Sunday, March 24, 2002		Article

Get the most out of your storage space
N. Mehrotra & M.K. Dhillon

IN the home, as in business, good planning is essential for easy running. To run a home properly is a highly skilled art. A place or everything and everything in its place is the principle of law and order. Running a successful house involves the provision of adequate storage facilities in various parts of the house to serve the work areas. Comfortable living is difficult with inadequate, poorly organised storage space.

The storage problem of any household is a large and complex one due to the number and variety of things to be stored. For this, not only adequate facilities but also a functioning system is necessary. Convenient location of objects and the habit of returning objects to the assigned places tend to simplify the problem.

Organise existing storage space before increasing it. New storage often creates more places for disorganised clutter and more surface for collecting items that are not required.

To determine whether you really need more storage space, draw a plan and list what you want to have on hand in each room. Try to create one motion storage. This means when you open a cabinet, you can reach items and grab them in one motion without having to move things out of the way.

Storage space should be flexible. Adjustable shelves easily adopt to changing books, music and new collections.

Keep a flexible attitude towards storage pieces. A cabinet can move from one room to another, storing different items as your needs change.

Having many small shelves or compartments result in neater and easier to use storage than just having few large ones.

Avoid piling. A good rule is never to stack more than three pieces that are not part of a set.

In small rooms, use open storage such as racks and shelves. They will not disturb the room’s apparent size.

If space is tight, be sure that you need to remove a piece of furniture.

While storing, think carefully which items you should store and where.

To find the best storage place for an item, take it to the spot where it is used most.

Keep frequently used items between knee level and not more than 10" above your head. Put items used less regularly on higher and lower shelves.

For convenience, store heavy and regularly used item within a foot either way of waist level. Make sure that it can be grasped and replaced easily.

Store rarely needed and out of season articles in labelled boxes on bags and put them in less accessible areas.

Planned storage areas are functional and usable and help to avoid clutter in the house, which helps to work efficiently, without fatigue.