How to Add Storage Space at Home

When Stephen and I were house hunting some 4 years ago, I remember being concerned about a few aspects of our home. The main concern I had was for storage. We have a sizable home, but it sometimes feels tiny because it is lacking storage space. There is no panty, a pathetic sized linen closet, and no tall closet for a broom or vacuum. We only have three drawers total in our kitchen and our master closet is less than four feet wide. Even my parent’s house built 100 years ago has twice the amount of closet space. Since this has been a concern for me since the beginning, I’ve found LOTS of creative ways to add storage space in our “tiny” home. If you’re struggling to find storage solutions in your home – one of these ideas is guaranteed to help you!

1. Use a dresser as a substitute pantry

My kitchen is kind of small and I’ve often had to get creative with cupboard usage. We have minimal upper cabinets and the lower cabinets are fair game for my young children to ransack. So, for food storage, I placed a dresser I got from Craigslist in the space between our dining room and living room. I fill the drawers with food and it is basically my pantry. Every time I’m cooking for company and grab food out of my dresser, my guests do a double take. It works great and has helped me be happier in my little kitchen.

2. Hide toys in normal furniture

I don’t like to have toys all over my house, even though I have two kids under the age of 4. However, one trick to staying sane with kids is to have activities for them in every room of the house. In the kitchen, they can play in my Tupperware cupboard. In the bathroom, they get to play with all my hair accessories. In the living room, I hide toys in my coffee table. I specifically picked a coffee table with storage drawers for this reason. I needed toy storage in the room our family spends the most time in.

In my daughter’s bedroom, her furniture is also used for toy storage instead of its intended purpose. Her dresser holds Legos, stuffed animals, and extra bedding while ALL her clothes are hung in her closet.

3. Buy the right furniture for the space

My laundry room/utility room was bursting with supplies. I had TONS of paint in there from all my projects, painting supplies, and household chemicals. We had these items stored on short bookshelves, but it just wasn’t enough space. Every time I walked into the room to do laundry I felt overwhelmed by all the stuff in there. Finally, I bought new shelving that really fit the utility room. We picked up two really skinny, five feet tall steel shelving from IKEA that could fit side by side in this narrow space between the wall and our dryer & well pump & water softener. Once we had the right solution, it was amazing! All our items are now neatly stored out of the way and organized! Plus. the household chemicals–the really bad stuff–are finally high enough my kids can’t reach them. The right storage relieves all kinds of stress!

Likewise, our nursery used to have one bookshelf that didn’t hold much besides books. Most of the toys were cluttering the floor of the closet.

Then we got this amazing, huge bookshelf (used IKEA piece from Craigslist) and it has been awesome ever since. It holds ALL our toys and ALL our books. Plus everything is neatly displayed for the kids to see what they want to play with.

4. Use shoe organizers

Remember when I mentioned ALL of my children’s clothes are stored hanging in their closets? That is made possible by shoe organizers. I hang them in the closet to store socks in one cubby, shorts in another, pants, skirts, you get the idea. Most of the dressers in my home store bedding because we have not a single hallway closet or “extra closet” anywhere in our house. We don’t have a ton of bedding, we just have that few closets.

5. Build extra shelves in any closet deep enough

We only have one closet that is deeper than the couple feet of width you need to hang clothes. That closet was a jumbled mess, a catch all for the stuff that wouldn’t fit in our other closets (mostly mine and Stephen’s extra clothes since our master closet is very small). I finally took the time to move the hanging bar forward and put shelves up in the back. Utilizing every inch of closet space is important for squeezing storage space out of your home. If you don’t want to DIY it, buy a Rubbermaid closet organizer. Take full advantage of the complete depth and height of your closet space!

I hope I helped you find some solutions today! Adding storage to your home is always a plus, but when you’re not working with much to start with, you have to get creative. Thanks for stopping by to read my ideas! Let me know some of the clever ways you add storage space  in your home?