Storage in home, 5 ways to get more of it

Searching storage in home?  We have 5 ways to get more storage in your home that we use in our cozy cottage now.

In our use what you have series, we have shared an updated light fixture, and a piece of trim we had in our basement that we turned into a hat/coat rack.

We thought it may be time to share with you ways to optimize your storage and use what you have mixed in with this post to assist in getting organized around the house with minimal effort.  

You see, the other day we stripped the beds, all the way down to the frames and vacuumed under the bed since it is not always so easy to get under the beds with a vacuum.  I felt marginally better about this project because I am beginning to wonder if I actually enjoy cleaning? 

What?  Stop the press!  What did you just say?  Ha, yes, I enjoy seeing things being cleaned and the progress along the way.  Guess I have a little more of my mother and grandmother in me afterall.  Shhh.... do not share that with them, it will be our little secret.  I really do hate hearing "I told you so"... it is like nails down a chalkboard.   

Mr. VS helped me remove the mattresses and get every nook and cranny in the bedrooms upstairs cleaned a couple of weeks ago.  Bentley was a mess while we cleaned, he did not like the beds being taken a part, and was not sure where his place was since it is usually on the beds while we work on projects if we are in the bedroom.  

All of this talk about cleaning the bedroom brings me to a question, where do you store your bed linens?  Do you have a closet that is convenient to store these items, or do you store them in the bathroom?  Where do you keep your extras? 

 

In the home I grew up in, it would appear Great-grandma thought of it all.  Oh to be a lady who thinks of everything before anyone else does... what a wonderful super power to have, huh?  There was a closet to store all of your linens equal distance from each downstairs bedroom.  How nice, huh?  She even thought of a separate closet where all of the cleaning items and vacuum were stored.  Two closets in one hallway?  Yes, and it was so nice.

When we moved here, I did not think about closets and linens at the time, that was the last thing on my mind.  It is not until you move in and begin unpacking your things do you notice, hmm... now where to store these?  

It was not until 2021 I came up with the perfect solution for us!  Talk about taking my good ole' time, better late than never is what I always say.  **wink, wink**

You see, it makes sense to me that your bed sheets be stored in the bedroom since that is where they are used.  Only, with all of your clothes, and shoes, and trinkets, and what not, where do the sheets go?  

My solution?

Why under the bed of course!  I purchased two under the bed containers to put our sheets, and extra mattress pad in.  You see, this had a dual purpose.  One, we had more out of the way storage, and two, the kiddo was no longer able to crawl army style under the bed with our things.  It was a win, win, we got to keep our fingers, and storage is always KING around here.

Bentley really hates it, but I personally love it.  Then I added two small clothing containers for clothing, only I was able to cram one king size comforter in one, and the other holds seasonal clothing.  No more pup under the bed, and I gained even more storage!  

The thing I notice most in life is we never seem to have enough storage.  Do you feel the same way?  I often wonder how this happens?  Then I think, well, I have been collecting for a long time, that is how it happens.  I need to have a yard sale, or a Vintage Style Gal sale one of these days.  

Do you own a punch bowl?  Maybe not many of you do, but I came across mine quite by accident.  You see, there was a consignment shop I used to frequent, and I loved dearly.  I looked forward to going there on my lunch breaks until it closed.  I became quite friendly with the ladies who ran the shop, and was always searching for things for our home.

One day, just my luck, there was an entire box FULL to the brim with milk glass.  The ladies knew I loved milk glass, and so she said she would sell the entire box to me for $28.00!  Can you imagine my surprise?  I did not even think about it, I said OKAY, milk glass box you are coming home with me!  I was uberly excited, over the moon, really.  

One item in the box was this large punch bowl with countless teacups to go along with it.  I was like what on earth am I going to do with a punch bowl?  I do not have parties to serve punch in, and so it sat in our attic for years.  All of the milk glass was displayed throughout our home, but that punch bowl and teacups became quite sad sitting there all alone.  

When we made over the backsplash, you saw that several of those teacups were used and so they served a purpose, but the punch bowl sat, and sat, and sat.... during Christmas last year, I decided to brush it off and see what I could come up with.

Nothing too extreme, or exciting was the result.  When it came to taking down the Christmas decor, I sat the punch bowl aside and thought I will do something with it.  Unfortunately, it sat a while longer, until one day I said to myself, I need to get this thing out of here.  It is taking up too much counter space.  

I left the silver Christmas garland inside the bowl, and began adding faux greenery stems.  I stood back and looked at my handy work, and said well, isn't that wonderful I was able to store the garland inside the bowl, it helps in keeping my stems upright, and I can use the punch bowl as a planter for décor in the dining room.  

Isn't it quite lovely when you stumble upon more storage for your home when it was not your intension?  This was a win, win for me since now the punch bowl has a home, plus the silver garland?  I do not need to store it away in the attic.  I am sure I would have to search for days to locate that box anyway.  Okay, maybe a minor over exaggeration, just maybe... ha!  I can leave it in the bottom of my bowl, and no one is the wiser, except for us, but it will be our little secret, okay?

I love to use Christmas decorations in our home year round, but we can discuss this another day since we are all about maximizing our storage in our homes today.  Remind me if you want to know more about this and I will share with you how I make some things fancy pants around the cottage, when in reality, they are really Christmas decorations.  

Add a hook, or hooks to a closet in order to stow away those miscellaneous items you are just not sure where to store.  Bentley's drawer in our closet make over is jammed to the brim... so, I decided to add a hook to our hallway closet for his collars.  I know... he is a spoiled kid, isn't he?  He loves his bow ties, and since he is our "Problem Child" we pick them up whenever we see a cute one.

As I was cleaning out another closet, I stumbled upon many, many rolls of wrapping paper.  I had them all leaning up against the wall and some were falling down, and others were leaning this way and that.  I decided I would steal a planter from another area and use it to corral my wrapping paper inside.

This was a thrift store find some years ago, I am not sure what I was thinking when I picked it up, but I recall it being an awesome price, a few dollars, and I thought why not?  I will find something to do with it.  

This is how it starts... you think you cannot pass up a great price, and so it must come home, and before you know it, you have a crammed cottage full to the brim.  I am quite enjoying seeing many things I have had for years in a new light though.  Isn't that the most fun when you are spending ZERO money and still getting new things out of the deal?

Now all of my wrapping paper rolls are corralled to one location.  I used to keep the Christmas wrap in the attic, and then the birthday and other occasions in the hall closet close to wrap a gift in a jiff.  Why, is what I asked myself the other day?  Make life easy not harder on yourself.  So they are all here in our closet where I can find them.  

Our last share today in how to optimize your storage is books.  Oh how I love books!  I cannot get enough of them.  Whether it is for flipping through for design ideas, or reading a mystery or romance, or a cookbook, I am really one of those who doesn't really care, I just love books.  

Not that I think you will be surprised, but I am going to get a little off topic here.  When I was growing up, our neighbor passed and his home went up for auction along with many contents.  My parents drug home a bunch of antique books.  Do you know the thing I loved most?

There was a whole set of books from the 1800's and the pages?  Along the edges of the books were decorative pages.  You see, when the books were closed, you could see a paisley pattern along the pages' edge.  When it was open?  You would not see anything.  I enjoyed staring at those books longingly for many hours.  I loved how you could see the decoration one way, and then another way it disappeared.  It was like magic. 

If I had my way?  I would have the library of my dreams!  What does that look like you say?  Well, I am sure you would think something along the lines of this:

Source: Veranda

  

But in reality, I would settle (like a room such as this would be settling, ha!) for something like this:

Source: Veranda 

 

It has everything I need really, beautiful setting, surrounded by books, a comfy seat to get lost for an afternoon reading, beautiful flowers to look at, and oh that light fixture?  I think I really like that one!  Little bits of décor scattered throughout... I am a simple gal after all.  Okay, there is really not much simple about that room, but we may be able to replicate it on our meager budget.  Goals, goals, that is how dreams live on... now if I only had the space to designate to a library of my very own!  

I really love how books of the past were created with such care.  The leather bound covers and spines.... there is just something about it.  When I stumbled upon scads of books while going through some boxes, I just knew how I would use them.  

Last year I decided to makeover a few books I had.  I thought back to that project and knew I wanted to do the same so I could hide some of my books in plain sight.  You see, if you are going to become a master at creating more storage in your home, you need to learn how to store items in plain sight, just like a magician.

So I decided to take a couple of my hardback books and use a nod to the past of those beautiful books of my childhood.  I decided books need to be beautiful and full of knowledge too, and so here we have them styled on our mantel.  

  

I used them as a riser for my glass pieces and a simple rose a top of these old books.  Since I do not have the library of my dreams, nor room for a bookshelf, I decided I will sprinkle bits of my books throughout our home.  Books can serve multiple purposes in our homes.    

I will create a how to later to show how you can do this in your home as well.  This concludes our how to use what you have around the house for storage.  Do you think this was helpful in getting those creative juices flowing?  I have come to learn no matter how much square footage your home is, you can always use more ideas for storage.  

We learned:

1. We can store our sheets under the bed
2. How we can use a punch bowl for storage
3. Adding a simple hook can provide a place for miscellaneous items
4. A simple pot can hold all of our wrapping paper
5. Books, they can be décor, risers, items we can read, or whatever we need them to be

Expanding your mind, and letting go of rules and expectations is something I love to instill in people.  There is no one way to decorate your home, it is your home after all, I am only here to help in giving ideas.  Ideas you can expand upon, or implement in your own homes.  I so love hearing from you and how you are using some of the ideas we share.  

In a way, this blog has really helped me shed some of my own reservations and explore more of my creativity.  I am not one who enjoys the constrictions of main stream.  I do enjoy coming up with creative solutions around our home.