Some of my loyal readers go back to the days when I was kept in from recess because my desk was just too messy and had to be sorted out. So you will find it no surprise that I am organizationally challenged in my home.
I descend from packrats, and I married one, too.
We rent part of a house. It's the upstairs part, with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a 2'x3' coat closet, and that's it. The basement is not my space. There is no garage, no shed, and no storage in the attic space. The architect anticipated that whoever lived in these rooms would store belongings in the basement.
We have 3 boxes of Christmas decor, a crate of fancy china, 2 tubs of games, sleeping bags, air mattresses, one cooler (reduced from several), miscellaneous camping gear, sewing equipment, car seats in various sizes, strollers, a vacuum, a portable crib, computer parts, nick-nacks and momentos from 2 full-time missions, scrapbooks, toys, office supplies, art supplies, out of season clothes, little girl clothes in other sizes, maternity clothes, winter coats for all occasions, boots, infant toys, painting supplies, towels, sheets, blankets, 3 tool boxes and a bucket full of tools and bits of hardware, and suitcases nested and stacked.
We also have some furniture that isn't immediately necessary, but will be once we buy that first home. Some of it handmade by my father, so it's not optional to dispose now and replace later. Like my china, it may not be immediately necessary, but it definitely has a place in the long-term scheme.
This doesn't even count the Food Storage under the beds, since, as Mormons, we keep a pretty good supply of wheat, sugar, and hot chocolate.
What do you do with so much stuff and no place to store? Really, I'll take suggestions.
1 year ago
5 comments:
Live with the piles....ha ha. That's my advice. We have a 1300 sq. ft. house. No attic or basement (it's a doublewide). We do have a little shed holding a few boxes of keepsakes and yard tools and our cooler. Anything that can't withstand 120 degree temperatures has to be stored in the house anyway. Strollers get stored in the back of the car. We cram the boys in a tiny bedroom, and the new baby will share our room. The other room is Daryl's office for his bike business and the catch-all. We have piles and stacks all over the place in there...and in every closet. Like you....just saving it all, hoping to be in a bigger place someday. I haven't figured out ways to store it all and look uncluttered.
We spent years in college-style housing. Some of it with three kids. The last apartment we had was the most ridiculous situation. I had to get a video of it before we left so we could remember the ridiculosity (is that a word?) of it all. It was 3 bedrooms with a 48 sq ft living room and a tiny kitchen. No dining space. We crammed all three kids and all their toys in one room and used the third as our storage space. I used a folding table in that tiny living room for homeschool that had to be put away after each use otherwise we didn't have enough room to sit on the couch to watch tv. We had the desk in our bedroom for Josh to use for school. And we had a 20 x 10 storage unit for everything we could live without for a while. It was rough and I hated it. We've used storage units in CO, MT, and AZ. They've all been different sizes, prices, and climate controls ranging from none to air conditioned. Funnily enough, a lot of the stuff we had in that apartment went to the dump instead of the next house.
Most of that stuff sounds like things that most normal people also have. I would only suggest to have it all stacked neatly so that it looks nice instead of trashy. Maybe get those cute storage tubs for it all and stack them in corners throughout the house or something.
I have never done this myself, just heard of it done. But, depending on the size of some of your boxes you could put a tablecloth of piece of nice looking cloth over a stack of boxes/totes to create an endtable or ottoman. Sounds like you are already using the space under beds too, but you could always stack cinderblocks under the corners, I've even heard of people stacking multiple cinderblocks to make it even higher....
Where is your good 'ole college life creativity? Put stuff behind couches, raise the bed 5 feet and stuff everything you can under there, make a food-storage bed, build shelves out of your containers (so you can hold more containers :)), stuff stuff under your kitchen table and then cover it up with a table cloth, use containers for spare chairs, use containers for a TV stand, and then stack up the rest "neatly"....ha ha. Good luck
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