There is something that fills positive energy in the minds of host and guest – neat and tidy home with everything arranged in a good manner. If your home has to remain so, it needs good storage spaces. While arranging storage spaces in your homes, it’s most important to give preference to family members, their number, their needs, job profiles etc. While designing storage spaces, never think about today’s needs only. Instead think about future needs as well.

How to arrange storage?

While you are building a new home, give importance to storage from planning stage itself. Also, if you are able to do proper planning, it’s possible to arrange a storage space in an already built home also. Let me give you a few tips in the designing phase.

Modular storage with small pull-outs is very efficient. They can be used not only in kitchen, but also for keeping kid’s toys, books and CDs.

If your home is small, change a wall of your living room or dining area to a storage space. You can use glasses to close those shelves.

Arrange spaces to keep each and every object of your home. Important documents, certificates, medicines – all need separate spaces.

If old books of kids are not needed for future reference, sell them to give more space for storage. Never place anything inside your home which has no use, killing the space.

While arranging new space, most important thing is to remove old unwanted things. Make a complete clean of your home once in a year or at regular intervals to remove old books, toys, dress, broken glassware, sandals and old papers. If you feel it may be needed later, keep such things separately in another box.

In-built storage – along with your home

Most important storages are those inbuilt while you are constructing your dream home. From living room to kitchen – provide sufficient inbuilt storage spaces to arrange things in beauty.

Beneath the window wall of bedrooms and living room, build small inbuilt storage cup boards.

If you arrange stair case in between living room and dining hall, it’s possible to arrange a storage space beneath the stair case.

• It’s possible to place a small bed beneath stair case for your kid, so that you can look after him while you are busy with house cleaning or work at kitchen. Place a small fan also.
• It’s also possible to place a small storage beneath staircase that can be opened from outside. If so, you can make it a storage place of firewood and old things or kennel.
• It’s also possible to place pullouts beneath staircase to place old books and magazines. You can also place toys in such storage spaces.
• Avoid the wall between kitchen and dining hall and place cupboards that can be used for storage purposes.
• If you place an open cabinet inside the dining room wall, your pooja room is ready.
• It’s also possible to build a storage space beneath wash basin. You can also build a small storage space on the wall to place to soap, towel etc.
• Use walk-in wardrobe for your bed rooms. A small room filled with a lot of shelves from ceiling to floor is placed inside the bedroom with a small door. Place a mirror also. So, you can enter this small room and get ready. For placing shirts, saris and kids’ dresses, place separate shelves. Thin ferro cement panels can be used to make shelves inside.
• For bed, you can make legs using concrete and fix wooden bed inside so that the hollow part can be provided for storage purposes. Also, you can make pullouts beneath your bed.
• You can place loft above bath room and dress area. Placing doors avoid the attack of dust.
• You can build a lot of pullout shelves for storage beneath your kitchen slab.
• Make small shelves in bathroom walls to place shampoo and soap.
• Instead of a store room, you can build a lot of shelves from floor to ceilings thus saving a lot of space.

It’s possible to buy storage units

You can buy ready made storage units inside the rooms according to the size and shape of rooms.

• In living rooms, TV stand is most important. Place it at any corner to save space. You can place books, CDs, music system etc in the TV stand. But now it’s the time of LED TVs that can be placed on walls thus saving a lot of space and it gives a theatric effect as well.
• You can build book library while constructing home. You can also buy a wooden almarah for storing books for reference. Corridor is the best place for a book library. Its size should be in accordance to your book collection and future use. You can provide small lights as well. To give a fresh look, don’t arrange them in a uniform manner. Instead use different patterns of arrangement in a single shelf.
• Fit pullouts beneath sofa and beds increasing your storage space a lot.
• If you don’t have sufficient space to build a walk in wardrobe build almarahs according to use and available space.
• You can make a big shelf in a wall with numerous storage spaces made of thin wood or concrete. Then place small plastic containers or baskets inside it. You can thus categorize your things to different baskets. It’s also possible to build inbuilt shelves instead of placing baskets. Baskets may be made of plastic or bamboo.
• Place a stand of 4 or 5 arms inside kids’ room to hang their clothes and bags, thus saving a lot of space.
• Crockery shelf is most needed in a dining hall where you can place glassware and other kitchen accessories. You can fix a mirror in front of it and light inside the shelf, if you don’t want to display its items.
• Fix a small pullout beneath the dining table to provide salt, pepper, pickles etc.
• Fix corner unit, cutlet tray, miscellaneous basket etc as pullouts beneath the kitchen slab. If you want more ideas for kitchen, just refer my kitchen article. Link is given beneath the article.
• Place one shelf with different types of partitions and drawers – of different size and shape to fit different sized containers. If racks are placed in its doors, you can place bottles similar to refrigerator doors.
• If your kitchen doesn’t have enough space, replace those shelf doors with shutters to save space. You can pull it down to close the shelf.

Rails, racks and hooks

If you want to save space on floors and make them free, rails and hooks can help you for sure.

• Fit rails inside wardrobe to hang your shirts and sarees.
• If hooks are fitted behind doors of bath rooms and bed rooms, you can hang clothes.
• Hang your most frequently used small pans, spoons, cups, mugs, spatula etc to save space in kitchen. It can help you in easy cooking as well.
• You can build hanging storage spaces in ceilings that can be used for drying clothes.
• Not only the upper part of bathrooms, but also sunshades inside kitchen and bedroom can be effectively used as storage spaces to dump card boards and not frequently used items. You can build such spaces above wash basin as well.

Storage can be done efficient

• Storage spaces must be made according to user’s height and convenience.
• Most frequently used items should be placed in between eyes and waist level. It saves time for bending.
• In storage spaces like loft, place less weight items like pillows and cushion. Also, less frequent used things. Heavy weight accessories can be placed at waist level so that it will be easy to take them out when required.
• While arranging storage space in corridors, it’s better to place things in waist or eye level. It’s difficult to use lower levels.
• Always keep frequent using things in small boxes and easy noticeable places.

10 storage ideas – some latest trends

 Now let me give you 10 easy storage ideas. While building your home, you must have an idea of exact places to be allocated for each object of your home to avoid future complications.

1. Divide things into two - most frequently used things and less used ones and allocate storage space according to that. It’s better to keep things of a particular room in that room itself.
2. If you build an inbuilt cabinet inside your car porch, you can place all your vehicle accessories including car shampoo, clothes etc there. No need to take such things inside home.
3. If slabs are there in your sit outs, you can provide cabinets beneath them to keep magazines, shoes etc. you can use wood or plywood for building such cabinets. It can also be provided as decorative.
4. Now decorative items displayed in living room are less. Keep it simple. It can save a lot of space as well. Place a few expensive items and a few pictures instead of placing a big show case full of different items. Now latest trend is ‘neesh’ instead of show cases.
5. Now the position of magazines is home libraries and that of CDs is home theatre. If you don’t have home libraries or home theatre, place them in living room in a corner or shelf in wall.
6. Now crockery has no space in dining room, instead they are placed in kitchen. Dining space is used for expensive curios display.
7. Still now, wardrobe is the star of bedrooms to place clothes and other valuable things. Now wardrobe and dressing table are placed in the passage between bedroom and bathroom. If a small concrete cabinet is placed above lintel level with 50 cm thickness, this space can be reserved for boxes and suit cases. It can be provided with a door also, to prevent dust.
8. Now, inbuilt cabinets are doing the storage function for kitchens. Cabinets placed above eye level are the real stars in kitchen. Less used things are placed in store room and work area.
9. If a cabinet is built beneath counter top of wash basin, many things can be placed including toys and frequently used instruments.
10. Tress work to protect home from rain and leakage can also be used effectively as a storage space. You can store fire wood and old items here.

So, let me conclude.

It’s not a big task to place things in a neat and tidy manner, if you know some planning techniques. Providing cabinets and storages at correct places can help a house wife to keep things in a regular and ordered manner. Hoping this article will help you a lot. If you want to refer my article on ‘smart kitchen’, just click the link below. 

Smart ideas for kitchen