True story: at a recent client appointment it was physically impossible to walk into the storage room. We opened the door to the storage room, and there was a wall of items blocking our path. Sure, sometimes this is an indicator that the room is quite literally filled to the brim and at capacity, but in this case the items were stacked and placed closest to the door so that they were easier for the client to access. Once we pulled out all of the items from the room we were able to actually see the storage room for what it was: an empty room for us to add storage systems.

Basements, garages, and attics can quickly become full of clutter because of how much can be packed inside and the lack of upkeep that it requires (function definitely trumps design in these areas so it’s easy to make excuses for their disorganized state). Think of each of these spaces as another room in your house–a place where everything should be purposeful, visible, and where you can still walk around to access everything. At least once every year pull every content out of the storage area and review what should stay and what should go.