storage ideaa

[Stacey]

Ok I need help. The next few weeks I'm going to try and get this house uncluttered if possible. What are some ideas?

We live in a 16x80 mobile home. 3 bedrooms and 3 small children. I have virtually no storage space. The only thing I've come up with is next week after I shampoo carpets I plan on getting my hope chest and putting our blankets and other bedding in there. I save clothes as the older girls grow out of them for the younger one. Which those are scattered. 2 of the kids share a room. That room has a full bed and a toddler bed, a play kitchen set and a tv (that works) ii n the closet along with our Christmas box which has the tree and decorations. Everything seems so cluttered and unorganized.
If you have encountered this problem and was able to remedy it on a low budget please share some of the things you have done. I'm beginning to feel so closed in. I keep it picked up vacuumed and kitchen clean on a constant basis but I hate going into any of the rooms. Our room has a cali king 2 gun safes a shoe rack and 3 dressers. Our walk in closet is over run by clothes gun cases and things that just kinda sit there.

Should I just buy a bunch of totes and do it that way?

[IamHis]

If there is any room to do so, have your honey put up some more
shelves in the closets. Put the stuff you don't use much up on the
new high shelves ( they will be harder to reach). Totes work good
if you can try to get totes that fit the closet best. Those over the
door organizers are pretty neat too. For shoes, etc, that usually
end up cluttering the floor. Also, they make 'captain's beds' which
are like a set of bunk beds that each have a drawer of storage
space under each mattress. Could the toddler use the lower bunk
and the older child the upper? The drawer could be used for
small toys or books. Kids aren't great at picking up and putting away
but if they can just toss the little toys into a drawer and close it,
it's easy and that way they might do it and help you out some.
Switching to the bunk beds would allow you to remove the full size
bed and give you more room for another chest of drawers for clothing.
Just some ideas, hope it helped.

[live2love]

I also live in a very small house.

I deliberately bought a bed that has easy to open drawers underneath which is invaluable for all those items that are not used that much. Or even for ones that are needed daily. I wouldn't do without it.

It would be lovely to not have to have a drawer divan bed but when space is tight, well they are a benefit.

[Tiger Lily]

Like the more/higher shelves in the closet idea and the under-bed drawer ideas. I understand many of us do not adequately explore and employ a key resource: vertical space. For example, if space is a problem, why waste living room floor space on a waist-high bookcase? Even if you only have enough books to fill half the shelves, there are typically plenty of things you could put on the other shelves if you replaced it with a taller bookcase. Of course, with young children, you have to be careful that whatever they have access to is not something that they could easily tip over (or else is secured to the wall with braces).

Adjustable plastic shelving on the inside of cupboards and closet doors can be very useful (the kind where you attach the side strips to the doors with screws and are then able to place the shelves at whichever height you prefer and easily move the shelves around without need of screws). Single or double stationary shelves are also useful where easy readjustment is not necessary (e.g., on the inside of the cabinet doors in the kitchen under the sink).

Double- or triple-duty furniture and accessories, e.g., things that are decorative, open up for storage space and can even, with some items, be used for seating. Examples: some ottomans; a collection of decorated square- or hat-boxes (for show and storage); replacing a lamp table with a small chest of drawers, etc.

Plastic under-bed storage bins are handy.

Putting an extra pole below the main pole in closets.

Putting those plastic multi-drawer units inside of closets.

Space bags that you can put bedding or clothing in and vacuum out the air, reducing the volume.

If you are considering replacing furniture at low cost, you might consider thrift stores, especially ones where you can call and find out when they have half-price sales. I have a lovely, well-made little chest of drawers (that works quite nicely for holding some of my art supplies) that I got half-price for I think only about $35. I clean things like that thoroughly with Lysol in water and surprisingly, the wood seems to usually take the wet cleaning quite nicely.

[hsmommy]

The gun cases also held some of the Christmas wrap. The luggage held seasonal clothing (for those who had quite growing). I quit saving clothes for the next child coming up, choosing instead space over buying clothing cheap at garage sales, thrift stores, etc. Installed shelving everywhere. Used space under beds & other furniture. We also also bought a stacking washer & dryer so that we could have an upright freezer in the leftover space.

HTH

Lorna

[Acts5:41]

I agree, get rid of the full bed. A full bed is 15 inches wider than a twin and a small child doesn't need it, unless you plan to put both in there when the toddler gets older.

You could even get a loft bunk bed, and put the play kitchen (does it get a lot of use?) underneath. Ikea has a lot of really inexpensive ones. You could put the toddler bed underneath the twin bed. Either way you just got 20 square feet or so.

If you keep "regular" beds, use the under bed storage as much as possible. You can also get the fishnet thing to hold stuffed animals up in the air. Go vertical, but in the kids' rooms, make sure any shelving is secured to the wall, and the kids know to stay off the shelving (they will want to climb).

What I have done is get rid of absolutely everything I don't need. I realize it's different for a married woman with kids, if you're thinking you might have more you can't afford to get rid of the potty chair, baby crib, etc.

This is not a slap, but one thing I find helpful is watching the show, "Hoarders". I get some good ideas for picking up from the show. Many times we hang onto stuff we just don't need. I had a whole bookcase full of books, now it's just one cardboard box. I realized I had the books, but either I'd already read them, or I wasn't going to. Once I moved them on, I had a lot more room.

[JoyJoyJoy]

I saw a picture on Pinterest where wrapping paper was stored kinda on the ceiling of a closet. Looked like the rolls were just the right length to fit.
If you want underbed storage but your bed isnt high enough, you can buy little block things to put under the bed to raise it up.
I used those nets for years for stuffed animals and also used them in the bathtub to hold tub toys.
Could you possibly rent some storage space?
I love the idea of spacebags, but never could get them to work right.
How about shelves built around the tops of your kids bedrooms? You could store books, dolls, etc... I have seen shelves built over doorways too.
Good luck!!

[Reason&Hope]

In addition to the great ideas above -->

There are hangers that consist of multiple horizontal rods on one hanger, such as one hook and 3 bars below, like a ladder. These hangers are great for holding multiple pairs of pants in a much slimmer space.

Back of the door organizers hang on the door and are usually used for shoes, but you can put socks, toys, small kids clothes.

A lot of different furniture can have double uses as storage: such as ottoman type chairs or stools. My younger son has an ottoman seat that he stores his schoolwork in. Coffee tables can also store stuff, depending on their design, or you can use an old trunk, painted nicely, as a coffee table, like I did for years.

Using the vertical space idea, we have installed long shelves up high on some of our walls. We just use the L brackets and a simple wood or laminate board.

[Stacey]

Such great ideas thanks for getting me started. I'm so sorry it took so long to reply. This last week seemed so busy. I'd jump on rr for a min scan thru and finish whatever I was doing. Lol. I just didn't know what types of things other people did with a small space kids. Now I know and can create their rooms and the rest of the house too. So thanks again

[Stacey]

Lol sorry I didn't know how the thumbs down or the rolling eyes got on there.

[Mommytoa3rdgradeboy]

I also lived in a doublewide for about 6 years. I had only one child, BUT he had as much stuff as two or three children! I love talking about storage ideas...great topic. I bought him a captain's bed as soon as he was out of the crib. They are GREAT for storage!

I love all of the ideas. The only thing that I would disagree on is getting rid of the full size bed. They will grow...too fast...and that full size bed will come in very handy. I like the under the bed plastic storage containers, especially the ones with wheels on them, a few bucks more, but well worth it. Make sure you you label what you put in the containers.

The 1st thing I would do would be to get rid of everything you do not need. Have a yard sale, donate what is not sold to something like GoodWill. I would keep the kids' clothes for passing down, too, btw. If you have a garage, put the outgrown clothes (label w/ sizes, in plastic containers and stack them vertically in the garage. They will be ok. Also, I like central storage for items such as books, DVD, cds, that type of thing. For example, i used to have a huge entertainment enter in my living room. It contained ALL books, cds, DVDS, displayed a few pics., and it had all board games in it. That way, instead of coming up with three places to find to store these items, you only have to have one place. Also, if your kitchen cabinets have 'storage' between the top of the cabinet and the ceiling, consider using that to store light weight items that can be hidden in decorative boxes. I personally don't care for the idea (probably because I am not a big cooker) but if you can carry if off, consider HANGING pots and pans. I also tried to always keep all cleaning supplies either in the kitchen (under the sink) or in the laundry room, on shelves. That totally frees up bathrrom space for towels, etc. I also used a cute basket in which to store all of my lotion. It didn't look cluttered and I kept it in the bathroom. K-Mart and places like that have those storage bin 'shelve' things, too. They are great for smaller items, such as mismatched crayons, markers, crafts, etc. I used them for Lincoln Logs, sidewalkchalk, and crafts. If you need more room for towels in the bathroom, get a large basket and roll them in and just set them in the basket..looks great! Don't keep trash cans in the bedrooms, if you have them. Something else I love are those things that are usually wooden and you see them usually on a back porch or an entry way. they can hold jackets, backbacks, shoes, umbrellas. I don't have one, but would LOVE to get one someday! Also, I have those black storage cubes...I use them for my son's clothes. That was, he is not pulling out every drawer! He takes the top shirt, and when I do laundry, I put the most recently-worn clothes on the bottom. What area of your home, in particular, do you feel is the most cluttered?