I’ve had storage on my mind for a while, even more so after the practical nursery post earlier this week. Thank you for all the very helpful comments by the way.

After living in the world’s smallest house where limited kitchen cupboard space meant we had to put the biscuit tin in the loft, (it does wonders for the waistline I tell you) storage has always been a high priority for me. But, my friends, it has to be practical. My sister-in-law has a cupboard in her hall with no shelves so once the hoover’s in there’s no utilisable storage above for anything else. This would drive me crackers! I remember going to a friends house once and as her clothing collection grew so did the amount of furniture. Left, right and centre there were small chests of drawers, lined up next to bedside sized tables. Really she just needed one large chest with a cavernous capacity rather than cluttering her house with lots of small pieces of furniture.

I mentioned before about the bespoke shoe cabinet we had made for our hall using the service from Jali. Two years on it’s still perfect for our requirements mainly because we ensured the measurements perfectly fitted the height of my favourite boots!

The same is true in our living room where the shelves inside the alcove cupboard perfectly fit around our amp and sound system.

James also built the shelving for our laundry cupboard from scratch and it perfectly fits the two appliances. The bottom shelf on the right-hand side is set back slightly to allow for the hoover to slot in and I made sure there was room to display the vintage laundry box I found in an antique shop. To the right, we have our ironing board and to the left, heaps of coat hooks.
Utility cupboard with storage
Yes, I’d love a huge utility room with a sink but this clever solution means all the essentials are in one place and out of the kitchen.
Again when we built the shelving units in our snug we got out the largest coffee table book we owned to make sure it would slide easily on to the shelf.

You get the idea what I’m harping on about here. While I believe storage is super important I believe it has to be practical and has to suit your needs. After a huge clear out in my bathroom I realised I needed far less storage than I anticipated and so I urge you to determine what you’re storing BEFORE you buy or make any storage solution. Obviously you do need to think ahead and allow for any collections to expand but I do think some storage options just allow us to hoard rather than live more minimally. In my opinion too many things get put away into neatly lidded baskets when they should be sent down the charity shop or recycled. My friend was saying earlier this week she used to have multiple felt baskets for odds and sods but all they collected was dust.

I am a huge fan of an Ikea belly basket for this purpose. If you can see it, you’ll use it, plus the handles make it so practical. I regularly cart one out of my dressing room with all my hair products into the hallway when I dry my hair. To contradict myself I love the Wilko storage cubes mainly because they’re functional as a perching spot as well as a great place to store magazines. This has made me think though, do I really need all those magazines?

Don’t worry I realise this only applies to adult-related spaces and when it comes to littles, maximum storage is required and they’ll be heaps of it in the nursery and playroom. (We’ve got a carpenter in mind to build fitted cupboards who charges £90 a day plus materials). However, I intend to have a huge purge over the next few months. Recently life has become very cluttered all over again and I feel the need to pare back and empty those baskets! I need to revist all those Marie Kondo methods.

Does anyone agree, it’s not the amount of storage, it’s how you use it? What are your favourite methods of storing? Do you think there are any refinements that could be made to the way you store all your bits and pieces?