Monday, May 14, 2012

In search of storage

The Builder and I have a new obsession. Storage. We are moving from a house with two built-ins, ample kitchen cupboards, a linen press, a massive pantry, and a laundry full of 'spare' cupboards to a house with... well, not much.

We are on the lookout for storage solutions. Wardrobes, bookshelves, witty little boxes and anything with 'extra storage' built into it. Ebay is getting a workout. The boys have been dragged to through antiques and vintage shops til we can't stand the whinging and whining anymore.

This week we had a score. Two beautiful navy steamer trunks. Great condition. Original shipping dockets still in place.

Thank you Facebook.

Does your house have enough storage? Any tips for us?

18 comments:

  1. Ooooh. Love steamer trunks. Storage is the holy grail in old houses. We've built bookshelves, added shelves to an old broom closet to make it a linen press and when we renovated the kitchen we made sure to build to ceiling height for all our cabinetry. It makes a big difference. xx

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  2. Storage is my constant battle. Remember that old meat safe I inherited from Al? I use it as a linen cupboard but the only place for it is in my bedroom. The top half houses towels etc and the bottom half sheets. It works really well except the old mesh is starting to come away on the sides, it really needs a bit of restoration work. If only my hubby was as good with the tools as yours.... I have seen people use them for pantry items too. As much as I have resisted built-ins I think we really need them.

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  3. My solution to storage problems is getting rid of everything you don't *need*. As opposed to having another child. That will not fix this problem. There's an exception to every rule.

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  4. Ooh nice!

    I think you'll just have to make great use of that massive garage!! x

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  5. Time for a mega-declutter :) It always feel good once you've thrown all those bags into the op-shop bins!

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  6. Oh LOve - I have a bit of an obsession with trunks too, gorgeous old vintage ones. Storage is always a battle for me cause I have a hubby that hoards and we could live in Kennards and we would still struggle with it. That being said - I have banned all his hoarding from the house....just dont go into the garage! xx

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  7. Good gracious, never enough storage in our 1930s house. Every year we come to a crisis point with our 'storage situation' and resolve it, but we never seem to nail it. Too much stuff perhaps? I blame Mr Karen visiting garage sales every weekend. Even when he only has $2 in his car, he manages to bring home more stuff. The kids love it. Me? Not so much.

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  8. I love trunks and olde worlde storage solutiones! We're renovating and putting storage EVERYWHERE. Every room has a built-in cupboard - not just bedrooms, but play rooms, lounge (under the stairs), everywhere. We've had a spare room as a cupboard for too long!

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  9. My house sounds a bit like the one you are moving from, minus the linen press because I pulled that out to make way for a built-in wardrobe. But I still find I don't have enough places to put stuff. Or perhaps we just collect too much stuff!

    Love those trunks, lucky you!

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  10. As we used to live in a house deemed "the mouse house' not due to vermin, I do understand this problem.

    The first thing that changes is that you never do a big massive food shop, no point, there is no where to keep all those spare cans of tomotoes.

    You will also find you keep a lot less stuff, if the kids move on, the old items hit the op shop in a few minutes.

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  11. My favourite piece of storage is my old pine meat safe. It houses all the crockery, glasses, serving stuff and lives in the dining area...I don't have a dining room! Love it and will never, ever get rid of it :)

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  12. We have a major problem with storage in our little fibro cottage as well. Our linen cupboard is tiny, can't even fold a towel in four and fit it on a shelf. I'v found that 'space bags' are AMAZING (Your can get them from Target, Big W, Howards Storage World-assuming your in Australia), they make more room in the linen cupboard and the things inside them are less prone to getting moldy and damp (our old house can be that way sometimes). We got some nice baskets from Freedom Furniture which live in various places around the house including on top of the linen cupboard. We put a luggage rack type shelf in the bathroom to hold the toilet paper and tissues, and it acts as an extra towel rail. You will def find yourself looking for quirky solutions- IKEA have some good ones.

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  13. I am so jealous of your antique trunks! I am stuck with ikea cubes. Far less romance although maybe slightly more practical. I could write a phD on storage and still never get it quite right. Although really the answer is actual customised hand built storage which I am sure the Builder will be happy to provide you with ;-)
    Michelle

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  14. I am not sure if any house ever has enough storage, ever?! We lived in a house in Darwin with wall to wall built ins in ever room. I still managed to fill them...

    These days our garage has very unattractive metal shelving and cheap broom cupboards from Bunnings to store the overflow - your trunks are a LOT more glam!

    xx

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  15. I live in Sweden. Ikea. Ikea. Ikea.

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  16. I spent YEARS living in 4-5 bedroomed homes with lots of storage. Then I moved to a two bedroom unit and thought that was bad enough. Now I live in a one bedroom flat with no storage apart from a few kitchen cupboards, (not nearly enough), and a built in bookshelf behind the bedroom door. Not even a linen cupboard. Before I moved in I gave about twenty bags of stuff to charity shops. After I moved in I gave another dozen or so bags of stuff to charity shops. And I still have too much stuff.

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  17. I have moved many times over the past couple of years.... each move to less storage. It's amazing how little storage encourages you to cull your life. In my last place, I had a baker's rack for my linen cupboard. One towel and a spare... that was it. Now it's easy to pack and move. It's so liberating minimising one's possessions. Just cull like billyo- I say! Good luck! A-M xx

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