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The Ten Essential Storage Principles Of An ExtraOrdinary Home
Planning a remodel, major repair or new home construction?
Looking for some terrific features to include that won't be
budget busters? We can help! We started collecting over 1,000
uncommon, affordable convenience built-ins in 1998, when we
first began writing books and consulting to help people have
truly extraordinary -- but affordable -- homes. Here are some of
our favorite storage ideas as well as our 10 essential storage
principles. Add any of these to your next project, and you'll be
on your way toward creating a home that's truly beyond the
ordinary!
1. First of all, the purpose of good storage is to help you keep
organized. (Contrary to what your spouse or teenagers might say,
it's not merely to hide monster messes where they'll get
forgotten or require tons of time to sort through whenever
someone's looking for something!)
Rollaway storage -- with lockable wheels -- can tuck into a
stall built into a lower cabinet, island, closet or under a
sink. Or roll into place for being used under a table, desk or
countertop. Ideal for laundry hampers and garbage cans; a cart
for tableware (from walk-in pantry to the table and from the
dishwasher back to the pantry); file cabinets; a stack of
drawers; containers for toys, equipment, gift wrapping or craft
supplies; an entire island; a wagon or cart to wheel around the
house while putting various items it contains wherever they
belong; and so much more.
2. There must be adequate storage space for all your current
belongings, plus space for your future acquisitions. And if
you're likely to start a family while living in this house, that
may mean you need as much space to grow into as you'll fill when
you move in.
Pullout shelves, bins, baskets and racks in lower cabinets allow
easy access to their contents. Don't forget to add these under
sinks, with cutouts that fit around the plumbing. No more
getting down on your hands and knees to see and find things! And
with these, you can get to -- and therefore use -- the space
that's even at the very back of your cabinets.
3. Next, I'd be sure each storage area is appropriate for
whatever you plan to store, and that each has compartments
appropriate for its contents. That means your sports equipment
needs space that's different from the space for your music and
video collections.
For hanging table linens, dowels bolted onto the back walls or
mounted on a frame bolted to the sides or bottom of pantries,
closets or cabinets make linens easily accessible while
minimizing creases and fold lines. No more digging to the bottom
of a drawer of folded linens to find a favorite tablecloth, or
having to empty the entire drawer to get it out! And no more
linens that are too wrinkled to use "as is!" This is also a
great way to use a narrow area of otherwise wasted space.
4. Plan storage scattered throughout the whole house. Ideally,
everything will be stored near where you'll be using it. No
point in hauling stuff through half the house!
You'll love having closets and cabinets -- the pantry, too --
whose lights go on automatically as their doors open, the way a
refrigerator's does. (One of the many benefits of built-in
cabinets is the inside lighting that's possible.) No more
groping to find manual light switches, especially when your
hands are often too full to reach for a switch -- or they're
wet! This is also wonderful for kids -- and adults in
wheelchairs -- who can't easily reach a closet's traditional
light switch. A plunger switch is inside most refrigerators, but
magnetic contact switches -- similar to those used in home
security alarm systems -- can also do the job throughout your
house.
5. I'd also plan for your most frequently used items to be
easiest and quickest to reach, and to store your less frequently
used things in the remaining space only after all the popular
things are stored.
Electrical outlets inside drawers, cabinets or in appliance
barns on countertops allow small appliances to be stored out of
sight and used without frequent plugging and
unplugging.
(Ideally, everything you store in these spaces will be used
nearby so you won't need any extension cords.) You avoid
countertop clutter, the items never get dusty and are always
ready to use, and no one needs to fiddle with the plugs --
especially when their hands are wet or arthritic. Just be sure
to measure the sizes of the appliances you plan to store before
you finalize these spaces' dimensions, so you avoid any
surprises about something not fitting inside.
6. Your largest and heaviest possessions also need to be the
easiest and quickest to get to, and not be put up high or in a
corner that's tricky to navigate. Fill the remaining storage
spaces with your lightweight items.
Separate activity areas in the kitchen will make everything
efficiently at hand exactly where you need it: baking and
mixing, food preparation, cooking, cleanup, entertaining,
beverage service, etc.
7. Be sure storage minimizes wasted space.
Hang a detachable hamper inside a pullout or tiltout lower
cabinet door or storage bench, or inside a closet door. A cloth
hamper hanging on a frame makes transporting clothes or linens
to the washing machine especially easy, but wire or plastic
hampers also work. No more dropping items on the way to the
laundry room that you might trip over! Choose materials that
allow ventilation in the hamper, to prevent mold from forming on
any damp or wet items that remain inside for more than a few
days.
8. Make your storage spaces accessible, so none of them are
wasted because they can't easily be reached.
Full-extension drawers, pullout shelves and file cabinets -- all
on easy-gliding metal tracks -- allow you to reach and see all
their contents, so you can use all their space.
9. I'd also look at traffic flows in the house. If your most
frequently used items are stored in the major traffic paths, no
one will have to go out of their way to get what they need, and
you'll have a very efficient house. On the other hand, you can
also affect where the traffic detours through the house via
where you store popular items. So if you want to stop frequent
bottlenecks where people tend to collide with each other, you
can move the popular items into different locations in order to
force some of the traffic to flow along new paths.
Adequate clearance around every open drawer, hinged cabinet or
door, and appliance door will keep traffic flowing and save you
some steps. Be sure you have room to open and move around all
the drawers and cabinets you need to open at once when you're
emptying the dishwasher, putting groceries away, working on a
project, etc.
10. My final point is to make as much of the storage adjustable
as possible, so as your needs change, the storage that worked
for you initially can be modified to remain as effective as ever.
Open shelving -- or you can remove some cabinet doors -- gives
you instant identification of and access to your stored goods.
Stored items get more light around them and are easier to see,
the motion of opening cabinets is not required, and this saves
some trial and error if you don't recall precisely what's stored
where.
Like this article? Then you'll love our books that all have
uncommon, affordable storage ideas that increase your quality of
life and your home's resale value! We also offer a free e-book
at www.extraordinaryhomes.com: The 34 ExtraOrdinary Home
Principles: Over 70 Fabulous, Affordable, Innovative Ideas
That'll Improve Your Life and WOW You! © Copyright 2005 by Carol
Abrahamson/ExtraOrdinary Homes. All rights reserved.
About the author:
Carol Abrahamson consults, writes and makes presentations about
more than 1,000 of these fabulous features that can improve your
life, add value to your home and make you the talk of the town.
She spent years researching them via thousands of sources just
so you can quickly and easily use them to create your
affordable, extraordinary Home of Your Dreams™. Learn more about
her work via www.extraordinaryhomes.com or
carol@extraordinaryhomes.com.
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