Basement Spinoff

[RedAngie]

Do you have adequate storage space in your house?

Since many are bragging about their fully finished basements, I’ll gloat about my excessive storage capacity. No need to rent an off-site storage unit to hold unnecessary junk.

Almost a full basement, unfinished, but one section curtained off as an extra living room for when my girls were teens.

The garage has an alcove where the previous owner built a workbench and installed shelves and cabinets.

Above the garage, accessed from a door at the top of the inside stairs, is a partiality finished “bonus room.” It’s insulated and has wallboard, plywood floor, windows and electrical outlets. It could be made into another bedroom or living area. Another bath is possible but it would be costly since there is no existing plumbing setup.

The second floor laundry has cabinets above both the washer/dryer and on the opposite wall, as well as a closet and some shelving.

Master bedroom has a huge walk-in closet plus a standard one. The other two bedrooms each have smaller walk-in closets.

Plus, above everything is an attic, but there are no pull-down stairs. There is a trap door on the ceiling of the upstairs hall and you need a ladder to access it. I was only up there once, to look at before I bought the house.

There is also an outside shed where the lawnmower, rakes, etc. were kept. But I use a landscape service for most of the yard work.

Does anybody want to rent some space cheap? But I get to root through your stuff.

 

[Disneylover99]

I’ve got tons of storage space.
But it’s become more of a burden then a blessing.
I live with savers, so things accumulate.

 

[WDWEPCOT]

No need to rent space I bought a bigger house !!
Full basement full of my junk ! Slowly sifting through it and getting rid and organizing it
Huge closets in house and tons of storage I’m in love
3 car over sized garage !! Unbelievable storage options
Have not even tapped into attic and don’t believe I will need to - it’s heaven after having such a small house

 

[AndreaDM]

No! This house has small closets, and just one corner of the basement has shelving for storage. I ruthlessly got rid of stuff when I moved in here.

 

[kanerf]

In addition to the basement, I have a fully finished attic that runs the length of the house. It has several built-in drawers and closet spaces under the eaves.

 

[slo]

I would love to have more storage space.
Our basement is finished (DH’s man cave) and as nice as it is, it does dreadfully reduce storage. Luckily, my DH made the girls a tree house 17 years ago that has now become a storage unit

 

[mamamary]

Even though I have a finished basement I definitely need more storage space. My Christmas decorations alone eat up a good chunk of my storage but I like decorating so I don’t want to scale back. Maybe once my 2 kids move out they’ll be a lot more room but no sign of them leaving.

 

[piccolopat]

Well, I'm convinced that having more storage space can be a curse. Somehow, we managed to live within the boundaries of our home for many years. When my mother-in-law was with us, she had the 1500 square foot downstairs of our raised ranch. After she died, somehow our stuff began to fill that void. Now that our daughter, SIL and grandson will take that space next year, we are faced with what to do with all of that extra stuff. You would think we would have learned our lesson when we first moved here from a 600 square foot apartment with almost no storage and soon after filled our home as well as much of the full height attic. It is do difficult to find homes for some of this stuff (especially extra furniture) but we're trying to avoid sending usable stuff to the landfill.

 

[msjprincess]

Yes and no. We have an unfinished basement, a stand up attic, a 2 car garage with an attic. behind our 2 car garage is the 100yo original one car garage that we now use as a shed.

But I have a small kitchen with hardly any cabinets. Each bedroom only has a tiny closet. That's it for closets. No coat closet, utility closet, or linen closet. So for things that get packed away and not used often there is plenty of space. Things that get used frequently have nowhere to go.

 

[kdonnel]

I have plenty of storage. 13x13 and 40x6 rooms in the basement are more than enough to hold all the junk I should keep. My wife and I are more on the minimalist side of the scale and can easily dispose of most things.

I wasn't sure how it would work out with my in laws moving in as they are/were much more on the pack rat side of the scale. So far in the last 2 years they have really only accumulated more furniture which they keep in their space and cardboard boxes that I recycle after a few months. I am thinking that they are not technically pack rats but instead just feel the need to fill all the available space with stuff. Since all the available space is already full, no need to acquire more stuff.

 

[soccerdad72]

We have enough storage - we just have too much crap

 

[Meriweather]

We don't have enough storage space, so rent a temperature controlled unit.....it has all the holiday decorations and kids' old toys.
We can't use the attic or garage for much because it gets too hot here.
Our last house had a basement.....and I miss that, just for the storage

 

[AndreaDM]

Yes and no. We have an unfinished basement, a stand up attic, a 2 car garage with an attic. behind our 2 car garage is the 100yo original one car garage that we now use as a shed.

But I have a small kitchen with hardly any cabinets. Each bedroom only has a tiny closet. That's it for closets. No coat closet, utility closet, or linen closet. So for things that get packed away and not used often there is plenty of space. Things that get used frequently have nowhere to go.

Yes, that's exactly our situation! We could pile stuff in the basement, but as for extra linens, seasonal clothing, or things like extra paper towels and TP, there is NO place for that kind of stuff.

 

[ronandannette]

Well, I'm convinced that having more storage space can be a curse. Somehow, we managed to live within the boundaries of our home for many years. When my mother-in-law was with us, she had the 1500 square foot downstairs of our raised ranch. After she died, somehow our stuff began to fill that void. Now that our daughter, SIL and grandson will take that space next year, we are faced with what to do with all of that extra stuff. You would think we would have learned our lesson when we first moved here from a 600 square foot apartment with almost no storage and soon after filled our home as well as much of the full height attic. It is do difficult to find homes for some of this stuff (especially extra furniture) but we're trying to avoid sending usable stuff to the landfill.

This is our situation as well. Storage here was adequate and we kept our accumulations modest - for something new to come in, something old had to go out. We did utilize the large closet in our guest room though, since visitors only staying a night or two weren’t hampered by it. Now we’ve got a guest coming to stay indefinitely and it’s a huge problem.

 

[Moliphino]

My house has tons of storage upstairs and an unfinished basement where we could store a ton of stuff, but lacks kitchen storage. We have a combo pantry/laundry room for storing food, but only 4 oddly sized drawers in the entire kitchen for utensils and the like. None of the drawers will fit any sort of silverware organizer that I've found. It's annoying and I'm looking forward to re-doing the kitchen in the not too distant future.

Oh, we also have a small barn in the backyard that I have no idea what to do with, but it looks pretty out there.

 

[Schneewittchen37]

I think my basement has plenty of storage, we just have too much junk.

It's true the closets up on the main floor are a little small, but if I'd just get up off my butt and get rid of some of the clothes the kids have grown out of in the past year or two or toss some of the clothes I bought 20 years ago and haven't worn in about 15 years, it wouldn't be so bad at all.

I came across a suede jacket in the back of the closet that I bought in 1995 at a vintage shop (I think it's a 1979ish item). Wore it constantly all through college. But I'm never going to fit in that again, that was 25 years, 2 babies and 3 dress sizes ago...

 

[ronandannette]

I think my basement has plenty of storage, we just have too much junk.
It's true the closets up on the main floor are a little small, but if I'd just get up off my butt and get rid of some of the clothes the kids have grown out of in the past year or two or toss some of the clothes I bought 20 years ago and haven't worn in about 15 years, it wouldn't be so bad at all.
I came across a suede jacket in the back of the closet that I bought in 1995 at a vintage shop (I think it's a 1979ish item). Wore it constantly all through college. But I'm never going to fit in that again, that was 25 years, 2 babies and 3 dress sizes ago...

I just had to purge three large trash bags of that kind of stuff this week and it was a real walk down memory lane. It was all “2 sizes ago” if not quite 25 years old. Time to face harsh reality.

 

[Schneewittchen37]

I just had to purge three large trash bags of that kind of stuff this week and it was a real walk down memory lane. It was all “2 sizes ago” if not quite 25 years old. Time to face harsh reality.

You're right. I should just bite the bullet and do it.

I know I have a box of shoes in a closet that could just go. It's all the shoes that stopped fitting after I had my daughter. It's true, I really did go up a size and they've never come back down again. What's worse is I'm pretty sure those shoes would fit my daughter now......

 

[BlueStarryHat]

Yep, we do. We are currently converting the old workroom in the basement into storage, each bedroom has a big closet, we have a big storage space which we call the "A" because it's under the A frame part of our house. We have a huge closet in the living room. The only thing that's lacking is enough cupboards and cabinets in the kitchen.

 

[Julie's Haircut]

I’ve got tons of storage space.
But it’s become more of a burden then a blessing.
I live with savers, so things accumulate.

It's said that the more space you have, the more junk you accumulate.