For some of us, we store things up in the attic and forget they even exist until it’s time to move again. For most, the purpose of the attic is simple – store things you do not require regular access to. Examples would include holiday decorations, items that your children have outgrown, and you are keeping until they fit your next child (or grandchild) and summer camping gear. But how do you keep it all organized? Here are a few tips to help you get the best use out of your attic storage space.
1 – Consider Accessibility
If your attic is one that requires a ladder to access, or once inside you must crawl around on your hands and knees, you already have limited access. In this case, it will be important to make the stuff you are keeping up there easy to get to. One idea would be to add a handrail to the pre-existing ladder. It’s a small and inexpensive modification that will ease the process of getting in and out of the attic.
2 – Consider Attic Safety
Attics are often dangerous places as they have unfinished floors, some even have no floors at all, just beams, there may even be roofing nails poking down from the ceiling of a low-lying attic. The easiest and often safest way to remedy an unfinished or floor less attic is to lay sheets of plywood down. This gives you a safer space to move around and offers a solid foundation to store items you intend to keep in the attic. Also, bend exposed nails over with a hammer to prevent injury.
3 – Consider the Environment
Hopefully the attic you intend to use to store your items is dry. This would be the ideal situation, right? However, you must keep in mind that since the attic is not part of the regular “lived-in” home environment and most-likely is not well insulated or not insulated at all, whatever you store there is going to be affected by the elements. Temperatures will range from freezing to blistering hot depending on the time of year. Some items will not do well in these conditions and should not be stored in an attic.
4 – Consider Space Management
This is the most important part in my opinion. Once you have taken care of all the points leading up to this, you can now look at how to make the most of the space you have available in your attic. You may want to consider installing shelves and hooks to stack and hang items you want to keep safe, this will also give you additional space for storage, should you need it. Your final goal should be to store only a few items in your attic, you don’t want to stuff it to the point where you can’t move around. Remember, everything you put in must come out eventually and, in this case, less is more.
Finding the Perfect Home Requires Some Homework
I’m Jen Bedard. I call the Niagara Region home and I can help you find the home of your dreams. Just give me a call today and we’ll start looking together. We might even look in an attic or two.