Prep and primp your storage!
Checklist to bring it order, ease & joy

You are facing a new season and ready to tuck away everything that belongs to the previous one. Or maybe you have cleared out a room or another space, and ended up with a bunch of things that you realized can be stored away.

Happy and cheerful you’re heading to your storage with your arms full of stuff – just to realize when you open the door that there’s actually no space to put it!? Or the light went out so you can’t see a thing in there. Or the uncanny smell just wants you to leave as quick as possible, so you just put things wherever you can find a spot at the moment – not necessarily where it will be easy to find next time.

Or maybe you’re even a bit reluctant to get in there at all, because the overall feel is just not very pleasant, or it’s a mess in there and just too overwhelming with all the stuff occupying the space – so you sort of avoid it all together, and things start to pile up at home instead…

Hmmm. Not so cheerful anymore?

Read along – help is on its way!

Begin with the end

So, here’s the thing; what you actually go to do, before you even think in terms of decluttering or to store away whatever, is to start with the end station – in this case; the storage. This is to make sure that it’s well prepared to welcome all your belongings, whenever you want to.

Because there’s nothing as discouraging as being stopped by practical issues when you have the energy to get going with this.

So, in order to get things in order, you got to get the storage in order first – order, order, order!?

Deal with it before you HAVE to deal with it.

The aim is to get the storage ready so it’s just waiting for you to show up with all your stuff. And also to not be that space that you avoid. Because, when it’s easy to store things away, you more likely will – and, as a result, won’t have stuff piling up at or around your place.

Whether you have a full storage room, an attic space, a basement room, or just a cabinet or a closet, there’re things you can do to make it easier to put things in there – as well as find and get things from there.

So make the storage space a project by itself, so it’s ready to welcome you and your stuff when it’s time, and a no-brainer to get in there.

And you know what? A great storage will itself most likely inspire you to organize, declutter and get things in order, overall.

Here’s how to set your storage space up

Okay, so here is a little list to help you prep and primp your storage the best you can:

⭐ LIGHTING
Make sure there’s really, really good lighting in here. This is not the place for dimmed light and cozy ambiance. We’re talking bright and clear lighting here that gives a good overview. And if a light bulb goes out, make sure to replace it with a new one as soon as possible. You might even want to keep a new one in there, just to make it easy when it’s time for it.

⭐ FRESH AIR
Together with lighting, good ventilation is super important for the storage. Since things are stored in here for longer or shorter time, the air easily gets stale and stagnant. If you can’t do anything about it, or if you just have a cabinet or closet, make sure to not pack the space to the brim, but create space between all the stuff so the air can circulate. What you really want to avoid is any kind of damp air – what we’re looking for is a dry, well-ventilated space.

⭐ SMELL
You might even want to add some kind of scent. You can use traditional lavender or cedar to keep vermin away if you store a lot of textiles in there, or use some other kind of fragrance that you enjoy, just to keep a fresh feel in the space. This is not to camouflage bad ventilation or unpleasant air. Number one is to make sure the air itself is fresh – the add-ons comes next. Actually, putting some kind of scent in a not well-ventilated space, usually just makes it staler.

⭐ EASY TO CLEAN
We don’t want fluffy carpets in here or excessive use of textiles, since they easily get a bit damp, collect dust and also tend to be somewhat smelly after a while in a closed space. Rather go for hard and shiny materials and surfaces that you easily can clean.

⭐ STORAGE
Think through what kind of things you expect to store in here and get appropriate shelves, drawers, hangers, hooks, boxes etc. that makes it easy to put things away as well as to get them when you want them. Mark things up, like the boxes or even the shelves or drawers, so you, and others if you’re a family or living with others, know where things are and belong.

There you go – you got your little list, so off to create that storage space of yours!

And remember, it’s always better to start with something than nothing, and to take it step by step if the whole “get the storage ready”-thing feels too overwhelming.

Over to you!

• What’s your biggest struggle or concern when it comes to storage?
• Do you have any great storage ideas that you want to share with the rest of us?
  Please do, I believe we can’t have enough of them!

Share in the comments below, I’d be so happy to hear from you!

And if you have any questions – ask away below too. Your question might help somebody else, and I’m happy to answer! And, of course, there is no such thing as a stupid question – but you know that already, right?

I look forward to hearing from you!

Thanks for reading!
And thanks for leaving your comment and thoughts in English
– doing that will allow more of us to be able to read it.
?

Photo by Dimitri Iakymuk on Unsplash