The storage room is pretty much done!

 Remember this pretty storage room with lots of un-used potential?



Up until this Saturday it sported all but two tiny shelves and an assortment of hooks on the wall.
Most of our stuff was placed on the floor wherever we had a spot. One of the shelves housed a ton of boxes (from the coffee maker, the waffle cooker, and our dishes). And the other one contained our cleaning supplies and some other stuff.

Our paper recycling consisted of an old moving box. Talking of which, I already moved all the other  boxes down into the basement storage room.

In order to make this place useful I went through several steps:

1. Function: I thought about how this room was going to be used and decided on the following functions:

• Recyling Area
• Cleaning Supply Storage
• Suitcase Storage (I don´t want to put those into the dungeon-like basement)
• Tool Storage
• Housing for our Vacuum Cleaner plus attachments and filters
• Pantry and miscellaneous Household Items
• and the list might get longer ….

2. Brainstorm Storage: I researched different types of shelving, storage containers and possible layouts for how everything was going to be put together. I also thought about the size of container I would need for each category of items.

3. Budget: I set a budget for this project and researched prices in order to decide on a final system.

4. Purchase and Assembly: Once I had brought everything home, the fun part started.
Assembling everything.



Since we are only renting and did not want to install anything permanent I purchased one of those black shelving units that can be put toghether very easily. I also got an assortment of purple and lime green containers.


























I removed everything from our storage room, and went to town filling each canister with its intended items.


5. Love the results: Things are looking much better already.



Now the bottom container holds a few tools and cords, the next one up is used as paper recycling bin (that can be brought down to the garbage easily thanks to its handles). The medium sized purple containers hold glass recycables and plastic bottles respectively. Finally, I placed cleaning supplies and cleaning cloths in the larger green bin and our vacuum cleaner supplies in the smaller one.
On the other side, I used the top shelf for luggage bags and the one below for my grocery bags.



As you can see, there is still some space to add another shelf if needed (such as for additional kitchen supplies).

6. Reevaluate after some time: For now I have to wait and see how this will turn out, but re-evaluating a project after some time always helps.

Before (left side) & After (right side): 

Take Care!

Carina 

Post linked up here:
- Thrifty Decor Chick (Before and After Party January)