How we get all the junk in the trunk

Alternate title: how we cram all this crap in our house.  Between cleaning up the house to sell and chatting with folks online, I had some question around storage.  How we store our stuff? How we store Landon’s toys while showing? Any secrets? Well I am here to share what we do.

First off, we almost tried to sell when I was pregnant with LT but it didn’t work out.  Instead we decided to add storage in our current house and make the space work for us. One thing was to get rid of our guest room that was rarely used and make it LT’s room and make the other bedroom the “random” room.  Treadmill, futon, armoir, storage…you get the picture.  We outfitted that larger closet to serve as a craft desk.  This made usable space for us. We could store workout equipment, gift wrapping stuff, and just general overflow storage. We also added more boards to the attic storage to put more stuff up there.  Weekend project by K and his dad.  Voila.

Then the big addition was garage storage.  Our rule, we have to be able to park both cars in there.  So K scoured Lowes and Home Depot to find some easy solutions.  We have shelves out the ass, hanging storage (genius!), hooks in the wall and even a rolling cabinet.  The thing with our storage is hand me downs.  The lovely ladies I work with have graciously bestowed YEARS of clothes on me. We rarely have to buy anything…only issue with it is storage. I am talking clothes until LT is like 7 already….and I just keep getting more.  The hanging storage has been great for that. We don’t need it right now so it is fine to be tucked up high. The hooks are good for ladders, tools and even the kid backpack. The stroller is launched up high. Bless those giant ceilings!

So that gets a lot of our large storage out of the way.  Now onto small storage.  Landon loves small toys…thank goodness.  He really isn’t into big plastic monstrosities. He likes his cars and trains.  Since that is the case, we have made organized storage to a) look nice and b) teach him to put his toys away. We have a great open floor plan but that means kid stuff has to collide with adult stuff. We worked with it and bought a corner bookshelf unit from Target to put baskets on.  We got baskets to match the decor at Bed Bath and Beyond to store his toys.  He knows to put his toys away at night before he can watch some TV. Works like a charm. Next up, we have the lovely Target storage units in our large coat closet to hold the stuff that is a little bigger (blocks, bigger cars, train set,  etc). This looks nice and polished and is hidden away.  He can get to everything and it is tucked away. We also bought these awesome Ikea shelves that fit a little cut out in our hallway PERFECTLY. They have massive storage potential as you can see. Most of Landon’s books, as well as ours, are easily accessible on the bottom rows.

Lastly, always look for hidden storage oppurtunities:

Dog create under the couch
Little rolling shelf to fit between washer and dryer

 

So those are the Mann household tips on storage. I know you can go ape shit with IKEA solutions but we haven’t gotten to that point…yet 🙂 Happy storing!

16 thoughts on “How we get all the junk in the trunk

  • December 15, 2011 at 11:48 am
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    Love the craft desk!!! great idea!!!! and we live and die by our garage storage 🙂 wouldn’t know what to do without it 🙂

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  • December 15, 2011 at 12:27 pm
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    Great ideas. Our house has tiny closets so there isn’t much room for hidden storage. My husband is hesitant to use the garage (his “work shop”) but I think we’ll have to. We’ll probably also have to rent a storage unit when we sell to keep some overflow furniture, too. Thanks for the tips.

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  • December 15, 2011 at 1:27 pm
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    You are creative – nice! The hands down winner for us is when Ken built the “deck inside our garage” – walk up storage loft. It’s amaze… totally convenient and easy to access – no ladder! We have suspended storage on the other side of the garage too – it does require a ladder – but between those two – we were able to (if we should want…) finish the entire attic as living space and not lose one inch of storage. I’ll try to post a pic of the deck in the garage.

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  • December 15, 2011 at 1:53 pm
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    I am abundantly impressed. Will you come organize my house?

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    • December 16, 2011 at 11:24 am
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      Sure! Watch enough clean sweep…or hoarders and you can do anything I believe 🙂

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  • December 15, 2011 at 2:29 pm
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    As an antidote to this post, I should post pictures of *our* cluttered house. That is to say, the house we don’t live in anymore. :-\ Then again, we’ve somehow managed to make this temporary apartment a big box of clutter with only one small trailer-full of stuff.

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    • December 16, 2011 at 11:23 am
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      You have a VERY valid excuse. I would be losing my every loving mind in your shoes.

      Reply
  • December 15, 2011 at 3:43 pm
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    I had an organizing business before I had a kid so this makes me all sorts of happy. We want to sell our house next year and will be doing so with another baby in the mix, ACK! I’m sure will be rough, trying to hide all the toys during viewings, but your ideas are awesome 🙂 Good luck on your sale!

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    • December 16, 2011 at 11:22 am
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      ooo an organizing business! I am sure you have fun tales!

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      • December 16, 2011 at 10:09 pm
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        It was fun 🙂 Though, people who NEED help are sometimes somewhat difficult to work with ;D

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  • December 15, 2011 at 8:28 pm
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    Let’s be best friends and you can come to my house and teach me all of this shit, because we’re trying to reorganize things right now and I might pull out all of my hair.

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    • December 16, 2011 at 11:22 am
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      Sure thing.. Then we can get matching half heart necklaces and braid each others hair. Or not..I mean whatever.

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      • December 19, 2011 at 6:36 pm
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        When I was younger I had two best friends and over the summer they got best friends necklaces without me. What assholes. I’ve never had a half heart necklace before so I think that’s a great idea. Instead of braiding each others’ hair, can we just drink instead? Because my hair is kind of short.

        Reply
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  • February 24, 2013 at 12:47 pm
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    You kicked storage organization’s A$$!! Great job.

    Reply

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