If you have a house with lots of storage, where is the storage?

[momee]

We're building a house and I would love to say it has lots of storage but I don't know exactly what that means since I've never had the honor :)

 

Each bedroom has a closet, foyer has a coat closet, upstairs hall near bedrooms has a linen closet, the masters have walk in closets, we are planning on built in bookshelves in the living room and I may!!!!!! get my wish of a basement.  Laundry room will have cabinets and countertop as well as pantry shelving for dry goods.

 

If the basement doesn't happen, what else do I want to consider adding?

[The Girls' Mom]

We put storage under the stairs and made sure the attic space was accessible and floored (just plywood). I wish we had a basement, but our land is sitting on some huge rocks and it would have cost too much to blast.

[NoseInABook]

Under the stairs in the basement and there's a room near our laundry room that's good for storage too.

[PeterPan]

Your list seems pretty good.  We have a mechanical room we use for storage. The only thing I wish we had done that we didn't think of at the time was to put in a loft over the living room.  It would have been awesome for toys, books, whatever.

[Pawz4me]

Downstairs we have a coat closet and a large pantry.  Upstairs each bedroom (four) have walk in closets.  There's also a walk in closet in our loft (which could have been a fifth bedroom).  We have a large linen closets in the hallway and in the master bathroom.   The laundry room has shelving over the washer/dryer that runs the length of the room.  We also have some plywood in our attic, so we could store things up there.  But so far we're a long way from needing it.

[MiMi 4under3]

Don't add much more storage because it'll just lend itself to being filled up with "stuff."   :D

[Mandylubug]

When we lived in AZ, we had an outdoor storage room of 8x4 on the side of our patio. We also had an 8x4 closet off the laundry room. In addition to all the closets you mentioned. I miss those rooms majorly.

[zoobie]

Laundry room (with closet in there)

Mudroom with built-ins

Pantry

Butler's pantry if you have lots of dishes, pans, kitchen appliances

Linen closet(s)

Storage in bathrooms

Closet for seasonal decor (I've always wanted a closet big enough where you could just roll in the Xmas tree!)

Storage in garage for sports and outdoor equipment, bikes, gardening, cushions and patio stuff (an outdoor entrance directly to storage from backyard??)

 

Edited: that's a combo of existing and dream storage scenarios. Mostly dream!

[mom2samlibby]

We are putting a cold storage area under our front porch.

[plansrme]

If you cook a lot, buy food in bulk (even modestly) or freeze in advance, make sure you have a convenient but out-of-the-way spot for a freezer as well as for the extra non-frozen food.

 

A closet with doors in your school area, not just shelves.

 

As Zoobie mentioned, a place to store Christmas or other seasonal decor is critical. I do not have much stuff generally, but Christmas is the exception, and it is bulky. I have a basement closet devoted almost entirely to Christmas, and that does not even include a tree--we buy a live one every year.

 

Make sure you have a tall-enough spot on every floor to store a vacuum cleaner and broom.

[Laura Corin]

We have bedroom closets, book shelves and also a walk-in storage area under the roof.  The latter is really good for storing things like camping equipment and Christmas ornaments.  It's an area of 'loft' that doesn't have enough head room to be living space, but is fine for storage.  It opens off the upstairs family room.

 

L

[craftyerin]

The only thing I have in addition to your list is a mud room with upper cabinet storage and a vertical row of large baskets on shelves.  I don't actually feel like my house has a lot of storage.  A decent amount, yes, but not as much as some of my friends with newer houses. We have decent bedroom closets, but tiny hall and linen closets. I added the mud room and the cabinets above the washer/dryer when we moved here, so it's far better now, but not great.

 

[DawnM]

We do have a lot of storage.  I need better ways to utilize it though.

 

We have an attic (only the size of a 1.5 car garage as it is above the garage)

We have a 12x15 room in the basement that is only storage

We have some shelves along the side of one of the garages to hold tools and such

 

The hard thing about too much storage space.......I tend not to purge.  I just throw it in a storage area.......

[lmrich]

A walk in panty and a mud room would change my world

[Pippen]

My laundry room is in the basement but before we moved in my husband lined the room in shelves.  I wish now some of it were enclosed but it provides a great deal of very flexible storage space.

 

We have a space under the stairs with some shelving.  Copy paper boxes also fit exactly between the floor joists in the ceiling of that space so my husband attached swinging wooden bars so I keep my glass holiday decorations up in there and out of the way.

 

We once lived in a rental that had a closet running the length of the bathroom. The washer and dryer were in there, but there was plenty of room for bathroom supplies, cleaning stuff, linens and more. I really missed it when we moved to our current house which only has a tiny linen closet only accessible from the hallway.

 

 

[momto10blessings]

I have tons of closets, I just wish I had made them bigger!! They are wide enough, but I would love them to be deeper.

[MEmama]

Coat closet in entry

Large corner built in unit in living room with bookshelves and huge drawers--perfect for storing games, puzzles, science kits etc out of the way but easily accessible

Desk with built in cabinets above and below in kitchen

Pantry

Baking storage and dishwasher in island

Cabinets over refrigerator (great for wine glasses and liquor)

Canning shelves in basement landing just off kitchen

Huge deep cabinets in downstairs powder room

Closets in every bedroom, including a walk in master

3 (!!) linen closets in upstairs landing, one used for out of season coats

Built in desk with drawers and built in dresser in bonus room over garage

Full attic (though we don't use it)

Full basement

Garage

Mud room

 

I've never had a house that had this much storage before, and even though we don't have lots of extra stuff, it's well worth it for the organization.

[StephanieZ]

Oh, oh! I am adding on to our house right now . . . and it will soon have much better storage solutions. I think the key is to put storage where YOU need it! Think through how you will use your rooms, and put storage in convenient locations.

 

In the newly finished basement, we have a small 24 inch wide closet with 24 inch deep super sturdy shelves. It is storing the items we need THERE -- yoga mats,Wii/xbox accessories, weights/PT accesories, and a shelf of board games. It is an awesome use of a tiny awkward nook. 

 

We also have a large "reach in" closet down there for guest clothes or misc stuff.

 

We have about 300-400 sf of the basement unfinished for weird stuff storage. (Long term junk, holiday decor, etc.)

 

We will have a large walk in pantry and tons of kitchen cabs, so ALL kitchen things can go in those rooms. No more "kitchen shelves" in the basement for canning supplies, etc -- all of it can fit in the large pantry if not in the cabinets.

 

We will have a built in buffet in the dining room for linens and stemware, etc.

 

I am reworking our mudroom/laundry room to allow for a large walk-in aisle dedicated to storage of cleaning supplies, etc. Also, more cabinetry in there for sufficient space to store all cleaning supplies. One floor to ceiling 6-8ft wall of floor to ceiling shallow shelves, in addition to traditional cabinetry/counters, and a "broom closet" for vacuums/steamer/other large stuff. There will be under-the-counter cubbies/shelving sized to fit the laundry baskets (empty or full). I'm looking forward to the shallow shelving (10 inch) to store all that weird cleaning stuff w/o it getting hidden behind things.

 

In the new music room, we'll have a large walk in closet with deep shelving on one wall. This storage is put there for the things we have -- many, many occasionally used or outgrown (but sentimental) violins, mandolins, guitars, etc. As well as large bulky harp covers, dolly, etc. And tons of other music "stuff". 

 

Most of our bedrooms are remaining unaltered in the remodel, but the new bedrooms get large closets. Two if possible. And, all our new bath areas have large, deep nice lovely medicine cabinets, vanities with functional storage, and spacious linen cabinets in or near each bathroom. 

 

We are lining one new 4 ft hall with built in book floor to ceiling shelves. (Can never have enough shelving . . . ) Widening a hall by 12 inches (or deepening a stair landing if you have any U-shaped stairs) and lining it with bookshelves is an AWESOME way to add shelving as it costs you just that small square footage, and does not restrict your use of any room with functional wall space. I'd do this on more halls/stairs if I were altering or building more, but this my only location to add it during this project. I did this to the entire length of the upstairs bedroom hall in a house we once were building (so, 8-10 linear feet of floor to ceiling shelves), and it ROCKED. Perfect location to store kids' picture books (bottom shelves) and adult books (upper shelves). All our fiction and fun stuff was up there, with schooling materials on other shelves in the school room. Nice to display photos, too. 

 

We will have some "attic storage" under various eaves, but I am hopeful to not need to ever use it. :)

 

HTH

[StephanieZ]

ps. Check out the class "Not So Big House" book for gobs of creative storage ideas. The lining-the-hall shelving idea came from her book. 

[Amy in NH]

in the barn

[J-rap]

A large basement and walk-up (it actually has stairs, that is, not just a ladder) attic.  Neither is perfect, but I'm glad we have them.  The basement gets some water leakage (so we have to keep everything off the ground) during the thaw every year, and the attic is just awkward to get to.  It's a walk-up, but you still can't stand up straight as you walk up.  :)

[KungFuPanda]

I'll tell you what I need. A walk in pantry and walk in bedroom closets. My rooms are a decent size, the closets could be bigger. I have tons of storage in an unfinished basement, but since it's one big space it has become a catch-all. It's too big and out-of-control, whereas storage areas on the living levels are more manageable. I NEED to clean out the basement, but it's overwhelming.

[elegantlion]

My house has an amazing amount of storage for a 1920s bungalow. Both bedrooms have walk in closets (small, but still walk in). A large linen closet and a cute small broom closet in the hallway. The broom closet is big enough to hold a small upright vacuum and the broom and mop. The kitchen has a floor to ceiling pantry with shelves. We do lack a coat closet though. I really like the small broom closet because all the dusty things stay in there.

[LisaKinVA]

In one house, my parents put an extra 2' of width in the hallway for storage (no basement, no attic over the house).

 

Garage space (high ceilings, built in loft areas).

 

In the house we built, we had a HUGE attic (partially floored), we didn't store anything of value up there, just parts for the a/c and ventilation units...but we could have.  I had a basement with a planned mechanical room (storage for more house parts), a locked closet under the front porch (this was where I stored Christmas presents, holiday decorations, and hand-me-downs, it was also a place for things I didn't want the kids to get into.  We had a mudroom off the garage with a built in storage bench (outdoor shoes, coats, hats, mittens, scarves), the garage had storage for dh's tools, projects and car supplies. Each room had a roomy closet (we had an 8x20 walk in closet, which we won't get to finish out with built in storage), My laundry room and custom-built shelves for laundry baskets, custom built risers for the washer & dryer with large drawers built in, and a 5' cabinet/countertop with drawers as well...it also had 12' of open shelving above.  There was plenty of room to store everything we needed on a regular basis in there (medicines, lightbulbs, batteries, cleaning supplies, rags, etc.). 

 

Here in Italy, we have a basement (no attic), no closets...and nothing in the way of bathroom storage.  We'll be making it up as we go :p

 

Essentially "good storage" means that you have enough space to put things away in an orderly fashion, space for long-term (like holiday things) and short term (extra sheets, winter blankets/clothes, back-up supplies), and every day items.

 

For me, storage has never been an excuse to fill things up...it's just been a way to keep things organized and uncluttered.  It has also given me an opportunity to stock up when things were on sale (and usually matched with a doubled coupon).  The only reason my parents have an issue with storage, is an inability to get rid of things...and keeping things "just-in-case."  However, after cleaning out my grandmother's stuff (she had 2 bedrooms and a pull-out sofa, but about 15 sets of sheets and pillowcases, 30+ towels, a full attic and basement), my mom is seriously de-cluttering her things (I'm grateful). 

[chicagoshannon]

We have an entire basement for storage. It's about 1000 sq ft. However, if I could add more storage it would be bigger pantry, bigger entry closet, and bigger laundry room. Our pantry is only about 2ft wide. I would love 4ft wide or walk in. Our laundry room is also our entry from the garage. I have the washer and dryer with cabinets above. That is all. I wish it was twice the size with room for a bench/coat hangers. Our hall entry closet is ok but I could use an extra foot or so in width. I think it's about 3.5 ft wide and would love for it to be 5ft wide.

[icollectkids]

My house is closet happy. :) And, they are all a pretty decent size. The smallest bedroom has a walk in closet! (Which is great, because I have 3 girls in that room!) I have 4 'closets' that house water heaters (we have 2...one for each end of the house) and heater/AC unit. There is shelving and some storage space in there. There is another really nice sized closet near the front door.

2 of the bathrooms have lots of cabinets along the wall over the toilet and under the sink.

 

Then there is storage space in the pole barn. garage and the well house. :)

[kathkath]

We have a lot of big closets. I wish we had done more storage downstairs though for crafts, games, school etc.

[Ali in OR]

We have attic space over the garage--a ladder pulls down into the garage.

[LostSurprise]

Our house is small-medium (1500sf) but one thing that attracted it to us was the built-in storage.

 

We have 3 built-in bookshelves and the builders chose to put in in-wall cabinets in what used to be the throughway between the kitchen/backyard/garage. This built-in against the living room wall with the fireplace. The cabinets are only in the sections of wall that the fireplace is not opposite and they look just like the wall. I think there were lower built-in cabinets as well but one was designed to hold firewood (has a door to the living room) and the other was turned into a space for the television when the people before us remodeled it into a tv room. 

 

We also have another built-in between the kitchen and living room. The kitchen shares a wall with the living room. That wall is on a angle near the exit to the living room. Behind the oven and its cabinets is a huge built-in cabinet with lower and upper shelves. It's fairly deep too.  

[Maplecat]

A lot of our storage has already been talked about. Additionally, I like coat closets by the front and back doors. I also love having a 2.5 car garage. We have enough room for bikes, sleds, mowers, blowers, and *super essentials* like a cement mixer.