Practical organization and storage systems for ordinary homes. Find ways to make kitchens, bathrooms, closets, bedrooms, entryways and laundry areas easier to use by starting with the space you have, the job it needs to do and what actually fits.
A laundry closet can look as if it has plenty of empty space and still have almost no useful storage space. The problem is that the washer and dryer are not static boxes. Doors swing. Top-load lids rise. Hoses, drains, power and dryer venting occupy real space behind the machines. Closet doors still need to…
A dresser can technically fit in a small bedroom and still make the room worse. The body may fit against the wall, but the drawers open into the walking route. The bed becomes harder to reach. The closet door loses room to operate. Or the dresser solves one clothing problem while creating three everyday room…
A small bathroom can have plenty of places where toilet paper could go and still have no good place for it. A freestanding holder fits beside the toilet but becomes one more thing to move when you clean. A basket looks tidy until it starts holding the whole bulk package. A narrow cabinet seems made…
A small coat closet can be packed and still fail at the jobs you need it to do. You open the door for one jacket and a bag falls forward. Shoes live on the floor, but the longest coats hang into them. A basket fits on the top shelf, yet returning anything to it takes…
An under-stairs pantry can look generous from the doorway and still be frustrating to use. The floor may run deep into the cavity, but the ceiling drops lower with every step toward the back. A shelf that seems to fit on paper can be too deep to see what is behind the first row. A…
A linen closet can look as if it has plenty of room and still waste a surprising amount of usable space. One shelf may have a tall empty gap above a short towel stack. Another may be so tight that a basket has to be tipped sideways to get it out. That does not mean…
A closet can match a familiar “standard” depth and still reject the organizer you want to put inside it. The back-to-front cavity measurement is only one part of the fit. Doors, tracks, trim, baseboards, hardware and the storage component itself can all reduce the space you can actually use. A drawer also needs room to…
Family laundry can look like a washing problem when the bigger problem is often everything that happens before and after the machine. Dirty clothes start in bedrooms, bathrooms and other places where people change. Towels may come from another room. A basket gets filled upstairs but the washer is downstairs. Someone means to bring it…
A narrow hallway can look like wasted storage space. That does not mean it is waiting for a bench, console or shoe cabinet. If a piece of furniture makes the route harder to use, catches a door, crowds an opening or turns the hallway into a place everyone has to squeeze past, the storage has…
An awkward bedroom alcove can look like free storage. That is how a perfectly reasonable idea turns into a piece of furniture that technically fits between two walls but still makes the room harder to use. The problem is usually not the idea itself. A dresser, narrow wardrobe, desk, bench or shelving unit may all…
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