3 Great Space Making (Money Saving) Ideas for Autumn

Finding (or creating) ways to make more space in the home not only makes a house feel more spacious, it can save money too since you can hang onto stuff for longer instead of constantly replacing items. This goes for indoor and outdoor storage of course. There are plenty of ideas for indoor storage which are cheap and cheerful and more than convenient. Outdoor however, perhaps investing in a 10×20 shed or a portable garage is the solution to your problems? This way you can have some storage space away from the house creating a more spacious feel to your home. What’s more, with some of these portable structures, you can move them to different places in your garden depending on where you feel like moving them to at different times of the year! Anyway, there is an endless waterfall of ideas you can adopt – read below for some of these!

If storage is a problem in your home, read on, as we have some clever ways to make the most of what you have. We also have ingenious solutions for when you really don’t have room at home.

Use Your Vertical Space

Walls are not just for pictures, and there are all kinds of ways to use shelving that you might not have thought of. Throughout the house, strategically placed shelves open up acres of space that’s otherwise wasted:

• If you have a sofa against the wall, pop a long shelf above its back to create a convenient spot for reading or hobby lamps, books or gadgets.
• Surround doorways with narrow shelving. You’ll make a faux recessed doorway and make plenty of room for books or ornaments at the same time.
• Fit rails or narrow shelves on the ends of kitchen cabinets. They’re handy spots for recipe books, spice collections or tea towel holders. They’re also good places to add a little practical decoration to the kitchen by adding a potted herb or two if you don’t like them on the windowsill.
• Rolled towels look great on tall shelves in bathrooms, and they only take up a small corner so there’s still plenty of floor space.
• A shelf high up at picture rail height, running around the living room walls, keeps precious items out of children’s reach while stylishly displaying them.

When you’re looking for places to add a little extra home storage, look up, or notice the vertical sides of existing furniture or fittings.

Find Your Hidden or Underused Areas

Maybe you’re not using your wardrobe to its fullest, or maybe your understairs cupboard is a jumbled mess.

In the closet, there are all kinds of tricks to make more room:

• Double up your hangars with soft drink ring pulls to make more of your rail space.
• Organise your clothes so there is space beneath short garments for a second rail.
• Install a plastic set of drawers for additional enclosed storage. They’re handy for shoes, accessories, folded items or your smalls.
• Fit a rail (like a towel rail) inside the door and use it for scarves, ties or beads and belts.
• Add a shoe rack at the bottom, or make your own with a couple of tension rods normally used for net or sheer curtains.

Get Clever with the Seasons

Few of us wear the same kind of clothes in both winter and summer. This usually means we’re giving over storage space to clothes we won’t wear again for months. Given the cost of good new clothes, however, it’s a waste to use them for just one season.

A better, more economical way of managing changing seasons and the possessions that belong with them, is to opt for seasonal self storage. It’s almost like having an independent walk-in wardrobe. You can choose from a vast selection of storage room sizes, so there’s one for just about every need, including large lockers.

With a storage room available, you can simply pack away your summer wardrobe in autumn to make room for the things you’ll need over winter.

You could take the same approach with other possessions that have seasonal use, from garden furnishings to outdoor play equipment or sports gear. It’s a cost-effective way of taking care of expensive items that might otherwise suffer damage through inappropriate storage (or just clutter up the garage) during their off season.

So on the subject of garages, maybe it’s time to think about out of house storage, maybe a small workshop shed or a summer house or something to keep those extra special possessions so that you can make space for more winter clothes for the oncoming colder season.

Clothes and equipment soon fall into disrepair when they’re not used or maintained regularly. With a bit of outside-the-box thinking, you can save money on expensive replacements and create loads of space at home at the same time.