Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Storage, storage, storage!

I know! You thought I had thrown in the proverbial blogging towel? Well ... no, just a little winter hiatus and I'm back with some things we've learned about smaller houses and storage.


I don't think I ever posted pictures of our new laundry room? This is what we made of a very tiny bedroom that is right at the end of the 2nd floor hall and next to the master bedroom. We took about two feet of the old bedroom to increase the size of the master bath (behind that back wall). And, the rest of the former tiny bedroom is our laundry room.


In addition to the storage in the cabinets over the washer and dryer, we gained this great space in the new linen closet. We dearly needed some more storage because as everybody knows, old houses aren't desired because of their large closets!

Along those lines, our winter DIY project has been to organize three existing closets: original master bedroom, guest room and family room. This was the only closet in this bedroom (which originally wasn't the master) when the house was built in 1922.


Kid you not, that was it! We added a fantastic new closet when we remodeled the master bathroom and while we couldn't get more space from this itty bitty closet, we could make it look nicer.


This is the updated closet, redone with easyclosets.com. We love this company and we used them in or previous house.

An important lesson that I've learned after moving to a smaller house is that staying organized is essential. Everything needs a specific place to be stored because there is no extra space in a big closet or attic or garage.


What I love about easyclosets is that you can design your closet storage to maximize the overall space and use components that best store your items (shelves, rods, drawers, metal baskets, hampers, cabinet doors, etc.).


The bonus is, they are about half the cost of the other custom closets.


And they are truly appropriately named ... we, mostly my husband, completed these three closets during a long weekend. And that included prepping the closets. They also come in several colors. I'm telling you, you should check them out!


This the the guest room closet and it has three sections. Our guest room was the original master bedroom as evidenced by this larger closet. Also, there used to be a fireplace in this room that we plan to restore. One day.


Another wonderful feature of these closets is that anywhere there is a section that is a standard width (18", 24", 30") you can later add drawers, bins, wine racks, etc.

Look, there is extra space in there! This will be your closet when you come to visit.