Here are a few tips and tricks to help you find the hidden storage in your home.  We hope this helps you find some additional room for those holiday gifts and treasures.

• Some cabinets are deep and hard to reach anything that has been pushed back to the back so many people keep items near the front.  You can use those deep parts of your cabinets for other things that you don’t frequently use, but want to keep.
• Under beds, benches and chairs is a great way to store movies, CD’s, DVD’s and other small items that can be neatly stacked in a decorative bin or basket and placed under a chair or bench.
• Nooks and crannies can be found all over a house if you take the time to see them.  Places where a basket of games or a throw blanket can stay until you are ready to use them or an opening for a computer bag or briefcase where they can be slide in and out with ease yet out of the way when not in use.
• The space in the garage between the studs.  There are some great holders and hangers that are wonderful space savers for utilizing this unused space.

Just start looking to see where things can be easily stored and collect decorative bins and baskets to use.  Make it a game with everyone in the house and see who can find the most creative storage area.  You never know what someone will come up with and who knows, it just may be the next big thing in storage!

Sheds are sometimes known for their diminutive size. However, less floor space may be overcome by building up top. To this end, you may want to add a loft to your shed. Attached correctly to the ceiling and wall rafters, most lofts will be able to support a substantial amount of weight. They are especially handy for storing items you may not use very often, such as boxes of dishes, luggage, or Christmas decorations.

Most lofts in sheds will be built into one end of the shed and can be the same width as the building. The depth will depend on whether or not you are willing to sift through items at the edge of your loft to get to those in the areas farther back. If you’re not willing to do this, your loft can be fairly narrow. Of course, you’ll still need a ladder to access your stored items, but on the other hand, things are not readily available to small children or others you may not want using your tools.

The easiest way to add a loft is by measuring the space you would like up top and cut a piece of three quarter inch plywood and slip it on top of the rafters.  Attach the plywood with one inch wood screws along the edges and you are done!  The entire process is easy, efficient, effective and inexpensive. 

Whether you choose to call it a shed, a storage unit or a barn, its main purpose is to house stuff that can withstand some temperature changes and stuff that doesn’t belong or fit in your house. If your shed doubles as a garage, you’ll want to make sure you maintain enough room for your cars.  However, with a bit of organization you will have room for many other things as well.

By adding a few simple shelves, which can be both hand-made and attached to the walls, or purchased and assembled as free-standing units, you’ll increase the storage capacity immensely and almost immediately. A trip to your local home improvement store is sure to give you many ideas as to what’s available for such things as hanging rakes, shovels or other tools with long handles.

There are even hooks which make it possible to hang bicycles from the rafters and don’t forget the pegboard.  With a few changes and additions you will have much more than a storage shed, you will have an organizers work of art.

For many people, the most difficult part of building a storage shed is not the actual construction but the organization of the shed itself. Many people are at a loss when it comes to figuring out the best way to put their tools and equipment in the space. Thankfully, you can organize your storage space inexpensively instead of having to buy expensive storage items.

For those looking to organize your tools, building a tool storage area instead of buying a tool chest can save you tons of money. This can be accomplished through the creation of a hand-built workbench with storage or a custom built rack and drawer system. Constructing these items with supplies from a local warehouse store can be cheap and makes a perfect weekend project.

For the other major organizational issue with a shed – random storage clutter that overflows from the house – one of the best ways to clean up this storage space is through the building of wall mounted shelving. Cheap and effective, thee shelves can be placed out of the way of your storage space for other items and can utilize the overhead and higher space that is typically wasted within a shed.

One of the hardest things to do sometimes is to like, not love, where you live.  Though there are some things you can’t control, i.e. your neighbors, there are other things that can help you like and even love your space.

The first is the clutter.  If you are living in clutter, you need to break out from under those piles and free yourself from the ties that clutter brings.  You don’t realize it but that mess is a reflection of your life, your world and where you are going.  Get up and get rid of it as soon as possible.

Sort though your things.  Here is another tell tale into your soul.  If you can’t sort through your stuff you will never be able to sort through your life.  You may be laughing at these words but you know it’s true!  Until you can determine what to keep and what to throw away in your living space, you will never do it in your life.  If you can’t do it in your life, you won’t get very far.

Look at the colors around you.  They reflect your mood.  I recently went from a dark green (I hated my job when I painted it) in my home office to a bright jalapeno orange and light yellow.  It totally changes the way I feel when I walk into the room. Oh yeah, I am really liking what I do these days.

Your surroundings tell others a whole lot about you.  Look around and ask yourself if you like what others are seeing?

Many people who need outdoor storage on a budget but hate the idea of buying a shed kit and raising one themselves or building one from scratch have a great option available for their outdoor storage needs: The hard plastic storage shed. These sheds, built by a number of well known manufacturers, replace the pressure treated wood of many sheds with a hard coated plastic that can withstand natural weathering for a longer period than some wood sheds.

Choosing a plastic or vinyl shed can be a bit confusing, given some of the dimensions and options available. Many plastic sheds have storage and organizers built in, which can help simplify arranging your items in the shed. Many also have electrical inputs so you can wire them up and use your powered equipment inside. A few even have dual paned windows and wooden doors to give some sense of the shed being natural.

Plastic sheds come in a variety of colors, some natural, some not as much. The designs of these sheds work to optimize the space contained within while preserving the basic storage needs of the buyer. Pricewise, plastic sheds are less expensive than comparable wooden sheds, and can be a great option for the new shed buyer. Shop around, and you might find a plastic shed to be the storage option that fits your needs.

You can use pegboard to create an entire wrapping station in your home; a crafting station; a place to hang the kid’s coats; a place to hang tools indoors and a creative way to get your kids to put up their things in their rooms.

If pegboard was just used for outside purposes for storage in the garage or for lining the utility building, it would still be a wonderful storage tool.  There are now ways to hang almost everything from the normal screwdrivers and hammers; to boxes, shelves and drawers.

If you have yet to see the beauty of pegboard, take a trip to your local hardware store and walk down the pegboard isle.  Imagine everything you could do with the clips and hooks available on the shelves.  You will not only see the beauty in pegboard, but fall in love.

I’m a guy.  I’m a guy with a lot of tools and equipment and I also own 2 vehicles.  I’m a guy with a one car garage and we all know who gets to park in the garage, and it’s not me.  So what’s a guy to do when the garage is just not big enough for all the tools and equipment?

You either make sacrifices, choices or a combination of both.  You can leave the tools and equipment exposed to the elements and watch them rust away.  You can sell the tools and a quarter or less their value only to buy them brand new when you need them again.  You can house them in a spare room in the house and hope your wife or partner understands that you have a relationship with your things and you all need some space.  Or you can bite the bullet and get a storage unit just for your stuff.

I chose the storage unit for several reasons:

• I needed space for my things to stay dry
• I needed space to work on my things
• I needed space that was all mine

Now I’m a happy guy who has his tools and equipment locked away safely in their own special shed.  Now about my truck…I’m working on that one!