How to find more Storage at Home
As a homeowner, finding more storage at home is always a bonus. Whether you’re short on storage space for tools or need a place to store your holiday decorations. The big dilemma is how to find more storage at home without extending!!! If you have the room, consider investing in a garden shed. Not only will it provide extra storage, but it will also give you a place to store gardening tools and equipment. If you’re tight on space, get organized! Create designated areas for different items and make sure everything has its own place. This not only makes it easier to find things when you need them, but it also helps keep your home neat and tidy.
If you’ve been here for a while you would know that our home is not huge. I’ve been working hard to get it better organised. After thinking on this for a while we decided to demolish our old garden shed. It was a leaky mess and completely useless for storage.
The idea was to replace it with a bigger better shed. I would have half for storage and Tony would have the other half as a workshop.
THE BEFORE
We researched sheds and found one that fit our size requirements at EasyShed. The area we wanted to put the shed was the same area as the old one (the old chook yard). As a result we were limited in our size choices. We finally decided on this one which was classed as a small garage. The colour we chose is monument which is a dark grey. We thought it would suit the colour scheme we have been using for the whole back garden. This shed also fit our requirements because it had two access points. One single door and one double door. They had several add ons you could choose so we made the following choices:-
- Fibreglass skylight for Tony’s side of the shed. This is great and lets in a lot of light, it is however hot underneath in the summer. Just bear this in mind when making the decision to install one.
- Decorative finials for the roof;
- Hooks to hang tools from.
CONSTRUCTING THE SUBFLOOR
As we had a previous shed built on a timber subfloor we decided to work with that. This would save some money. Tony extended the subfloor to completely fill in the area within the confines of the existing fence.
19mm Yellow Tongue flooring was used as the floor of the shed. Treated pine decking was used for the surrounding deck.
THE SHED CONSTRUCTION
The building of the shed was easy and complicated at the same time!!! We have built a couple of sheds in our time and they are never without a little drama. This one was large and tall so that made it a little more tricky. Not to mention that we went into lockdown at the same time so we were not able to get the help we needed to finish it. Once it was finished there were a few issues.
- One was as small leak in the area where the roof sections joined. Tony decided to spray the whole roof joining area with a leak seal. This did the trick. Thank goodness!!!
- There was another issue with the double doors of the shed. They were too long and would scrape across the deck. Tony fixed it by removing the doors and trimming some of the length off with tin snips. He also had to shorten the channels. Unfortunately, he did this while I wasn’t around so I didn’t get photos 🤦♀️
FITTING OUT THE SHED FOR OUR NEEDS
Next up was the fit out. Item number one was the flooring. We decided to go with gym flooring from Bunnings. It has been perfect and is soft underfoot.
As our intention was to divide the shed into two separate spaces. We used two 3m sections of shelving back to back to achieve this. The shelves we used came from a company called Apple Shelving. We did have to remove a piece of the foot on each outer shelf unit because it made them slightly longer than 3m.
One of the most important things for this shed was functionality. I am big on everything having a home and labelling. My big worry was that Tony will not be able to keep his tools organised and the shed would end up a massive mess again.
In an attempt to achieve the organisation I was craving I decided that it would need to look good too. My hope was that this would encourage everyone to put things away and keep it that way.
Once we had the shelving and the flooring we decided to stick with black for the rest of the items we would need.
First up was the storage crates. We decided on some heavy duty ones from Target. They came in three sizes that fit our shelving well.
- Size one was 30Litres;
- Size two was 57Litres; and
- Size three was 100Litres.
In relation to these containers I had worked on us having 3 metres of shelving. This was not the case when you took into consideration the side rails!!! Accordingly, my containers didn’t fit the way I had hoped. Thankfully they still looked good and worked for our needs.
For the workshop part of the shed Tony required some additional storage in the way of drawers.
We did a little research and decided on the Pinnacle Range from Bunnings. They had some large drawers that stacked on top of each other so we can have a tower of drawers. Tony also needed two rolling units. One for the big saw he has so he could just roll the whole unit outside when he needs to use it. We also purchased two small storage containers for all the small items like screws etc. The items we used are as follows:-
- Heavy Duty XL Double Drawers. This item was a special order from Bunnings.
- Heavy Duty XL Single Drawer. This item is also a special order from Bunnings.
- 4 Drawer Mobile Drawer Unit.
- 5 Box Storage module.
- Organiser with compartments.
Tony asked me to find a “manly” font for his containers and I think the one used fits the bill😂 For my half of the shed I went for something a little more girly. I also painted a Kmart step stool black so I had somewhere to rest the boxes while getting things out.
THE SHED EXTERIOR
Something that was important to me when putting the shed in was making sure it was not a huge eyesore in the back garden.
Putting the decking around the outside definitely made it feel more substantial and less like a shed. We will eventually stain the deck too. which will make it even less obvious.
We chose the colour monument as we have been using a lot of dark grey on the exterior of the home and have plans to incorporate more.
Garden sheds can come in all shapes and sizes, but the most popular type is the standalone garden shed. This style of shed usually has a gabled roof and is positioned away from the house. It’s perfect for storing tools, outdoor furniture, bikes, and other items that you don’t want taking up space in your home. If you’re looking for some extra storage space, a garden shed could be the answer to your prayers! Another great thing about garden sheds is that they can often be dual purpose – i.e., they can also be used as a workshop and storage. This makes them especially handy if you need somewhere to do DIY projects or store your holiday decorations. Have you solved your lack of storage with a garden shed? Share your experience in the comments below!
I’m beyond happy with how the shed is working for us. We’ve been able to keep it very organised. It’ll make a huge difference to our home as we wont have to use the minimal storage we have inside for things like Christmas Decorations. If you love organising like me have a look at my post on my pantry organisation.
