Do you feel like you need a whole separate house just for storing your clothing, hobby items and seasonal decoration and tools? Well, unless you’re a huge movie star, you can’t simply buy a house next door for your storage needs, but what you can do is remodel your attic and free up a whole new world of storage space! If that sounds like something you can do, here are a few practical ideas that will help you organize your attic and save a ton of space around your home.
Boost insulation
First things first, you want your things to be safe while you store them in your attic. While they tend to be less moist than basements, you still need to do some work in order to keep your possessions dry and protected from the elements. Summers tend to be boiling and winters freezing in the attic without insulation, so if you want to store some more expensive things, you’ll need to keep this in mind. Luckily, you can always call a professional to insulate your attic and ensure the safety and coziness of your things. And if you decide to remodel the space in the future and turn it into a bedroom or home office, you’ll have much less work to do.
Install hooks and rods
Once you’ve protected your items, it’s time to start organizing your possessions. If you want to use your vertical space and those tricky nooks and crannies, you can choose to install various hangers and hooks. These are perfect for storing off-season clothing. If you grab some garment bags for protection, you can basically use your attic as an extension of your closet! Install these rods long the trusses or slant of your ceiling and you’re ready to store all your clothing. Most clothing rods come with brackets and screws, so all you need to do is mount it to the wall and make it level.
Add shelves
While you can just ditch various boxes inside and call it a day, it’s best to make the most out of your attic by installing something to keep your space well-organized. Install some practical storage solutions like shelves and fill them with various boxes and containers. These shelves keep your things visible and organized and you can use all your vertical space by allowing you to stack everything. This way you can grab something from the bottom without having to unstack boxes and boxes of stuff. These shelves are suitable for holding shelf bins for smaller items as well, so you can use them in your garage, art studio or home office.
Invest in plastic containers
Once you have your shelves, you’ll need some sturdy plastic containers with lids to keep your items safe and cozy. These containers are great investments because they have so many uses and they last practically forever. They can also protect your things from moisture, bugs, mice, dust and temperature differences. Just make sure to keep your containers well-labeled. You can either grab stickers and write what’s inside the container or color-code your boxes (red for holiday decoration, white for clothing, green for garden tools and so on). If you choose the color system, you’ll need to do some memorizing, but after a while, you’ll know where to look instantly and save a lot of time.
Make it accessible
The harder it is to access your attic, the fewer things you’ll store there—that’s a fact. If you have horrible stairs and dark passages to your attic, you’ll only want to store things you use twice a year. If you want to make the best use of your attic, you won’t do that if you create any barriers towards accessing your space. You’ll need the energy to pick up things and especially to return them in their place. In order to remove some of the barriers, make sure to install sturdy stairs and provide them with practical handrails. Plenty of lighting will also help, both for accessibility and locating your stuff. This way, you’ll be able to pick up and return things easily and avoid leaving clutter in your house. If this is something that requires a team effort, it’s best to hire professionals for removals to pickup storage belongings from your attic. This is to ensure not only your items’ safety but also yours. After all, you don’t want to be taken out by a broken back from too much heavy lifting, do you?
Once you fully secure, organize and equip your attic, you’ll free up so much space in your home that you won’t ever think about moving or renting expensive external spaces!
