Ask Unclutterer: Too much storage
Reader Annette submitted the following to Ask Unclutterer:
My family lives in a modern 4 bedroom house with a 2 car garage, finished basement and shed. We have deep closets, shelving, and storage rooms galore. My husband and I and 3 kids are on a mission to reduce our possessions yet we have so much storage there are little bits here and there. Some cabinets are just plain empty. I’m still left with the feeling of clutter and disorganization since everything is spread out. I’m not sure what I own or where it all is! What would you suggest to consolidate things and keep my belongings under control? Thank you.
Too much storage? Annette, I have to tell you, it’s not often I come across people in your situation. However, too much storage can be a problem, especially since our human tendency is to fill up the space we have. Fighting this natural desire and keeping your family from wanting to fill it up, too, will likely be a struggle as long as you’re in this home.
In the world of Make Believe, you would sell this house and downsize to one that more appropriately meets your family’s needs. However, this is the U.S. in 2010 when the housing market is in the toilet, and not Make Believe. So, just tilt your head back, have a good chuckle, and then continue reading for some more serious advice.
First, when organizing the things you decide to keep, group like items with like items. This may require pulling everything you currently have in storage and sorting it out on your living room floor. Extra batteries should be grouped together, towels together, and so on and so forth.
Once you have items grouped together, return them to the storage place physically closest to the place where they are used. Coffee mugs should be stored next to the coffee maker, toilet paper in bathroom closets, lawn mower in the garage or a shed, and sheets in their appropriate bedroom closet.
Within the specific storage space, put those things you access most often on shelves between your knees and shoulders. Items you access less often can go on shelves below your knees and above your shoulders. Obviously, put heavier items on those lower shelves and lighter items on the highest shelves.
Only use your attic and basement storage space for things you access just once a year or less — holiday decorations, for instance. Make an inventory of what you have stored in these areas and post it on the back of the door or next to the light switch in these areas. Since you shouldn’t be storing much of anything in these spaces, these inventories won’t take you long to create.
By storing things in your home closest to where you use them the most often, you shouldn’t have much difficulty finding things when you need them. You can always create inventories for closets that store regular items if you want. And, since you have kids, you might want to label the lips of shelves so little helpers can learn where things are stored.
Thank you, Annette, for submitting your question for our Ask Unclutterer column. Good luck organizing your storage spaces!
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28 comments posted
Posted by tracy - 05/28/2010
Thank you so much for asking that, Annette. I have the same “problem”. We are being housed, so this situation was not of our choosing, and I wouldn’t have chosen it, based on my dislike of clutter and ‘spread’. Erin, thanks so much for your ideas. I’m forever putting things away, only to forget where they are. I have several ‘centers’ of communication and paperwork/bookkeeping–and that has GOT to change. I’m glad someone addressed this, and there were rational solutions offered.
Posted by Lindsay - 05/28/2010
Dear Annette and everyone with too much storage: I HATE YOU!
I kid, I kid. Good question, I bet it’s really hard to find help with that.
Posted by Morfydd - 05/28/2010
I’ll point out that it’s ok that some storage places go empty.
If you have enough storage in some centralized places, then centralize it. You’ll know that 1) whatever you’re looking for is in one of a very few places, and 2) if you look in one of the other places it’s easier to quickly see it’s empty than have to sort through some stuff.
Obviously it’s good to have storage near the use point, and to be able to keep cabinets from being overstuffed, but if you don’t need to use a space don’t feel guilty about it.
Posted by Elizabeth - 05/28/2010
I don’t know how old your kids are, but if any of your closets can be made into a special play area or reading nook, that might be a good use of some extra storage space. I know several people who’ve done that with closets under stairs and similar spaces. It doesn’t take much room to make a cozy spot for kids.
Posted by STL Mom - 05/28/2010
Elizabeth – Yes, the Dursley family made great use of the cupboard under the stairs. Unfortunately their nephew Harry didn’t seem to appreciate their creativity.
Posted by chacha1 - 05/28/2010
I second Elizabeth’s suggestion. A large closet or small, oddly-placed room is the perfect solution to a playroom or a kids’ study area. Just take down (at least) one of the walls to half height, cap it, install a good light, and there you go. Furnish according to need.
Excess cabinetry can also be repurposed. I would rather have empty wall to place bookcases or artwork, than empty built-ins. Maybe those could go down in the basement! Or change the doors to glass, and use them as bookcases.
All kinds of possibilities.
A nice problem to have!
Posted by HeidiAphrodite - 05/28/2010
One often-overlooked use for extra storage is storing emergency food. Our family has several dozen #10 cans of dry-pack food storage, as well as wheat and enough water for several days for the four of us currently in the house. We also have our 72-hour kits within easy reach (but out of the way of normal house business) just in case we need them. During some lean years, we actually dipped into our food storage so we didn’t have to spend as much on groceries. Even if it’s a few extra cans every time you go shopping or taking advantage of case-lot sales, starting a food storage habit is never a bad idea.
Posted by David Engel - 05/28/2010
Also, when it comes to having cabinets and shelving, consider removing them altogether. Depending the type of storage and timing, you may find a local charity in need. Our church recently assisted a local food pantry redesign their basement for easier access for both employees/volunteers stocking shelves and customers searching and/or using the stock. They found a lot of shelves from a closed store who took a charity tax write-off for donating the shelving.
Posted by twosandalz - 05/28/2010
There’s nothing like an inventory sheet to help you find things in a jiffy. Especially when you’ve completely re-organized the house and you can’t remember where you put everything. I use a simple spreadsheet of two columns. One column lists items (ie: batteries) and the other is location (desk). Because I store like items together, I save time by using categories. For example, ‘christmas decorations’ and ‘guest closet’ rather than listing out each and every decoration.
Don’t be afraid to consolidate. Empty shelves are places you don’t need to hunt through when looking for misplaced items.
Posted by Mary - 05/28/2010
I recently moved to a larger house. Because the attic stairs were in an awkward place, above where I wanted to place furniture, I decided to try not to use the attic for storage at all. I had ample storage throughout the house, so I culled out and organized, and now I have everything I own on one level! If I need to access the attic (say, for repairs), the furniture under the stairs is on sliders, so I can easily move it. It’s a great feeling to be more compact and accessible!
Posted by lynda - 05/29/2010
The mention of batteries led me to the subject of appliance chargers. What works for us in our apartment in the UK is a pair of extension cables (extension lead, power strip) with 6 sockets on each cable and each socket with its own switch. You can have all the chargers in one place, already plugged in, then connect the gadget when required. So you know where all the stuff is, you don’t have to look for the phone charger and it’s easier to hide them if you don’t like the visual clutter. Whether it might be worth keeping batteries (disposable or rechargeable)in the same place and any tools you may need – screwdrivers? – is up to you. (There is always one pesky object that needs a small screwdriver to access the battery panel, in my experience!)
Posted by Shyrl Cone - 05/29/2010
Thanks so much for this thread! This is a problem I’ve been struggling with. I live in a 170-year-old building in many different stages of restoration, so there isn’t a lot of storage space, but it is 4200 square feet, much larger than any other house I’ve owned. I’ve always struggled with how to store stuff in a tiny house. Now, I don’t know where things are because I have so many “centers” and piles and a labyrinth of rooms to search. There are so many awesome ideas here. I hate my house so much, and it’s all but ruined our finances, marriage and family life. I look for any way to make things better and recapture the joy we once had – these suggestions will surely help. Thanks again!
Posted by Elaine - 05/29/2010
Labeling is a simple, inexpensive idea that really makes a difference. If every time you open a closet you see “Holiday Decorations,” you will know that holiday decorations go there, but other items probably do not. Then you’ll think about where the other item really belongs and make the effort to put it there, instead of just tossing it in randomly and shutting the door. You don’t have to have a geeky-looking house with labels on the doors — you can place a label on the inside of the door, low down where most people won’t look (but you know it’s there), or on the inside of the door where it hits the frame, or some other discreet place. Trusting your “organized mind” to remember what’s supposed to go in closets, cabinets and drawers JUST WON’T WORK, especially if you live with other people, whose minds might work differently.
Posted by finallygettingtoeven.com - 05/29/2010
We too have too much storage space, or maybe it’s not that there is too much space, maybe i have gotten rid of too much stuff. Either way, i love it! I love to be able to open a drawer or cabinet and there is nothing in it. I love to take the few items that are left in other places and just reorganize and move them around in the drawers.
The past few years i have completely changed my way of thinking when it comes to stuff and if i am not using it on a regular basis, out the door it goes. If it can’t be displayed and enjoyed (if that was it’s intended purpose) than it doesn’t need to be here locked away in some cabinet. Out it went.
We just purchased a tv cabinet for our big screen and we looked at quite a lot before i could make a decision. The sales folks kept trying to show me all the benefits of this one or that one, how many drawers, cabinets, shelves they had and how much storage i would be able to get out of each piece. But when i continually told them that i had nothing to put in it they all looked at me like i was a bit off the wall.
I have lived on both sides of the fence, too much stuff, and very little stuff. I like this side.
Posted by Sharon - 05/29/2010
I third the suggestion about nooks and crannies. We had a closet that went underneath the stairs leading down to our (finished) basement. It was a playroom, or rather “secret room – no parents allowed!” for my twins and their friends for years. I put up butcher paper and they were allowed to draw on the walls and decorate it how they like.
I personally have a goal that in every room where I have storage, that there is at least one drawer which is completely empty. In my master bath, for example, I actually have 2 drawers that are totally empty. It gives me a sense of peace.
Posted by Malcolm - 05/29/2010
I’m with Elaine on the labelling – a couple of years ago we moved into a new house, bigger than previous two we had been in – lovely to have so much space. But we couldn’t find anything, even the kitchen was a big problem. Labels on every cupboard in the house did 3 things: One, we could suddenly find everything; two, it helped us to shuffle things around into what became their final spot; and three, it helped us to “learn” how our own organising method worked. That little labeller is worth its weight in gold!
Posted by Bibliovore - 05/30/2010
Sometimes closets (even smaller ones) can be repurposed into adult areas, too — they can house a desk/workspace, musical instruments, games, crafting or giftwrap station, you name it, and be simply and easily closed away just by shutting the door.
For some things, I find storing them where they’re used works better than keeping all like things together. The extra bath towels are in the bathroom and the half bath’s hand towels are in a drawer in the half bath, which means new ones go out immediately when I grab the old ones to be washed. Each bathroom has its own toilet-paper stash, too. Linens for each bed are stored in their respective bedrooms, which nicely prevents having to sort out which sheets fit which bed. And in several (organized) places throughout the house we have pens and paper and scissors and tape, at hand when needed.
Posted by Mary C. - 05/30/2010
LOL! Too much storage would be a problem I would like to have!
Posted by joy with less - 05/30/2010
I can’t imagine what it would be like to have too much storage.
I hope my next home/apartment has a bit more than what I have now. Great tips Erin. I’m really enjoying your blog and looking forward to further posts.
Posted by Lose That Girl - 05/31/2010
One of the reasons I don’t want a larger home is because there will be more space to fill. No thanks!
Posted by Will Wright - 05/31/2010
Consolidation of the storage is the first step. “A place for everything, and everything in its place” means there is only ONE place for anything.
With too much storage your challenge is to make those alternative storage options as difficult to use as possible. Attics and basements are often already difficult, so you can take the items stored in them and fill up space in the more easily accessible storage spaces. Locking cabinet doors, placing decorative elements such as plants or artwork in such a way as to hide potential storage space and physically removing shelves, bookcases, dressers and other storage-oriented furniture are all possible ways of making more accessible storage difficult to use.
You’ll find that when this space is difficult to use, you won’t even think of it as storage. Your mental map of your house will be much smaller than your actual house and more accurately match your family’s needs.
Posted by Shawn Perkins - 05/31/2010
Wow! What a great problem to have! If things are really spread out, perhaps consider consolidating items. Of course, consolidate like items as was suggested, but also consolidate things that are not perfectly alike (coffee mugs, glasses and cups) into a single cabinet. Consolidate so that you may have empty cabinets, closets or even basement or attic space. Personally, I’d rather save time by having fewer places to search through.
Posted by Carmen - 06/01/2010
When we built our current house I was so excited to have move from a 1880′s house (little storage) to having tons of cupboards, large closets, etc. It was amazing to unpack and not even use every cupboard in our kitchen. However, in just the last few years it seems those cupboards are slowly getting filled by stuff … I’ll hang onto an item because we have the room! Will I *really* use that fondue pot? Do I need two sets of bundt pans? How about that stoneware baking dish that is still in the box from our last house?
We’re now in seriously thinking about moving and down-sizing. Our thoughts are that not only would it force us to purge the clutter, but we’ll save money in purchasing a smaller house (rid ourselves of financial clutter).
Posted by Gregg - 06/02/2010
I actually think that too much storage is a big problem and a major contributor to hoarding and just generally hanging on to too much stuff!
Think about how many things you would probably not have purchased or would have gotten rid of if you didn’t have a place to store it!
Or, conversely, how many times in the past couple of years did you “love” something and want it, but didn’t have a place to put it. Do you still miss it? Probably not.
Maybe, people should actually GET RID of some percentage of their storage and organize around what is left.
Posted by jane - 06/04/2010
IF too much storage is a problem, decorate the empty areas. for example, in a linen closet with empty shelves, I would put a vase with silk flowers on one shelf, giving yourself a treat every time you open the door. If you have too much space where you store your dishes, spread them out and display them. smaller stacks and more space in between the stacks. Also a little vase with flowers or a teapot surrounded by tea cups would be pretty when you opened the door. How about displaying seasonal decorations in those empty closets. a shelf in a closet which displayed all my ceramic pumpkins for halloween would be fun, if I only had the space. In a clothes closet, I would add a piece of artwork or wallpaper on the back so the closet would seem more full. How about an empty closet as a book storage for children’s books that if they are outgrown by your kids could be used as a lending library.
Posted by Bibliovore - 06/05/2010
Great idea, Jane!
Posted by Courtney - 06/06/2010
I like the idea of posting an inventory sheet inside the doors of storage areas, but that still requires you and your family to remember which storage area holds what stuff. My grandmother re-purposed a rolodex as a whole-house inventory system that she kept on the counter in the kitchen by the phone/communication center. She had rolodex cards for all the stuff in her house (either individual items or groups of items like “board games” or “sewing supplies”) organized alphabetically. It helped people find what they were looking for and helped them figure out where things went if they were putting away something that had been left out by someone else. It didn’t take her long to train visiting family to use her system. Anytime anyone asked, “do you have/where is X” or “where does this go?” the answer was, “Did you check the rolodex?”
Posted by Melissa - 06/07/2010
When I was little, we used a shelved closet for nothing but games: board games, decks of cards, poker chips, and video games (this closet was close to the spare tv). My family recently started a family game night, and we have been collecting so many board and card games lately that I have been wishing I had room for a game closet.
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