When storage works it’s almost invisible and creates a restful, harmonious environment. When it doesn’t work we feel its lack with a sense of being stifled by our own belongings. It may take a bit of thought and effort to get right, but the rewards are huge. 

Maximising Minimalism

Whilst true minimalism means stripping back to the barest of essentials – something that doesn’t appeal to most of us – we can improve our living spaces by borrowing a few tactics.

In the minimalist home, there is no place for clutter. One way of dealing with clutter is to hide it, filling cupboards, loft spaces and every spare nook and cranny with unused items. While the hiding tactic looks great on the surface, it leaves no storage space for other more useful items.

A better way of dealing with items you don’t use but want to keep is to remove them altogether by putting them into storage. Self-storage in London has come a long way in recent years, with companies now offering large lockers as convenient options for householders with more possessions than space.

There are two ways of looking at self-storage. Either as a long-term solution for precious or sentimental items you never want to part with or as a halfway house for items, you can’t decide about. With the second strategy, six months or so of living without the item may convince you it’s not that important after all. If so, you’ll feel much more confident about permanently letting it go. 

Success with Shelving

Open shelving has had something of a resurgence in recent years, with many designer kitchens featuring shelved displays of matching china or attractive collections of cookware.

To make open shelving work in kitchens, you need a good eye for colour and grouping and strict rules about what’s displayed. It’s easy for shelves to become dumping grounds for odds and ends, so if this look appeals to you decide first if you have the discipline to maintain control.

Shelving works well in any room of the house, from living rooms to bathrooms. Use a deep shelf as an alternative to brackets for a wall mounted TV, or utilise the space on the wall behind the sofa as an out of the way bookshelf or display area for objects dart or accent lamps.

Beautiful Bedrooms

Little is less restful than a cluttered bedroom. Weed out unwanted clothes from closets and either store them elsewhere or donate them to charity. If you have space, invest in a blanket box for spare linens or towels, and buy bedside tables with inbuilt storage for jewellery, make-up or small clothing items. Fitted Bedroom Glasgow has a wide variety of designs.

Ottoman beds with lifting mattress bases are great hiders of a multitude of clutter, from sports stuff to seasonal clothing or garden cushions. Equally useful in kid’s rooms, they provide useful storage for big toys and games and do away with the need for separate chests or cupboards, saving valuable play space. 

Luxurious Living Rooms

The amount of space you have largely determined what type of storage works best in living rooms.

If yours is a big, open-plan space you might benefit from a little zoning, in which case try creating room dividers with bookcases turned out from the wall. Alternate the direction books face so they look good from both sides, and use some of the space on the shelves for decorative objects or trailing plants. This is also a good way of cordoning off a section of a room as office space if you work from home.

Furniture that does two jobs is especially useful in smaller spaces where more creative storage solutions are needed. Ideas include coffee tables with inbuilt storage drawers or cabinets and footstools that double as sewing/hobby boxes or as storage for games controllers or the TV remote.

There is always a way to make storage work harder so you can reclaim a little extra space at home. Being diligent in clutter-clearing and making your furniture useful as well as functional are two keys to more beautiful living spaces.