Storage

Consider the important difference between storage and clutter. Storage is neat, tidy, clean and accessible. Items being stored should be classified as being valuable, useful or treasured.

If you don't love something, or need it, then it has to be re-defined as clutter. Clutter includes the things which you are not using; the unwanted gifts you feel obliged to display, useful objects which have not got a specific home and are in the wrong place. All your storage places, such as overflowing wardrobes and overstuffed attics, are having an effect on you. Every time you open a a door and see the chaos on the shelves behind it, you are being affected. The more you have, the more it begins to drag you down so that it feels as if you are actually carrying around the weight of everything you own.

Storage that's attractive and inventive is the key to clutter-free living. Choose solutions that complement your belongings and the way you use them. With thoughtful organization, it can also bring efficiency and style to everyday life. Using a variety of furniture, repurposed pieces, boxes, and baskets, you can easily design a system that's as attractive as it is helpful.

Tips

• Before you decide what to put things in, you must decide what to save.
• Embrace spring cleaning, storage is first a editing process, so make sure that the things you have are actually being put to use or are personally meaningful to you.
• Just make sure that you only surround yourself with the things you really love and try to exercise some restraint from time to time by adopting the principle that less is more.
• Finding the right place for everything becomes much easier when you have less to keep track of.
• Consider how things will fit, where you'll want to find them, and how to fashion storage that caters to the items and your decor.
• Make storage your ally in helping you find things when you need them.
• Find opportunities throughout the room to integrate storage at every level: up high on shelves, in cabinets or armoires, down low along the floor, under the coffee table, or nested in side tables.
• Keep your own habits in mind when you choose storages solutions and combine beauty with reality.
• Smaller spaces demand resourceful storages solutions. A solid wall of shelving does more than function as smart storage; it becomes a graphic backdrop to the entire room.