Where will you put everything?

When I show people the plans for our place (which I am apt to do at the drop of the proverbial hat) one of the first things they ask is “Where will your stuff go?” And I say “Mostly the Salvation Army.”  Because, of course, we have to get rid of SO MUCH.

We have already begin this winnowing process, and it’s like getting rid of a huge weight ounce by ounce as things disappear from our cupboards and our closets.   I think I’ve mentioned it before, but this is more than a change of address, it’s a change of lifestyle for us.  Buy fewer, better things.  Throw stuff out.  Keep just what you need, not what you think you might need next year, or what you needed two or three years ago.  Come on, I know I’m not the only person who hangs onto winter coats long after they should have been passed on to some deserving soul at the IODE shop.

How many of us have closets for the clothes we wear now, and closets stuffed with clothes we used to wear and might again if we can lose 15 pounds or if shoulder pads come back?

But we will still need to put things away– or more accurately we need to HIDE things away.  Dishes, books, cat food.  And that means built-ins.

Built-ins are the go-to choice for small-home decorating.

Super built-in apartment, with storage under the bed loft and in the stairs.  That other room you can glimpse down the hall is the kitchen — completely built in, of course.

Storage under a built-in bed. Good idea for a very small bedroom.  We’ll have storage under our bed, who could ignore that great storage area?  But we won’t have room to pull out drawers on the side (bed fits snugly with just a foot of space on either side), so we’ll have a lift-up hydrolic arrangement that will give us access to the space beneath.

Here’s a nice wall of built-ins from Apartment Therapy.  See that blank space between the windows with just the small green cut-out?  That entire panel flips down and rests on the little green cabinet you see on the right to make a large dining table.

Have you seen any great built-ins?  What do you think?  Keep them the same colour as the walls, or make them stand out?