Preparing to Buy or Sell a Home: Making the Most of Storage - Part 3

Buyers want ample storage areas, while sellers need it both for eliminating clutter from rooms while showing a home, and for containing their own personal items. Learning how to best utilize the storage will increase the functionality and presentation of your home. To ensure success, follow these four steps: Assess, Prepare, Achieve & Maintain, and Refine.

Achieve and Maintain: Principles of Storing

Now that you understand what you have in the way of stuff and storage space, and you have prepared the items and the spaces and created a system, placing things is much easier. By this time, you probably understand what you have and whether it will be actively used.

Generally there are levels of storage—long-term, seasonal, and active-use. Understand the nature of what you are storing.

Items being held for future generations, which might not be accessed for years, belong in long-tem storage. If they are well-stored and secure, putting them in a far corner that is not very accessible might be fine. This is the time to consider attic and basement space, but only if the items are well-stored and the space is properly prepared.

Similarly, consider dedicating “seasonal storage” that can be rotated so that the next season's items are in the front, ready to be taken out when needed. Packing seasonal storage too tightly and not rotating it may render it useless, so this is one area where establishing a system can really pay off.

Active storage is important to keep organized and not over-filled. Items should be easy to locate, retrieve and replace, and what you want should be where you want it. Items that are out of place breed clutter and chaos, so well-ordered active storage is a key to a well-functioning home.

If you are storing something that you don't use or love, it is taking up valuable space. Every so often, go into the back of your cabinets and drawers to find items you no longer use or love. This is one of the quickest ways to gain storage space without spending money on shelves or storage systems.