If your house is crammed, rearranging won’t help

The first thing to know about home storage solutions is that nothing will help if you have too much stuff. Don’t blame me. Blame French chemist Antoine Lavoisier, who discovered the law of conservation of mass, which states that if your house is crammed, rearranging won’t help. Betcha never thought an interior designer would tell you that.

For practical advice on home storage solutions, I spoke with Avrumie of Suede Custom Decor, Rachel Auerbach of Rachel Auerbach Interiors, and organizer Rachel Hakim.

Massive Gains

Every large piece of furniture should do double duty. Consider a storage ottoman or a coffee table with lots of capacity for toys and games. Storage benches are good options for entry areas, mudrooms, and dinettes. Less common are storage sofas, dining tables, and armchairs. Article, Crate and Barrel, and Wayfair all carry beautiful options for furniture pieces with secret compartments.

The Height of Efficiency

When maximizing space, room height is as useful as floor space. Pick higher bookcases and dressers to get more use out of your square footage. You can also stack a smaller furniture piece on top of a larger one. For example, you can place open shelves on a low dresser, or a smaller dresser on a larger dresser. If you do this, make sure the upper piece is not on legs — you don’t want an awkward space between the two pieces. Stacking furniture works best when the two pieces are the same color.

Wall shelves are an underutilized way to increase storage space. They can go over dressers, sofas, and desks. If the shelves will hold heavy items, they should be strengthened with metal brackets. Use beautiful and inexpensive baskets to store non-display items on floating shelves. Pick baskets with flat sides (rather than curved or sloping) to avoid dead space between baskets. Etsy, Urbandi, and Rejuvenation are among the vendors that sell quality wall shelves. Stay away from IKEA shelves, which chip easily. IKEA does have nice storage boxes, though. Other places to buy storage boxes include Home Goods, Michaels, and The Container Store.

Sleeper Agents

Storage beds can come with built-in drawers in the base or with a pop-top that lifts the entire mattress, revealing a huge storage space below. These storage beds are versatile. (For example, if someone is not waking up efficiently, you can press the pop-top. Did you think spies were the only one with ejector buttons?) Trundle beds can be used as one large drawer without a mattress in the trundle, but first, check that the trundle has a solid bottom and not a slat-bottom. Placing a trunk or storage bench at the foot of a bed is an elegant, traditional look that adds storage in an unexpected place.

Not every type of storage bed is ideal. Captain beds have several layers of drawers, making the mattress higher than average — something few people like. Some beds have open shelves along the head or along one side, which limits how they can be placed in a room. The open shelves tend to get messy, too. However, hidden shelves within a headboard work well.

Hooking Good

Hooks are great for coats, backpacks, and the black hats that are springing up around my house like mushrooms. Hooks can be minimalist or elaborate, but they have no business being boring. For clean, modern hooks, try CB2, Signature Hardware, and West Elm. Semiprecious hooks can be found at Modern Matter. Anthropologie and Ballard carry tiny, elaborate wall sculptures that happen to be hooks. Wayfair, Etsy, and Temu carry all types at all price ranges.

In Front of Your Face

There are several types of wall mirrors with built-in storage. Some are made to hold shoes, and others are made for jewelry, but these mirrors can hold any small item, including accessories and cleaning supplies. They are very narrow and can be placed on the backs of room doors, inside closet doors, and on walls in hallways.

Use a medicine cabinet in an entry instead of a wall mirror. These come in all sizes and often have frames and/or integrated lighting. Instead of just showing you how harried you look, they hold keys, mail, sunglasses, and your superhero costume.

Mind the Gap

When space is at a premium, small gaps should be filled with useful storage pieces. There are narrow wheeled carts specifically made to slide into these overlooked spots. You can also consider tall, narrow bookcases and armoires in unused corners. Rotating bookcases take up very little floor space and can be used for shoes, bags, kitchen supplies, and toys.

Closets can be better used with more shelves, both above and below. You can buy an inexpensive shoe storage piece from Amazing Savings or a dollar store, and place it on the floor of the closet. Cheap metal shelves can be added above a hanging rod. Small tiered shelves can make an under-sink cabinet more useful.

Go forth and conquer! Or not. You do you.

(Originally featured in Family First, Issue 983)