Ten Tiny House Storage Spaces Your Didn't Realize You Had! (Book Giveaway #2)

Rafter storage from Core77.com

   Heck, small home or not, people are ALWAYS looking for ways to maximize their storage. Of course, not having so much stuff to start with would be ideal, but many of us know that this is easier said than done.
     I myself grew up in a fairly modest sized home (1400 square feet with four of us and a menagerie of pets), so a few of these tips come from that household. The rest of the tips are ones I've since developed, use myself, or come from my tiny house/shelter concept book "Humble Homes, Simple Shacks".

BOOK GIVEAWAY #2 (of TWELVE!!) JOIN OUR NEW FACEBOOK PAGE TO WIN TODAY'S BOOK- Lloyd Kahn's "Tiny Homes, Simple Shelter"- www.facebook.com/tinyhousehub .... Just enter YOUR inventive storage tip in the appropriate thread, and the best one will win Lloyd's book. US only- sorry....

TEN STORAGE SPACES YOU DIDN'T REALIZE YOU HAD....

1. "HIGH END" SHELVING: My father did this in my old bedroom, and I've done it in my kids bedroom....no, not "high end" in price, but in vertical stature. Space near ceilings is usually not occupied or utilized, and when shelves are installed so high up, they provide storage while also remaining out of your normal line of sight. The result is additional storage and shelving, but a means that doesn't make for a cluttered look. There video I shot below, shows an example of this....

2. DEAD SPACE BEHIND DOORS: This one is pretty self-explanatory, but here's another area of the home where you usually won't find much going on. Its another mostly hidden space, and one where you could hang coats, or build yourself some super-simple, thin, shelving- for toys, and other small items. This could work well in bathrooms as well, for the storage of smaller toiletry items. This is covered in the above video as well.

 3. HOLLOW STEP STORAGE: For all your owners of tiny houses on wheels, Tumbleweed-style homes, and/or unique travel trailers, I always see people taking the time to build a nice portable box step or two to their front door, but why not make the box watertight and with a removable top? I wouldn't store anything of great value in here, but its making use of space you already would have been taking up, and doing nothing with. Your front step would now become a low, flat, all-weather, storage trunk of sorts.

This one's from deckanddockboxes.com, but you can build your own!

4. BOX FRAME BEDDING: My brother has a set-up like this in his home, and growing up, my bed had a box frame built atop it, raising my bed a 2by8 in height, but well worth it for the gained storage. Not only could I store things UNDER my bed, but when I lifted my mattress, and the plywood cover beneath, I had a place to store all my baseball cards, comic books, and such. You're basically building an intermediate hollow deck that sits atop your existing bed frame.

5. YOUR OVEN: We always got quite a variety of comments on this one, and the key is to never pre-heat your oven before removing stored goods from it. In my childhood home, cereal was always stored inside our oven. Cereal boxes do take up quite a bit or space, especially when you're a family that lives off the stuff! Currently in my own home, our family stores pots, pans, and baking sheets in the oven. With these items, even if you forget to remove them before pre-heating, nothing will catch fire.

6. UNDER YOUR TINY HOME: This one comes off as very unprofound, but I'm always amazed at how many wheeled tiny house owners don't simply invest in a simple Rubbermaid bin that they can then stash under their home. Again, I wouldn't put anything extremely valuable in here, but its another means to acquire space that otherwise is only being occupied by spiders. For added security, you could build a "skirt" around your cabin, hiding its wheeled look, adding the benefit of some heat retention/additional insulation, and making this storage spot even more secure (and unseen).

7. YOUR RAFTERS: Have exposed rafter work in your home? Well, in a less seen area, take one empty "cell", or section, and devise/build a hinged box that swings up into this spaces and clips into place. As seen in many basements, you could also simply affix a wide board to the underside of the joist, and thereby create some thin shelving this way.

8. FLOORAGE: This one is a little less conventional, but its worked well for me and falls under the "Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind" banner. In my micro closet-office, I built a false floor (in an area I couldn't stand up in anyway) that serves as a sitting spot for my kids for playing and reading, but....lift the top, or "floor" up, and there's a ton of storage within. The one I have was built with 2by6's and stores more than you'd imagine.

 And then in "OPEN" mode

9. JAR IT!: Under your kitchen cabinets and shelving, and I'm talking the "hanging" space beneath, lies room for the "ole time" practice of "hung jar storage". You can buy the fancy magnetic sets from Ikea and elsewhere, or you can simply take a mason jar or baby food jar, attach the lid under a shelf with a single screw, and then thread it into place once filled with whatever you've chosen. This works well in an office setting too, and these little jars are great for holding tacks, and other small odds and ends.

10. JUST LOOK UP! Your kitchen ceiling is another spot, by means of a pot rack, where many items can be stowed. There are a variety of homemade pot racks, using driftwood, pallet wood, and beyond, that i've seen. Better yet, make the platform from which the hooks hang solid, and you not only have a means to hang your cooking wear, but a floating shelf above where you can store additional goods, baskets, pans, and whatever else you can dream up.

from agreenpointkitchen.com

-Derek "Deek" Diedricksen