The Right Storage: Organizing Essentials for the Home - Softcover

Skolnik lives and works in Chicago, where she has plenty of first-hand experience with storage issues thanks to the piles of possessions she has accrued with the help of her husband, Howard, and four children, Caroline, Sasha, Anastasia, and Theodora.

It’s virtually impossible to go through life without acquiring something to store, such as clothes, toiletries, linens, kitchen accoutrements, food, cleaning supplies, personal records, books. And most of us acquire far more than just ’a bit’ of any of these things. More realistic is that we have loads of clothes for every imaginable activity, scads of shoes and accessories, and masses of beauty and grooming products—not to mention weighty stacks of books, tapes, compact disks, a variety of audio-visual, electronic, and computing components, sporting goods, tools, and gardening equipment, along with substantial accumulations of collectibles.

Basically, everybody has things to store, from the avowed minimalist to the inveterate collector, which makes storage a never-ending ‘story’ with a never-ending array of ‘plots.’ No one can afford to ignore this matter, for without the order proper and appropriate storage imposes on our effects, chaos can reign supreme. Who hasn’t turned their home upside-down looking for some elusive item that wasn’t to be found where it was supposed to be? Who hasn’t gazed with dread at a heap of items that needs to be arranged in a manner that makes it orderly and accessible? Who hasn’t spent hours cleaning, sorting, and arranging supplies, tools, or gear in various areas of our homes, only to have the order destroyed during everyday use. Getting storage right is a complex proposition that requires accurate planning and design, and vigilant execution.

Bottom line, it is critical to keep clutter from infiltrating, and ultimately overwhelming, our environments—especially since there are so many different items we need to maintain and preserve in our lives. To do this, it is essential to design storage systems that are convenient for items accessed everyday; organized for those items which are stashed away for occasional use; and safe and secure for items that will be stored long periods of time.

Remember it’s not the space, it’s what you do with it—or how creatively you mine and employ the spaces at your disposal. And just as there are many approaches to home decorating and design, there are many methods for accomplishing our goals where storage is concerned as well. On the following pages, we will explore the many ways storage can be integrated into your home or teased out of unsuspecting spots you may have not considered for this use.