Trashin’ Regular Storage Containers

Here’s a mistake I will never repeat if I am lucky enough to ever go house-hunting again: remember to evaluate storage space.

How many closets are there? How big are they? Are there places to accommodate additional storage or where more closets could be built such as an attic or basement? What about outside? Is there a garage, shed, or both?

But that’s only the first part of the evaluation process. The second is to visualize all of the areas that you currently have for storage. How do the ones in the home you’re looking at measure up?

Are you sure?

It may sound like a bunch of elementary questions but I know firsthand that it’s too easy to get caught up in looking at room sizes and features and location issues to have something as mundane and simple as a closet blow right on past you. And the loss of even a single storage space can make more of a difference than you think. So, while you're comparing square footage info, make sure you factor in how much of this is storage space -- or could be.

At This D*mn House, there are three closets upstairs. However, most people have kitchen cabinets larger than any one of the three! So, we rely a lot on the basement and the storage shed to hold things. That’s why around this time last year, Lawrence and I built a closet in the family room. The mother managed to fill it with (mostly) her clothes over a weekend and I get to keep my scrapbooking stuff in a small corner. We have another walk-in closet in the laundry room and that brings me to something we do where you have room to stack but want to spare some floor space.

(Not that we have any floor space in there, but only because we’ve been adding those long, clear, horizontal storage boxes and some of what I call the “coffin-sized” blue plastic ones in recent years. These hold seasonal decorations, off-season clothing, and old curtains and rugs.)

We use a combination of trash cans, too, many of which look like these. I line them with bags and then fill them. Once full, I put another trash bag (folded) over the top and stuff it down over the sides before putting the lid in place. It seems to keep things in pretty good shape. The square-shaped ones are great. They hold a lot and, if you have the ceiling height, let you set a round one safely on top of it.

What’s fun is you can even color-code these. Green for Christmas. Orange for fall or Halloween. Black for clothing. And you thought they were just for trash!