The Ten Essential Storage Principles Of An ExtraOrdinary Home
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Article by: Carol Abrahamson Planning a remodel, major repair , How to Quickly and Easily Enhance a Drab Balcony or new home , Bedding is Fashion for the Bed construction? Looking for some terrific features , HEPA Vacuum Cleaners - The Healthiest Clean for Your Home to include that won't be budget busters? We can help! We started collecting over 1,000 uncommon, affordable convenience built-ins in 1998, when we first began writing books and consulting to help people have truly extraordinary "” but affordable "” homes. , Non Slip Maintenance Of Honed Interior Marble Here are some of our favorite storage ideas as well as our 10 essential storage principles. Add any of these to your next project, and you'll be on your way toward creating a home , How to Deal With Contractors (So You Won't Go Mad!) that's truly beyond the ordinary! 1. First of all, the purpose of good storage is to help you keep organized. (Contrary to what your spouse or teenagers might say, it's not merely to hide monster messes where they'll get forgotten or require tons of time to sort through whenever someone's looking for something!) Rollaway storage "” with lockable wheels "” can tuck into a stall built into a lower cabinet, island, closet or under a sink. Or roll into place , Simple Flat Roof Leak for being used under a table, desk or countertop. Ideal for laundry , Laminate Flooring is Built for the Twenty First Century hampers and garbage cans; a cart for tableware (from walk-in pantry to the table and from the dishwasher back to the pantry); file cabinets; a stack of drawers; containers for toys, equipment, gift wrapping or craft , What is an Interior Re-Designer and How Can They Help Me? supplies; an entire island; a wagon or cart to wheel around the house , Non Slip Maintenance Of Honed Interior Marble while putting various items it contains wherever they belong; and so much more. 2. There must be adequate storage space for all your current belongings, plus space for your future acquisitions. And if you're likely to start a family while living in this house, , Heat Pumps that may mean you need as much space to grow , Doing a Home Improvement Project Yourself-Yes or No? into as you'll fill when you move in. Pullout shelves, bins, baskets and racks in lower cabinets allow easy access to their contents. Don't forget to add these under sinks, with cutouts that fit around the plumbing. , Absolutely, Buy A Superior Quality Air Mattress Bed No more getting down on your hands and knees to see and find things! And with these, you can get to "” and therefore use "” the space that's even at the very back of your cabinets. 3. Next, I'd be sure each storage area is appropriate for whatever you plan , Game Tables have Come A Long Way to store, and that each has compartments appropriate for its contents. That means your sports equipment needs space that's different from the space for your music and video collections. For hanging table linens, dowels bolted onto the back walls , All About Metal Ceiling Tile or mounted on a frame bolted to the sides or bottom of pantries, closets or cabinets make linens easily accessible while minimizing creases and fold lines. No more digging to the bottom of a drawer of folded linens to find a favorite tablecloth, or having to empty the entire drawer to get it out! And no more linens that are too wrinkled to use "as is!" This is also a great way to use a narrow area of otherwise wasted space. 4. Plan , Doing a Home Improvement Project Yourself-Yes or No? storage scattered throughout the whole house. , Strange Cleaning Tips Ideally, everything will be stored near where you'll be using it. No point in hauling stuff through half the house! , How to Design a Lighting Plan You'll love having closets and cabinets "” the pantry, too "” whose lights , Game Tables have Come A Long Way go on automatically as their doors , How To Find The Right Type Of Humidifier Filters? open, the way a refrigerator's does. (One of the many benefits of built-in cabinets is the inside , Adding Sofa Slipcovers Is A Quick And Easy Way To Give Your Home A Makeover lighting that's possible.) No more groping to find manual light , Options of Flooring - Laminate Floors or Wooden Floors switches, especially when your hands are often too full to reach for a switch "” or they're wet! This is also wonderful for kids "” and adults in wheelchairs "” who can't easily reach a closet's traditional light , Tools - A Sea Of Saws switch. A plunger switch is inside , What is an Interior Re-Designer and How Can They Help Me? most refrigerators, but magnetic contact switches "” similar to those used in home , Waterproofing Foundations - You Can Do That security alarm , Bedding is Fashion for the Bed systems "” can also do the job throughout your house. , Absolutely, Buy A Superior Quality Air Mattress Bed 5. I'd also plan , How to Quickly and Easily Enhance a Drab Balcony for your most frequently used items to be easiest and quickest to reach, and to store your less frequently used things in the remaining space only after all the popular things are stored. Electric , Colour Your World With Art al outlets inside , Waterproofing Foundations - You Can Do That drawers, cabinets or in appliance barns on countertops allow small appliances to be stored out of sight and used without frequent plugging and unplugging. (Ideally, everything you store in these spaces will be used nearby so you won't need any extension cords.) You avoid countertop clutter, the items never get dusty and are always ready to use, and no one needs to fiddle with the plugs "” especially when their hands are wet or arthritic. Just be sure to measure the sizes of the appliances you plan , How to Deal With Contractors (So You Won't Go Mad!) to store before you finalize these spaces' dimensions, so you avoid any surprises about something not fitting inside. , Laminate Floor Repair 6. Your largest and heaviest possessions also need to be the easiest and quickest to get to, and not be put up high or in a corner that's tricky to navigate. Fill the remaining storage spaces with your lightweight items. Separate activity areas in the kitchen , Bedding is Fashion for the Bed will make everything efficiently at hand exactly where you need it: baking and mixing, food , Feng Shui Interprets Homes in the Hills preparation, cooking, cleanup, entertaining, beverage service, etc. 7. Be sure storage minimizes wasted space. Hang a detachable hamper inside , Water Treatment Plants a pullout or tiltout lower cabinet door , Color Facts and Color Effects or storage bench, , A Quick Guide to Plastic Mailboxes or inside , Marble Countertops a closet door. , Generators A cloth hamper hanging on a frame makes transporting clothes or linens to the washing machine especially easy, but wire or plastic , Bedding is Fashion for the Bed hampers also work. No more dropping items on the way to the laundry room , A Quick Guide to Plastic Mailboxes that you might trip over! Choose materials that allow ventilation in the hamper, to prevent mold from forming on any damp or wet items that remain inside , Guide to Finding the Best Mohawk, Berber or Carpet Tiles for more than a few days. 8. Make your storage spaces accessible, so none of them are wasted because they can't easily be reached. Full-extension drawers, pullout shelves and file cabinets "” all on easy-gliding metal , Options of Flooring - Laminate Floors or Wooden Floors tracks "” allow you to reach and see all their contents, so you can use all their space. 9. I'd also look at traffic flows in the house. , Color Facts and Color Effects If your most frequently used items are stored in the major traffic paths, , Solar Energy Advantages Disadvantages no one will have to go out of their way to get what they need, and you'll have a very efficient house. , Installation Options for a Coal and Wood Burning Furnace On the other hand, you can also affect where the traffic detours through the house , Why Should You Change Your Refrigerator Water Filter Every Six Months? via where you store popular items. So if you want to stop frequent bottlenecks where people tend to collide with each other, you can move the popular items into different locations , How to Make Freezer Blocking Work for You in order to force some of the traffic to flow along new paths. , How to Design a Lighting Plan Adequate clearance around every open drawer, hinged cabinet or door, , How to Make Freezer Blocking Work for You and appliance door , How To Find The Right Type Of Humidifier Filters? will keep traffic flowing and save , Colour Your World With Art you some steps. Be sure you have room , View From My Island: The Grand Outing of the Kitchen to open and move around all the drawers and cabinets you need to open at once when you're emptying the dishwasher, putting groceries away, working on a project, etc. 10. My final point is to make as much of the storage adjustable as possible, so as your needs change, , Doormats For Your Home the storage that worked for you initially can be modified to remain as effective as ever. Open shelving "” or you can remove some cabinet doors , View From My Island: The Grand Outing of the Kitchen "” gives you instant identification of and access to your stored goods. Stored items get more light , Doormats For Your Home around them and are easier to see, the motion of opening cabinets is not required, and this saves , Tools - A Sea Of Saws some trial and error if you don't recall precisely what's stored where. Like this article? Then you'll love our books that all have uncommon, affordable storage ideas that increase your quality of life and your home's resale value! We also offer a free e-book at www.extraordinaryhomes.com: The 34 ExtraOrdinary Home , Doormats For Your Principles: Over 70 Fabulous, Affordable, Innovative Ideas That'll Improve Your Life and WOW You! © Copyright 2005 by Carol Abrahamson/ExtraOrdinary Homes. , How to Quickly and Easily Enhance a Drab Balcony All rights reserved. Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com
Carol Abrahamson consults, writes and makes presentations about more than 1,000 of these fabulous features , Waterproofing Foundations - You Can Do That that can improve your life, add value to your home , Color Facts and Color Effects and make you the talk of the town. She spent years researching them via thousands of sources just so you can quickly and easily use them to create your affordable, extraordinary Home , Duct Tape Wallets of Your Dreamsâ„¢. Learn more about her work via www.extraordinaryhomes.com or carol@extraordinaryhomes.com. |
  
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