Garages can fast become an area of your home where items just get thrown into simply because there’s no other place for them or they haven’t been organised properly. Sifting through these can be a real time investment purely because you may find bits and pieces that you forgot you even had! Here are some top storage solutions to keep your garage organised and stop it from becoming cluttered.
First of all you should divide your items into different sections depending on what you decide to keep, store or throw away which will help reduce the amount of items that you have to find a new home for and act as an incentive to clear out the junk.
Adding open or closed shelving to your garage will clear away many items such as small paint tins that get cluttered on the ground into a safer area. Which type of shelving you go for depends on what need to get out of the space as open shelves make it easier to find items and much easier to grab the ones you need. Closed shelving or cabinets may give your garage a cleaner look but can restrict lighting; you’ll also have to remember where you’ve stored items to make it work. Placing a label on the door listing the contents inside will make it easier for you to find what you’re looking for.
Bins are a useful garage storage solution for certain things such as sports equipment because footballs, rugby balls and cricket bats can be kept together without a great deal of effort. Small bins can group similar small items but avoid getting too many large bins for your garage as it will be easy to throw items in without organising them and will just build up with clutter.
For all those items that you don’t want to throw away but aren’t being used at the moment you can place these into self storage. To find out how you can benefit from self storage visit us in any of our stores or our Quote and Reserve online page to get started.
Did you know you can store computer files online without them taking up space on your computer? When you store items online it’s called ‘Cloud Storage’ or ‘The Cloud’ and can often act as a cheaper alternative to buying additional hard drives for your computer.
What makes cloud storage so useful is if you’re connected to the internet, you can access your files. It doesn’t matter what your location is or what computer you’re using. There are different forms of cloud storage; private clouds, public and hybrid which make it easy to store documents for you and share with others if they’re too large to fit in an email.
Unfortunately Big Yellow can’t store your physical items in our ‘Cloud’ yet but you can store your household items in our self storage rooms for a little as a week, month, year or as long as you want. We only ask for seven days notice when you want to leave. If you’re interested to find out how you can benefit from our self storage facilities, visit our Quote and reserve online page to get started.
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.
We’ve just inked a national deal with DX Business Direct who are a leading independent mail, courier and secure logistics company. The deal will see DX Business Direct place dedicated ParcelXchange depots in 18 of our Big Yellow Self Storage store forecourts across the country.
ParcelXchange offer a series of intelligent lockers with built in track-and-trace functions which enable businesses to dispatch parts nationwide for engineer collection via an overnight delivery service. The service can reduce distribution costs, improve stock control and increase engineer efficiency. The lockers on Big Yellow forecourts will provide 24/7 access to the virtual depot and a state of the art security system with pin code entry.
The role out of lockers is expected to be complete by the end of June 2011 and there is a possibility that the partnership could extend to more Big Yellow stores in the future.
Click here to take a look at what ParcelXchange can offer you.
Recently our Big Yellow Self Storage Finchley North store made a special donation to the nearby Tetherdown School for their summer fete. We were able to donate 120 extra large boxes so that they could construct an assault course in the school, affectionately called the ‘Big Yella Maze’.
Proving popular with parents, teachers and especially the children £1 was all you need to traverse the maze which raised a magnificent £450 for the school!
A brilliant stop motion video showing the constructing of the maze and those trying to make their way through was lovingly out together to share with you. Let us know what you think in the comments section.
We tend to spend a lot of time decorating our bathrooms but more often than not toiletries begin to take over and outgrow their storage spaces with extra clutter. You can make great use of all the areas of your bathroom to help store items in the most efficient way regardless of the size. A great way to start clearing the clutter and maximising the space is by throwing away any items that have expired or products that you no longer use.
Shelves are a versatile storage solution that match any décor and can be added to a blank wall space which will give you the opportunity to find a place for items in your bathroom. Corner shelves are very useful to maximise the space in the corner of your bathroom and be purchased ready-made from household retailers.
Wicker baskets are practical, provide simple storage solutions and can aid in the décor of your bathroom. They’re portable and can be placed on open spaces around your room, although you don’t want to cover every available space with a basket. With these you’ll be able to store a variety of different large or small items as they come in many different shapes and sizes.
Adding a storage cabinet that goes above your toilet is a great way to make use of the dead space that is often left empty. It will give you lots of extra space to store items such as soap, toilet tissue and hand towels.
The back of the door is an area which many don’t realise is a great storage space. You can purchase hangers which clip on to the top of the door or even paint the door with magnetic paint. This space can be used to hang towels and store other items while maintaining the attractive look of the door.
We’re giving you the chance to win a Playstation 3 console bundle with the new Toy Story 3 video game. It’s a great combination for any video game addict or for anyone who just wants to relive the story from the new film.
You can play as Woody, Buzz or Jessie to become the Sheriff of Toyland Town and explore the entire Toy Story universe as you play in the sandbox. Go to ‘infinity and beyond’ while recreating the events of Toy Story 3 with all the new characters and adventures! Click below to enter our competition.
To get your hands on this fantastic prize all you have to do is head over to the Competition Tab on Big Yellow’s Facebook page and answer this question:
What is the name of the sheriff in Toy Story?
a. Woody
b. Andy
c. Rex
Armadillo Self Storage Sheffield Parkway was delighted to aid Rotherham Hospice with their recent storage needs. They are gearing up to open a new shop in the area which will become the fifth store for the charity. It’s scheduled to open early this month and will sell a range of bargain items including clothes, cards, DVDs, toys and household goods.
As the Rotherham Hospice team prepares for the grand opening, Armadillo Self Storage has been able to donate free storage space to enable them to store donations safely and securely until the new store is ready to open. The stores are a very important source of income for the hospice as the contributions allow people to turn donated goods back into cash for the charity which supports people with life-limiting illnesses and their families.
The hospice is currently recruiting up to 20 volunteers to help run the new shop with some of the tasks being serving customers, sorting stock and maintaining the displays.
Visit Rotherham Hospice for further information on volunteering, fundraising or making a donation to this amazing charity!
It’s a very exciting time for READ International as donations have arrived safely in East Africa! Their summer team has recently received 280,000 books that are destined for Tanzanian schools and that will be transported across 14 regions of Tanzania this month. These are much needed donations that give kids the opportunity to learn from books that their schools could never usually afford.
We’re also very happy to hear that READ International are receiving hundreds of queries a week from people who wish to donate books to schools in East Africa. Big Yellow is delighted to be able to donate space across the country where READ International can store books before they are ready for shipping. The new donations will remain in the UK until their new teams of eager volunteers start university in September.
In the coming weeks ahead they will be distributing books to Tanzanian and Ugandan teachers and students. We’ll be looking forward to hearing even more great achievements!
To find out how you can get active with READ International or donate books to the project please visit their Facebook group.
The summer is a great time to enjoy your garden, the weather is good and your flowers are blooming. At this time of year there can be a lot of maintenance that needs to be done and you might decide to spruce up the design.
The sites below will provide you with lots of tips and tricks to keep your garden in great condition, regardless of what the size is.
Royal Horticultural Society – a charity founded in 1804 that is dedicated to promoting gardening and horticulture. They’re famous for flower shows which are open to the public but their website offers advice for a novice to the experienced gardener. The site is frequently updated with seasonal tips and handy help along with an online community which features a forum for expert advice.
Gardeners World is the online version of the monthly magazine which is in partnership with the BBC television programme of the same name. It’s a popular programme and has become an established online source offering seasonal advice, practical projects and blog posts which are updated regularly by gardening experts.
Garden Advice has excellent tips on everything from building decking to lawn care. The site has many projects for town, city and country gardens that will inspire you to create a fantastic area.
Big Yellow Self Storage provides secure do it yourself storage rooms for domestic and business customers for as long or as short a period as required. We provide space that’s easy to arrange, secure – and affordable.
