The Only Storage is Closed Storage

I know I've made some wild claims in the past, like "Timeless Design" doesn't exist, but this is one that really has been shaping how I think about our house this time of year. In the post-Christmas-stuck-inside season of cold that we get in January in Minnesota, getting organized is a huge part of how we start the year. This is when the restlessness of winter sets in, and the deep scrutinization of things takes off.

There are a lot of ways to do storage, but the importance of closed storage cannot be overstated in houses like mine: lots of people, not a lot of square footage. The more we keep in the open, the more we feel cluttered. It's important to rethink open storage, even for folks like me who are slowly -but surely- finishing a basement library filled with open shelving.

Rethinking Open Storage

Storing things in the open is an important way to keep things we have stored! This is factual. But it's a far cry from allowing clutter to rule the house.  It's also something I'm actively working on, so this is information for my benefit as much as for anyone else!

The first role of open storage though isn't storage: it's display. That's not just about having an aesthetically pleasing arrangement everywhere things are out in the home, but about having micro-organization that keeps like-items together in a logical way.  Plant pots and wide vases make great vessels for pens, pencils and paint brushes, and if these are arranged in an office or workspace, they are accessible where they are needed and they look like they are meant to be there.

The place where we’ve really had some of the best success with storage displays has always been our bathroom.  Q-tips and cotton balls easily fill small clear vessels, and I added a larger one to act as our first-aid station.  It helps for folks who really need to see it to know it’s there.  Much like glass canisters and clear bins, even glass doors on bookshelves can help!  Even a cluttered shelf looks less overwhelming with some glazing in front.

​The Power of the Closet

All of the closeted bedrooms in my house are getting makeovers this year, and while my big kids, my partner, and I have been pretty good with dresser organization, we’re rethinking how to use our closets in more effective ways.  Enter a dressing area.

By treating our bedroom closets more as dressing areas, we’ll be able to set up our days with all the openly stored -even cluttered- displays that we need.  And once ready to go, we can close the door and forget we were in it.  We edited our front closet a few years ago, and despite there being a few stumbles with broken hooks, it’s mostly been a really great set up for us to manage shoes, coats, and winter gear.

​No Fear in Editing

This might be something I’m trying to convince myself of as I work on improving our organization, but editing and pairing down the things we have is incredibly important to getting and staying organized.  It’s also key to managing where items will find a permanent home.

One thing last year taught me with reworking our storage spaces to give our big kids separate rooms, is that I need to take a stand and lose the worry around editing what we have, and making sure what we keep is managed appropriately.  Just like I have our electrical panel labelled and organized in plan, I hope to add a similar sense of organization to our attic and basement storage.  Already I’m finding it irritating to head to the basement looking for something stored (let’s be honest: it’s usually the case of screws) before remembering it’s in the attic tool storage.  Planning out where all these will live, documenting that system, and keeping that accessible will help us keep organized with systems that are already working in other ways.

Hopefully, the editing and purging of unnecessary and duplicate things will guide the way we store and manage daily-use and seasonal use items throughout our homes and our lives.  Will I still have a bucket of likely-useless cords?  Of course.  But I’ll know where they are, and have each type labelled and ready to go.

With a system in mind going forward, I do think we’re capable of making something much better work for us!  It is possible I’m writing it to get my own act together with tackling the clutter, but I still embrace the need for closed storage, and thoughtfully curating how we display the rest.