Tiny House Storage and Space Saving Tips....."Beneath Those Stairs"....

Here's one tried and true tip from my own small/modestly sized home that I thought some might be interested in. I'll have many more to come, and this will be one of the side focuses or topics (among MANY) in the Tumbleweed Tiny House Building Workshops I'll be teaching here and there. The first one I lead is in Miami, Florida on April 14-15- its gonna be fun! Check out http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/workshops/miami/ to sign up....

Under-stair shelving in my micro-office (the entire office was built from secondhand barn boards I grabbed at an estate sale for a grand total of under $40!). Overall, this little room is about 35 or so square feet, if I had to guess. Its where I run/operate this very blog. Currently, I'm overhauling this "Cloffice" (Closet-Office), which might possibly be filmed for a future episode of my show "Tiny Yellow House".

I think Alex Pino (www.tinyhousetalk.com), "The Floridian Funkster" is going to be taking part too....(no, no one really calls him that, but you can start if you'd like!) Kidding...kidding..... PS- check out his site for some FREE cabin plans (I'll have more on that down the road).

Anyway, Today's Tip....
The underside of stairs, whether in the basement, or leading to a second living level, is often wasted space, with possible potential for small item storage. Bob "Uncle Bob" Bennett, one of my Vermont camp/cabin neighbors, and jack of all trades, has a set-up like this in his log cabin. In his case, as you descend from his kitchen to his basement workshop/man cave, you're presented with an array of tiny shelves, all designed to hold long-term canned goods- ya' know, in case of Armageddon, or a Godzilla attack. The idea works very well, and takes up less space than you'd think- just don't get overzealous with the size and depth of the shelves or some forehead bruising will surely be the outcome! Its for this reason that basement stairs are the best- you less frequently walk under them.

This tip is one of many in a new chapter in my book "Humble Homes, Simple Shacks".....where you're also given small space design input from Lloyd Kahn (who has a GREAT new book out), Dee Williams, Jay Shafer, Kent Griswold, Alex Pino, Duo Dickinson, Cathy Johnson, Mimi Zeiger, Colin Beavan, Alex Johnson, Michael Tougias, Gregory Paul Johnson, and more. Here's a shot of one of its pages....and a shot of part of the color photo chapter as well....

-Derek "Deek" Diedricksen