hanger—making each closet five times larger.
Install storage racks under your washer and dryer.
The key to maximizing storage space in your home is finding hidden, unused space that you’re overlooking. One of the most common areas we overlook is the space under the washer and dryer in the laundry room. Installing a cabinet with a drawer under each appliance will transform this vertical space into valuable storage.