Stunning storage solutions for your home

The good news is that every home, no matter its size, has potential storage space that goes unnoticed.

These simple but creative solutions can help you to gain extra storage in unexpected places. After reading these storage tips, take another look around your home for hidden storage space.

Buy dual-purpose furniture

When buying furniture, look for items that serve more than one purpose, such as a coffee table with built-in drawers, a side table that functions as a display case for collectibles, or chests and tables with enclosed cabinets. Buy benches with hinged tops that can be folded up for out-of-sight and easily accessible storage.

Find an entertainment centre designed to fit smaller rooms and will create enough extra space to store everything, from photo albums to linens or electronic equipment. Look for an entertainment centre that fits into a corner.

Multiple drawers and shelves maximise their holding capacity.

Use a sleeper couch and chair as perfect multi-use furniture in bedrooms or other living areas of your home, or look for a couch made with built-in drawers hidden beneath the seat cushions.

Find free storage containers

Save your disposable butter and margarine containers to store small items in the kitchen or workshop. Use cans with plastic lids or plastic baby-wipe boxes to hold buttons, threads, nuts, nails, screws and small project items.

Recycle baby food jars and empty tins by using them to organise your smallest shelf or drawer. Cut plastic milk containers in half to hold small toy accessories or puzzle parts in your child’s room.

Place magazines in recycled laundry detergent boxes decorated with magazine covers. Keep just about everything in hanging shoe bags with clear pockets.

Use an empty rectangular tissue box as a convenient holder and dispenser for small garbage bags, plastic grocery bags and small rags. Secure it to the inside of a cabinet door with a drawing pin.

Control your cupboards

To fit more into your cupboards, plan storage that reaches all the way to the ceiling. Stow suitcases, out-of-season clothes and rarely used items on harder-to-reach upper shelves.

Save space in your cupboards by adding hooks to the door for belts, ties or shoe organisers. Use shelf organisers and dividers to keep things neat and easy to find.

Hang your clothes by style and colour and give clothes that haven’t been worn in over a year to charity.

Install tiered double-hanging rods to accommodate shirts and pants. This way they can hang above and below each other, taking up less space than hanging side by side.

Saving space in the bedroom

Under-the-bed storage boxes fit in tight, narrow spots and some even have wheels for easier access. Just slide the boxes under a bed frame to store out-of-season clothes, gift wrap, children’s games or just about anything.

Increase the space in a child’s room by using a bed platform with built-in drawers. Children will help to keep things out of the way and off the floor if a row of wooden pegs line one wall of their room. Make sure the pegs are within the child’s reach.

Store toys and books on low shelves and secure bins that won’t fall over. Old chests also make creative tables with toy-storage capability. Use a wall hanging with storage pockets as a great space saver for keeping colouring books, pencils, rulers and other small items together in one place. Buttoned pockets help to keep sharp scissors or glue out of reach of a toddler who shares a room with an older child.

Canvas and wooden clothes hampers make excellent, easy-access containers for toys. Use a large hamper for stuffed toys and a smaller one for books and puzzles.

Store seldom used clothing or other materials inside your luggage and travel bags rather than just storing them empty.

Maximise your kitchen space

Fit space-wasting corner cabinets with Lazy Susan carousels or semi-circle shaped shelves. Install pullout shelves or baskets that use up all of the space in a deep cabinet.

Place stacking platforms in taller shelf spaces to save room. Buy drawer partitions, turntables and other organisers specially designed for kitchens. These inexpensive and ready-made organisers will fit into your existing cabinets.

Consider hanging pot racks, a grid system or a few hooks to make the most of vertical wall space. Free up drawer space by using a decorative canister or crock to hold often-used utensils such as spatulas and spoons.

Mount under-cabinet racks to display your prettiest teacups. Use your oven for hiding seldom-used pots and pans, but remember to remove them before turning on your oven. Choose a sturdy folding step stool to help you access out-of-reach storage space without requiring much of its own.

Reduce paper clutter in the kitchen by hanging a bulletin board or magnet board on an unused wall. Save space in your freezer with lightweight, vinyl-coated wire units, designed to double stack things on a pantry shelf. Lean the units against a side or back wall to store small juice cans and large frozen items in the same vertical space.

Place small jars like spices on inexpensive plastic turntables so they’ll be at your fingertips with just one spin. Transform a jumble of pan lids by mounting lid racks on cabinet doors or the inside of a pantry door.

Organise your bathroom

Hang a mesh organiser over shower curtain rings. Stash shampoo and conditioner in large pockets and place soap, razors and other bath accessories in the smaller pockets.

Use acrylic bath canisters to organise cotton balls, make-up, hair accessories and other everyday grooming articles. Fit an unused corner with a high cabinet that features adjustable shelves to accommodate towels and other bath accessories.

Mount storage racks to the inside of cabinet doors. Those used for plastic wrap and tin foil work fine for small bathroom items. Consider buying or building a small, wall-mounted cabinet for use above the vanity, toilet or tub.

Put your bathroom door to work with hooks that can be used to hold towels, robes, or mesh bags filled with toiletries or bath toys.

Baskets, boxes or other containers work well for your prettiest towels and other bathroom linens. Rolled-up towels fit beautifully in an inexpensive wine rack. Each curved bottle holder stores a towel and saves under-counter storage space. Attach two wine racks to the bathroom wall to hold even more towels.

Try these home office solutions

Tuck an armoire (cupboard or wardrobe) into a corner for a one-stop office that becomes a pretty piece of furniture with its doors closed. Look for one with a foldout desk for even more usable space.

Use a corner desk to convert an area of the bedroom or guest room into a home office. Look for one with a raised shelf for the monitor and a slide-out keyboard shelf.

Buy office equipment that can be rolled out of the way when not in use. Free up floor space with shelving units that hang on the wall. Wall hooks or pegs can also provide additional off-the-floor storage in your home office area.

Remove doors from a closet to transform it into a home office complete with desk, computer, file cabinet and shelves.

Great storage shed or garage tips

Get rid of clutter in your storage shed or garage by organising yard tools. Tack an old leather belt along the edge of a shelf to store hand tools. Keep socket wrenches easily accessible by securing them to a lightweight chain and hanging them on the garage or shed wall.

Use empty bleach bottles as nail organisers by cutting out a section of the top and storing them on their side or upright. The handles make for easy carrying.

Recycle old tins in the garage as holders for small fasteners, nails, eye-screws, washers, electrical parts and more. Mount pegboards wherever you can in a shed or garage, including the inside faces of cupboard doors. Hang items like paintbrushes, adjustable wrenches, extension cords, hand tools and much more.