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At Home’s ‘Save Space’ Series: The Best Zones To Save Space Around The Home

Monday, September 27th, 2010

Welcome to the fifth installment of at home’s ‘Get Some Space in Your Life’ series with some great advice from leading personal storage experts Big Yellow Self Storage. This week, we show those of you who work from home some great solutions to ensure your work doesn’t interfere with your home life.

We’ve already looked at space saving tips for your home in the bedroom, space saving solutions to help transform your garden and the at home team will be bringing you solutions to get the work/life balance right at home by transforming areas into zones and maximising space through self storage.

If you regularly work from home, the work space can be one of the areas of the house that seems to get cluttered faster than others. Setting apart your work space and the areas of home where you can relax will help you get the work / life balance right.

Three Space Saving Tips To Get The Work/Life Balance Right

Clutter can plague the work area in many ways and having too many things on your desk can make it difficult to work to your full potential. It’s easy to become distracted when there is lots of paperwork and clutter surrounding the area you’re working in, especially if you’re using a desktop computer. It can often become impossible to find anything if your physical and virtual work spaces are cluttered. Take a minute to clear the space by deleting old emails, unnecessary paper work, magazines and anything else that you’re not working on.

Any paperwork that can be found on a website or email should be recycled. Filing systems can help you minimise the inflow of paperwork and help reduce your existing paperwork piles. The time you take clearing the space, will be the time saved looking for important items when you need them in the future. Some documents and records need to be kept and have to be maintained, but storing them requires a lot of space. Self storage can offer a solution as it’s a great way to store documents safely and allows you to keep your files organised in one location.

If you strive to make working from home more welcoming it will become a comfortable and productive environment. It’s important that you don’t make your work space in your home a place that you associate with high levels of stress as this is essential to separate the work and life balance within the home. Don’t give up once you have reclaimed your work space and found the right balance. Each day there are new things that appear on our desks, by leaving a small amount of time each day to clear things will make it much easier to deal with. With your work space free of clutter you will become more efficient and spend less time working.

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At Home’s ‘Save Space’ Series: The Best Zones To Save Space Around The Garden

Monday, September 20th, 2010

Welcome to the fourth installment of at home’s ‘Get Some Space in Your Life’ series with some great advice from leading personal storage experts Big Yellow Self Storage. We’ve already looked at space saving tips for your home in the bedroom and the at home team will be bringing you space saving solutions to help transform your garden.

Although summer has drawn to a close, it’s great to relax and enjoy your garden in the autumn sunshine. There can be a lot of maintenance that needs to be done as well and you might decide to spruce up the design. Your garden is an ideal place for the kids to play and you add years to the life of your tools and furniture by transforming your garden shed before the colder months set in.

Three Space Saving Tips To Transform Your Garden

Shed Storage
If you have a lot of tools that seem to be taking over, you might want to consider a storage shed. A dedicated home for all of your tools with built in storage racks and cabinets can help ease tensions at home. You can be creative with tool storage and build your own cabinets but there are also many simple storage ideas that will help you keep your tools in good condition and ready when you need them.

If you have the space, a storage rack can keep your tools organised and make it very easy to find what you need effortlessly. To create one of these, all you need is a board which is fitted to a clear wall. Attach various hooks, baskets and mount bars to it to hold your tools in place. With all of the tools hanging in front of you, finding the right piece of equipment only takes seconds.

Alternatively use a cabinet to keep your tools out of sight when not in use. They can also add to your overall storage area in your garage or home as these can give you added depth without clutter being on display. Additional space can be made by installing hooks or bars on the inside of the cabinet doors.

Garden Storage Boxes
Garden storage boxes or cupboards are a great option for gardens with limited space and are very popular because of their ease to set-up. They are made from all weather-proof materials that are light weight and can come in many attractive designs. The storage boxes can be used to store smaller garden items such as tools, children’s toys and seeds.

If you and your family spend a large amount of time out in the garden, horizontal storage boxes can be disguised as garden benches and can be moved around your garden. This will allow you to have plenty of storage space and extra seating around the garden.

Maintaining Your Tools
Before storing your garden tools make sure you scrub off any dirt or mud by using a stick to knock off the large pieces and a wire brush to remove the dirt that is really stuck on. If it is really covered and you’re finding it hard to get it back to its shiny old self, you may need to soak the tool in a bucket of hot water before attempting again. Make sure you wipe off any excess water with an old rag and let it dry thoroughly to prevent any rusting.

When storing you can treat the wooden areas of your tools by sanding any rough or splintery portions with sandpaper and rubbing in wax which is specially made to extend the usage of your equipment. The metal areas of your tools can be treated with lubricating oil which will protect it from rust and ware.

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At Home’s ‘Save Space’ Series: The Best Zones To Save Space Around The Bedroom

Tuesday, September 14th, 2010

Welcome to the third installment of at home’s ‘Get Some Space in Your Life’ series with some great advice from leading personal storage experts Big Yellow Self Storage. This week, we show you how to save space in your bedroom!

We’ve already looked at space saving tips for your kitchen and next week, the at home team will continue to bring you personal storage solutions about how to declutter in all areas of your garden and how to clear the clutter to relieve tension in relationships.

Your bedroom should be a haven of comfort and calm but if you’re greeted with clutter instead of the perfect space, it could be robbing you of all the relaxation and sleep you need.

Three Space Saving Tips For Your Bedroom

Wardrobes
Wardrobes can be a great solution to clear clutter from your bedroom if they’re used right. If you are short on space, wardrobes can hold the answer to your storage needs. They provide a huge amount of storage in a very small space by reducing the amount of furniture pieces to create a fresh and clean look in your bedroom.

Usually items just get moved from one part of the room and thrown into your wardrobe creating a mess and it becomes much harder to find the things you actually want. The key to reducing the amount of clutter is to sort through your wardrobe and consider if all the items are needed.

There are many ways of keeping it organised and de-cluttered by adding extra storage capacity within your wardrobe. Clear storage boxes are ideal to put at the bottom of your wardrobe and you’re able to see what’s inside without having to look through everything. These can be used to store out of season clothes, bed sheets and accessories for your bedroom.

Storing your clothes and accessories by group will allow you keep them being jumbled and make it easy to find exactly what you’re looking for. Even placing your clothes hangers facing the same way can save space and your clothes will look much neater and less crinkled. Storing extra pairs of shoes on the back of your wardrobe door in fabric hanging shelves will keep them together and out of sight.

Clothes
Whether you’re a hoarder, just a collector of gorgeous and vintage clothes or buy more than you should, keeping your clothes and collectables in tip top condition is key to having an extensive wardrobe. General wear and tear and poor storage can really damage clothing and shorten the lifespan of your favourite shirt or dress.

To de-clutter and keep your clothes in excellent condition you’ll need to be strong and clear out those items that haven’t been worn in the last year, no longer fit or are out of style. Not only will this keep your clothes in better condition, but it will mean your items aren’t crammed together and you’ll be able to find everything much easier. For those items you just can’t throw out, you can always keep them in self storage because you never know when they’ll come back into fashion.

Furniture
A room with too many dressers, tables and chairs is going to make it feel smaller no matter how large your bedroom is. Having more furniture will attract more bits and pieces creating even more clutter. Limiting the amount of furnishings you have, as well as a mirror-fronted wardrobe could make your bedroom look larger than it actually is.

A perfect accessory for a bedroom is a dressing table provided that it isn’t covered in items that could be easily stored away in a drawer or thrown away. A few items will make it look complete where as dresser covered in bottles of perfume, cufflinks or loose change will make it look cluttered.

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At Home’s ‘Save Space’ Series: The Best Zones To Save Space Around The Kitchen

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

We’ve teamed up with our friends at home magazine to give you top advice on personal storage solutions. Stay tuned as we’ll be bringing you more ideas to save space and declutter for all areas of your home……

Welcome to the second installment of at home’s ‘Get Some Space in Your Life’ series with some great advice from leading personal storage experts at Big Yellow Self Storage.

at home have already looked at space saving tips for your living room and we’re going to continue to bring you personal storage solutions about how to declutter in all areas of your home, including the bedroom, garden and ideas to maximise space to make working at home more successful. Planning the perfect space in the kitchen is like creating the perfect menu. You can create space by throwing out products that are out of date or no longer in use and keep the best ingredients to maintain the great look.

Three space saving tips for your kitchen

Organising Kitchen Cupboards
Kitchen cupboards can be a main area of frustration as jars can easily clutter and build up with every shopping trip. There are some easy ways to organise the clutter that spice jars, canned goods and other items create before they quickly multiply.

Transferring spices from there original packaging into small sized jars and labeling them by hand can free up a large amount of space and make them stackable. Keeping canned items in one cupboard area and assigning one shelf for each type can keep them organised and easy to reach. Any other space you create can be used to store pasta or boxes of food.

Clearing the Clutter Under the Sink
The area underneath your kitchen sink can quickly become cluttered and make it hard to find anything you need. Overtime the area is piled full of items such as cleaning products or washing detergent and every time you to try to pull a product out, five others fall out with it. Sorting under the sink can make it much easier to find items and have a completely de-cluttered area.

Get rid of any products that you don’t need, if it’s so old that you can’t even read the label or no longer use then don’t hesitate to throw them away. If you haven’t used a particular item in a while, then chances are you’re not going to use it again anytime soon. Hanging on to these products will just collect more clutter and take up more free space that could be used. For the items you decide to keep, sort them out by category to make them easy to find out them all later.

Organising Kitchen Drawers
Drawers are the messiest place in any kitchen with items simply getting chucked in. The answer to stop all your drawers from becoming overly cluttered is by making space for one drawer that can store a mixture of items. This can store scissors, various utensils, stamps and any other items that end up jumbled together. A single drawer used for these items can make the whole kitchen feel de-cluttered.

Dividing the drawer into different sections and assigning an item to each one will create space and make things easier to find. It’s also a great excuse to throw away any old, broken or unused items.

Storing Utensils
Utensils such as spatulas, ladles and whisks can be a major cause of clutter in the kitchen as they can get left on the counter or mixed up in a drawer. When items are mixed together, sharp objects can cause injury if you’re in a hurry and don’t look carefully when reaching inside. Keeping utensils organised and tidy is a great way to avoid accidents and make cooking a lot smoother. Storing these large utensils in a wide pot that matches the design of your kitchen will keep them organised and easy to reach.

Invest in a drawer that has different components for each type of silverware including forks, knives and spoons. This will keep your entire set of cutlery from becoming mixed with each other and make them easily accessible.

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At Home’s ‘Save Space’ Series: The Best Zones To Save Space Around The Home

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

We’ve teamed up with our friends at home magazine to give you top advice on personal storage solutions over the next six weeks. Stay tuned as we’ll be looking at how you can save space and declutter in all areas of your home……

Welcome to the first installment of at home’s ‘Get Some Space in Your Life’ series with some great advice from leading personal storage experts Big Yellow Self Storage. Over the next six weeks, the at home team will be bringing you personal storage solutions about how to declutter in all areas of your home, including the living room, bedroom and garden.

It’s important to remember that keeping a tidy mind means keeping a tidy home. You can create space through natural palettes in design or decluttering style choices throughout your home – decluttering regularly will help you keep it looking brand new.

Four space saving tips for your living room

Tip 1. Newspapers & Magazines
We’ve all had a special newspaper that we are tempted to keep for the future. It might be for reference or an historical event that we want to share with the future generations in the family. Sometimes these are valuable, but most often they won’t be worth much in monetary value. It’s the fact these ‘we were there’ moments or how this event has touched our life that makes the edition important to us.

The biggest problem when it comes to storing paper keepsakes are pests! Here’s how to ward off any unwanted visitors and ensure your papers stay in excellent condition for years:

1. Find a closet or drawer in a dry area.

2. Store and stack papers tight together, folded in half (as they are delivered).

3. Use a pest trap nearby, but make sure it doesn’t touch the papers.

4. Monitor your papers occasionally, checking for both pests and mold.

Alternatively, by putting these into self-storage can put your mind at rest from pesky critters destroying your keepsakes.

Before you decide to store those magazines, you need to ask yourself:

• Are these magazines worth hanging on to, or can they be recycled to clear the clutter?

• Do you want to be able to go back and read the magazines from time to time or are you happy to put them away and letting them sleep in a cool, dark place?

• Are your magazines valuable or more sentimental?

• Do you want to keep them in pristine condition for 40 years or 400 years?

Tip 2: DVDs
DVDs have a habit of accumulating around the TV and before you know it, they’re all mixed up and in the wrong cases – so when you want to find The Dark Knight, you end up with Legally Blonde. Not ideal. Investing in a DVD rack is a smart way to avoid this potential catastrophe and will also minimise clutter. Another solution is to do away with DVD cases altogether and store your discs in a CD wallet which you can arrange by genre.

Tip 3: Books
The main focus should be to store your books in a way that will give the bindings and covers the support for efficient use of the self-storage space. If there is room left on your bookshelf, make sure to place a bookend or another heavy object against the last book. This will help to hold your books upright, preventing any bowing or bending. You will also need to consider storing them in places where the books won’t be exposed to direct sunlight, moisture, or heat as serious temperature changes can cause major damage to fragile book bindings, pages, and covers.

One final tip to keep in mind is to rotate your books every once in a while by swapping some of the books that are at the ends of the shelf for ones in the middle. By doing this you are avoiding placing any long-term stress on any one book.

Tip 4: Photographs
To store photographs properly, make sure you use the right type of albums. Do not place old photographs (or any photographs for that matter) in albums that are magnetic or of the ‘stick and peel’ variety. Over time, the plastic, cardboard, paper and glue found in such albums will only damage your photos. Instead, invest in albums which are guaranteed and labeled as free of acids. Use a permanent black marker on the back of the photographs to identify the time, occasion and the people or subjects in the photo. Make sure to write with a soft grip, so as to not leave any marks or indentations on the pictures.

If you don’t want to put your photographs in albums or frames, then you can use plastic sleeves or bags which are PVC-free. Another option in place of plastic sleeves or bags is layering each photograph with sheets of acid-free paper or cardboard.

For all of your packing needs and to find out how you can benefit from self storage, visit bigyellow.co.uk to get started.

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