Find handy storage tips and tricks to help your family maximise space at home, creating more room for practical needs and day to day life.
There is no getting away from the fact that having a children are expensive and they take up so much space. Whether you’re expecting your first, second, third or even fourth, you’re likely worrying about everything you not only need to buy in preparation, but fit into your home somehow. Those worries never go away, no matter how old your child is. Children continue to take up more and more space, and they cost more and more too.
To help you maximise space in the home and maybe even save some money, here are our handy storage tips for family:
Regularly Declutter
Regularly decluttering not only clears space, but it gives you the chance to make a little bit of money every now and then. Use selling apps and sites to sell items on, or even to give them away. This not only clears your home, but it earns you a little bit of money and helps local families benefit from cheap second hand purchases. You’re also earning eco-points by avoiding throwing your things into landfill.
Help Children Become Proud Of Tidying
In the same way a good tooth brushing routine involves songs and encouragement and a sense of pride for the child when they do a good job, the same can be done to help a child tidy up their toys. The trick is to give them child-safe shelves and boxes they can reach and put their toys into. Perhaps at the end of play you can put a song on that encourages them to tidy up. Paired with lots of praise, your child will feel proud of doing a great job of tidying and the space will remain tidier all round.
Consider Affordable Self Storage
Affordable self storage enables you to keep hold of items to either sell at a later date, or to use again for any additional children that you have. Even better, you save space within your home. Affordable self storage can be like an extra room for your home without the associated costs of upsizing.
Use Smaller Trays Inside Cupboards And Drawers
Drawers and cupboards with cleaning items, toiletries, spices, condiments and other smaller essentials can end up messy and with items getting lost at the back. This can result in a waste of the space and you buying replacements for items you already have. Using smaller trays inside cupboards and drawers is a real lifesaver with this kind of issue. It makes it so easy to organise drawers and cupboards, and to easily pull the tray out and find what you need. Even better, it helps to contain any sprinkles and spillages, avoiding your cupboards getting sticky and stained too.
Rotate Toys
With children, you can save money on new toys by rotating the ones that they already have. Ever notice how children forget about certain toys until they see you throwing them out and suddenly they want to keep them? Any toys that have not been regularly used, put away and then reintroduce them at a later date. The child may not want them in which case you can declutter, but they may find new fun in old toys, which saves you money on new purchases for the time being.
Look Up
Floor space is premium space in a home, and as a big family it is all too easy to add lots of storage to the floor, making the home feel cramped. Firstly, do declutter your storage furniture as well as your toys, clothes, accessories and other items you put into storage shelves and baskets. This will help you avoid having more floor storage like tubs, baskets and shelves than you need. As an alternative, look up and utilise vertical space. Shelving, raised childrens beds with storage underneath, teddy hammocks/ nets – there are all kinds of innovative solutions to utilise so you’re not just using up that precious floor square footage.
Be Seasonal
Being seasonal with your storage is really important when you are a family who needs space. In summer, your Christmas and snow sports gear should be stored in the garage or cheap self storage unit. In winter, camping gear and summer clothes and garden toys can be stored away. This not only protects your gear out of season but it clears space in your home all year round.
Embrace Hooks
Hooks are fantastic for homes with lots of family members because they are always useful. As long as they are placed safely, they can be used for coats, backpacks, sports equipment and more. You can also hang storage accessories from the hooks to make one hook able to support multiple items (just be sure to check the weight limit). Some people also like to use hook strips across the kitchen wall (just above the backsplash) to help with hanging dried herbs, knives, utensils and pans, leaving more room in kitchen cupboards to store food and other pantry items.
Encourage Your Children To Be Giving
Encourage your child to look after the things they have, and to actively let go of things for a better purpose. Decluttering with them you can ask them if they would rather sell an item to get some money for something new, or if they would prefer to give away the item to help those less fortunate. Your child will start to understand the value of things and the benefits of giving and being kind.
Switch Your Main Furniture For Hidden Storage Options
Sofas, beds and other large furniture takes up so much space in the family home, you can’t really afford to have it there without it providing you with storage. Pouffes, sofas, benches, beds – they can all be designed in a way that holds a lot of hidden storage, which is essential for a family home. As a general rule – if a piece of furniture takes up a lot of square footage in any room, check that it’s as functional as it possibly could be so you’re getting maximum storage and use out of it.
Storage is valuable when you are in a growing family. By regularly clearing your home, storing well and using handy services like cheap self storage, you can benefit from a spacious home and maybe some extra £££ in your bank account too.
