If your house didn't have closets...

[janinemh]

...how would you keep the clutter at bay? We live in a yurt and, while we intend to eventually build a loft with some closets and rooms underneath, we currently dont have the funds for that. The piles of stuff around the edges are driving me nuts. I would love some ideas for how to store things away in an attractive and neat manner.

[zoebird]

what is the stuff?

clothes: dressers
shoes: shoe racks/cabinets (cubbies?)
coats/etc: rack or lockers or some such
toys: trunks/baskets
crafting/art supplies: cabinet, wardrobe or what have you that you can store things in
paper/office clutter: second "office" wardrobe/cabinet

anything else?

[kittywitty]

I have only 2 small closets (and a laundry closet area that's no good for storage) in our house. It is aboslute he!!. I will say that IKEA is my friend and storage units of one kind or another are totally necessary. Underbed storage for blankets and clothes, movable racks for hang up clothes (wall mounted wouldn't work in a yurt) or a pole between two sturdy Trofast systems for kids clothes that need hung.

[lifeguard]

We have one closet - that we built in the kitchen. It's a royal pain & I wish I could say we've got a good handle on the clutter but we don't completely.

That said, the biggest thing that helps us is furniture that does double-duty, such as a bedside tables with shelves underneath for books or linens, under bed storage drawers, baskets under end tables or the coffee table for misc. items.

[Usually Curious]

What if you built a false wall in an L shape and put up a cheap closet organizer. That wouldn't cost much.

[LauraN]

Look at the Ikea catalog online. Even if there isn't one near you, you'll get a lot of good ideas from it that you can either create yourself or buy similar stuff at other stores. We just moved into a house that has one closet--under the stairs. We use that to store suitcases and winter clothes. We bought one wardrobe from Ikea for my husband's suits, and all other clothes are in dressers. The kid's rooms all have multi-purpose shelving that we use for books as well as bins full of their toys and collections. If you want to avoid plastic, Target has cute bins in a couple of sizes made out of cloth. I have something similar in the kitchen for tools and other odds and ends. My son has a largish canvas box with two compartments, one for dress up costumes and one for his train tracks, that doubles as a bench. You can find similar ones made out of wood or leather. For me, the key to it all is to make sure everything has its place so that things don't start getting dumped wherever, creating jumbled chaos.

Oh! I just remembered seeing at Target a thing that is meant for the laundry room--it's sort of a mobile canvas closet--it has a bar across it for hanging clothes, but it's totally light and moveable. That might be good for winter coats and the like.
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[lucyem]

Double duty furniture like old trunks. Though you have to be careful with those and kids. But I use a couple in my house.
There are lots of people moving to flat screens with old style enclosed tv cabinets that make great wardrobes and you can find them cheap on craigslist.
Spend some time on google looking at storage ideas. It is amazing what people come up with.

[janinemh]

Thanks for all of the ideas! Right now, my main frustration is recycling--I need an attractive container to hide it away until pick-up day. I would like to avoid plastic containers because I just don't like how they look---anyone have any ideas?


Also, laundry is an issue because we wash in my mom's house so I need somewhere to tuck clothes away.

[lolar2]

We used to live in an apartment with no closets and we just bought a freestanding wardrobe. It was just the same as a closet.

[Usually Curious]

Originally Posted by janinemh

Thanks for all of the ideas! Right now, my main frustration is recycling--I need an attractive container to hide it away until pick-up day. I would like to avoid plastic containers because I just don't like how they look---anyone have any ideas?


Also, laundry is an issue because we wash in my mom's house so I need somewhere to tuck clothes away.

build two of these:

http://ana-white.com/2010/01/plans-r...tery-barn.html

use one for clothes and one for recycling. bonus: tons of counter space!

[LauraN]

Originally Posted by janinemh

Thanks for all of the ideas! Right now, my main frustration is recycling--I need an attractive container to hide it away until pick-up day. I would like to avoid plastic containers because I just don't like how they look---anyone have any ideas?


Also, laundry is an issue because we wash in my mom's house so I need somewhere to tuck clothes away.

Wicker baskets! Laundry size with lids. One for recycling (you can line it with a plastic or nylon bag) and a couple for laundry (line with the laundry bags that you'll later transport the laundry in).

ETA: I say a couple for laundry b/c if you can get your family used to putting whites in one and colors in another, the laundry will be pre-sorted.
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[LauraN]

Originally Posted by Usually Curious

build two of these:

http://ana-white.com/2010/01/plans-r...tery-barn.html

use one for clothes and one for recycling. bonus: tons of counter space!

Ooh, I like that better than my wicker basket idea!
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[laohaire]

Just subbing cause we're planning on building a yurt.

[janinemh]

Originally Posted by Usually Curious

build two of these:

http://ana-white.com/2010/01/plans-r...tery-barn.html

use one for clothes and one for recycling. bonus: tons of counter space!

That is really beautiful, and I will put in on my (endless) project list. To the PP who is interested in yurts---they are lovely but beware, they can also be a lot of work and money for materials to fill up the empty shell.

[zoebird]

i love ana white. she is my new guru.

i'm have a long list of pallet-hack projects from her. woot! up-cycling!

[Usually Curious]

I totally got my dh hooked on her site!