If Santa brought you everything on your Christmas list this week, your new year’s resolution might be to find a place to store it all.
In surveys of homeowners, most say they don’t have enough storage space at home.You might have more than you think. Here are some places to look:
Walls. Cover an entire wall with open shelving, where you can display books, knick-knacks and pictures. Place decorative baskets on some of the shelves to hold—and hide—small items that you want to keep out of sight.
Bedroom closets. If your closets are the old “pole-and-plank” kind—with a single rod for hanging clothes and a shelf so high you can’t reach it, get ready to reorganize. Closet organizers let you add shelves, drawers, racks, hooks and cubbyholes so every blouse, suit, shoe and necklace has a place. At the very least, move your rod up so it hangs 84 inches from the floor, and add another one underneath that is 42 inches from the floor. Keep your tall shelf; it’s a good place to store out-of-season clothes.
Kitchen pantry. Chances are, yours has two to three feet of wasted space near the floor. Place shelves from floor to ceiling in the pantry. Choose slide-out shelves so you can easily retrieve the cans and small appliances you keep in the closet.Inside kitchen cabinets. Unless your cabinets are fairly new, you’re probably stacking pots, pans, dishes and food so deep that you can’t see what’s in the back. Retrofit you cabinets with lazy Susans and slide-out shelves that make easy work of retrieving your items—so you can stuff more in them.
Under every work surface. Opt for built-in cabinets or open shelving under the kitchen island, the tool bench and the bathroom vanity.
Inside furniture. When it’s time for new furniture, replace kitchen chairs with benches whose seats open up to double as storage chests; find ottomans with hollow centers for hiding magazines.
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